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Freeformers: Mapping the digital futureInsight and inspiration to help your business navigate the future world of work

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Contents

It is a volatile world so put trust in your people Mark Ash, Samsung

Teaming up to tackle the Future of Work Hema Bakhshi & Sigga Sigurdardottir, Santander UK

Chapter 1: Spot the Roadblocks

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Chapter 2: Attitude AdjustmentAre you sitting comfortably? You shouldn’t be! Simon Thompson, HSBC

Banking on a digital revolution Ashok Vaswani, Barclays UK

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Welcome Gi Fernando MBE, Founder, Freeformers

Foreword Sir Anthony Salz, Chairman, Freeformers

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Chapter 3: Reap the Benefits

Create a cultural revolution

Collaboration is a cornerstone for future success Phil Smith, Cisco

Break with tradition and embrace the odd failure Nate Lanxon, Bloomberg

Your next steps... Emma Cerrone and Adam Freeman, Freeformers

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Freeformers: Mapping the digital future 3

© 2017 Freeformers Holdings Limited. All rights reserved.

Welcomefrom Gi Fernando MBE, Founder, Freeformers

This is then applied in a commercial context, defined by a measurable standard that can be rigorously tested through our technology and assessed against desired business goals of our clients and the impact on their growth.

Our experience has taught us that digital transformation must begin at the top. This will filter through the business, encouraging people to seek new ways of working, build on best practice and leave them feeling supported by the organisation around them.

We have designed this report to trace these ideals. From spotting the digital roadblocks in Chapter 1, to changing attitudes in Chapter 2 and exploring the benefits of transformation in Chapter 3.

This report draws on the lessons we’ve learned as a team since we began in 2012, as well as the insight we gained at a series of working events held in London over the last six months. It also features industry figures – representatives of businesses and people at the forefront of workplace transformation. We hope it presents advice and insight that empowers companies to turn disruption to their commercial advantage.

Welcome

Technology has the power to create a world of work where we can lead our best lives both inside and outside of it

The world of work is changing. Flexible working means we can work anytime, anywhere. Automation threatens jobs, while digital transformation creates new ones. The blurred lines between work and leisure cause us to question where our professional pursuits end and our personal ones begin.

Newly-invented roles and responsibilities demand a radically redesigned skillset, but few know what such a set should look like. This poses challenges for employers and employees alike. Fortunately, they do not face them alone.

At Freeformers, we help companies prepare and react to the changing world of work. We do this by developing the standard for people’s mindset, skills and behaviours in the modern workforce, so they can exploit digital opportunities and technology investments.

It’s a digitally-led growth mindset that gives people the attitude and confidence to want to try new things and to carry on learning, every single day.


Lifelong learning has trumped the ‘career for life’ and the perception that agile minds belong to an entrepreneur-class has been rightly broken.

It is becoming clear that exam grades and degrees are not the only way to judge how good someone is in this world of digital everything. This means there is now a great opportunity to create a new standard, taking into account other human characteristics and fitting them to values and purpose. This could open up the talent pool across Britain, moving from a view of scarcity to an abundance of talent.

Writing this in 2017, I feel privileged but responsible at the same time. At Freeformers, we believe technology has the power to create a world of work where we can lead our best lives both inside and outside of it.

Rather than fear challenges on the horizon such as artificial intelligence and automation, we must understand them and capitalise on them. The time for inaction is over: let’s harness tech and meet the future world of work head on.

Gi is an engineer, social impact entrepreneur and investor, who previously successfully built a number of technology businesses, including Techlightenment, which was sold to Experian Plc. He is on various Boards relating to Creative, Education and Learning Transformation including Apps for Good, the community interest company Duke of York IDEA and Craft.co plus is the founder of Code and Canvas (codeandcanvas.org) and an investor in Century.tech, Technology Will Save Us and The Skills Academy.


It’s a digitally-led growth mindset that gives people the attitude and confidence to want to try new things and to carry on learning, every single day

We are living in times of fundamental business change, unlike anything I have observed in my career as a lawyer, investment banker, company Chairman and charity Trustee.

Many incumbent businesses are struggling to understand the implications of the digital shift and how they need to adapt.

I was personally slow to invest time to really get to grips with technology so as to gain confidence about the opportunities. What seemed like more immediate business imperatives took priority. I know I am not alone.

Now as digital change gathers pace, there is no alternative but to understand what this means for your business. It’s not sufficient to rely on your specialist technology team, this mindset shift is ideally led at the top, at CEO and Board level.

Forewordfrom Sir Anthony Salz, Chairman, Freeformers

That is why I now champion the work of Freeformers; a company with innovation at its core. It is changing mindsets and perceptions, helping workforces develop the necessary digital skills and knowledge to embrace the Future of Work – starting with the Senior Executive Team.

Freeformers exemplifies new ways of working, thinking and acting. It succeeds because of its credible team, made up of people who are diverse in their approach, their experience and their background, with an enthusiasm to keep on learning.

The qualities of the people are key. And business leaders must embrace the opportunity to empower their people, building confidence in the positives of technology by looking beyond the fears and threats, such as the impact on jobs of artificial intelligence and robotics.

Curious leaders open up new ideas for everyone around them, while technology democratises new ways to listen internally and gain feedback from customers.

New generations bring different expectations and insights; respecting this is vital for progressive and inclusive cultures.

I work with people of all ages. They are full of energy, ideas and creativity – and that’s what makes me optimistic for the Future of Work and less fearful of the uncertainties.

Whether you’re a FTSE 100 CEO, starting your own business or have questions about your own future role, I hope this report instils confidence and enthusiasm as you consider the importance of the digital transformation that lies ahead.

Sir Anthony Salz is a former lawyer, investment banker and Vice Chairman of the BBC. He is the Non-Executive Chairman at Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. He was the lead non-executive Board member of the Department for Education and sits on the boards of The Scott Trust and a number of charities.

New generations bring different expectations and insights; respecting this is vital for progressive and inclusive cultures

Foreword


Spot the RoadblocksChapter 1:

of companies believe their organisational design is not working, yet only 14% know how to fix it- Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends 2016

92%


Chapter 1

When you hit a digital roadblock, it may be too late to recover. So in this chapter we reveal some of the most common issues that prove you are veering off track while preparing for the Future of Work. We want to help you spot the roadblocks before they stop you.

At a series of CEO dinners we held, leaders from across the UK told us these roadblocks most often take a very human shape. It could be middle management preventing creative problem-solving, an industrial-era mindset that refuses flexible working or a total aversion to risk. Whatever the signs, quickly taking measures to find a new solution means your business can reboot and be ready to upgrade.

Wondering how your business is faring? Here are some questions to consider:

What to watch out for: Our checklist

Are your competitors disrupting the market and providing new digital offerings?

Have you noticed your business growth slow while others have performed well?

Is there a culture of reluctance to make bold decisions or take risks internally?

Are your employees slow to engage with new processes or software?

PwC research suggests nearly a third of jobs could be lost in the next 13 years to automation - with transport, storage and manufacturing the most at-risk sectors


Business leaders have an odd relationship with change. For many it is a scary concept, full of unknowns and danger. Yet, change is what keeps people relevant.

It took us 30 years to move away from mainframes and terminals towards the internet and PCs. That migration demanded people change their skillsets, knowledge and attitude.

Today, as we move increasingly to the cloud and mobile-first working, we know that throughout Samsung, we must have the right mindset, people and diverse skills to succeed.

In an era where technology breakthroughs occur daily, a business cannot rely on specific, one-off or annual training courses to come up with the answers to a modern challenge; but it can rely on the creativity and ingenuity of its people to continually adapt and learn.

Recently, a young graduate joined us and we recognised the value that he could add to our business, so immediately created him a new role with a broader remit than the original one. It was a role focused on bringing innovation to market for our end users through app development and mobility.

Within a month this gave him access to senior executives from the business and, ultimately, led to one of the VPs asking him to work with him in a newly-created role as a Strategy Analyst for our B2B business. It has fast become one of the most interesting and influential roles within Samsung.

This will not always be a straightforward approach for businesses with offices around the world, or ones that have been trading for hundreds of years. Companies typically exist around structure and hierarchy, with graduates at the bottom of both. However, this is a setup that limits their own contributions and also limits a company’s potential.

Samsung is already working towards this bigger vision and it is one I would like to see many more companies adopt: the creation of open ecosystems where partnership and teamwork are viewed as foundations of success in the Future of Work.

Common sense dictates that a ‘solution’ will fix a ‘problem’, however the problem itself is often not known, only the symptom. The honest and open approach is one where the business leaders work with partners in a consultative manner to understand what their business objective is and also what problems they are experiencing. They then trust that partner to find a solution.

For example, we’ve seen organisations run tenders to drive down the costs of their logistics but they end up with a poor or low quality service that impacts their reputation. The appropriate solution would have been to use a simple aggregation app, whereby you group deliveries to singular locations to reduce the overall cost. Getting the right advice is key.

The answer to so many modern commercial challenges rests in developing relationships of trust and transparency. That’s how a business will thrive and win in the Future of Work. In today’s volatile, ambiguous world, the question can no longer be whether your business needs to embrace digital change. It is already happening – and it is not an optional extra you can ignore.

It is a volatile world so put trust in your people

The answer to so many modern commercial challenges rests in developing relationships of trust and transparency

Mark Ash, Director, Enterprise Business at Samsung Electronics


Chapter 1

How can employers secure buy-in for new, innovative ideas across an entire business?

Sigga (bottom right): You need to have a strong and dedicated leadership team that shows real commitment to introducing, nurturing and supporting change. Leaders should start by creating a simple and clear vision, which can be used to give employees context and clarity in what we want to do and how we are going to do it. The leadership team should communicate why digital transformation is important for the business and how everyone should move forward together as a team.

Are there ways to counteract nervousness around change?

Sigga: It’s important to showcase the tremendous opportunities digital transformation and new ideas represent to employees, particularly in terms of learning new skills. The Future of Work offers a chance to learn and develop. Santander’s training programmes are not just designed to ‘upskill’ but to empower teams to be confident to keep up with the pace of change and to inject fresh ideas for the way they work and what they can achieve.

What do business leaders view as challenges – the potential roadblocks to transformation?

Hema: The financial services industry quite rightly has an aversion to risk. But, this aversion can create challenges when it comes up against the reality that digital transformation requires an agile, flexible and open-minded approach to change. The root of the

problem for some businesses is their inability to step back and plan, while maintaining flexibility. Businesses shouldn’t be afraid to try new things for fear of them not working out. That’s how we learn and how we innovate. Change doesn’t happen overnight, and when it’s done properly in a large company, it must be transparent – that can take time.

Do your partnerships with other businesses help with this mindset change?

Sigga: Undoubtedly and I think it works both ways, we learn a lot from nimble, fast moving startups and they learn a lot from us. As Santander’s innovation team, we have many partnerships with Fintech companies. This helps us to access new technology and products for our customers quickly and without in-house development time. It also works from a cultural perspective because employees see first-hand how other companies operate.

Why did Santander create the Future of Work team?

Hema: It became obvious when we were developing the bank’s 2025 Vision that the same disruptive factors affecting our retail operations were transforming the way our teams work. Behavioural changes, tech innovation and new entrants to the market were once external factors that could limit a business’s success, if not tackled. However, they are now very much internal factors that also must be embraced and encouraged rather than feared or ignored. You can’t sit back as an incumbent and continue to do things the same, just because you were once a leader in the field.

What has this team worked on so far?

Hema: My team has been given a licence to proactively challenge and disrupt the way the business operates. That was a very brave decision to make. Unless we change the way we do certain things – organisational hierarchy for example – we won’t create the change that is needed.

One thing we are looking at is how to tackle unconscious bias in how we recruit, manage, engage and retain our people. We shouldn’t make assumptions about people’s ages and employee life stage. For example, someone approaching retirement shouldn’t be overlooked for development programmes because they will still have so much to offer.

At the other end, we’ve recently drafted a proposal to create a millennial board. We want people to feel they can contribute regardless of hierarchy or age. We feel this will lead to new, innovative ideas and allow us to reap the benefits from the dynamic that reverse mentoring brings. It’s early days but we’re hoping ideas such as these will help us prepare for future challenges.

Teaming up to tackle the Future of WorkSigga Sigurdardottir is Chief Customer and Innovation Officer and Hema Bakhshi is Head of Future of Work at Santander UK

94%of executives report that agility and collaboration are critical to their organisation’s success- Deloitte, Global Human Capital Trends 2017

Attitude AdjustmentChapter 2:



Chapter 2

Attitude Adjustment: Top 10 tipsEmbracing the Future of Work means adopting a more curious mindset, a resilient attitude and a way of working that encourages innovation and the sharing of ideas.

Some business leaders assume that launching a digital product will solve all their problems. But you must never lose sight of the people at the heart of your company. Businesses should champion human-driven growth enabled by technology, not technology-driven growth to enable humans. This requires open minds and confident attitudes.

Change doesn’t happen quickly so a digital mindset needs to be developed over time. In this chapter we explore the importance of creating an agile, digital mindset from the top (CEO and C-Suite) to the core foundations of a business – and offer steps to help you get there.

Here are our top 10 tips on Attitude Adjustment:

A British Land poll has found that 88% of workers want to work in ‘smart’ offices

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Start at the top: changing behaviours must begin with the C-Suite

Collaborative culture: create a workplace that inspires teamwork not people’s isolation

Make transformation a priority, don’t just pay lip service to it

Encourage reverse mentoring between different sets of skills and knowledge

Reward people with a digital mindset – but remember their talent may be hidden

Develop physical spaces that are open and collaborative to work and relax

Experiment with digital team days where new ideas can be shared and learned

Allocate a training budget to each employee so they can teach themselves new skills

Foster diversity of talent and thought. Encourage empathy so problems are shared

Be brave, do not fear an imperfect outcome. Fail fast. Learn and adapt quickly


I was recently asked by my son what I think he should be when he grows up. I instantly answered an ‘entrepreneur’ and he asked me why. Looking at how the world of work is changing, the role of technology and the speed of change, it’s clear people need to be flexible to generate their own opportunities to earn and grow. An entrepreneurial spirit combined with a growth mindset does just that.

In my experience, there are three attitude characteristics that define successful people in this new emerging economy: curiosity, adaptability and creativity.

The first is a burning curiosity to experiment, think differently and learn. The second is the ability to adapt to new surroundings and frameworks as the world of work changes fast. The third – creativity – is needed to imagine those improved ways of working and harness them for your own personal and commercial success.

At HSBC, I have introduced new processes to search out and encourage such a growth mindset in my existing teams and for potential employees.

I’ve taken traditional personal development review techniques and given them a twist by having informal meetings much more regularly and asking challenging questions, such as: ‘What have you learned?’; ‘Are you having fun?’; ‘Do you think you can do more?’ and ‘How uncomfortable do you feel today?’

Answers to that last question about discomfort grant real insight into a workplace’s mentality. I remember the discomfort at Apple the day after we launched

Are you sitting comfortably? You shouldn’t be!Simon Thompson, Global Head of Digital Commerce, HSBC

the iPad. We were on edge because we simply did not know what was going to happen; the great things and the not so great things. For me, that’s what many businesses should strive towards – the total opposite of commercial paralysis and stalling growth. You should be proactively uncomfortable. And learn to enjoy the feeling.

As a 152-year-old bank, employing 250,000 people and serving 50 million customers, it’s no easy feat for HSBC to operate with digital at scale. The bank’s leadership has made clear its understanding that the future economy will lead HSBC to fundamentally change its internal ways of working. It’s a striking example of how times have changed.

Business used to be about optimisation, improving years’ worth of custom and practice. Today, great businesses are forcing themselves to change, unhappy with reality and always striving to re-imagine everything that they do.

I consider myself lucky to be working at such a time – life is full of opportunity and rather uncomfortable. But in a good way.

There are three attitude characteristics that define successful people in this new emerging economy: curiosity, adaptability and creativity


Nobody understands that digital transformation comes from the top better than Ashok Vaswani, Chief Executive of Barclays UK.

The banking boss has been a driving force behind the company’s transformation into a digitally-led brand. “It’s a company’s leadership that has to take it on,” he says. “Leaders have to live it themselves in the first instance.”

Indeed, initiatives such as Digital Eagles, where Barclays has trained 16,000 of its staff to help the public to improve their internet skills and Code Playground, designed to get kids coding, have helped to position the bank as a forward-thinking digital enabler.

“Over recent years, Barclays has worked hard to prepare our people for the digital world. Not just the frontline staff, whose day-to-day tasks have changed massively, but across the board. Everybody needs to get into this. There’s no one who can avoid it,” Vaswani explains.

The CEO turned his words into action at the Barclays Digital Conference in 2015 when he demonstrated to the bank’s senior figures how to build a peer-to-peer lending app in a day.

Vaswani notes there was a consensus among the Barclays leadership teams that the company needed to focus on ‘upskilling’ and ‘reskilling’ to

be better prepared for the fast-changing world of finance. And he speaks proudly of the lack of resistance encountered when teams were told there would be a renewed focus on digital skills.

“People appreciated the small organisation approach and the fact that they were given opportunities to explore new avenues,” he says.

The flagship digital programme, Digital Eagles, has diversified to include business incubators for budding entrepreneurs and ‘Tea and Teach’ sessions aimed at older people.

In a world where the workplace is undergoing radical transformation, Vaswani candidly admits that change – and the need to keep up with it – is constant. “You’ve got to be willing to live with change and adapt to it. I suspect everything about how we work will alter dramatically over the next five or 10 years,” he predicts.

At Barclays, much of this change is being driven by how customers interact with the bank.

From December 2013 to December 2016 the percentage of customers who only interacted with services digitally rose from 14% to 23%, while the number of customers who visited branches fell from 64% to 56%.

The recent announcement that two global banks would begin replacing compliance staff with robots – trusted to monitor and identify suspicious traits – only confirms the extent to which a business such as Barclays is now operating in a radically transformed world of work.

And given the scale of the conversations about the Future of Work, it can be easy to forget people still sit at the heart of this debate.

Ashok Vaswani:Barclays UK Chief Executive banking on a digital revolution

Chapter 2

You’ve got to be willing to live with change and adapt to it. I suspect everything about how we work will alter dramatically over the next five or 10 years

But the recognition that businesses are only as good as their people was the main driver behind Vaswani’s commitment to improving digital skills and the company’s mindset. “If you can change the paradigm of how people work and think about things, you can completely transform the output of their work,” he says.

He argues improving digital skills will prepare people for stable employment in the future, explaining: “Jobs will eventually elude the people who don’t change their skills. You’ve got to be current with everything that’s going on. If not, you’ll miss opportunities.”

Vaswani feels the root of seizing such opportunities resides in recognising that a problem exists and then the key is helping people to understand there is a better way. He concludes: “Get the ‘recognition’ step right and a company can do something about it. The recognition and resultant mindset transformation combined can become a powerful force.”

Judging from the transformation Vaswani has helped herald in at Barclays – it’s a force to be reckoned with.


According to Tech North, the UK’s digital economy is expected to require an extra 760,000 digital workers between 2015 and 2020

Digital workers


Reap the BenefitsChapter 3:

Chapter 3

The number of freelancers in the UK increased by 43% between 2008 and 2016 – contributing around £119bn to the national economy- The Association of Independent Professionals and the Self-Employed

The Future of Work is yours for the taking: the benefits of digital transformation are boundless and the opportunities endless. But rather than focusing on the threats posed by disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and automation, businesses should turn them to their advantage.

We know that digital transformation can lead to rapid business growth, when fuelled by both new digital tools and resources and by enhancing the possibilities of your people. At Freeformers, our focus is on Mindset, Skills, Behaviour and Impact (MSBI).

As certain tasks become automated, the human element becomes ever more important. Employees will have more time to do things that serve the creativity and essence of the company. This in turn will result in happier people, greater productivity, more purpose and boosted profits.

To create and attract the next generation of talent, flexible or remote working is a must while it is imperative to promote diversity and gender equality; this will help you break the traditional or long-held ‘norms’ of workplace practices.

In this section, we outline the benefits to be reaped by those organisations that dare to innovate, support their people’s growth and treat digital disruption as a force for good. Remember, the Future of Work presents diverse opportunities for you to engage your employees and ultimately satisfy the fast-changing needs and wants of your future customers.


Time for action

Artificial intelligence could increase labour productivity by 25% by 2035- Accenture


Chapter 3Chapter 3

If you want to grow a workforce fit for the future, you must start with your culture.At Freeformers, ours is built upon a successful foundation of diversity, autonomy and lifelong continued learning.

All successful startups and huge tech giants place a strong emphasis on their people… on their well-being, growth and enjoyment. Yes, enjoyment – both of the work to be done and of playing their specific part in a successful and productive team with a purpose.

This all begins at the top by ensuring employees have the confidence to make decisions and take actions, says Freeformer Kalliste Kuhn.

Create a cultural revolution

She explains: “A traditional hierarchy gives middle managers responsibility but they then give limited autonomy to team members to apply their own creative problem-solving.

“A disruptive change programme – signed off at board level – empowers people to develop a proactive, growth mindset, focused on self-led solution-finding.”

This works hand-in-hand with the idea of always-learning, according to Freeformers founder Gi Fernando MBE, one which presents a big opportunity for Future of Work employers. He says society must move away from “stored knowledge” to “streamed knowledge”, so employees feel comfortable to take time out of their working day or invest their spare time to learn from YouTube videos or do (often free) courses online. They can then put their new skills into practice straight away.

Attracting diverse talent is another key plank of the Future of Work but this doesn’t simply mean placing a focus on young people. In fact, some of the brightest talent may be hidden away inside current employees, who never felt confident to show it or to speak up.

Freeformer Kaishia Barnes says: “There’s a lack of empathy for older staff, who may not feel comfortable with digital or they go unheard or overlooked because people believe they don’t ‘get it’. That stereotyping is a big barrier, just like


Facebook’s Workplace of the futureA 2015 survey by Bank of America Merrill Lynch revealed that nine per cent of young people cited Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook empire as their ideal career move. And when it comes to fostering culture at work, it knows a thing or two.

But its latest innovative stride in the Future of Work debate is the aptly-named Workplace, launched in October 2016. It takes Facebook’s technology – already familiar to nearly two billion people – and applies it to the office and working environment.

Workplace already counts more than 14,000 organisations as users, including RBS, Starbucks and the government of Singapore and its adoption offers learnings any company can quickly and easily put into practice themselves to develop their own internal mindset and culture shift.

These include the chance to get to know colleagues working in offices all across the globe, an ability to see and react to latest news from around the company and a real-time way for leadership to gain instant or useful feedback from their teams. Such implementations can lead to greater employee engagement and commercial growth.

Like many incumbents, Facebook may be a company at the top of its game, but it fully understands it can’t rest on its laurels. At its campus in Menlo Park, California, the sign outside features a giant thumbs-up emoji on the front, but on the back is a logo for Sun Microsystems.

The now defunct computer business was the former resident of Facebook’s HQ and the employees are reminded that companies that don’t keep changing and keep innovating could be the ones left behind.

believing: ‘Let’s hire a bunch of millennials because they know everything about digital.’

“You must hire the right people for the right roles and train and empower others to take advantage of everyone’s knowledge.”

Companies must now foster maximum collaboration and experimentation and accept failure as the route to finding success. As the mantra once painted on the wall of Facebook’s HQ says: “Done is better than perfect!”

This is helped by implementing the right digital tools to automate the most menial and repetitive tasks. At Freeformers, we are big fans of Slack, Trello and Inbox by Gmail.

Aligned objectives and one clear direction to follow are also critical. Our own mission is to build a digital economy for all and this gives us a check and balance to evaluate our actions and performance against.

You also must not be afraid. Freeformer Erica Neve says: “Big businesses are scared of throwing out legacy systems, which do not support the modern ways of working. People are permanently frustrated by legacy IP systems, processes and HR metrics of motivation, engagement, learning and development.

“One solution is to invest in social learning led by workplace meetups and ideas such as lunch and learn. Take risks to throw out what isn’t relevant and allow your workforce to develop mindsets, skillsets and behaviours in a way that matters to them as humans. Be transparent and ask them what would work. That’s how you create a future-proofed culture to bring about the biggest commercial benefits.”


The Future of Work belongs to those who can blend cultures of collaboration with diverse ways of thinking and doing. Companies must create fluid, dynamic teams that provide new viewpoints and skills. Equally, they must seek opportunities through partnerships and networking.

The rise of the startup ecosystem in the UK, and the accelerators that support it, have changed the dynamic between large and small businesses and demonstrated the importance of innovation to any modern business’s bottom line. Boundaries are blurred, opportunities are everywhere.

Take automation as an example: it is not – as many would have you believe – a robot replacing a person on a production line. In reality, it is the combination of people and machines working together to achieve results.

In our everyday lives, we are already benefitting from innovative products and services created through such collaborations, from live train times on your mobile device to the provision of safer, even driverless, cars for your commute.

Automation is also set to fuel a dramatic increase in productivity. Its role in the emerging work landscape offers the UK the opportunity to tackle its productivity deficit, which currently languishes 16 percentage points below the average of the rest of the G7 countries.

The potential held by tech to improve our lives at work and at home is awesome. But it will be hindered if we treat technology as a threat rather than a tool for positive improvement.

At Cisco, we champion a cooperative model of engagement. This encourages large and small businesses to work together on accelerator programmes, sharing IP and best practice.

Our work in this area includes the Cisco Entrepreneurs in Residence programme – aimed at startups and scaleups. This approach creates relationships based on open dialogue that allow companies to meet a set of defined, achievable objectives.

We aim to create relationships that are beneficial to all parties. We work with startups to solve client problems by bringing everyone together and tackling challenges. Whether this is successful or not, we find out what our clients want and they get a sense of what is available in the broader ecosystem.

The key is to be open about what you want out of a relationship, what your sharing capabilities are and how you might reach your goal. Attitude is a part of this; rather than thinking of it as a superior working with a subordinate – we see everyone as peers, working together towards a common goal.

These are the kinds of cooperative relationships that businesses need to thrive in an increasingly evolving environment.

Automation is also set to fuel a dramatic increase in productivity

Collaboration is a cornerstone for future successPhil Smith, Chairman, Cisco UK and Ireland

Chapter 3

A survey by Sage found that 96% of accountants are positive about automation


You write about breakthroughs in technology every day. What’s your advice to leaders looking to make the most out of them?

You don’t just become digital overnight by hiring five graduates with a technology degree. It doesn’t work like that. Before you get to the devices, it starts with your thinking. You must change thinking at all levels of the business and then you can start adopting the hardware and the software.

How will the Future of Work change things for the better?

I suppose it’s about my belief that not everybody needs to go down a traditional formal route of education to get to where they want. Passion is a better starting point than just possessing the skills and capabilities granted to you by an institution. In any workplace, a blend of the traditionally-educated with those who are self-taught and trained creates a productive mix, where everyone learns from each other.

What’s your advice for businesses wanting to make the most of workplace disruption?

Experiment early, learn from your mistakes and consider it all as an investment in the future. To give an example from my industry – two years ago there was a live-streaming app called Meerkat. Lots of brands adopted it and experimented with it but it fell by the wayside. Some might say that was a giant waste of time and resource. However live-streaming is now huge – Facebook, Instagram and YouTube are all doing it. All the learnings companies made by using Meerkat can actually be applied to new live-streaming tools. It’s important to see all experiences as educational.

What does leadership need to do to get the best out of its teams?

I worked at a company some time ago that had a very encouraging “open-door policy”. The door of the MD was quite literally left open almost all the time to encourage anyone, at any level, to pop in and give their opinions or to ask questions about the business. It was a great culture to be a part of and helped encourage staff to meet with the boss.

How can companies attract the best talent?

The generation that is coming up now expects different things from a company – they definitely don’t expect to be in the office from 9-5. So, companies need to remain interesting to work for in the future both through their terms and their environments. Take co-working spaces, for example, the blend of feeling you’re somewhere small and social but working on something important is very exciting. This idea is evident even in the huge London workplaces of the likes of Facebook and Google. They are very different to traditional corporate environments and this helps attract the best talent.

If a business wants to thrive in the Future of Work, what should its team look like?

You need a diverse mix. Having only young, enthusiastic hipsters who need three hours sleep and are fueled entirely by motivation and caffeine is not necessarily going to get you the best result. Hiring only similar races, sexes and age-ranges from the same traditional backgrounds will also not bring great results. Different people need to be brought together to learn from and support each other, and be encouraged to have respect for the opinions and ‘experiences’ of those they work with.

Break with tradition and embrace the odd failureNate Lanxon, Consumer Technology Reporter, Bloomberg


Skills aren’t always hard

Soft skills must come first: Communication, Teamwork and Empathy. Then come the hard digital skills. Given the extent to which technology will be integrated into the future world of work, every company needs specialist skills, but not everyone has to be an expert. Digital competence matched with exceptional soft skills will characterise the team of tomorrow.

Build an ecosystem

Think of your business as an ecosystem, not just a company. Apply that lens and question, ‘what can you do differently?’ Treat potential business partners – and even competitors – as friends, not adversaries. Build an environment where your internal team and external collaborators are encouraged to push boundaries together, not stay in silos.

Measure, gather, gauge

The ability to show teams how digital transformation is delivering against KPIs is a powerful tool. Ensure you have frameworks and technology in place that catch results, exploit data and create opportunities for growth. Measure your progress and learn from your failures. Gain an insight into how your organisation works and discover what empowers your people.

Next Steps

For too long, the conversation around the Future of Work has been one of fear, uncertainty and pessimism. We hope this report has gone some way to overturn that perception in your minds.

We want to thank the leaders and innovators who have contributed here. Their stories and insight remind us that progress is not achieved by cutting costs. Instead it comes through positive leadership that sees opportunities where others see threats.

The Future of Work is yours for taking – but only if you understand how to navigate the waters. We would like to leave you with some closing thoughts on achieving this inspired by our own Mindset, Skills, Behaviour and Impact framework:

Your next steps...Emma Cerrone and Adam Freeman, Co-founders and Partners, Freeformers

Growth mindset critical

First comes growth mindset. Fundamentally, it is the desire to stay agile, carry on learning and seek ways to develop yourself and the business around you. Get the growth mindset right and you have a secure foundation for success in the Future of Work.

Culture comforts

See culture as a combination of how people work, think and feel. Businesses look to their leaders for direction, so they should create cultures that make people comfortable with change and welcoming of innovation. Once this culture is in place and behaviours adapt, you are free to build out the skillsets.

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Diversity drives success

At Freeformers our team is made up of people from their early 20s to their late 50s. They exemplify diversity of thought, background and knowledge. They come from more than a dozen countries around the world, they bring skills from sectors such as technology, psychology, social impact and business. They have the autonomy and opportunity to adapt, learn and succeed.

This diversity is the foundation for any company in the Future of Work. Only a diverse talent pipeline that truly represents society can sustain profit and purpose. It is why we work with charities and voluntary organisations to train young people aged 16-25 in digital skills for free to help develop that future workforce now. Finally, it is true that there is

Freeformers is a workforce transformation and technology company dedicated to creating the future workforce now. Find out how your company and your people can succeed in the digital economy at www.freeformers.com - where you can also sign up for our weekly newsletter packed with the latest digital developments. Or get in touch by email with any questions to [email protected]

Contact us...

no one size-fits-all approach when it comes to preparing for the Future of Work. We are confident every business can thrive in its own way. But that begins with being optimistic, brave and questioning. The opportunities are there, so what are you waiting for?

Multiple award-winner Emma has years of experience in digital transformation for 50+ brands. A regular speaker on the power of people in the digital revolution and how incumbents can adapt and remix to keep relevant, she previously was COO of a communications agency.

Adam is a senior executive and entrepreneur with experience across media platforms from television to live events in Europe, the US, Middle East and Africa. He has led companies such as Bloomberg Media and The Guardian and launched two startups of his own in the online retail and advertising sectors.


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Mindset + Skillset + Behaviours = IMPACT


Freeformers21 Hatton GardenLondonEC1N 8BA

+44 (0)20 3691 7940

www.freeformers.com

freeformers: mapping the digital future · freeformers: mapping the digital future 9 business...

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