Old world versus new world: Where does your organization live?

The Queen's IRC 2015 Workplace in Motion Summit

Editor's note: This content is sponsored by Queen's University IRC and has not been edited by Canadian HR Reporter.

Are you ready for a changing demographic in your workforce?

Do you know how technology will change your organization in the future?

The world of work is shifting. Centralized systems and hierarchies are giving way to more fluid environments. With innovation, not efficiency, as the aim, success comes from harnessing and connecting talent and knowledge through technology.

Sound possible? Or maybe it sounds totally foreign to the way you and your colleagues currently operate.

What’s the old world? It’s traditional roles divided into units with a clear hierarchy and a bricks and mortar location. It’s seniority-based, with clear delineations around who owns what work and how it is done. This is the organization born of the 19th century horse and buggy era, when labour meant muscle and competitive advantage came from streamlining routine operations for maximum efficiency. Labour was a cost to be minimized, not an asset to be linked and leveraged.

What’s the new world? The new world turns the traditional organization on its head, and re-establishes value based on knowledge, talent and innovation. The new world measures success by the ability to learn and innovate, and leverages talent by bringing together teams with diverse abilities and sub-specialties to create and mobilize knowledge.

The principles from the old world are so deeply rooted in our organizations that we often do not see them – and yet, they are the genesis for many dysfunctional corporate practices. Executives are still focused on short-term goals at the expense of longer term prosperity, unit goals and rewards are shaped independently, engagement is limited, and communication channels go up the stovepipe, not out and across the network.

Perhaps you or your organization don’t think it’s possible to make the shift from the old to the new. We’re going to show you why it’s not just possible, but critical to your survival. Our ambitious aim at The Queen’s IRC 2015 Workplace in Motion Summit is to introduce you to pioneering organizations that are re-imagining the workplace and creating value for a whole ecosystem of customers, suppliers, partners and communities. We’ll explore how key trends in technology, global competition, generational flux and the knowledge economy are shaping the new world of work. Together we’ll discover what you and your organization need to do now to prepare for a successful future.

The world is changing – and we can either get ahead of the shift, or get left behind. Let’s begin the conversation together and discover what’s next.

For more information, visit http://irc.queensu.ca/workplace-in-motion-summit-2015

Brenda Barker Scott is chair of the Queen’s IRC Workplace in Motion Summit

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