This article was first published in the December 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
How will workplaces change by 2025?
Stewart Butterfield
CEO, Slack "The human relationship with information is changing. From the printing press to the internet, our ability to retain and make use of information is becoming exponentially more powerful. Just as engines and electricity gave our species unprecedented power over the physical world, so too will our ability to manipulate and exploit information make us orders of magnitude more powerful and productive. "We are near the beginning. In ten years' time our physical workplaces will look much the same, but our tools will have taken another leap as large as the one from printed atlases of the world to Google Maps."
Professor of organisational behaviour, Coventry University "Our future workplaces will have two distinct classes. The first will be based on trust and will have more committed and engaged workers, more equality and knowledge sharing. They will have fluid and adaptable workspaces, where staff can come together and co-create. They will be learning and knowledge centres.
The second group will be made up of more controlled workplaces, which will have greater use of monitoring and control, low trust and large reward inequalities. These workplaces will have greater levels of surveillance and more regimentation."
BRAD NEUBERG
Founder, Spiral Muse "Silicon Valley companies such as Google will integrate more into their local communities, providing public spaces and leaving behind infrastructure that raises the quality of life for everyone, not just their staff.
The importance of physical offices will also decline; we are now at peak 'real office'.
Collaborative tools and stronger individual and organisational skills will allow telecommuting to enter the mainstream. Co-working spaces will provide community forthese off-site workers."
EANNE MEISTER
Founding partner, Future Workplace "The workplace of the future will tap into your emotional, physical, virtual, intellectual and aspirational needs. Think of the workplace as an experience you are part of along with your co-workers, customers and partners. It will resemble your living room or your favourite pub.
You will learn instantly on your wearable device, communicate with co-workers on your company app and post updates on your company's social network. This future workplace will excite, engage and entice you."
JOHN UNDERKOFFLER
CEO, Oblong Industries "The future of the workplace looks like an elegant, improvisational dance of people and pixels - humans and displays coming together, breaking apart and recombining. One revelation is that every task has a different physical scale related to complexity; sometimes a tablet will be enough, but other times you will need a room full of pixels.
The key is a universal user interface, detached from individual devices but knowing where all the pixels are -- a spatial UI."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
