#i was innovative and typed this in twitter dark mode so my phone could have a break from me embedding the keyboard in the screen

[unproduciblesmackdown]

tfw hating life enough for a reeadmooore

‪yesterday afternoon i’d blocked out 3 pgs in my sketchbook & by that night i was thinking like well i’m so close to finished the sketchbook finally (ive been using it about a yr and a half by now) that i could just stop drawing when i hit the end there‬

but i’d mentioned the impending end of my sketchbook space a friend is already in the process of sending over some they havent ever used so that will at least mean if i stop drawing it’ll just have to be because i want to lol

like in this case it’s special b/c of course i’ve had periods where i’m like smh what if i just don’t draw anymore, but that’s tended to be about being frustrated w some element or other of it all. this time it was mostly just that every day of my life i have a tiny bit less motivation or energy or etc. yesterday i was thinking all day about offing myself, which i’d done the day before, and done today too

like, it’s nothing new, i’ve been hating being alive and wanting to kms and only moving in the direction of less disappointment to more disappointment and having to care less about things i previously cared about because for one reason or another things get to a point where it only adds frustration to my life anymore

but despite depression and wanting to die and life being miserble all being Not New, that doesn’t mean that it doesnt matter anymore, because after day after day after day after day after day of it for years and years, you’re in a worse place than you were a while back, even if you do feel the same. even a single day of wishing you were dead the whole time is shitty enough. feeling overall like even if you’re in a good mood now, you know your life is trash and you’re going to go back to feeling bad soon, is also shitty enough

like the thing that drawing had going for me is that, like reading and writing sometimes and even some other shit, it’s something i like to do. i do it for myself, really. but it helps that its the way i trick ppl into being here in the first place to see anything i’m talking about. i have really crap appeal. i mean i’m bad at being appealing thru shit i draw, but it’s still way more of something anybody wants vs like five yrs worth of my text posts. like...i have over 10x more followers than i did on a blog where i rarely drew anything ever

but anyways despite me drawing b/c i enjoy it, i enjoy enjoying things less. always in the middle of that “loss of interest in pleasure” life lol.......it doesn’t really matter how long i do or don’t keep drawing, b/c i mean, it doesn’t much matter to me whether i’m having fun or not. i can be enjoying drawing and still wanting to die, because that’s whats happening lol.....nothing that’s a personal factor of my life is all that important to me, because my personal existence is not that important to the person living it

also it sure hasnt helped that my sense of things like whether my life can get better or i’ll have the opportunity to pursue my nonexistent dreams or live an ideal version of my life that also doesn’t exist are all at all-time lows and only just getting lower day by week by month by year. the only way i can even look at cheering myself up is from a day-to-day perspective. and i can have a slightly more fun day than usual and then be extra down on the very next day b/c of how being a bit less numb means you’re crap-feeling emotions are now game too. and i’m very aware of how, if you’re not in a position that insulates you enough, if things get worse for you, that makes “things getting worse for you” more likely, and it’s an exponential drop that gets harder and harder to climb out of, and even if you move back up a notch out of good luck, you’re still just as likely to be knocked back down to where you were. the odds of me suddenly not only not fucking hating being alive but also having a life that doesnt fucking make me hate being alive? that’s a funny joke

‪also it’s frustrating that whether i feel good or miserable on any given day only really exists if i say something about it in a post like this lol... like i might feel awful one day but if i dont have it in me to spend ages writing about it, which is difficult also b/c putting feelings into words where ppl will only fully Get It if they’ve felt that way too, anyways if i dont write about how shitty i feel and post it then maybe later on when i’m feeling a little better or feeling a different kind of shitty, i also won’t be interested in being like “oh btw i felt awful the other day.” and if i don’t mention it, as far as everyone in the world knows, it was never a thing that happened, so it might as well not have. i mean, as a person i might as well not be happening, especially since i don’t want me to be happening lol‬

and like i was saying to someone the other day, its a lot harder via text to talk about shit b/c like, if you’re with a friend in person, you can talk abt boring or silly things and its easy and makes a good conversation. whereas talking via twitter means it would be clunky and time consuming to layout exactly had empty and depressing my existence is, and silly shit isn’t even worth the energy when you’re having a convo w lengthy gaps in it, so you can only really talk about the broadest, most interesting shit. which i don’t have much of, oh well

i do like talking and talking to people actually, it’s just rough when it’s all a few ppl online, even though i alsp extremely appreciate those people and enjoy the talking. it’s like, chatting to ppl online is like a piece of chocolate cake. it’s delicious and you love it, but it would be amazing if it was the extra bonus on top of getting solid meals every day, instead of it being the only thing you have to eat and you get it maybe once or twice a week and it’s still wonderful and is all the more valuable for it, but it isnt the same as getting enough to eat always, or Knowing you’ll keep getting enough to eat

anyways my social life is always its own special kind of depressing, even when i AM in the same place as friends. you’d have a hard time finding a situation where the concept of What I Have To Say seems interesting or even relevant to other ppl. and im not sure i’ve ever been in groups where i feel totally comfortable with everyone there and don’t feel out of place. so talking about the idea of knowing you always have access to someone to talk to or be with in person or having friends who you know you can hang out with and they actually like you and you still expect to have them a few yrs down the road—all that’s always been a “well, in theory i mean” or “at least, i imagine it would be like that” issue for me

tbh i generally feel the most comfortable enjoying myself when i do something alone; maybe it’s because i have more experience of ppl im around treating me really shittily than treating me well

ohhhhhh wellllllllllllllll what else do i have to talk about. hmmm the fact that feeling like i wanna die only seems to be regarded as an issue of “well are you gonna or not,” aka if you havent its a Victory and a happy situation instead of it being a matter of EVERY DAY I’M A CONSCIOUS ORGANISM I WISH I WAS DEAD AND MY EXISTENCE HAS BEEN HEADED IN THAT DIRECTION FOR AT LEAST THE LAST HALF OF IT

like how heartwarming that i’ve been actively suicidal for how many years? 6? 8? but i havent yet!! i always want to but just never get around to it and so this time for sure lol no more fooling around!! oh dammit and there goes another birthday still alive. like this is some elusive new years resolution or novel i mean to write.

funny i mention it because there’s practically nothing anymore that i want to do. even if i THOUGHT my life would ever become okay, i want fuckall out of it. i only exist, baby............and it’s like i said earlier, whenever i try to come up with a sad amount of potential motivations NOT to die, i have to realize that none of the shit is actually for me, or directly about me, or centered on me. like, this shit lost its charm ages ago.

well anyways. i suppose thats all i can think to say now. and it doesn’t make a difference whether i talk about my shitass existence and how crap i feel or not. it just gives the chance for a bit of it to exist in the world via a few other ppl being aware of it for a few minutes maybe, because who DOESNT want to thoroughly read a shit essay by some random weirdo about how everything sucks. the end

[tech-battery]

Huawei P40 Pro review: A new bar in camera performance

If there's one device that I look forward to every year, it's Huawei's P-series smartphones. It's the one where Huawei introduces its latest camera innovations, and the company has done some truly wonderful things.

The P20 Pro introduced the 40-megapixel main sensor, with a 3x zoom lens. It was the first real focus that we've seen on a high-resolution sensor and lossless zoom since the days of Nokia's Lumia 1020. I remember asking someone from Huawei how the firm could possibly improve upon that.

The P30 Pro didn't disappoint with a new RYYB camera sensor. Using yellow instead of green, the sensor allowed in 40% more light. Low-light performance was so amazing that it hasn't been matched by any non-Huawei smartphones in the past year.

And now we have the P40 series. The main sensor is larger with a higher resolution. The telephoto lens is still 5x, but now that sensor is RYYB just like the main sensor. The ultra-wide lens has been jacked up too at 40 megapixels.

Design

Huawei sent me the black model of the P40 Pro, which is obviously the most boring color of any smartphone. It comes in several other colors and finishes, and design is another area where Huawei has really gone above and beyond its competition over the last few years, introducing gradient colors and such. In fact, the Shenzhen firm has gone from emulating the design that other companies have used, to creating smartphone designs that other companies are emulating.

The device is a glass sandwich with a metal frame, as is the standard these days. The black model that Huawei sent me is so glossy and sort of mirrored that it actually reminds me of hematite.

The camera module is placed in the top-left corner, and there's a reason for this. In fact, you might have noticed that the P-series always has it in the top-left corner, while the Mate series has it in the center. It's because the P-series is meant to be more camera-centric, so the phone is meant to be held in landscape mode while taking a picture.

Huawei went for the rectangular with rounded corners camera module design, which is weirdly common over the past year. It's like everyone had the same idea at once. Apple, Google, Samsung, and Huawei are all doing it, although Apple's and Google's designs are square.

On the bottom of the device, there's a USB Type-C port that can charge the device with the included 40W charger. There's also a speaker grille. As you should expect at this point from any company that's not LG, there's no 3.5mm headphone jack.

There's also a dual-SIM slot on the bottom, so you can either use one SIM and an NM card, or two SIM cards. If you're unfamiliar with NM storage, I was too. It's Huawei's expandable storage solution. Think about it like a microSD card that's shaped like a nano-SIM card.

On the right side, there's a power button and a volume rocker. There's no dedicated button for a virtual assistant on this device, which is always nice. Normally, you could hold the power button to launch a virtual assistant, but since there aren't any Google services, there's no Google Assistant. It does feel strange though, because you still have to hold the power button for extra-long to power down the phone or to reboot.

Display

The Huawei P40 Pro has a 6.58-inch 2640x1200 OLED display, which is gorgeous. It has a 90Hz refresh rate, so everything feels a bit smoother. Smartphones with screens that have higher than the normal 60Hz refresh rate have become pretty common over the past year, and it's a welcome change.

Note that some are using 120Hz panels, such as with Samsung's Galaxy S20 series. I really think that 90Hz is the sweet spot here. Remember, just as with a higher resolution display, a higher refresh rate will take a toll on the battery. I don't think that there's enough of a visual distinction between 90Hz and 120Hz to make it worthwhile. The difference between 60Hz and 90Hz, on the other hand, is totally worth it.

The screen is curved on all four edges, and it's inspired by the surface tension of water. The curve is meant to be the same as a cup of water that's just about to overflow. Huawei is always fond of saying that its designs are inspired by nature, so that's the example for the P40 Pro series.

Another thing to note about the screen is that it's OLED, which is particularly meaningful on Huawei devices. With OLED, pixels can be turned off, which is why blacks are true blacks. Huawei actually limits some of its EMUI features to OLED displays, such as dark mode and the always-on display. Luckily, with the P40 Pro, you get both of those things.

The display uses a hole-punch cut-out for the front-facing camera and the depth sensor, and it's the first time we've seen this technique from a Huawei flagship. Once again, there's no speaker on the screen, as the sound during calls comes through the glass.

Camera

The camera on the P40 Pro is an evolution of the P30 Pro. If you want something more revolutionary, go for the P40 Pro+, which is where Huawei packed some crazy camera innovations. The Pro+ has two telephoto lenses, one of which is 3x and one of which is 10x.

As for the P40 Pro itself, several things have changed. For one thing, the main sensor is larger, and it offers a higher resolution at 50MP. It still uses the RYYB technology found in last year's P30 Pro, so it can still work that low-light magic. The telephoto lens is still 5x, but it's RYYB now with a higher 12MP resolution.

Finally, the ultra-wide lens is now 40 megapixels, which is a much higher resolution than before. It's not RYYB though. What's interesting is that with the Kirin 990 chipset, you can now record 4K 60fps video, and that works with all camera lenses, including the ultra-wide, or even the front-facing camera.

Huawei first introduced 4K 60fps video capture in the Mate 30 series, and it was the last to do so. Apple first had it on the iPhone 8/X, and Qualcomm introduced the feature in the Snapdragon 845. While Huawei was late on this, at least when it introduced the feature, it did it right, offering 4K 60fps video capture at all levels of zoom.

Gallery: Huawei P40 Pro samples

Most of the pictures that I took were at night, because I really wanted to try out the low-light photography on the P40 Pro. I want to note again that the main sensor can still take low-light pictures that show more than I can actually see.

The first time I went out at night, I took the P40 Pro to the darkest spot I could find in my apartment complex (yes, I am limited in where I can roam around thanks to COVID-19), which ended up being an area with a bunch of trees. You'll notice some clear inconsistencies between the main lens and when zoomed, as it's much darker at 5x zoom. This disappointed me, as I was really hoping that the RYYB sensor would make a big difference there.

I did notice some inconsistencies between how those photos were handled in the software though, which gives me hope that this can be resolved via a software update. Speaking of software, I did notice that the ultra-wide sensor does pretty well in low-light, and Huawei told me that it's using software to try and make the three lenses more consistent.

In the first few images, I did max out the zoom at 50x, just to see what it can do. It's not really any different than 50x zoom was on the P30 Pro. One thing I will say is that 30x zoom looks way better than it does on the Samsung Galaxy S20+. A lot of companies these days are boasting about the max zoom on their smartphone, but this still isn't meant to be something that you use regularly. There's never been a phone where max zoom looks good.

Ultimately, I still love Huawei's camera-making abilities. While I wish there was more consistency with the 5x zoom lens at night, this is still the best camera around, in my opinion. When I go on a trip, when I got married and went on my honeymoon, or any other time where I want to capture memories in the best possible images, I take a Huawei phone. They're the only phones where people comment on social media how good the pictures look.

But again, this is more or less an evolution of the P30 Pro. There are definitely improvements here, but both the P20 Pro and P30 Pro were mind-blowing improvements. If you want revolution, look to the P40 Pro+.

Huawei Mobile Services

As I'm sure you know, there are no Google services on Huawei devices, and Huawei is using its own Huawei Mobile Services. When I reviewed the Honor 9X Pro, the point that I made is that it's possible to live without Google services, but the hardware has to be good enough to be willing to deal with a few workarounds.

And when I say the hardware needs to be good enough, I'm actually talking about a Mate-series or P-series flagship. In this case, I absolutely do think that it's worth the workarounds, so let's break down how this can work.

There's no Google Play Store or Google apps. That means no Chrome, Gmail, Google Calendar, and so on.

As for the Google Play Store, you need an alternative. Huawei's AppGallery is there, but many of the apps you'll want are missing. There's no Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and so on. Some Microsoft apps are there, which was a nice surprise, but I still installed the Amazon Appstore, where I found most of what I need.

You can also use Huawei's Phone Clone app. That will bring over most of your apps from another device, and it doesn't need to be a Huawei device either.

OK, you've got the bulk of your apps, and you might need to sideload a couple, but you're there. Now, on to things like Chrome, Gmail, Google Calendar, and YouTube. Huawei has its own browser, Opera is available from AppGallery, and I was able to use Edge just from bringing it over through Phone Clone. You won't have your synced data from Chrome, but that's all your missing out on.

There are tons of ways to use Gmail without a Gmail app. Huawei's stock Email app is fine, or you can use something like Outlook. You can even just pin the Gmail web app to your home screen. The same goes for Google Calendar and YouTube, although for some reason, the Google Calendar mobile website looks like it's a decade old. For Google Maps, you can use something like HERE WeGo, which is a fantastic navigation app.

Now for the last item, which is that some apps won't work correctly, such as Twitter notifications. I didn't have any problems, but I would also rather throw my phone against a brick wall than receive Twitter notifications. A friend of mine drives for DoorDash, and that's an app that wouldn't work because it relies on Google Maps.

It took me a day or so to get things just the way that I like them, but once I did, I was fine without Google services. For the apps that I actually use, and for how I use them, everything worked fine.

Performance and battery life

The Huawei P40 Pro uses the company's in-house HiSilicon Kirin 990 chipset, which first debuted in the Mate 30 series. All you really need to know is that it's a flagship chipset, which means that it gets the job done. It also comes with 8GB RAM, which is plenty, so it doesn't get choked up.

Battery life is phenomenal as well. At the end of the day, I never had less than 30% left, and that's with the high refresh rate and Smart Resolution turned on. Smart Resolution will automatically lower the screen resolution at times to save power. You can manually set it to 2460x1200 or 1760x800 if you'd like, and you can adjust the refresh rate between 60Hz or 90Hz. My setting of 90Hz and Smart Resolution is the default.

The P40 Pro comes with a 40W charger, so it charges really fast if you need it in a pinch. Note that if you get the regular P40, it only supports 22.5W charging. This device also gets you 27W wireless charging if you've got a Huawei SuperCharge Wireless Charger, and it's life-changing.

For benchmarks, I used Geekbench 4, AnTuTu, and GFXBench. First up is Geekbench 4, which tests the CPU.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 does come out on top of this. Samsung's Galaxy S20+ 5G scored 4,294 on single-core and 13,140 on multi-core. This isn't surprising though. Remember, Huawei's flagship chipsets launch in the fall while Qualcomm's launch in the spring, so there's going to be a back-and-forth. The Galaxy S10+ scored 3,520 and 11,177, respectively.

Next up is AnTuTu, which is an all-in-one test.

Both the iPhone 11 Pro and the Galaxy S20+ outperform the P40 Pro on the AnTuTu test, which again is no surprise. Finally, GFXBench tests the GPU.

Conclusion

The first Huawei phone that I got my hands on was the P10, and I fell in love with the Leica camera. It's been a love affair since then, especially with the P-series (although I do love the designs in the Mate series). The thing about smartphone cameras is that this isn't something that you'll be able to fix later on. You won't be able to go back in time and take a better picture.

So yes, when I'm going somewhere where I want to make sure that I take photos that I'll cherish forever, I bring a Huawei phone. To be perfectly honest, it would probably be a P40 Pro+ though, with its dual telephoto lenses.

The P40 Pro is an amazing device with an amazing camera. I do hope that a software update fixes some of the nighttime issues I had with the 5x zoom lens, but as it stands, this feels like mostly an incremental update from the P30 Pro. If you've got a P20 Pro, you should totally buy the P40 Pro. If you've already got a P30 Pro, you're probably good unless you go all out on the P40 Pro+.

But the P40 Pro is another winner from Huawei. The rest of the market still can't touch the low-light performance of last year's P30 Pro, let alone this year's model. This company is light years ahead of its competition, setting standards in camera technology and design.

[theoveldsman]

PEOPLE PROFESSIONAL OF TOMORROW

Challenges, Demands and Requirements - Part 1: Profiling tomorrow’s World of Work  

By all accounts, and without any doubt, the future is going to look vastly different: both in terms of the world at large, and more specifically the world of work. Correspondingly the challenges for, demands on, and requirements for the People Professional of tomorrow also will shift significantly. 

It is estimated that professions in general will change more in the next 25 years than in the previous 300 hundred years. Professions as we know them currently may be dismantled completely by taking on new scopes, shapes, and modes of delivery. Since the future is the place where we are going spend most of our time, we better take time out to understand insightfully this future rushing towards us in order to make and keep ourselves future-fit.  

The purpose of my article is to do some crystal ball gazing into this future rushing unto us. No claim is made of making 100% accurate predictions. That is not only impossible, but to would also be at the very least arrogant. 

My aim is rather to explore trend lines and breaks as broad indications for what we have to consider in re-inventing ourselves as People Professionals for the radically changing future that is going fossilise us at the speed of light if we do not take the appropriate, timeous re-invention responses.

I would like to address three general themes in my article, the theme one in Part 1 of my article - this article - and themes two and three in Part 2:

Firstly, to paint in bold strokes a broad picture of the probable future world of human work - a high level scenario - as it relates to us as People Professionals, proclaiming to be Scientists-Practioners of this world. 

Secondly, to drill down into some specific features of this future world, and distill possible consequences for the People Professional of tomorrow. The critically more important, interdependent future features I would like to discuss are: globalisation, digitisation, interconnectivity, virtualisation, automation, smart, and sustainability. Contained in the discussion of these features are suggested re-invention proposals to make the People Professional of tomorrow, future-fit.  

Thirdly, an overarching proposal regarding the need for the future People Professional to mould a distinct, well crystalised, authentic Professional Identity.

Although my exposition will strive to cover all of the roles that the People Professional can fulfill potentially, such as researcher, teacher, consultant, capacitor, and/ or coach, there may be a slight bias towards the latter three, more practice-related roles in my discussion, namely consultant, capacitor, and/ or coach.

PROFILING THE FUTURE: TOMORROW’S CONTEXT, ORGANISATION, WORKERS AND LEADERSHIP

The figure below depicts what I regard as the four dominant domains w.r.t. the world of tomorrow that I would suggest we need to explore in discovering the probable future world of work rushing upon us.

 Important to note with respect to the above figure are: 

firstly, Context forms the macro domain in which the other three domains are embedded. The latter domains are thus infused by the nature and dynamics of the future Context; and, 

secondly, Organisation, Workers and Leadership stand in reciprocally influencing, and dynamically interacting, relationships with each other. Over time their interactions configure into dynamic patterns. Although each of the domains will be discussed separately, they must be in the end be considered synchronously.

Each domain is discussed next, in the order of Context, Organisation, Workers and Leadership. The Context could be split further into Sectors like private and public but will not be done for the purpose of this article.

TOMORROWS ’S CONTEXT

The Context represents the world at large. Tomorrow’s world can be characterised qualitatively by the acronym VICCAS (an adaptation and expansion of the well-known VUCA acronym): a world of increasing Variety (i.e. diversity), Interdependency, Complexity, Change, Ambiguity, and Seamlessness (i.e., boundarilessness). But, concurrently also a world with the counter side - even ‘dark’ world - of ‘Over’: creeping Over-standardisation, Over-dependency, Over-simplification, Over-formalisation, Over-control, Over-specialisation and Over-utilisation.

Infusing this world is snowballing technological innovation, encapsulated in the term “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.  Additionally, the growing adoption, sometimes enforced - of the core value orientation of sustainability through stewardship: leaving the world a better place for upcoming generations.    

The emerging world order represents an accelerating oscillation between order and chaos on an ongoing basis: now order, now chaos, now order, and so on, of varying duration.  An accelerating, contextual shift is unfolding from Simple Contexts of Known Knowns, through Complicated Contexts of Unknown Knowns and Complex Contexts of Unknown Unknowns, to Chaotic Contexts of Unknownables. The latter two Contexts are becoming relatively more dominant in this fourfold contextual mix ((cf. Kurtz & Snowden).

Depicting a new game plan on a new playing field, the ‘maths’ of the emerging new order - its rules - is,: ‘Intelligently respond twice as fast, deliver twice as much at twice the speed, at half the cost within half the accepted product/ service life span, and doing all of the aforesaid on an ongoing sustainable basis, everywhere, anytime, anyone, anyhow, anything’.  

Ever shifting goal posts regarding organisational critical success criteria - the rules of the game - of responsiveness, innovation, speed, flexibility, value-add, quality, and cost effectiveness, are forcing organisations to make the seemingly impossible, possible in their endeavour to remain sustainable. The new maths make ongoing, relentless destructive innovation an overarching imperative in the new order, requiring continuous learning at a rate faster than that of change.  

TOMORROW’S ORGANISATION  

In the VICCAS world of tomorrow we are seeing the emergence of three broad types of organisations: high flexibility/ high involvement (or network/ value web) organisations, representing endeavours to re-invent of the conventional corporate; the rapidly growing, on-demand economy, application-based organisations; and small/ medium sized, entrepreneurial entities (about 100 or less workers).

In years to come, my contention is that in relative terms at least 50% of all economic and work activities as a proportion of total economic activity, expressed in say especially revenue terms, will be housed in the latter two types of organisations, leveraged by the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.  Though still dominant individually, the big corporates of today’s relative power will reduce against the broader, collective influence and impact of the latter two types of organisations.     

High flexibility/ high involvement (or network/ value web) organisation

This type of organisation is designed around globally and/ or virtually distributed and connected, agile, multi-skilled and multi-disciplinary autonomous teams/ mini-business units, infused by an intrapreneurial mind set and attitude.  The teams/ units perform broad chunks of the organisation’s overall core work processes.  Or, the total core work process for a product/ service/ client/ market. Many of these teams/ business units will partner closely with external service providers.

The teams/ business units have a high degree of decision-making power and self-generated information. They are driven by and linked to others by an internalised vision and philosophy, grounded in a higher order purpose and meaning. Their outside-in focus is on meeting customers’ needs/ expectations, quality and re-invent themselves through disruptive innovation.

On-demand economy, application-based, network organisation

This type of organisations is run up on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) platform, and smart phone based applications, ‘Apps’. These organisations are from inception fully virtual. Through the Apps these organisations link and satisfy customer/ client needs and products/ services. The products/ services are delivered on a contractual basis by independent persons working full time for the organisation and/ or moonlighting persons for whom it is a second job. 

Or, by a person owning an asset, like a car or a house for accommodation, offered through the App to satisfy customer/ client needs. Hence the term, ‘on-demand’ economy. Examples of these types of organisations are the likes of Uber, Lyft, Washio, Handy, Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, and Airbnb. 

Or, a fully virtually enabled, network organisation that centers around a single product/ service where the contributions of persons are voluntary and free, e.g. Linux, Wikipedia.    

Small/ medium sized entrepreneurial entities

This type of organisation operates as differentiating, niched businesses – ‘boutique’ organisation - using emerging technologies such as 3D Printing or their own unique technological innovation/ invention. This is the typical ‘out-of-the-garage’ or ‘back yard’ start-up business, making up the dreams of venture capitalists. They completely and radically transform exiting industries, putting exiting organisations out of business. Or, create new industries that are on nobody’s radar screen because they were not imagined.   Their reach is often beyond the local into the global.

They may grow into global corporates, but also may decide to stay relatively small, people wise but revenue-wise big with a global reach. Examples here are the likes of Apple, Google, Dell, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Whatsapp, Instagram, and Netflix starting up in the proverbial garages or university dormitories.    

TOMORROW’S WORKERS  

Within today’s knowledge society it is estimated that 85% and upwards of the assets of an organisation are intangible (e.g., organisation’s reputation, brand, patent rights, organisational capabilities, people expertise and skills) instead of tangible (e.g., facilities, technology, finance, products/ services). Probably at least 70% plus of the intangible assets are resident in people in the form of creativity, innovation, expertise, knowledge, skills, and experience.

In the knowledge society, people are the predominant value unlockers of the potential contained in the assets of the organisation, by means of which sustainable wealth is created. People have moved centre stage in the future, sustainable success of organisations. They will become even more critical in the world of tomorrow.  

A growing proportion of the workers in the VICCAS world of tomorrow will be independents/ freelancers  with certain specialist knowledge, expertise and experience, contracting individually with organisations to deliver or contribute to their products/ services. Increasingly even the full time employees of tomorrow will have the same mind set, values and attitudes of independents/ freelancers, though employed by an organisation. 

Tomorrow’s workers will be much more diverse in terms of make-up, however profiled. For example, in terms of generations (currently, up to at least four generations in the work setting), gender, ethnicity, nationalities, and values.They will be more demanding in terms what they expect from organisations. They will be looking for reputable, high profile organisations with credible, purpose-driven, influence-able leadership. 

They will desire work and work settings that are challenging, stimulating, meaningful and purposeful. They will seek collaborative and team based work setings; offer ongoing learning and development opportunities, taken up at their own behest at a time and place decided by them. These opportunities must be built around their needs and aspirations relative to where they are in their self-directed, career life cycles.

They will seek out work settings that will allow them to actualise their potential and apply their knowledge, skills and experience fully and in innovative ways in order to remain sustainable employable in tomorrow’s world. They want to operate in an information/ intelligence rich setting, preferably self-generated, and a high technology enabled setting.

They desire to be judged by what they can contribute and the results they (can) produce. Not by the hours they spent at work and/ or the number of activities they perform within a given period of work time. Core to them will be to enabled and empowered as leaders in their own right and place. These workers will have a greater desire for optimal work/ life integration because the boundaries between life and work have dissipated completely as a result of virtual connectivity, giving them the capability to work anywhere, anytime, anyhow with anyone on anything.

The question “What is in it for me?” will feature much more strongly on their personal radar screens, with the person putting him/ herself at the centre of his/ her self-crafted, individualised work role, career, and world of work. Engagement and identification by an individual with an organisation will occur on terms and objectives set by the individual within shorter time frames of commitment to any given cause, issue and/ or organisation. The challenge regarding tomorrow’s worker will be how to engage the hearts, minds, souls and spirits of workers who will be much more inner-directed, assertive, calculative, independent, mobile, meaning and purpose seeking (i.e. ‘why, and to what end am I doing what am doing?’).

The hyper-fluidity and hyper-turbulence of tomorrow’s work setting with its ever changing work and role boundaries; the greying of ethics and values, also because of multicultural work settings; and the rise of narcissism in combination with poor checks and balances in organisational and work settings, will see also a rise in the incidence of social loafers, free riders and toxic workers.  So the frequency of toxicity in work settings, and toxic leadership (see the next section) will increase.  

TOMORROW’S LEADERSHIP

If people have moved centre stage in the sustainable success of organisations, and be even more central in the world of tomorrow, then those who lead them become correspondingly critical.   The returns from leading and managing people in ways that build high commitment, involvement, learning, and organisational competence are typically in the order of 30% to 40%, substantial by any measure (cf. Pfeiffer).  

Given tomorrow’s workers as discussed above, and dealing effectively with the more demanding, constantly changing and radically different context - internally and externally - as departure point, leadership in the VICCAS world of tomorrow will be much more shared (or distributive): a group of diverse persons collaboratively co-leading across hierarchy and organisational levels within a multicultural and cross-cultural setting. Leadership will have to earn the right and respect to lead regarding a wider range and more diverse set of stakeholders. 

They will be judged at all times, under all circumstances, more strictly in terms of the values they hold; the integrity with which they enact them; and the example they set through their thinking, decisions and actions. The congruence between their talking and walking will be more keenly, and publically, watched, compared, and rapidly shared through social media.  

They will be followed by stakeholders not only for the inspiring vision (or dream) they are pursuing but also for the intended legacy the actualising vision is to leave behind. Leadership will be assessed in accordance with their espoused leadership spirituality, ‘why’ leadership: the meaning and purpose of what they proclaim they are pursuing, radiating and sharing, dream and legacy wise. They will be weighed up in terms of the agenda they are driving: a ‘Me’, ego-centric  or a ‘Us’, a servantship agenda.

The enablement – providing the wherewithal to followers to do the work – and empowerment – giving followers the freedom to act – awarded by leadership will be core to their effectiveness. The worker of tomorrow would want more of both. In the final instance, tomorrow’s leadership will have demonstrate excellence in a simultaneously, fivefold manner:  a competent ability at what they do at the requisite level of intelligence (i.e., intra- and interpersonal, systemic, ideation, action and contextual intelligences); the appropriate degree of maturity with which they lead, in an ethical and authentical manner.  

Going into the future, the incidence of immature, unethical and/ or toxic leadership will increase. This increase will occur for a number of reasons, many being the same as for toxic workers listed above. Firstly, because of the weakening authority of commonly accepted ethical values and norms. Secondly, because of the inability to make speedily enough adjustments in corporate governance relative to the rate of change in tomorrow’s world. Thirdly, because of the fanatical worshipping of unfretted individualism and egocentricity to the detriment of the pursuit of the common good.

Fourthly, because of unrealistic stakeholder expectations (e.g. of shareholders) forcing leadership to take unethical, opportunistic short cuts. Fifthly, because of the rampant growth in personal self-interest and self-love (i.e., narcissism), putting ‘Me’ at the centre. Lastly, because of a growth in toxic susceptible followers who will permit toxic leadership to serve their personal needs and interests, however unethical and immoral.

As an outcome of the VICCAS world, the burnout and derailment of leaders also will increase because of ambiguous, conflicting and/ or ever changing leadership demands, requirements and expectations. Looking after the well-being of leadership as integrated, multi-facetted persons will become crucial.

CONCLUSION   

The future is going to look vastly different: both in terms of the world at large, and more specifically the world of work. Correspondingly the challenges for, demands on, and requirements for the People Professional of tomorrow also will shift significantly.

Part 1 of my article set out to paint in bold strokes a broad picture of the probable future - a high level scenario - as it relates to us as People Professionals. Future trends regarding four domains were covered: Context, Organisation, Workers and Leadership. One can only confirm from this discussion, that the future indeed is going do look significantly differently.

Part 2 of my article intend to drill down into some specific features of this future - such as globalisation, digitisation, and interconnectivity - and distill possible consequences for the People Professional of tomorrow. Re-invention proposals will be suggested to make the People Professional of tomorrow, future-fit.  The article will conclude with an overarching proposal of the imperative for the Future People Professional to mould a distinct, well crystalised, authentic Professional Identity.

PEOPLE PROFESSIONAL OF TOMORROW: 

Challenges, Demands and Requirements - Part 2: Re-inventing People Professional for the future