As the former Workforce Futurist at Disney and in my current role as a principal at Kedge (a global foresight, innovation, and strategic design consultancy), I scan the broad environment for trends to understand the workplace future that’s emerging. But I am not just a trend hunter.

Why trends can be your worst enemy

In this increasingly complex landscape, nothing exists in a vacuum. Isolated trends can be your worst enemy because they tie you to what is taking place right now, leaving you blind to what’s ahead. For this reason, reports and annual “top 10” lists of trends are of limited usefulness. 

Instead, we must study the intersection of trends, making sense of the patterns formed from these unique collisions; explore the shifting values that act like fault lines undergirding the trends; and envision the new narratives which these trends, patterns, and values will create. 

These world-building narratives act as maps, allowing us to test our current strategies and discover new opportunities, while avoiding threats. By painting immersive pictures of possible future worlds, we can be prepared no matter what future unfolds.

One such narrative is the People Cloud, which will have a significant impact on the entire employee life cycle.

What is the People Cloud?

Most experts agree that companies in the future will have two keys assets to manage:  their computing infrastructure and their human capital. Moving forward, there will be an increasing overlap between the two.

"The cloud" is a term coined to describe a set of technologies that enables the delivery of computing services over the Internet in real-time, allowing end users instant access to data and application from any device with Internet access. In the future, open-source talent sharing will be so common that there will be, in effect, a “People Cloud” where work is shared, collaboration across the globe is instantaneous, and “cloud” employees work for multiple enterprises on a variety of projects simultaneously.

The essence of the People Cloud is rooted in the emerging pattern of work becoming more social. Even prior to the introduction of connective technology, the best and brightest talent understood the power of collaboration. For instance, Carnegie Mellon conducted a study in 1985 at Bell Labs to explore the characteristics of its top performers, finding that its superstars proactively networked even before it was required of them, harnessing those connections at critical junctures.

The shift to a knowledge economy and the broader push in technology creates an increased imperative for firms to expand their networks. Gartner estimates that by 2016, 50 percent of large organizations will have internal Facebook-like networks, and 30 percent of these will be considered as essential as email and telephones are today.

To be successful in the social future, as boundaries between internal and external social networks continue to blur, firms must also become efficient at leveraging the power of the crowd to execute their business strategies. A new partnership between GE and Quirky (a crowdsourcing innovation site), for example, will allow the general public to participate in the development of new products for the manufacturing giant.

Trends and patterns also point to a future in which the vast majority of value created by human beings will take place through collaboration united around common objectives, while being only indirectly linked to economic incentives. Furthermore, research suggests that our brains struggle to be analytical and social simultaneously. If we continue to focus only on hard data and quantitative metrics, we will create leaders, organizations and processes that will not support the rising social ecosystem, and as a result, will not be prepared to meet the challenges of the socially-connected 21st Century.

Questions for reflection

Over the next several weeks, we will explore weak signals that point to a “People Cloud” future and how they will affect talent management strategies:

• more collaborative society

• stronger links between individuals and groups

• shift to an open environment

• ubiquitous nature of mobile and sentient technology

• disruptive impact of these new organizational models.

In the meantime, here are several questions to consider:

• How do you think the People Cloud will impact how organizations recruit, develop and retain their talent?

• What are the ramifications to Intellectual Property of a more open and collaborative innovation ecosystem?

• Which new compensation schemes will be most successful with the People Cloud paradigm shift?

• Is your organization ready for the People Cloud future?