Opportunity and Work. Recognize that the future is people and teams with machines, not against them. Rather than a substitution play in which robots and advanced technology replace human workers, we redefine the terms of competition, avoiding the trap that people and machines are in opposition to one another. There is the opportunity to create newfound value. As MIT professor, Erik Brynjolfsson, and Andrew McAfee advise, the answer is not to attempt to race against the machine or to try to slow down technology but to race with the machine.⁵²

       Opportunity and the Workforce. Leverage the multiple forms that employment and work will take. In recent decades, the structure of employment models has been changing dramatically and quickly. Whereas the most common conception of employment is a full-time job, the diversity of work arrangements is growing to include part time, contractors, freelancers, gig workers, and crowd workers. How we integrate these talent models into our careers, our businesses, and our communities and societies will be a major challenge in the coming years.

       Opportunity and Workplace. Expect to work anywhere, anytime, with anyone … or thing. We are learning from the Covid-19 pandemic how our work and personal lives could intersect. We witnessed the virtualization and shift to remote work and education. In the future many organizations may have as many people working offsite (at home, in coffee shops, and everywhere else) as in the office. As collaborative technologies along with digital reality, both virtual and augmented, become more pervasive and powerful, how we work may become more important than where we work.

       Resilience and Careers. Plan for longer lives with multiple phases. Resilience involves ongoing reinvention—being able to adapt, reskill, and upskill throughout our lifetimes. Enduring human capabilities that will be important in the future will include curiosity, creativity, problem-solving, empathy, communication, and leadership. We will need to develop and nurture our critical capabilities, including the ability to acquire new context-specific knowledge and routines, and to be comfortable with technology and data as our companions, along with our human colleagues and team members.⁵³

       Resilience and Organizations. Prepare for the shift to teams and ecosystems as organizations transition from twentiethcentury approaches to twenty-first-century models. We are moving from hierarchies to networks of teams, from work being done in common locations to multiple locations—physical and digital. Work will increasingly evolve beyond a focus on process to a focus on projects, assignments, and initiatives. Teams and networks will strengthen organizational resilience and become the critical units of organizational performance and professional development.

       Resilience and Leadership. Embrace new capabilities to lead teams and manage new forms of work; move from controlling to coaching; shift from an almost singular focus on costs and efficiency to an expanded view of growth, innovation, value, and meaning; accept dynamic ongoing change; and gain a new level of comfort with technology and data, ambiguity and risk, and people and machines. Leadership resilience will be empowered as leaders continue to experience the shift from managing through control and direct supervision to managing with increased coaching, design, influence, and inspiration.

       Growth and Individuals. Embrace adaptation and a growth mindset. Develop and curate a portfolio of experiences and the range of human skills and capabilities that will be essential in 100-year, multistage lives.⁵⁴ Build the skills to thrive in teams; drive your own development; and integrate combinations of education, work, and personal pursuits throughout your life.

       Growth and Business. Focus on creating new value and augmentation—not on replacement and automation. Redesign jobs and redefine work for cost, value, and meaning for customers, the workforce, and the enterprise. Partner with the workforce to build career marketplaces and opportunity pathways for growth and development; and design ways of working and workplaces integrating our personal and professional lives and accessing talent and capabilities from anywhere.

       Growth and Society. Rethink and reset education, labor regulations, job transitions, and ethics to empower the future of work in communities and regions. Question whether our social and public institutions and programs reflect our values as citizens, communities, and societies, especially as we face technological, social, and political changes, including recent movements in the United States concerning racial equity and inclusion. Recognize the impact of work, workforce, and workplace design and regulation on our lives and on the future of local communities and our shared global environment.

       Part I is dedicated to discovering opportunity in the midst of turbulent change. The chapters explore the shifting dynamics in how machines and people work together; who will do the work; and where will work be done.

       Part II explores how to build long-term resilience as we plan for many careers, organizations promote teams and networks, and leaders extend their roles as coaches and designers.

       Part III offers playbooks—integrating the insights we have explored—to guide individuals, businesses, and societies preparing for the changes ahead.

      1 1 Coelho, Paulo. “A Quote from The Devil and Miss Prym.” Goodreads, n.d. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/62867-when-we-least-expect-it-life-sets-us-a-challenge.

      2 2 Slaughter, Anne-Marie. “Forget the Trump Administration. America Will Save America.” The New York Times, March 21, 2020.

      3 3 Wall, Mike. “NASA Chief Orders Agency Employees to Work from Home amid Coronavirus