2022 Future of Work

Discover the new matrix on which all work must be reimagined as ISG’s CMO, Paul Gottsegen, interviews ISG Partner, Prashant Kelker, about workplace of the future trends and predictions for 2022.

Transcript:

Paul 

And you mentioned the dynamic environment in the context of workplace services… who's going to go back to the office? When will they go back to the office? What will they expect? What should they expect when they work from home? (Or from somewhere else.) How do you develop a productive team – and an engaged base of employees? 

So, I know this is an issue that everyone that works is grappling with – and has been since the pandemic began. As we move into 2022, what are some of the flashpoints in this area? 

Prashant 

That's a good question, and I guess, as ISG, we were lucky we were born virtual. But we see our clients and other organizations grapple with this topic, so I think, you know… who knows what the word “office” will mean in the future. What is the definition of “office?” What happens to the real estate you own? Do you go there to meet, do you go there to communicate? 

I think what's going to happen is that our entire work is going to split into dimensions: what has to be done physically together versus virtually today. Which is going to take us down a rabbit hole of what has to be done synchronously together and asynchronously together. 

And think of it as a matrix where you have physical/virtual and synchronous/asynchronous in each quadrant. Work will be reimagined how things get created, how thing gets Brainstorm delivered structured. Processed, shipped together. We're looking for a major reboot coming out of this. 

Paul 

Yeah, one thing I've noticed is when we all went virtual, you'd actually say, “oh, I'm sorry we can't be there in person” or you’d say “virtually” and you'd mention “this is a virtual event.” And I've noticed the change as we lead into 2022, where it's a new normal people are just dropping that preamble of whether something is virtual or not. It's sort of, it just is and you're attending something or you're in a meeting or you're at a holiday party and you don't have to explanation that “hey, by the way, it's virtual.” Because now it's sort of like how electric toasters were called electric. Now they're just toasters, right? You know that they're electric. 

Prashant 

Exactly Paul, and who knows what we go back to after this endemic. I guess this pandemic is getting to be an endemic. Who knows what we go back to. I don't know whether we'll ever go back to a room full of attendees. I think we'll always go back to a room which has a few attendees and some dialing in from everywhere. So:

• How do workshops happen there? 
• How does whiteboarding happen there? 
• Does whiteboarding happen at all? 

Paul 

You know, we've seen a dramatic change in our event business at ISG that resonates with what you just said. Because it used to be you'd have to get on a plane or at least go to wherever we were holding the event for two days – and that will still come back, as we just had, you know, one of our employees report back that they had a great experience in Las Vegas at the ReInvent event that AWS just had.

But, at the same time, we've seen a huge uptick in attendees. And it's almost like a buffet. People see a “two day” label on things like our Digital Summits, and they'll pick and choose what they care about. There's 10X more engagement by opening up globally and opening it up virtually.