By Martín Padulla for staffingamericalatina

Gary Hamel states that it is impossible to build the vital capacities of the companies of the future using as a basis the old paradigms of the past century. Those vital capacities are organizational resilience, innovation and employees engagement. These three vital capacities seem to be connected to a particular workspace, which promotes them and enhances them.

When I was having a cup of coffee with a well-known Latin American architect who is a specialist in offices’ design, he told me that his study no longer designs workspaces, but work experiences. From his point of view it is necessary to generate workspaces that are memorable for employees. These are the sort of spaces that enable innovation and creativity.

There is plenty of evidence showing that employees’ engagement has a direct impact on productivity, revenues, profitability, customer satisfaction, innovation, health and safety, the level of absenteeism and illnesses, and well-being. Companies that have developed platforms to share knowledge in a creative way have high standards of employees’ engagement. The same happens with companies that have understood that current work is flexible and shared.

Coworking spaces are growing all around the world. Our region is no exception. Some of these spaces are conceived as integral business platforms that promote and enable the development of new working dynamics, in an environment that facilitates the connection among people, as well as collaboration and the development of creativity and innovation.  Things happen there, experiences are created. These are not places just for freelancers or entrepreneurs; large companies have started using coworking spaces for talent oriented towards innovation.

I keep on connecting ideas and concepts. Sharing economy is, in a way, a form of rupture of capitalism. It implies a new way of production, distribution and consumption. The world shares and exchanges goods and services through digital platforms. In the United States this economy has already created 8 million jobs. The MIT estimates its’ full economic potential in 110 thousand million dollars. Currently it is valued around 26 thousand million dollars. Technology is the basis of this development. We are witnessing a shift from property capitalism to access capitalism. We are in the beginnings of this new economy that is generating major changes and that will probably demand improvement and regulations.

What seems to be a constant in sharing economy is that it tends to provide a service that is way better than the service being replaced. And this disruption is being disregarded by those who are being replaced.

We live in micro fragmented societies, formed by “tribes”. The real market leader is, undoubtedly, the client or consumer through his collective knowledge. Technology makes it progressively easier to build and spread this collective knowledge and, through it, build image and reputation… and change paradigms.  Technology can also read and interpret supply and demand cycles by using algorithms and can provide people exactly what they need or desire. On the one hand we have disruption, and on the other we have traditional companies that cling to status quo.

While technology and “practical” sciences control the scene, I read prestigious scientists who defend humanist education. The future seems to belong to those who are capable of consolidating the right information at the right time, analysing it critically and making the best decisions.

Steve Jobs believed that Apple’s success was not only the result of the “dream team” of technological skills. He used to say that “It is technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields the results that make our hearts sing.”

I hear people talking about education reforms in the region. However, I can’t seem to find one single modern perspective or in-depth analysis. Empty speeches seem to perpetuate social inequity and they even make those inequities stronger. Skills demanded by the labour market, such as common sense, social intelligence, cognitive management, adaptive thought and mental agility seem to be absent in reform proposals and in the people who design such reforms.

Is shared learning possible for everyone? Are we training teachers who facilitate, orientate and promote critical thinking to properly classify the information (and over-information) that is available? Is it possible that those architects who design experiences instead of workspaces need to start working at our schools and universities? Are the vital capacities of future educational organizations, resilience, innovation and students, teachers and researchers engagement?

Must we re-think the idea of school, university and company?

About Martín Padulla

Managing Director of Staffingamericalatina. Martín Padulla is a Sociologist (USAL), MBA (UCA) and labour markets expert. He published Flexible Work in South America and Regulatory Frameworks for Private Employment Agencies in Latin America, two books that address the new realities of labour.

mpadulla@staffingamericalatina.com

About staffingamericalatina

It is the unique independent digital media specialized in Latin American´s labour markets.

Produce and spread contents, researches and developments about issues such as Employability, Youth Employment, Training for Employment, Decent Work, Private Employment Agencies, Active policies for employment, Teleworking, Public and private actions for the creation of decent work, Green Jobs and Corporate Social Responsibility.

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