Next Generation
Working Life
From Workplace to Exchange Space1

A Connected WorldIs Just the Beginning
Mobile and digital technologies are expanding into more and moreareas of society, business and private life. This development comes withopportunities for fundamental innovation. New forms of communication
will emerge and the arising business opportunities are endless and will
span across all societies, organizations and individuals. It will change
how businesses are organized, as well as how we organize work,
collaborate and share. We call this new emerging society – of which wehave only seen the beginning – the Networked Society.

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WORKING LIFE IN THE
NETWORKED SOCIETY“A dozen generations ago,
there was no unemployment,
largely because there were noreal jobs to speak of. Before theindustrial revolution, the thoughtthat you would leave your homeand go to an office or a factory
was, of course, bizarre.
What happens now is thatthe industrial age is ending.”

The truths we know about working life are undergoingsome dramatic changes. This change is driven bypow­erful trends, such as the increased globalization,
which turn working life into a global arena with virtual
teams across organizations and locations. Social media
and communication services are increasingly diminishing
the borders between what used to be private and what
used to be work. Likewise, open innovation and crowd
involvement are fading the borders of businesses.
The digitalization and information flows are puttingpressure on organizations to be organized differently.
This will fundamentally change working life and theactivities we engage in. Already today, individuals areconnected to communication services, which provide
them with a constant access to the work loop. We are also
starting to see that the blurred boundaries between work
life and private life are changing our perception of work.

­—Seth Godin, Marketing Guru and Author

On the other hand, the removal of restrictions on timeand location empowers people to learn, produce anddistribute their ideas with a global reach. As the divisionsof labor are dissolving, questions about work and values
are being raised. Working is a fundamental way forcreating and distributing value – but how will it manifest
itself 10 years from now?

Working Life inthe Networked Society• Blurred boundaries between work life andprivate life
• Increased emphasis on personal networks• Flexible work hours and workplaces• Virtual teamwork across organizations andlocations• Freelance and project-based work3

Industrial
CAPITALHUMAN
CAPITAL

CREATIVE
CAPITAL

The CREATIVE CAPITALECONOMY
Creativity as the Fuel for Innovation
Each historical era has had its main source of valuecreating activity. During the times of “hunting andgathering”; this involved finding food, making fires andcreating clothes. When humankind started cultivating
soil and growing crops, the first settlements emerged.
But there was still no clear distinction between workand other activities. The concept of “working hours”
simply didn‘t exist.

Today, organizations are beginning to understand thatcreativity is the fuel that drives innovation forward. This
imposes new demands on organizations and how theyoperate. In a world where industrial and human capital isinsufficient to outperform competitors, organizations
will have to seek new ways of organizing work in anever-changing environment in order to increase its
creative output.

The industrial era brought a shift in focus as people
abandoned farms and fields for factories. During this era,a system for working life emerged that included everythingfrom special purpose workplaces to timetables, division oflabor, working days/hours and spare time.
Over time, as machines and systems became more
complex, a need for brain power emerged. Individuals
became the main asset that created value withinorganizations. These organizations had to rely onhuman capital to operate and develop. Key was to attract
the best people to run the organization and leadershipskills were highly valued.

How will work be organized in theNetworked Society in order toincrease creative output?

4Rethinkthe Workplace
How to Survive the New GamE
New behaviors and emerging technologies are changing
how work is organized. People are getting more mobileand expect greater flexibility in their work, and thus place
greater demand on their work environment. At the sametime, new technologies such as high-speed broadband,
cloud computing and big data are changing ourperception of technology and our relation to it.

This report does not aim to provide definite answers tothese questions. Instead, the ambition is to shed somelight on the underlying trends that are driving thechanges in working life, and provide insights on where
we are heading. On a more tangible level, the report aims
to highlight a number of themes that are particularly
important to understand and address in order to survive
and thrive in today’s changing landscape.

The world in which organizations operate is changing, andthey will have to rethink the workplace in order to survive
the game. It will be crucial to understand and align tochanges taking place. But what are the main challenges
that organizations need to address?

58 Working LifeThemes
Welcome to The
Exchange SpaceWho are wetalking about?

We have identified eight themes that describe how
working life is changing. Successful organizations willbe the ones that adapt, and can provide a dynamic andinspiring workplace where people can thrive and flourish.
A workplace where technology and organizational
structure empowers people to innovate, collaborate
and create their own work in a culture that encourages
experiments. But the workplace is no longer bound to
the physical world, as much of the work takes placein the digital world. It has moved to a virtual space
where everything comes together.
We call it The Exchange Space.

It is important to understand that the themes are
not applicable to working life in general. The themes
revolve around the fraction of the working population
whose skills are coveted and who are in a position
to choose what they want to engage themselves in.
In contexts where people are willing to makeconsiderable sacrifices to simply land a job andsatisfy their most basic needs, the themes will
naturally be less significant or emphasized.
There are however strong indications that underline the importance of taking the themes seriously.
Motivating the most creative people to contribute to a
specific organization will be increasingly challenging
in the future. Most importantly, it will require personal

Serendipity

MANIFESTATIONS

motivation and incentives beyond financial reward.

Consumerization
The Exchange Place
Do-ocracy

CULTURES

Two-Way FlexibiliTY
Cultural Gravitation
Quest For MeAningValues
From Tasks To MissionS6

1. QUEST FOR MEANING

Defining the purpose of individual contributions“We don’t hire people thatcan just do the job at hand. Themission has to resonate with ouremployees personally, which
is why we need to engage thewhole individual.”

The EssenceInstead of only focusing on compensation and benefits,
or the title on the business card, it is increasingly
important to contribute to society. To play a meaningfulrole is crucial, and it is no longer sufficient for companies
to just give money to charity and have a corporate social
responsibility (CSR) section on their website. People seek
companies whose visions and purposes are grounded in
genuine values.

– Noom Inc., New York CityBenefitsCompanies that employ “the right people”, i.e. people whoshare the same values, see a greater level of commitment
and efficiency; thus, these employees are more often
better brand advocates.

Challenges
For established companies without clear ideals, it ischallenging to find and express a true story for the brandthat people really believe in. For large organizations it canbe hard to define how each individual contribution matter.

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2. FROM TASKS TO MISSIONS

From time in the office to value for business

The Essence
The shift to focus on value-creation marks a majorchange in working life. Both employers and employees
focus more on actual value creation and end results,
rather than on exactly where, when and by which
methods the work is done.

Benefits
This creates a much more flexible and cost efficient work
environment, and increases the motivation and sense of
freedom of the employees.

Challenges
When companies no longer regulate and measure
traditional parameters like work hours, new and morecomprehensive methods for assessing achievements
are required. Such methods are not easily developed.
The work culture is also characterized by a sense of
freedom coupled with responsibility, which canbe very demanding for those who need clear
structure and guidance.

83. CULTURAL GRAVITATION

From colleagues to communities“The culture of the company
really produces the DNA of theproduct. If you launch a product,of course strategy is importantand you need to plan, but thecompany culture will be reflected in how other people receive
the company and who will want
to work there. Culture always
beats strategy.”

The Essence
A strong work culture that can mobilize employees isoften described as important as it can improve thequality of everyday life for employees. People tend
to seek companies with a sense of community andinternal culture, with which they can identify.

Benefits
Management teams have a more holistic view on their staff,
and fostering a common cultural identity and sense ofcommunity are prioritized since they are key motivators forperformance and the willingness to stay with a company.

– Alex Martini, Co-Working Space Entrepreneur

Challenges
The organizational culture needs to be defined andreinforced, and some employees can feel distanced fromsuch a culture. As boundaries between “the employee”
and “the individual” become unclear, integrity issues canmore easily arise.

94. TWO-WAY FLEXIBILITY

Adapting to the era of connectivity“The most flexible companies will get the best talents,
and companies will raid eachother for talents. Flexibility will
be a matter of negotiation, noone will accept a job that they
don’t think is flexible enough.”

The Essence
Flexible working hours in combination with constantconnectivity can prove difficult to deal with in aconstructive manner. It has traditionally been primarily
beneficial for employers, as it most often led toemployees working more than scheduled, but now
people are expecting flexibility on their own terms.

Benefits– Dave Gray, Management Consultant and Author

As long as the employer respects the boundaries
between work life and private life; flexible working hours
and freedom at work will have a positive impact on
employee efficiency, goal-fulfillment and general health.

Challenges
A flexible culture requires individual dialogues withemployees, which can be more time consuming in theshort term. In order for this type of flexibility to be
successful, employees must be able to express theirneeds and set boundaries for themselves.

105. Do-Ocracy

The era of the DIY mentality“Henry Ford and Alfred
Sloan created the ‘big company’as we know it, and revolutionized how companies worked.
Today, it’s more like ‘I want a
girlfriend, I create Facebook’.”

The Essence
There is an emerging workplace culture characterized by aclear spirit of entrepreneurship and DIY mentality beyond
pre-defined work tasks. People take a greater individualresponsibility for solving problems and achieving goals.

Benefits
In organizations where everyone takes individualresponsibility and work on their own initiatives to solve
problems and reach goals, operations can run more
swiftly and efficiently. Such work environments are morestimulating and rewarding for entrepreneurial people,
and companies fostering a do-ocracy culture can be
more innovative and adaptive.

– Richard Donkin, Author

Challenges
In order to create this kind of culture, much control has
to be relinquished. But if not guided at all, employees risk
running in different directions without seeing a commongoal. A culture that relies on much freedom can also be
demanding for people who need clear structures andmuch guidance.

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6. The power of serendipity
Optimizing exposure to others“Today working life is arranged
to cater for functions that work inpredictable ways – in the future you
might have many different functions working together in a variety
of work modes for short periods
before dissolving and regrouping
in another incarnation. There is anarray of groups working in dynamic
ways together to innovate.”

The Essence
Constant exposure to other people and environments is
crucial for successful business development and adaptation to ever changing market conditions. Organizations“plan for” random encounters between people withdifferent backgrounds and competences in order toincrease the opportunities for innovative ideas.

Benefits
This open-minded culture not only sparks vital ideas but
also develops people on a more personal level, as they getto know people they would not otherwise have met.

Challenges– Ryan Anderson, Director of Future Technology,
Herman Miller

There are concerns and risks with openness; it raises
issues about company control and confidentiality.
Introverts can also find this culture hard to thrive in.

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7. the exchange place

From physical working space to meaningful exchange“We need to look at thesocial environments wherecreativity is most likely tohappen. The idea of space
will be more open-ended in
the future. This requires new
entrepreneurship and bringing
together different types ofcompetences – the way you
would in a theatrical production.”

The Essence
There is a shift from storing and controlling employees
in the workplace to making sure that the exchange ismeaningful and rewarding. The working environment
should primarily be designed to optimize the qualityof interpersonal exchange.

Benefits
Focusing mainly on interpersonal exchange-related
activities, rather than storage of employees, who rarely
are at their desks anyway, is a much more cost-efficientuse of space.

Challenges– Frank Duffy, Architect and Founder of DEGW

This requires organizations to create a workplace of
meaningful exchange, as well as progressive strategies
for enabling employees to work from outside the office,in terms of technical infrastructure. It also imposes thatorganizations will have to give up some control overemployees. Such an environment can also be stressful
for introverts.

138. CONSUMERIZATION

Individual preferences shaping the work environment“Everyone is allowed tochoose their own equipment
here. If they want to have twoscreens, then that’s what they
will get. We do anything to makesure that they work as effectively
as possible.”

The Essence
People want their work environment to be adjusted to theirindividual needs, and preferences and experiences fromthe private sphere are applied at work. They are unwillingto compromise their know-how by abiding to IT-policies
that are not advantageous.

Benefits
As people can be more comfortable with their work tools
and other elements of the work environment; efficiency,
confidence and well being at work increase.

– Noom Inc., New York City

Challenges
Since employees will have diverse needs and preferences,
implementing many different requirements can be time
consuming and costly, and organizations must understandhow much the return of these investments is, which is very
hard to calculate.

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Summary
In order to thrive in this new connected world, it will be important fororganizations to leverage on these themes. Working life is undergoing
dramatic changes and organizations will have to rethink how they structure
work. By creating a culture that focuses on individuals, organizations canbuild a reputation of being a progressive and talent friendly company.
When individuals get the opportunity to work on meaningful tasks, theyembrace the organization, and they will also attract talent from their own
network. Organizations that quickly learn how to manage talent will not
only innovate faster than their competitors, they will also outperform themon the bottom line.

Explore the Futureof Working LifeJoin the Conversation
The shift from workplace to exchange space has alreadystarted, and the process is irreversible. This ongoingchange is supported by a number of global trends thatare sweeping over the world, and are changing thefoundation of working life.
Ericsson has just started its journey to explore the futureof working life, and invites you to join the conversation.
Do you agree with the findings in the report, or doyou have another point of view of where working life isheading? Whether you think the future of working life
is either bright or dull, we would like to hear from you.
Find out more about the Next Generation Working Lifeat www.ericsson/working-life or simply connect with us
on Twitter, #NextGenWorkingLife, #NetworkedSocietyor Facebook.

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