4. Culture integrator

The working life of the future will be more connected and network-oriented. While much can be gained from collaboration, it also poses a number of challenges, such as different targets, views on who has control over different aspects of the collaboration, working methods, and different cultures and jargons. In this context, someone is needed who can handle and facilitate both practical and cultural aspects. This should be an external party or designated department who/that is immune to historical and social considerations, but is able to develop the culture based on the best interests of both profitability and the employees.

•Analyse the operational and structural strengths and shortcomings of the company to assess what should be included in the collaboration and what should • be left behind Interview employees at different levels in the different companies to identify both shared and differentiating characteristics.

•Finance • Organisation theory • Social psychology • Sociology • Behavioural science • Management

“I believe in the physical, the human encounter – for example, when you have to take crucial, complex and/or emotional decisions – then you want an actual flesh and blood adviser. We humans are complex beings, and when it comes to understanding and meeting complex needs, robots cannot beat human sensitivity and intelligence.”

“Humans are unique because we can innovate, create new things and think completely crazy. Robots will never be able to beat us when it comes to innovation.”

“The importance of the human encounter is one of my favourite subjects. For example, I’m convinced that, despite the developments in driverless transport systems, taxi drivers will continue to exist for at least the next twenty years, and maybe forever. Consider the restaurant world: even though we can order food through a take-away window, we still prefer to eat with other people and we appreciate human service. Quite simply, there is social added value that cannot be ignored.”

“There is something about things that are made by hand, and not by machine, that people value. For example, most people are prepared to pay more for a loaf of bread that is home-baked rather than machine-baked, or a hand-made rather than a mass-produced butter knife. Made-by-hand represents an authenticity that robots cannot deliver.”

As working remotely becomes increasingly common, it has been discussed for some time whether there will be any need for offices in the future. In recent times, however, we have seen signs that companies are beginning to recognise the value of physical encounters, especially those that are spontaneous, because they are important for creativity, inspiration and knowledge sharing. For example, at the Boston Consulting Group's new New York office, the space has been designed to maximise the “collision coefficient”, the number of encounters between employees. Even our experts are convinced that the physical encounter will continue to be important in the working life of the future.

“I believe in ‘analogisation’ of the workplace. Even though we can work anywhere, the human, physical encounter will remain indispensable. It’s one of the areas that we at Helio are focusing on and developing most right now – how do we achieve more spontaneous meeting places?”

“The human encounter is extremely important. We have open spaces to encourage more physical interaction among employees, and to facilitate cooperation in completely new ways.”

“We are social animals, we want to have people around us. Even if we may be a one-person company that freelances, people still want to be part of a social context. That’s why coworking sites will become more common.”

•As work becomes more automated, people are given more space to focus on skills at which humans excel – and which robots (as yet) cannot replace, such as critical thinking and social • skills. Empathy is predicted to be one of the most important human advantages that people have over robots. The ability to see the big picture and to put oneself into someone else’s shoes and understand how other people feel will be important qualities in the future, partly in product and service development and partly in promoting successful collaboration between parties, both within • and between companies. Even though we can carry out most jobs remotely, physical (random) encounters will remain an important source of knowledge sharing and inspiration. The role of the office is changing from a place where we work, to a place where we can meet and be inspired by others.