Communications at the Heart of the Future of Work. Future Tense:

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Future Tense explores how the modern work “place” is evolving and adapting to new trends, technologies, and economic factors.

CONVERSATION LEADER

Giovanni Rodriguez
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CONTRIBUTORS

Elizabeth Albrycht
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Dave Desforges
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Jim McGee
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Jim Ware
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Past Contributors

Jory Des Jardins

Jory Des Jardins: ( Archive )

Regina Miller

Regina Miller: ( Archive )

Elizabeth Albrycht is a 16-year veteran of high technology public relations practice and co-founder of the New Communications Forum, a conference series designed to bring journalists and marketing and PR professionals together to learn how to use participatory communications tools. She is a founding advisory board member and is the chair of the research committee for the Society for New Communications Research: . Elizabeth has authored articles on blogging, RSS and other new tools for a variety of industry publications, and has presented teleseminars and in-person seminars on new communications tools for PRSA and Ragan Communications: . She often speaks about social media in both the US and Europe, and blogs about PR and corporate communications at CorporatePR.

Dave Desforges began piloting "Work From Home" solutions over 3 years ago. His role required identifying additional candidate requirements and necessary remote work practices for both employees and managers at Sun Microsystems. His current work encompasses blending appropriate technology, organizational practices, and workplace environments to support mobile and distributed teams.

Jim McGee is currently a Director at Huron Consulting Group. He has spent much of the last 30 years working to understand, design, and apply information and technology innovations in organizations. Before Huron, Jim taught at the Kellogg School and was one of the founding partners of DiamondCluster International. With Larry Prusak, he was the co-author of Managing Information Strategically (Wiley, 1993). Jim has both an MBA and a doctorate in Information Technology, Organization, and Strategy from the Harvard Business School.

Regina Miller has more than 18 years of experience in Organization Development, Human Resources, Leadership Development and International Operations. Regina recently launched a global consultancy called The Seventh Suite which assists growing companies bolster their competitive edge via aligned strategy and progressive people practices. Her last corporate job was as the VP HR/OD for Oskar (Vodafone) which has been dubbed “one of the fastest growing mobile operators in Eastern Europe.” More info here.

Giovanni Rodriguez - Through a combination of luck and persistence, Giovanni has worked in the company of some of the most interesting and colorful leaders in several worlds: the law, theater, and technology. Today, he is a principal at Eastwick Communications, a Silicon Valley PR agency, where he advises both emerging companies and market leaders on executive leadership, public speaking, marketing strategy and media relations. He has worked for, consulted and advised numerous businesses and organizations including HP, Stanford University, Fujitsu Computer Systems, Cadence Design Systems, VMware, the American Arbitration Association, and the Unified Court System of New York. He is a graduate of Princeton University (Religion and Anthropology), and he has done graduate course work at the Columbia School of Journalism and N.Y.U.

Jim Ware is a cofounder of the Work Design Collaborative and the Future of Work program. He has over 30 years experience in research, executive education, consulting, and management, including five years on the faculty of the Harvard Business School. He was the lead author of The Search for Digital Excellence, (McGraw-Hill, 1998), and holds Ph.D., M.A., and B.Sc. degrees from Cornell University and an MBA (With Distinction) from the Harvard Business School.

In the Pipeline: Don't miss Derek Lowe's excellent commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry in general at In the Pipeline

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June 27, 2005

Communications at the Heart of the Future of Work

Posted by Elizabeth Albrycht

I began seriously thinking about the future of work when I got involved with the organization called, aptly enough, The Future of Work. They were getting ready to produce their first conference - or Congress as they like to call it - and hired my agency to help them. That was more than two years ago.

At roughly the same time, I had discovered blogging, and rapidly become immersed in it and other emerging communications tools, such as RSS feeds, wikis, podcasts, tagging, social networking, and so on. I firmly believed at the time -- and still do -- that these tools are incredibly valuable for corporate communications and marketing.

At the same time, however, these tools are also transformative as they work to break down the old hierarchical command/control structures of organizations, giving rise to more collaborative/cooperative network-based structures. Now, it is too strong to state that these structures are breaking down because of these tools. In fact, old hierarchies have been being undermined for quite a long time due to a confluence of forces, including technology, science, population demographics, globalization, education, society, culture, and so on.

It is these forces and how organizations are reacting to them that we will be examining here. I will be looking at them primarily through a framework of organizational communications, which is my expertise. I firmly believe that as we move to more distributed workforces, communications will be at the heart of whether or not we are successful. Other authors here will take different frames, including HR, technology, education, community development, and so on.

The "future of work" is an incredibly broad subject, and I am well aware of the challenge of making sense of everything that is happening in this topic. At the same time, however, it is crucially important for all of us: knowledge workers, educators, government workers, factory workers, retirees, baby boomers and GenX and GenY members, Indians, Asians, Americans, Europeans, Africans, South Americans (the list goes on...) to uncover information, share experiences, ask questions and demand answers.

We are starting an adventure, an inquiry, a conversation in this space. I hope you join us and pass on the word to others to stop by and add their thoughts. We welcome your ideas and your criticisms. I look forward to our interactions.

Comments (1) | Category: Communications

COMMENTS

1. Jory Des Jardins on June 28, 2005 2:49 PM writes...

I couldn't think of a better topic for a new blog. Just when I thought I couldn't add any more to my blogroll. As someone who writes about future work trends I'm looking forward to reading more.

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