The digital future of work is upon us. We no longer have to be physically at the office to collaborate, connect, create, and access the resources we need. Beyond that, our team structures are decentralized. Instead of SILO-ing organizational verticals, leaders and their team members are seen as approachable, friendly resources. Information that isn’t proprietary is available to anyone in a matter of moments. This keeps projects moving forward and fosters connections across all departments. 

Embracing this digital future not only makes your company more productive, it ensures that people are considering all angles of new challenges. Instead of seeing unmanageable obstacles, they’ll see an opportunity for new products, solutions, or processes. 

What is the future of work?

Moving your organization in this direction may seem ahead of its time, but we assure you that the timing is now perfect. It’s like a former flip phone user moving to a smartphone. They’ve kept all the communication functionality but have entered a new world of possibilities. Historically, this global shift took time but little by little, people saw the true benefits of upgrading their technology. Looking back, many of us wonder how we ever got on without a phone that could also navigate us places, take pictures, and video chat with loved ones across the world. The same is true for productivity software.

What is productivity software?

Productivity software is just like the smartphone versus flip phone. An office without productivity software has leaders behind closed doors and walls, communication via email, phone, and appointments, and information in vaults. Remove all of these barriers and you have a tight-knit team that understands the common goals at every tier of the organization. 

Why do you want to do this before your competitors? We’re already aware of how productivity software can foster collaboration and alignment within the team, but it does go a layer deeper than that. Teams that adopt productivity software and the future of work earlier are not only proactive but innovative. Their swift movements enable them to see new opportunities in their industry and act on them. Perhaps another company that doesn’t have productivity software is aware, but their unwillingness to change stalls the important iterations necessary to beat the competition. 

What is industry 4.0? 

Industry 4.0 is the future of work, the positive breakdown of structures where leaders and information are accessible to all. To generations before millennials, this concept is harder to grasp. Generation X and Baby Boomers didn’t grow up with social media and unlimited resources. You could say that the dawn of the internet awakened us to the possibility of decentralized structures.

Businesses didn’t need to be top-down, in fact these structures only built walls and wasted time. Imagine how much time has been wasted when an entry level employee that needed a piece of information from someone three tiers above had to ask their direct supervisor. Their supervisor then had to ask only their direct supervisor until the question traveled up and the answer traveled down. That could take days! 

This also applies to recurring tasks. Opening, closing, clicking, and checking are all wasting time and draining your team’s valuable energy. A core platform ties together all of your key functions into one place. When email, chat, video calls, and resources are centralized, your people aren’t wasting time in between tasks. Everything is right at their fingertips. Making the changes can appear challenging and disruptive for the subsequent 1-2 months, but your company’s future will be a lot brighter.  

Embracing the future of work 

The future of work is already here and the need to embrace it is inevitable. The way we do business has already changed thanks in large part to generational attitudes and technology adoption. We need to listen to our people and the ideas they offer. Great companies are ones that keep moving forward and understand where the times are taking them. Netflix, Apple, and AirBnB saw the future and got there first. In contrast, Nokia, Kodak, and Blockbuster held tight to antiquated values and let their brands and products decline after maturity. The secret is to keep an open mind and stay on the pulse of where the world is going.