5 things we learned from Audley’s event The Future of Work with Annie Coleman and Professor Lynda Gratton
Image Credit: HSM Advisory. License.
Five key lessons from Audley’s May event with Lynda Gratton: professor at the London Business School, fellow of the World Economic Forum, and renowned writer on the future of work.
What is the future of work going to look like? Traditional models of working life are being upended by macro changes such as changing demographics – people are living for longer – and emerging trends with huge potential to shift the fundamentals of how we work, like generative AI. How do we navigate these changes to ensure that, whatever comes down the road, people are ultimately able to continue working and enjoy fulfilling careers?
To explore these questions, on May 6 Audley hosted a breakfast event with our Senior Advisor and Ambassador of the Stanford Center on Longevity Annie Coleman, in conversation with Lynda Gratton: professor at the London Business School, CEO and Founder of research advisory group HSM Advisory, fellow of the World Economic Forum, and a renowned author on the subject of the future of work.
Professor Gratton and Annie’s conversation took in the major trends of the moment, when we are experiencing the greatest global shift in the world of work in over a century, and how we need to rethink models of a working life and the workplace to adjust to this shift. Here’s what we learned:
1. Ageing populations are causing a shift – but not everywhere.
As an Ambassador of the Stanford Center on Longevity, Annie began by highlighting the big trends that are being experienced today: people are living for longer, birth rates are falling, and the number of people in the workforce is shrinking in some areas of the Western world. These trends are of course affecting all aspects of society and Professor Gratton elucidated how they will undoubtedly impact the traditional ‘learn, earn, retire’ model of working life, arguing that we need to fundamentally reconsider our approach to working life, and what longevity might mean in the world of work.
However, Professor Gratton also highlighted examples such as Nigeria, as well as other developing economies, where people are not only living longer but also having more children. For her, this means that when we talk about ageing populations, it is important to acknowledge the diversity of people’s experiences and how this will affect the ways they work – and how we must ensure we do not ignore these nuances in favour of characterising society through broad, macro brushstrokes.
2. Forget your savings, work longer (within reason).
With people living longer, Professor Gratton explored the two options faced by older generations: working longer or saving more. Through her research, she has settled in favour of the former approach, citing the various psychological, social, and economic benefits of having a lengthier working life.
Acknowledging that the three-stage ‘learn, earn, retire’ model of working life – particularly, a life organised around full-time employment followed by full-time retirement – is now “broken,” Professor Gratton cited the model proposed in her and economist Andrew J. Scott’s book ‘The 100-Year Life.’ There, they envisioned people leading working lives akin to a portfolio career: made up of multiple roles and potentially postgraduate study, instead of a linear progression from employment to retirement.
Professor Gratton and Scott called this the ‘multi-stage life,’ and she believes that employees should be encouraged to think about how they will build this working life early in their careers.
3. In spite of progress, ageism remains a massive hurdle.
During the discussion, Annie noted that in spite of the aforementioned reasons to promote longer working lives, ageism is still rife in the world of work. Professor Gratton unequivocally agreed, citing the clear fact that evidence suggests that people’s careers begin to tail off in their 50s as they struggle to get work. She described the discrimination as “profound”.
When exploring whether there will come a point where the skills shortage starts to ‘bite’ in workplaces, which will force companies to think about how they can retain their employees for longer, Professor Gratton highlighted the fact that the skills older people bring into the world of work are too often not taken into account, and how critically important it is that we think about how we encourage people from the age of 50 to continue their professional careers. From retention of institutional knowledge to mentorship of younger employees, the benefits of keeping older individuals in the workforce for longer are clear, but often not acknowledged.
4. Focus on the behaviours, not the generations.
Interestingly, Professor Gratton told our guests that the London Business School does not use the familiar terms for different generations in its teaching – Gen X, Gen Z, ‘baby boomers’ – because there is no evidence that there are significant differences between generations. Of course, there are fundamental differences between a 20-year-old and a 50-year-old, but more obvious are the differences within generations.
So while Professor Gratton acknowledged that the subject of intergenerational working is interesting, and that age diversity within a working cohort is for the better, she would counsel people not to think about how different generations can work together in the same space, but rather to think about how an individual’s life experiences will affect how they work.
Professor Gratton put this simply and eloquently when she said: “just because you’re 50, doesn’t mean to say you’re like every other 50-year-old.” This thinking encourages us to take account for the rich and distinctive experiences that people have at different stages of their lives and their influence on how, and why, an individual works.
5. Younger people are being impacted by generative AI – but true talent still cannot be replicated or outperformed.
In thinking about shifts affecting the world of work, Annie and Professor Gratton came to perhaps the most significant development that is driving us to reconsider how people will work in the future: AI.
Professor Gratton emphasised the importance of monitoring new developments in AI technology, which is already affecting the way that professors like her teach and the way people work. She and her colleagues at the London Business School have been experimenting with the technology and have found that it works at the level of an average person, in terms of the quality of its output, and have had access to new models that she describes as ‘astonishing’ in terms of their capability. However, such technology is not without its pitfalls and she did express concerns that this automation can take away opportunities for younger employees to learn about their profession and develop important skills.
Professor Gratton concluded that the ‘hope’ with generative AI, ultimately, is that it can become a companion to human employees that amplifies their skills, and that there is ultimately something about the way people work that AI cannot replicate, which would enable people to work productively with it: qualities such as empathy, creativity, and humanity’s shared history. In acknowledging what makes us uniquely human, so too must we acknowledge that technology and AI itself is amoral, and does not operate according to the same compass that humans do. It exists in and of itself, in its own world, independent of human sensibilities – and this is one of the precarious elements we must be cognisant of as we move forward.
Importantly, while the London Business School has found that generative AI can replicate the output of an average employee, it cannot do the same for a truly exceptional employee’s work. Given how rapid the developments are in the technology, there is no doubt that workforces will continue to experiment with this technology, with a tech-enabled and tech-supported human workforce representing the ideal end-state.