IFTF: Workable Futures

IFTF + You

Workable Futures Initiative

Looking beyond today’s workforce disruptions toward positive platforms for the next generation of work

IN THE MEDIA
Baseline — The Pros and Cons of the On-Demand Economy (November 2016)
Entrepreneur — Wanted: Creative Solutions to Shape a Workable Future (October 2016)
Forbes — 5 New Rules for Managing a Digital Workforce: Ditch the Resume, Skip the Training (October 2016)
JD Supra Business Advisor — New Studies Provide Insight into the On-Demand Economy (October 2016)
Wall Street Journal — The Two Gig Economies: One Happy and One Miserable (October 2016)
FastCompany — Can We Design an On-Demand Economy That Will Work for Everyone? (October 2016)
Boing Boing — Voices from the On-Demand Economy (October 2016)
Fortune — This Is the Backup Career For More and More U.S. Workers (September 2016)
GE Reports — Why There's No Such Thing As A Skills Gap (September 2016)
Democracy Journal — Prosperity by Design (September 2016)
Medium — We Don't Have a Skills Gap, We Have a Human Potential Gap (July 2016)
U.S. Department of Labor Blog — The Future of Work: Diving into the Data (June 2016)
FastCompany — These Are The Labor Promises The Presidential Candidates Should Be Making (June 2016)
EDUCAUSE — Thinking about the Future of Work to Make Better Decisions about Learning Today (May 2016)
FastCompany — These Will Be The Top Jobs In 2025 (And The Skills You'll Need To Get Them) (March 2016)
diginomica — The future of work intensifies—can a platform be ethical? (December 2015)
TechCrunch — What We Need To Know About On-Demand Work Platforms Before Regulating Them (August 2015)
Forbes — Managers Beware: AI Is Coming For Your Job As Well (August 2015)
U.S. Department of Labor Blog — Imagining a Bright Future of Work (July 2015
<re/code> — It's Not About Uber: Beyond the W-2 vs. 1099 Debate (June 2015)
Harvard Business Review — Here’s How Managers Can Be Replaced by Software (April 2015)
Forbes — The Future Of Work And Our Social Compact (June 2015)
Computerworld — Think your management job is safe? Beware the 'iCEO' (April 2015)
The Wall Street Journal — Can your CEO be automated? (April 2015)

Automation, on-demand platforms, and task-routing practices are rapidly disrupting the workforce and transforming the landscape of labor economics. At times, these changes seem to be outpacing our ability to analyze impacts, design for positive outcomes, and set policies that could assure workable futures for everyone. The IFTF Workable Futures Initiative is a call-to-action for policymakers, platform developers, corporate strategists, and change advocates to blueprint positive platforms for people who work—and indeed to rethink the future of work itself.

As we grapple with the future of an on-demand global workforce, all of us—from platform designers to urban leaders, from policymakers to educators and corporations—need to engage in envisioning positive platforms that ensure a workable future for everyone.

A FOUR-TIERED APPROACH

On-the-ground research with today’s designers and users of new work platforms
A reformulation of labor economics for a world of algorithmic platforms
Prototyping of positive platforms to support a healthy labor economy
Broad public engagement to build awareness of the choices we face as individuals, households, organizations, and public institutions

WHAT TO EXPECT

Whitepapers and reports for policymakers, organizational strategists, and platform developers
Convenings of platform developers, policymakers, and worker advocates to identify design requirements for positive platforms
Civic events to engage a broad range of stakeholders in prototyping positive platforms
A public awareness campaign, using videos, interactive toolkits, crowd forecasting events, and social media

Highlights

Advisory Council

As we move into new models of work, it will be critical to bring a diversity of perspectives to the issues raised by this transition. Along these lines, the Workable Futures Initiative recruited an Advisory Council representing leaders in industry, labor, academia, philanthropy, and technology.

Our Advisory Council includes the following individuals:

Laszlo Bock
Senior VP, People Operations
Google

Teresa Carroll
Senior VP & GM, Global Talent Solutions
Kelly Services, Inc.

Carol Coletta
Senior Fellow, American Cities Practice
The Kresge Foundation

Michael M. Crow
President
Arizona State University

Mark Hatch
CEO
TechShop

Mary Kay Henry
President
Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

Chris Hughes
Trustee
The John S. & James L. Knight Foundation

Parminder K. Jassal
Executive Director
ACT Foundation

Read Bios »

Stephane Kasriel
CEO
Upwork

Terri Kelly
President & CEO
W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc.

Sheila Lirio Marcelo
Founder, Chairwoman & CEO
Care.com

Gavin Newsom
Lieutenant Governor
State of California

Brad Smith
President & CEO
Intuit

Mary Tilley
Enterprise Leadership Team
W. L. Gore & Associates

Francine Katsoudas
VP & Chief People Officer
Cisco

Devin Fidler on the Future of Coordination + Work

IFTF is a recognized thought leader on the future of work, and Fast Company magazine named Institute for the future one of the five most innovative nonprofits developing responses to the changing world of work. We have tracked the intersection of technologies and work for decades, starting with the first studies of the uses of Arpanet (the predecessor of the Internet), and more recently, looking at impacts of collaboration technologies, new organizational forms, and changing workforce skills. We will build on our ongoing research to create a comprehensive and actionable set of tools to help organizations succeed in the rapidly changing world of work.

Media Contact

Jean Hagan
jhagan@iftf.org
650-854-6322

For More Information

Sean Ness
sness@iftf.org
650-233-9517

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Workable Futures Initiative

Looking beyond today’s workforce disruptions toward positive platforms for the next generation of work

A FOUR-TIERED APPROACH

WHAT TO EXPECT

Highlights

Advisory Council

Devin Fidler on the Future of Coordination + Work

Media Contact

For More Information

Institute for the Future

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