Future Work

Are you struggling to attract, engage, and retain the best talent? The answer may be in Purpose.

In this episode of Future Work, I have the pleasure of speaking with author, consultant, and educator Josh Levine. Josh is a graphic designer turned brand strategist, and in the past years has been on a mission to help organizations design a culture advantage. His book, Great Mondays: How To Design A Company Culture Employees Love, was listed as one of BookAuthority’s best culture books of all time.

Josh and I speak about The Importance of Purpose, the 6 elements of Designing and Managing winning Cultures, and how great cultures allow you to shape an Employee Value Proposition that lets you attract, engage, and retain the best talent.

Here are the lessons to apply today:

1. The Importance of Purpose: Purpose, why you’re in business beyond making money, is even more important now as we don’t see each other as often. Purpose connects us as people and gives us meaning, which is a main motivator for humans.

2. Designing and Managing Culture: In Josh’ book, Great Mondays, he lays out a framework for designing and managing culture. It starts with Purpose (your North Star), Values (what you need to do to move the business forward), Behaviors (help employees make better decisions), Recognition and Rewards (linked to values-driven behavior), Rituals (to strengthen relationships), Cues (reminders.) Following this framework means you can finally manage, measure,, and optimize your culture.

3. Purpose means Business: A purpose statement isn’t just up in the clouds. Josh’s Credit Karma case study shows that aligning on a clear purpose can influence your product and drive business results. Credit Karma wanted their people to be their best financial selves, which meant that a financial dashboard will help their customer, but also provide great business opportunities.

4. Culture and Employee Value Proposition: The best cultures tie directly to Employee Engagement and Employee Value Proposition (EVP.) A great way to attract, engage, and retain employees is with the 5Ps: Package, Potential, People, Purpose, and Pedigree.

Future Work is a weekly newsletter and bi-weekly podcast to help people-centric leaders stay ahead in the future of work.

Subscribe on FlexOS, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube for the latest Future Work episodes.

Like reading more than listening? Find the article on our website: www.flexos.work/learn/the-5ps-of-a-winning-employee-value-proposition-josh-levine

Rebecca Hinds is a Stanford PhD who heads The Work Innovation Lab by Asana. Her research and insights have appeared in publications including Harvard Business Review, New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc.

In this interview, Rebecca shares:

1. Neuroscience and AI: People have always been afraid of technology and innovation, and neuroscience shows us that people avoid what they fear, and AI is triggering our fear of the unknown, of being replaced.

2. Three Gaps for Organizational Adoption of AI: there are three big gaps between how executives and individual Contributors view the technology:

• Optimism Gap: Executives see the promise and potential of AI more than Individual Contributors do.
• Transparency Gap: Executives think they are more transparent in using AI than they are according to individual contributors.
• Resource Gap: 25% of executives say they provide AI training, but only 11% of ICs agree. Leaders must close these three gaps to gain the benefits of AI in organizations.

3. AI: From Individual Productivity to Team Results: People currently use AI for admin tasks, content production, and data analysis. While beneficial, this creates a risk of focusing too heavily on individual productivity versus team productivity. Doing so can lead to “collaboration overload." This will ultimately result in higher job satisfaction and retention rates due to the increased interest in the work assigned.

4. Solving the Meeting Overload Problems: Rebecca co-wrote the famous HBR article Meeting Overload Is a Fixable Problem. This article highlights the Meeting Doomsday case study, which let people delete all repeating meetings before adding them back, saving participants up to 2.5 work weeks per year. Cutting meeting time is important.

5. Tech Stacks: Less is More: Rebecca’s team recently released a new study about tech stacks in partnership with Amazon Web Services, using too many platforms is counterproductive especially because of switching costs. To solve this issue, the subtraction mindset is key: do less, not more.

6. The Innovation Score: Rebecca's Work Innovation Lab has developed a new AI-powered model for predicting a company's ability to innovate. Called The Innovation Score, it captures four key predictors of innovation: cohesion, velocity, resilience, and capacity.

7. And finally, a call to action from Rebecca: work needs to change, so be bold! Grab a couple of people and test better ways of working.

Future Work is a weekly newsletter and bi-weekly podcast to help people-centric leaders stay ahead in the future of work.

Subscribe on FlexOS, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube for the latest Future Work episodes.

Like reading more than listening? Find the article on our website: www.flexos.work/learn/meeting-doomsday-how-asana-won-back-3000-hours

You may have heard Google launched its “ChatGPT Killer” Gemini, and that part of it was fake.

What actually happened? And should you use Google's new tools?

That and more in this week’s Future Work, the 65th edition, and the last one of 2023:

• ‍Google Launched Its ChatGPT Killer “Gemini:” Google unveiled Gemini, a new AI technology designed to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT. ‍
• Key Features: include its multimodal capabilities (processing text, video, voice, and code from the ground up) and enhanced reasoning abilities, positioning it as more intuitively intelligent than existing models. ‍ ‍
• Controversy and Comparison with ChatGPT: Critics note that Google's comparisons with GPT-4 may be unfair. Gemini has not yet been released, and the benchmarks do not provide a direct comparison. Furthermore, some demos were revealed to be less interactive than initially presented. ‍

‍I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? https://www.flexos.work/learn/googles-chatgpt-killer-gemini-is-here-but-fake-should-you-use-it

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work.

Want to make up to $153,698 working from home?

Then you're going to love new AI jobs.

And surprisingly, a lot of them are not even in tech.

But – one danger looms – that of women falling behind.

Why's it? We've got it all covered in Future Work #64:

1. AI's Ramp-Up in the Job Market: AI job postings on LinkedIn more than doubled between July 2021 and July 2023, and applications rose by 19% in the US and 11% globally. This includes many roles outside of the tech sector.‍
2. AI Pays More: Amazon research shows that employers pay an average of 47% more for employees with AI skills and according to data analyzed by CNBC, many AI roles can be done from home and pay between $127k and $153. ‍
3. Women Risk Falling Behind: However, women are less engaged in AI conversations, less likely to learn AI skills compared to men, less likely to use AI, and to use it less often, all while they are overrepresented in jobs that are likely to be disrupted by AI. This could amplify an already existing pay and seniority gap.‍
4. Taking Action is Key: Picking up both technical and non-technical skills popular in AI roles is crucial to getting ahead in a future that’s looking to be more AI-fueled by the day.

I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? https://www.flexos.work/learn/ai-creates-100k-wfh-jobs-but-what-about-women.

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work.

Are you tired of working five days per week? Welcome to this week’s episode of Future Work.

Today I am honored to welcome Alexandra Samuel, a speaker, data journalist, and the co-author of Remote Inc.: How to Thrive at Work...Wherever You Are – one of our favorite remote work books.

Alex holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, and her writing on work and productivity appears frequently in the Wall Street Journal and Harvard Business Review.

Here are the key lessons to stay ahead in the future of work:

1. A New Way to Friday: Fridays have become ambiguous – is it still a workday? Alexandra highlights three solutions: going back to the office, creating a 3-day weekend, or, as she advocates for, an in-between where the office closes and no meetings are scheduled so you can better balance work and life.
2. The Challenges of a 4-day Workweek: As Alex says, we’re conflating activity with output and output with value. The hours you spend at your desk do not determine the value you contribute to your organization. So, does it matter how many days you work?
3. Impact of AI on Work: Alex shares the huge impact AI already has and will have, including the displacement of white-collar jobs. She shares we may have to rethink what constitutes a full-time job. The pace of AI is accelerating so fast. Adaptability and continuous learning are essential for us to participate in an AI-driven future of work.
4. Managers and AI: Leaders should cultivate that sense of adaptability in their teams. Alexandra says she’s gobsmacked that companies and managers don’t allow their teams to use AI. It’s use it or be replaced, she says. For this, three obstacles have to be removed: - Companies need to allow AI to be used at work. - You need to have time to experiment. - You have to become one with the fact that AI is hard to learn as it develops so quickly.
5. Becoming a Business of One: As managers, enable your team to deliver that one brilliant hour of work that trumps 25 mediocre ones. This means giving them time for renewal and coaching them to get the most out of it.

1. Alex’s Final Thought: We’re on the verge of a beautiful transformation in the nature of work. We’re in a moment where we can rethink how much of our lives is spent at work. And how much of our work is spent on tedious stuff. Because the AIs don’t care about tedious, they really don’t mind.

Future Work is a weekly newsletter and bi-weekly podcast to help people-centric leaders stay ahead in the future of work.

Subscribe on FlexOS, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube for the latest Future Work episodes.

Like reading more than listening? Find the article on our website: www.flexos.work/learn/ai-driven-10-hour-work-week-best-selling-author-alexandra-samuel-wsj-hbr-book-remote-inc

Bill Gates gave us some good news: he thinks a 3-day workweek is possible.

And, that it’s a very positive development for those who believe that we don’t live to work.

I couldn’t agree more. So how do we get there? We've got it all covered in Future Work #63:

1. Transition to Shorter Workweeks: Bill Gates supports the idea of a 3-day workweek as a positive development, emphasizing the potential for AI to handle mundane tasks and improve work-life balance. Current trends already point towards a feasible 4-day workweek, with 33% of respondents in a recent study expressing a preference for it over other work arrangements.
2. AI's Role in Work Efficiency: Our new data shows that Generative AI significantly boosts productivity by taking over tasks like email, data analysis, and research. This increase in efficiency, combined with the reduction of unproductive meetings, suggests a realistic shift towards a 4-day workweek.
3. Future Prospects and Concerns: The rapid advancement of AI could lead to a future where human labor is largely unnecessary, posing challenges in effectively utilizing increased leisure time and addressing economic needs in a post-labor world.

I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? Go to https://www.flexos.work/learn/the-3-day-workweek-is-here-says-bill-gates-i-agree

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work.

Sam Altman is out at OpenAI. Oh, wait. He’s back.

From a firing last Friday, causing shockwaves in the industry and beyond, to a subsequent rehiring yesterday, Sam Altman has kept people busy this week.

What actually happened with Sam Allan at OpenAI? And what does it mean for the future of work? We've got it all covered in Future Work #62:

1. Sam Altman was out at OpenAI: The board of OpenAI shocked the world last Friday by suddenly announcing Sam Altman’s removal as CEO and board member. Sam founded OpenAI in 2015 with 11 others, including Elon Musk. Deep into the night on Tuesday, just four days later, Sam Altman was announced to be rehired.

2. Team members, investors, and partners were shocked: Altman's dismissal led to resignations from key positions like Greg Brockman as board chair, backlash from investors, a petition signed by the vast majority of OpenAI employees threatening to walk out if Altman was not rehired and the Board removed, and potential financial challenges.

3. The theory of why: The leading theory of the dismissal was that co-founder Ilya Sutskever and certain board members felt Sam’s focus was on commercializing OpenAI’s products like ChatGPT at breakneck speed – in conflict with OpenAI's mission to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.”

4. The AI landscape is moving faster than ever: This event occurs against rapid advancements in AI, with generative AI technologies like ChatGPT becoming mainstream and developing at the speed of light.

5. Impact on us: In the future, AI will be embedded in most knowledge workers’ workstreams. Already, ChatGPT is used by over 70% of knowledge workers, more than double the popularity of Microsoft and Google’s AI tools. Which products OpenAI develops and how they bring them to market immediately impacts our work.

I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? Go to What Actually Happened with Sam Altman and OpenAI, and What Does It Mean for the Future of Work? // Future Work #62.

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work.

Welcome back to the Future Work podcast. Today I’m speaking with Chase Warrington, one of the world’s leading authorities on remote work.

Chase is the Head of Remote at Doist, an async-first company that created the famous Todoist tool and has over 100 people distributed across 35 countries.

Chase is a LinkedIn Top Voice for Remote Work and has been featured by Forbes, BBC, Fast Company, the World Economic Forum, and more.

Today, we speak about what any company can learn from his fully remote company, how Doist keeps people consistently engaged online, but also, why his company is remote yet he loves getting together in person.

Here are a few lessons I picked up today:

1. Getting people together is a huge priority for Chase and the team. He’s a head of remote pushing for more synchronicity. They got so good at async communication that they forgot to connect on a human level.
2. So how do they do it? Doist helps people connect through mentorship trips, where a new hire gets sent to work with their mentor face-to-face for a week, a mini-retreat where direct teams spend a week together somewhere, and Doist Connect, a company-wide retreat.
3. Doist doesn’t see remote as a way to save costs on offices. In fact, while they had some budget cuts this year, they actually increased their investment in getting people together.
4. If you invest in retreats, you have to consider how they connect to your core values and how people will get value out of it. Doist purposefully uses them for connection, spending 20% on work, 30% on activities, and 50% on rest and relaxation. Chase found that in the 50%, that’s where the true breakthroughs happen.
5. Even if companies don’t go fully remote, they can learn from some best practices, like documenting everything. As Chase said, we should ask ourselves, are we designing for how we used to work or how we work today?

We hope you’ll love this episode and can put these insights to good use. Subscribe on FlexOS, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube for the latest Future Work episodes.

Like reading more than listening? Find the article on our website: www.flexos.work/learn/secrets-playbook-of-famous-remote-companies-chase-warrington-head-of-remote-doist.

Overnight, the world has changed. AI can now actually do all your work for you.

What if you were to dream up your own AI to do exactly what you want it to do? As announced at OpenAI’s demo day, that is now possible. And they’re called GPTs. GPTs is a new OpenAI innovation that allows you to build your own AI.

Have you created your own “GPT” yet? In Future Work #61, that’s what we’ll explore:

1. Customizable AI Capabilities: OpenAI has introduced GPTs, customizable versions of ChatGPT. You can train them to perform tasks aligned with individual, team, or company needs.

2. Save Your Time: These AIs can streamline workflows, increase efficiency, and offer direct interaction for feedback and problem-solving, reducing manual effort and time in any process.

3. Practical Implementation: Initial GPTs developed by OpenAI let you explain Gen Z memes and negotiate contracts. Community applications include GPTs in editing, HR, interviewing, management, and personal development.

4. It’s Easy: Building a personalized GPT is accessible to those with ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise and is simpler than ever imagined.

5. Future Potential: The potential of these GPTs is significant, as they represent a move towards AI agents capable of handling multiple steps in work processes, indicating a future where AI could increasingly take over structured, repeatable tasks.

Building your own GPT is not difficult. All you need is ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise, and you’re off to the races. Here’s a nice tutorial on how to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5--JexprHuk.

• Define the purpose with GPT Builder, which will ask you what the bot is supposed to do: https://chat.openai.com/gpts/editor.
• My example of the “Personal User Manual Bot” is now live here: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-yDeX5Ty6Z-personal-user-manual-maker.
• Below are some great examples that you can discover: 1. Thomas To from our team created a GPT to get advice on any management challenges based on our database of best practices: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-UT6K00O0B-lexi-coach. 2. Michael Preuss created a strategic advice GPT with “the wisdom of top-tier MBAs and elite consulting firms”: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-4xw63Av3D-action-planner. 3. Douglas Voeten from Perfect Dubs created a GPT to “roast” your photo: https://chat.openai.com/g/g-a14Q8Cybp-roast-master-supreme/.

I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? Go to https://www.flexos.work/learn/smart-managers-create-their-own-gpt-today-with-50-examples.

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work.

Is there a significant risk that AI will take over all our jobs? Have you heard about the latest Elon Musk prediction?

That’s what we’ll dive into in the 60th Future Work. Here’s the scoop:

• During an interview with “talk show host” Rishi Sunak, Elon Musk predicted that AI would take over all jobs. The only reason to work, he said, is to feel like we have some kind of purpose.
• Two reports issued this year by Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, however, show that AI will only impact some jobs while others will even grow. Especially manual labor and creative jobs are safe.
• Futurists disagree about where AI will take us in the near future. Antony Slumbers says we should be unique humans, while Alexandra Samual notes that she can foresee most of even her job disappearing.
• Managers who want to stay ahead in the future of work should not only embrace AI themselves but also train their teams, as data shows it’s surprisingly the Gen Z’ers who feel they lack the skills to take advantage of AI.

I dive into all of this in this spoken version of the Future Work weekly newsletter.

Rather read? Go to https://www.flexos.work/learn/a-jobless-future-interrogating-musks-ai-prophecy

In Future Work, I scan the news for must-know stories about the employee-centric, happier, distributed, and AI-driven future of work. Below is this week’s edition. Not a member yet? Join over 9,000 people-centric managers and subscribe here.