The Workplace/Workspace Shift

Last week I had the honor of keynoting the Friday session at the CMP Metaverse Life 2.0 conference.  During the presentation, I mentioned the multiple points of evidence that I had encountered of the evolution underway from traditional workplaces to geographically-independent workspaces.  The summary of the argument is:

We have been gradually migrating from a traditional industrial-age workplace metaphor of individual work tasks performed in a shared setting (think of a cubicle-farm of either call-center representatives or engineers occupying three floors of a building) to a Knowledge-age metaphor of more collaborative, integrated tasks that are performed by virtual, geographically dispersed teams.  So, instead of doing autonomous work in a collaborative setting, we are doing collaborative work in more and more autonomous (or at least geographically distinct) settings. This is the Shift.

As far as proof points for the arguments, consider the trends towards globalization of industry (and therefore a more distance-collaboration-sensitive market) that are an inevitability of the flattening effect of world commerce, outsourcing and off-shoring of labor and other tasks, and an increasing trend towards telecommuting, flexible work arrangements and work-at-home roles. JetBlue stay-at-home call center agents come immediately to mind.

A factor (that I hadn’t really considered until recently reading more about the major impact on the global workforce composition by the retirement of the baby-boomer generation) is that there will be a shortage of skilled labor in many areas that will mandate new tools to allow retired boomers to selectively participate in the workforce.  If these gainfully-unemployed retirees are to be courted in this soon to be ‘sellers market’, the successful ‘buyers’ will be those that provide the tools for frictionless distance collaboration from their balmy retirement locations.

Having recently ‘pitched’ a room full of senior citizens on new technology trends, I can assure you that they are disinclined to buy a computer (if they do not already have one), much less create an avatar.  They are comfortable with the traditional workplace metaphor described above, with autonomous-work/shared-environment, so any tools that are developed for them must be painfully easy-to-use and consistent with their ingrained habits.

(addendum- Some people have mis-interpreted this prior paragraph to imply that I am making some ageist comments about the technical abilities of people older than my 40-year-old-self.  Before everyone gets more fired up than they already are, let me assure you that I have worked for/with/managed young and old alike who are technophilic or technophobic, and that age has little to do with it.  I will say, and gladly stand by, that my six and three year old daughters are more inclined to go-to-work as avatars than nearly all people I work with regularly in Silicon Valley.  The point being, we need easier to use tools that leverage workplace metaphors we are all familiar with, not something orthogonal and disruptive. Unless you are three or six years old, at which point, 'disrupt away')

To return to the Shift, what tools will we need to develop to enable technophobic retirees to participate in a Hollywood-style of work?  Is it easy video-conferencing, shared whiteboarding, avatars?

Suggestions welcome and encouraged.

Comments

[Deanna]

Dear Sir,
Apparently you do not know many "senior citizens" personally. Most of the elders I know have computers and use them regularly. Most of us do on-line banking and bookkeeping, etc. PDF has made life easier to share. Some of us only worked with computers in the workplace to keep records on patients, i.e. Visiting Nurse. Some worked in the office where computers are the norm.
You need to get out more and see more elders.

[Peg Thompson]

You may be up to speed on the latest technology, but you are not accurate about older workers and I would construe your comments as ageist as well. Check out the Time Goes By blog today for accurate information. Not good to insult such a large group of people who might be your readers (including me)!

[Christian]

Deanna and Alice,

Thank you for your comments, and I will definitely go back and clarify the blog entry to make my point better.

My impression is that, in any age group, there are those who are early adopters of technology and there are technology laggards. My father is a podcasting, blogging technophile, whereas my brother is the opposite.

The comment I will clarify is the 'if they do not already have one'. In the group of people that I spoke with, there were those who were computer savvy like yourselves, and those who asked 'Do I need a computer to benefit from this discussion, because I dont have one or want one'. If you are attempting to create tools to facilitate remote workers of any age group, the message is that you need to plan for both phenotypes, and not assume that everyone is computer-savvy or technophobic.

I am always cautious against any incursion of assuming that the people that I see are a representative sample of society (it's a fatal disease in Silicon Valley) so I appreciate your comments to the contrary about e-banking in the elder community.

[Julia]

I think you need to be more specific in your post that you are speaking about any group of people instead of singling out boomers or seniors.
I have spent hours working with people who are technophobic to get them accustomed to working with computers. I knew they could do it but they refused to believe they could work with computers. There have been very few who have decided since their work required working with computers to embrace the technology.
I retired in 1996 and by then most people had to work with computers in some form or another like it or not.

As for the shift I would be more concerned about managers who need to have their workforce where they can see them instead of telecommuting.

[Darlene]

Christian, I will soon be 83 years old and I use the computer to do my banking, record keeping, e-mail, shopping, research, commenting, movie making and photo editing.

Oh yeah - I also have an avatar, but I don't use it often because it's just a gimmick and I don't find it particularly useful.

Gee, I didn't know I wasn't savvy until I read your blog.

[Anne]

I am a retired technical writer. As a technical writer I had to document some pretty awful user interfaces, designed by engineers who didn't have a clue how to make their technical dreams usable. For much of my career the companies I worked for could barely justify hiring a writer, never mind a user interface designer who might actually understand how to design for real users. Not that all engineers don't understand users, I just saw a lot who didn't.

If you're young and excited about new technology, and your job depends on it, then working with a difficult user interface is just something you do. We elders are tired of bad design and we don't mind saying so and we don't mind avoiding it by refusing to "learn" it.

I personally use the computer skills I've picked up over time and I don't mind at all learning some new skills when I see the advantage in it. But learning complicated skills to do useless things just isn't on my priority list. As an elder I don't have the time to waste.

That's my two cents worth on the ageist theme.