Building a More Sustainable Future of Work - Insights from Global Leaders Summit in Istanbul

Last week in Istanbul, I had the honour of speaking at the Global Leaders Summit in the opulent ?ira?an Palace, alongside the Bosphorus.? This was my second visit to Istanbul this year, a city I've grown fond of over numerous trips. My connection to this magnificent city runs deep, with a great-great-grandfather from Scotland who once emigrated to work as an Engineer in Constantinople. In this historic setting straddling two continents, our focus turned to the pressing global issues of sustainability.

Setting the Stage: AI and Sustainability

John Elkington , a world authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable capitalism, framed the summit's theme of 'AI and Sustainability' with remarkable perspective and wisdom. We need to inject AI into sustainability, but also inject sustainability into AI. John is known for the Triple Bottom Line concept (Profit, People, and Planet), and highlighted some of the critical sustainability challenges we face :-

Building a Sustainable Future of Work

I have been fortunate to speak around the World on building a better future of work, and a personal learning goal is to join the dots between the mega trends, the cities, the people and the organisations.

My talk titled, "Myths and Megatrends: Building a Sustainable Future of Work” aimed to bridge the conference themes with my passion – creating a better future for the next generation of workers. ?

I emphasised that while humans have caused many of the sustainability problems we face, we must also be the ones to solve them. This will come from diverse teams working creatively. By improving how we work, we significantly increase our chances of addressing these complex challenges.

Is How We Work Currently Sustainable?

Some key points from my talk:

• Debunking Myths - Will AI really take all our jobs? Just as spreadsheets revolutionised accounting in the 1980s without eliminating the profession, my hypothesis is that AI will transform rather than obliterate work. By 2030, Turkey could see nearly 8 million jobs disappear due to automation, according to McKinsey, but also with the potential to create nearly 9 million new ones. It’s a reminder that with every disruption, there’s an opportunity.

• The Global Workforce Landscape - there are 3.4 billion workers globally, however 2 billion work informally without employment rights and contracts. This applies to 3 out of 10 workers in Turkey.? I mentioned the global decentralised workforce making a living from platforms, from solopreneurs, to digital nomads and playbourers. We need to find ways to increase Financial Security for the global workforce.

• Inefficient Job-Matching Systems - we cannot find the ideal the worker to do a job, and workers can’t find all the suitable vacancies. I outlined a fairer, more sustainable future of decentralised networks with verifiable credentials and matching-platforms. For more on this, you can download my PDF report here with the BRI
• Global Workforce Demographics - The good news is that people are living longer, with average life expectancy for women in France, Italy and Japan past 86 years. In Turkey this is 81. Demographic shifts impact how we work. However we need to redesign our working systems to include an older more diverse? workforce. For a more sustainable workforce we also need to solve the problems of workforce burn-out and mental-health problems, and discrimination.

I outlined the Five Mega Trends driving work in a short video summary here.

The Path Forward

My message was clear: we must build a future of work that benefits everyone. This involves:

• leveraging technology to enhance human potential
• embracing diverse perspectives
• fostering a culture of continuous learning and adaptation

While AI and advanced tools are reshaping our work landscape, uniquely human skills like empathy, critical thinking, and creativity remain invaluable.

These are precisely the skills needed to solve our sustainability challenges.

Continue the Conversation

If you're curious about the myths and megatrends that will define the future of work—and what we can do to shape it, I invite you to:

• Subscribe to Workforce Futurist Newsletter with weekly insights on Work Trends delivered direct to you inbox.
• Consider me for your next event as a keynote speaker on how to build a better future of work. Contact me here for bookings and inquiries.

My Appreciation

I'm deeply grateful for the opportunity to speak at this summit and engage with so many brilliant minds. A special thank you to Seda M?zrakl? Ferik and Aycan Ferik for the invitation, and to our excellent moderator for the 2 days - Ben Keene

Thanks to all the other Speakers for their inspiration and conversations :-

George Friedman Julie Hruska Navid Nazemian, PCC Corina Goetz Dr. Oleg Konovalov Debmalya Biswas Neyran Arslanturk Bahadirli Martin Gutmann Ipek Baylav Elif ELKiN Ebru Dorman Ahu Buyukkusoglu Serter Arzu Kaprol Alper Kara Brian Solis Cory Warfield Jeremy Prasetyo Nick Desbarats Alvar Orellana McBride, CPP

And many other stimulating chats and sharing of ideas, including :- Prof. Dr. Pelin Vardarl?er Aytan Huseynova ??Emil HUSEYNOV Eyup Nazif SEV?M

And Umut K?l?n? many thanks for the photos!

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