The future of work
Cooperation instead of competition
When in mid-March 2020 the Bavarian Government declares a state of emergency, it changes the customary work culture in a flash. Whoever can, works from home. And lo and behold: cooperations, votings and conferences work better than expected across the boundaries of space and time. While at the beginning of 2020 the video conferencing service "Zoom" counted ten million participants daily, it was 300 million per day by April, according to heise online. Remote work suddenly becomes the driver of digitization. From the realm of the future, it has arrived in the present - basically overnight.
Although for a long time company managers were quite reluctant towards the remote working option, now they seem surprisingly receptive to it. Siemens is considering two to three remote work days per week for their employees, Allianz speaks of 40 percent of their staff working from home. This goes hand in hand with the decrease of required work spaces as well as the reassignment and the flexible use of these spaces. How do they become places where the power of team spirit can blossom anew? How do analog and digital encounters support each other reciprocally? How creativity and stringency? Experiment and responsibility? What functions can co-working spaces assume? And how can COVID safety rules be intelligently observed in the process?
In a globalized world, issues and tasks grow more and more complex while at the same time, innovation cycles become shorter each day. Without continuous learning, without the multi-layered, open-minded interaction of experts and generalists, sustainable solutions are hardly imaginable. This requires new qualities from all parties involved: control shall be replaced by trust, boundaries by openness, instruction by personal responsibility, owning by sharing, competition by cooperation. With regard to the protection of the environment, the democratic society, freedom and diversity, it also becomes increasingly important to question the meaningfulness of one's own actions.
A new corporate culture no longer solely strives to maximize profits but also to enhance the ecological and social benefit. Higher? Faster? Farther? The rational performance society has arrived at its end. The era of the creative industry has already begun.
