Scenario planning and the future of work: There is a better way to predict the future of work

Abstract

The desire to predict both the future of work and the workplace of the future is not a new phenomenon. Within organisations there has always been a need for this knowledge. Today, with organisations facing unprecedented disruptions that are changing their business models and transforming the very nature of their organisational design, the need to predict one’s workplace of the future takes on new importance. This paper explores the forces that are causing disruptions to every industry, how they are transforming the concept of these organisations, and how a better understating of future conditions can create strategic importance to the role of workplace design. This paper goes on to show how traditional ways of predicting the future of work based on trends has often been short-sighted and how predicting the workplace of the future through the use of scenario planning is a more meaningful way of navigating the uncertainties of the business landscape and has the potential to align workplace design strategies to an organisation’s business strategies, thereby enabling the workplace to serve as a strategic asset rather than an expense.