Future of Work Culture Requires A Change Leadership Strategy

There is a lot of research and data on the future of work and how things will be very different in the next few years. To get there though the future of work ‘culture’ requires a change leadership strategy.

I was talking with a tech client who wants to hire me to work with their information management professionals on change leadership. She said that they had had experts work with them on future of work realities as well as on digital and social media and now they wanted to work with me to help them bring a change leadership approach to their culture.

Let’s face it you already know that things are changing rapidly and you also know that the future of work is going to be more digital, will have more automation through robotics and you are also likely wondering “what does it mean for ME?”

That is the key question for leaders and their teams right now – what does it all mean and what can we do about it all today?

There is a lot that can be done today by everyone and the following checklist can give you a sense of what action to take now towards the leading the changes needed for a new culture:

1. Assess the organization’s culture as it is right now – do your latest employee surveys indicate that the culture is a highly desirable future of work workplace?
2. Address the organization’s culture in all forums, CEO fireside chats, HR updates, group discussion boards, all of these forums are a great place to talk about the current culture and what can be improved.
3. Accept that it is a journey towards cultural transformation – it doesn’t happen overnight AND it can happen more quickly when made a priority.
4. Be aware that cultural transformation is not the responsibility of one sector of the company (i.e. the executives) – change leadership happens within the company at any level and can influence the overall company culture quite rapidly.
5. Awaken the excitement for a change leadership strategy that includes creating a culture where everyone is a change leader and can influence the changes that need to happen.
6. Provide resources and training to help everyone within the company build the ‘new’ skills needed to lead and succeed in the future of work.
7. Recognize that a wait and see approach to the future isn’t a plan – planning for the future by proactively preparing everyone with change leadership skills IS the plan.
8. A change leadership strategy can be a simple map or it can be a major project plan either way it is the way to be future of work ready now.