Leaders from a broad section of industries joined the Uspire team in Manchester on April 24th 2024 for Uspire LIVE: future-proof your growth.
Anticipating workplace trends improves business adaptability and fosters growth, and this is what we set out to debate with the help of David Smith, founder of Global Futures & Foresight, and one of the world's leading futurologists and strategic thinkers. With David's guidance and input, and our provocations to the room, our delegates worked as teams to debate how to:
- outperform the competitor set by anticipating business trends and incorporating adaptations early;
- implement foresight to accelerate business and people growth
- empower people to adapt to change and remain competitive
- predict future skills and capabilities
- motivate multi-generational teams with an innovative mindset
We worked with David across 3 key provocations to develop views of the future that will help us embrace change with more certainty, reducing our risk of being blindsided by change, and improve our adaptability to a rapidly changing world.
Provoke, Energise, Transform @ Uspire LIVE
PROVOCATION 1: Tech: help or hindrance?
The evolving landscape of work is driven by technological advancements, impacting identity, location, and tasks. David's first provocation session looked at the role of technology in shaping work, workers, and workplaces.
Transitioning into the intelligent era from the digital era, technology is becoming smart, integrated, virtual, personalised, and predictive. Generative AI, is already reshaping tasks, whilst AR, XR, and VR offer new ways for workers, instructors, and leaders to interact creatively.
Connectivity is also advancing rapidly, with 5G and the promise of even faster 6G speeds, whilst the proliferation of low orbit satellites will revolutionise communication.
Automation, fueled by quantum computing and IoT, is pervasive, enhancing productivity from farms to industries. This shift brings about significant personalization and predictability, allowing us to tailor experiences not just for companies and individuals but also to anticipate future events and take proactive measures.
Watch David's talk below.
PROVOCATION 2: Workforce of the future: attract & retain
David's second provocation session debates the future of jobs and workforce dynamics. He highlights the emergence of new roles driven by technology, with a staggering 85% of future jobs not yet existing. London alone sees 10% of current roles being recent creations due to technological advancements. Roles like Chief Trust Officer and Extended Reality Designer are gaining importance.
The workforce is evolving with increasing diversity, influenced by migration and cultural shifts, with around 37% of Londoners being non-UK born. The pandemic accelerated change, leading to hybrid work models, and adaptation to these shifts is crucial as we anticipate further in the workplace landscape.
Watch David's talk below.
PROVOCATION 3: Remaining Relevant
David's third provocation looked at the critical notion of maintaining relevance in today's dynamic landscape, essential for attracting talent and delivering value to clients.
The impact of digital disruption is evident, with many firms disappearing or transforming, including nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies. Successful organisations reinvent themselves continuously, reassessing propositions and values to align with evolving trends. Strategic missteps, accounting for 60% of organisational failures, underscore the importance of evolving and staying relevant.
This session evaluated not just workforce dynamics but also organisational strategies and offerings. Ultimately, the goal is to remain ahead of the curve, ensuring continued value delivery to all stakeholders in our ever-changing world.
Watch David's talk below.
Provocations
Session1: Tech - help or hindrance
Session 2: Workforce of the Future
Session 3: Remaining Relevant
Highlights - Session 1
- When new tech emerges nothing is ever the same again.
- Ones who invested in their future by becoming thought-leaders are being replaced by AI.
- AI will affect 40% of global jobs.
- By 2030, AI & Ml (machine learning) will make humans more efficient.
- Table debate: what is going to have the biggest impact on you & how, and what are you going to do about it.
Highlights - Session 2
- Businesses need to be clever to recruit scare resource who understand how to work in this AI-enhanced way.
- In 17 years only 1Bn of 6Bn workers will be in jobs we recognise.
- Migration has led to huge shifts in cultural and economic references within one generation.
- Businesses will need humans in three roles to support the new tech - trainers, maintainers, explainers.
- It wont be outright job replacement, it is adaptation - the threat is retraining speed.
- Table debate: discuss and capture the critical skills & characteristics you believe your workforce will need in the near future.
Highlights - Session 3
- 60% of public firm failure is due to strategic risk - what are we doing.
- Digital modelling accounts for the disappearance of over half of the Fortune 500 since 2000.
- Most businesses only change when the risk of doing nothing is more than the risk of doing something.
- Organisations most future-prepared are 44% more likely to outperform their markets.
- 92% of CEO's say organisational structures must change and 85% say internal obstacles impede company growth.
- Table debate: choose one driver of change and, using the futures wheel, expand its implications.
Download our at-a-glance provocation summaries
We have taken the key points from each of David's sessions and created these at-a-glance summaries for you to download
Continue your journey at our future-proof webinars
Introducing our ‘Future-Proof’ webinar series: Join us for one hour a month during May, June and July to explore essential strategies to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape.
In the first session the extent of AI’s impact will be demystified and we’ll provide practical applications for your business. The second will help you harness data-driven insights to formulate effective strategies and the final session will enable you to adapt your leadership approach to navigate change successfully.
Future-proof with AI
We’ll discuss the "elephant in the room" - what is the impact for people? Which skills will – or won’t – be required in future. We’ll also define what is uniquely human, and understand how AI can help us become better at enhancing delivery of these aspects.
Future-proof your strategy
This session will guide you through the process of determining which trends you should use to formulate a future proofed strategy and the key sources of insight to inform you, brought to life with live industry examples.
Future-proof your leadership
Today, leadership hinges on the ability to influence people to see a vision for the future. We’ll explore the three recurrent leadership themes: managing remote teams; adapting to technological changes; and managing uncertainty and change.
Uspire LIVE: Leading with Purpose - 3rd October 2024
Our next Uspire LIVE will be held in London on 3rd October 2024, when the Uspire team will be debating strategies to help you Lead with Purpose.
Registration is open now, so register before September to take advantage of an early-bird complimentary ticket.
