The Uncertainty of Work

The Uncertainty of Work.

We will always encounter changes in blockades and opportunities, but we need to find our path to reach the desired direction to achieve our goals.

Recent events have turned the status quo on its head, with some significant structural and systemic changes taking place in the world around us, fuelling prevailing uncertainty. These stem from the global post-pandemic lockdowns, followed by major political crises, war in Europe, the vagaries of the economy, and the ongoing climate change issues. Nobody seems to have a clear idea of how to deal with this enormous transformation in how we work and live.

This is further exacerbated by previous knowledge, and playbooks that have been amassed over the years are based on 20th-century models and ideologies, which are now irrelevant - we are in a totally new game park. Not only has the game changed, but the entire stadium!

The main question we must ask ourselves is: How do we make sense of the uncertainty we face today? This was the impetus and thinking behind EverythingOmni's™ series of contiguous themes exploring different factors challenging the world of work - our by-word is sense-making uncertainty.

By using the cognitive dissonance of our participants, we can try to understand where and what the obstacles are preventing us from moving forward. By breaking down silos between groups of people - national, work or sector/industry - we can go beyond binary "either/or" thinking and widen our perspectives. We should consider that there is a much broader proposition now, a bit like a Rubik's Cube – since we are beginning to see that everything relates to everything else and everything is connected – people, place and systems.

There is and always will be chaos and unpredictability in the world. We have to be able to create flexibility of response to create resilience and flexibility of choice. We are in the midst of a transformative phase of how this will work out in a "one-size doesn't fit" working environment.

So, drawing from the themes of flexibility from the 'Futureproofing the Workplace' incubator, the findings are grouped into key areas of Flexible Working, Flexible Space, Flexible Leadership and Flexible Technology.