“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different,” Peter Drucker once said. BusinessWeek called him “the man who invented management” but he often referred to himself as a “social ecologist.” Born in 1909, Drucker was light years ahead of his contemporaries in pushing ideas like:

• Who is your customer? and
• What have you stopped doing lately to free up resources for the new and innovative?

Most of all, Drucker urged business leaders to stop planning and start taking action. Sound familiar?

As the saying goes, the past informs the ­present and the present informs the future. Pay close attention to where you’ve been and you can discern what likely lies ahead. Is your organization ready for these future work trends?

Flexible Work

No longer just a generous perk, flexible or agile work will become the norm. With 92% of Millennials saying flexibility is a top priority when job hunting, and most older workers wanting to easy slowly into retirement by reducing hours, companies will use outside-the-box models such as compressed hours, job shares, flextime, and remote work to attract quality talent that helps them move their business forward.

Digital Workspaces

Transforming employee experiences with intelligent and integrated workspace solutions will be a key focus as organizations look for ways to reduce repetitive tasks and make the workplace more user friendly. A digital workspace solution prioritizes organizing, guiding, and automating work in an intelligent way so each employee can use their individual “superpower” to focus on what they do best.

Changing work styles and a complex tech environment makes it increasingly necessary to get work done in an effective way. Instead of losing 40% of their productivity to things like context switching and push notifications, employees will be empowered with tools like microapps that simplify workflows and enhance user efficiency and engagement.

People-Centric Design

There’s no greater organizational asset than your people. Designing the future of work will require stretching the imagination and tapping into human needs and wants. Human-centered design will give companies the opportunity to create a modern, agile approach that prioritizes open communication where employees contribute freely and equally to the conversation. Organizations that focus on putting people first will drive their business forward.

Upskilling the Workforce

With the rise of AI and machine learning, it’s predicted that by 2022, no less than 54% of employees will require substantial upskilling. Automation has already had a significant impact on many industries and organizations and the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing.

Forward-thinking companies will create the right opportunities for their employees to take on new challenges while encouraging them to build new skills like innovation, collaboration, and agility. Access to continued education and training will enable workers to learn in whatever way is most beneficial to them.

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Is your organization prepared to create an environment in which your people—and your business—can thrive?