The future of work will build in an adaptive workforce

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To Build An Adaptive Enterprise, Build An Adaptive Workforce The future of work isn’t something that happens to you — it’s something you create for your company and your own career. Unfortunately, C-level technology and business leaders are often uncertain on how to do it. We’ve just released a major new report to establish a North Star for your aspirations — and a blueprint for how to get there.

Adaptive enterprises win by identifying future opportunities and proactively reconfiguring themselves, including their business models, in the face of changing customer and market demands. Topplayto become an adaptive enterprise requires significant investments in technology transformation, in culture building, and in setting up structures and processes. For example, an adaptive enterprise must be able to alter its business concept based on insights that improve the company’s odds of fulfilling future customer demand.

As your customers raise the bar on their demands — and shift their preferences more frequently — you must build a delivery organization that’s adaptive, too. This new adaptive workforce taps into technology innovations — particularly AI and automation — to become more flexible, responsive, and productive and to support the broader adaptive enterprise strategy.

The adaptive workforce has three key characteristics:

Burstable. Adaptive workforces can flex up or down their resources in response to changing conditions by tapping into next-generation labor pools: the talent economy (contingent workforce providers, the gig economy, or employees from the partner ecosystem) and the automation economy (AI, business process management, robotic process automation, and other intelligent software that can complete tasks).

Less hierarchical. Traditional corporate organizations are extremely vertical and siloed: An employee starts working in one organizational function and continues to do so throughout their entire career at the firm. Now, a “botmaster” who manages bots in the finance department can move to do similar work in HR, contributing and also learning new skills in the process. Composable. Swarm teams, which assemble employees from cross-functional groups to destroy silos, drive innovation, and solve problems, exemplify the adaptive workforce. They can be assembled and disassembled as projects complete or as conditions evolve.