workfutures

[workfutures]

Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why

Who – Stowe Boyd leads Work Futures, along with a diverse network of other thinkers, writers, and market watchers.

What – Work Futures works with a broad spectrum of work technology companies, or businesses researching the future of work. This ranges from companies developing work tech products, consulting firms, venture capitalists, and events companies. Our work products often involve direct consultation, positioning, media strategy, market research, and almost always deep analysis delivered in thought leadership writing.

When – Work Futures has been around since the start of the 21st Century, in various forms.

Where – Our founder lives in New York, but our network is virtual and global.

How – Our work is deeply researched, whether investigating the forces driven changes in the workplace or trends in work technologies. Stowe, for example, coined the term ‘work management’ to denote tools adopting the affordances of social media in team task management, for example, based on his research and hands-on experience.

Why – Henry Miller wrote, ‘If we are always arriving and departing, it is also true that we are eternally anchored. One’s destination is never a place but rather a new way of looking at things.’

We at Work Futures are driven to find new ways of looking at things, while remaining anchored in the work with our clients, and their needs.

[workfutures]

How We Engage

Work Futures is a research group, focused deeply on work technologies and the future of work. No surprise that we take a researcher's approach to engagement with potential clients. Our approach is straightforward:

Discussion and Discovery – Initial contact and conversation generally leads to a high-level understanding of the client's motivation and background situation. A conference group may want to determine the market demand for an event dedicated to an emerging work technology market. A work management company is seeking differentiation and repositioning. An internal research group of a multinational management consulting form may want a deep dive into the major forces driving the future of work.

In every instance, once a general understanding is reached, we start the engagement with a day or two of discovery: surfacing the requirements and expectations of the client, and, in particular, the time frame of the envisioned work, the form of project interaction, and deliverables to be developed.

Plan and Proposal – Work Futures follows discussion and discovery with an action plan and proposal for the steps to undertake to accomplish that plan. Some plans are discrete, short-term engagements -- a workshop with a company's leaders and a set of findings, for example, or a short-term research project. Other engagements are more complex and of longer duration, such as strategic, year-long advisory engagements with enterprise software firms, as we've undertaken with Google, Microsoft, and many others. We believe that our clients benefit most from strategic, longer-term engagements, but tactical projects have their place, as well.

Project and Process – Once a proposal is accepted, project work starts. In general, we have found that our work involves more deep and intense activity at the outset, depending on the nature of the engagement, but all projects have their own tempo. Ongoing thought leadership initiatives -- as we have done with IBM, Dell, Microsoft, and Cisco -- involves creating an editorial and events calendar at the outset, and then regular interaction around the topics being covered and events to be held. An ongoing advisory relationship could involve quarterly meetings with product and marketing groups, and specific research activities as an outgrowth of those meetings.

In a world where little is certain, we have found that flexibility is critical, since what we find through our research can directly shape what needs to be done, going forward.

[workfutures]

We’re All Over The Place

Our managing director, Stowe Boyd, has written for many publications and companies. Here’s some examples.

Cisco’s Webex Ahead

Toward a working equilibrium: the pace layers of work

Toward a working equilibrium: a time for silence

Wired

What Will a Corporation Look Like in 2050?

Work Futures newsletter

Paradoxes of Engagement: Less Communication Is More

Minimizing hours for synchronous communication makes us more productive

10 Work Skills for the Postnormal Era

The World Economic Forum offers a list that’s five – or ten! – years out of date.

Workings newsletter

Wrestling with the Angel of Death

Clive Thompson and the dead-end of task management.

A [Wonkish] Cautionary Tale: Notion

Before you get too involved in adopting a tool, test how you will exit