Falling Back On What We Know

A technologist’s optimistic view of the world we work in today, and the one that awaits us tomorrow.

We work in times of uncertainty. The future of work may revolve around aspirational dreams of the wonders that further advancements in automation, data and artificial intelligence, but judging by history, the future of work will also continue to be more chaotic, uncertain and volatile. Environmental risks and natural disasters are commonplace, socio-political relationships often tread on wafer thin ice, and global connectivity leads to epidemics that can transform to pandemics overnight. This is a more serious reality today as the world grapples with COVID19. 

The current pandemic has given way to fear amongst the society, and any business page of a newspaper will tell you how drastically it has affected global economies. Businesses are closing out of precaution, and companies are changing policies of work from home to align with the newest challenge we, as a civilization face. Tracing back recent history, these challenges will only seemingly increase, and the uncertainty of doing business will continue to rise. Boardrooms around the world are echoing discussions of how they can balance protecting business interests while drawing up precautionary measure to protect the welfare of their teams. 

Well-known futurist and design scientist, Buckminster Fuller, famously quoted, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete”. It is clear that we as a global economy must create newer operational models that align with the aspirations of the future of work with its complimentary challenges. Technology is the only answer. This allows us to create digital solutions that enable business as usual. Cloud technologies have made it possible for teams across the world to work from home, yet digitally collaborate in one integrated environment. Logistics like time zones and virtual meetings are not challenges anymore, thanks to tech that is progressing rapidly. 

The information technology sector employed more than 22 million of the overall global work force in 2017, and that number has only increased since. Creating end-to-end development engines that facilitate instant collaboration, curating reusable assets from contributors all around the world in line with the open source culture, and allowing of the entire delivery conveyor to rest on the cloud for anyone to access, anytime, is the way we can continue to create a digitally-fueled environment of business as usual. Allowing the best tools and frameworks to rest in this digital environment leads the way for developers sitting on opposite sides of the world to collaborate and innovate. These engines will not only allow for us to protect the future of work, but also, deliver at technology speeds never witnessed before.

These tumultuous times have also allowed us to look the entire business work culture differently. We have the opportunity to understand what is truly important, and what really drives up and scales success. It is critical that leaders and managers take stock of digitally integrated work environments to ensure business as usual. Work from home is still a nascent concept, and in fact, many teams will be exploring this for the first time. Tapping into developer pain points, thus, becomes of prime importance, since their productivity is at the risk of getting hampered the most. Data driven decision-making can come to the rescue here. Maintaining an extensive digital track record of tasks undertaken, meetings attended etc. is a good way to assess individual and team productivity remotely. In the long run, decisions made on the back of this data will prove to be fruitful for both the business, and its employees. 

As technology continues to advance, one probable risk often left out is a technological collapse. How will we cope in an event of a technology or data infrastructure failure? Will we have the resources to quickly track, trace and monitor the source of the issue to resolve it? Ensuring we work together to build technology engines that not only help overcome environmental, socio-political and environmental effects on business, but can help us prepare for solving technology risks themselves. I have always believed that in times of chaos; go back to what you know, and as an optimistic techie, I will always fall back on code. And no matter what challenges the future of work throws at us, I would like to believe we can always code our way out of it.