10 Insightful Business Articles From June

During June, we kept our eye out for articles that could give us insights into the future of work. Each of these 10 articles give us a peek of what is in store.

1. The Forrester Sales Force Automation Wave Marks A New Era In Sales Technology

John Bruno, an analyst serving application development & delivery professionals, contributed to Forrester Research’s blog with this article about AI. His argument is that AI currently is not a proactive helper in many cases. But, in the future this is likely to change. Insightful Quote: “With names like Einstein and Watson making their name in the mainstream, buyers almost expect AI at this point. Every vendor has something to share with regards to AI, but few have a track record of being able to drive valuable recommendations like next best actions or offers, detect potential opportunities, and proactively determine the likelihood of winning a deal.”

2. Simplicity is a strategy that works.

Forrester Research principal analyst, Chase Cunningham, discusses in this blog post that many people view digital security in terms of fancy technology. He argues that this approach is flawed. Technology alone will not keep your organization’s information secure; You have to have a strategy. As we run towards the future, the technology we use to protect ourselves and our data will change, and as a result, our strategy will need to change too. Insightful Quote: “Embracing the fact that success or failure in this space is based on how well we all do the simple, small things is where the difference is made. Simplicity is a strategy, and it works.”

3. What Marketers Can Learn from Hollywood

Hollywood isn’t entertaining us by chance, we turn to Hollywood for entertainment because the best entertainment is coming from there. Gartner Research Vice President, Martin Kihn, tells businesses to look to Hollywood to learn how to entertain our audiences. Marketing, even for the most lackluster, B2B companies will need to master their entertainment capabilities if they want to grab the attention of the future customer. So what can we expect in the future workplace? The future marketing team will need to place greater emphasis on creatives and entertainers. Insightful Quote: “Consumer’s’ attention is not getting longer. We co-curate our lives, participating in a stream of content on our phones that — more and more, each year — does not stop. It’s a simultaneous digital reality overlaid on what we used to call our lives.”

4. Is Your Customer Experience Program Built to Fail?

Gartner Research Director, Augie Ray, audaciously calls out businesses for not having a customer experience program in place. He recommends not letting each department take on their own ideas and executive of CX, and rather, create a program that puts in place a plan and way to measure CX across the organization. In the future, we can expect most organizations to have CX teams with strong influence in other departments. Insightful Quote: “CX is not defined by intentions and actions but by processes, scope, focus, data, goals, and metrics. Many CX efforts and programs are not built to succeed because they neglect to recognize that difference.”

5. Take Naps at Work. Apologize to No One.

Tim Herrera, the Smarter Living Editor of the New York Times, gives us an article we can take to the boss. With data-backed insights of employee productivity, we can justify our post-lunch snooze. In the future, it may be commonplace to see your colleagues catching some “Z’s” at their desk knowing that power-naps help boost productivity. Insightful Quote: “Companies are suffering from tremendous productivity problems because people are stressed out’ and not recovering from the workday, said Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte. ‘They’re beginning to realize that this is their problem, and they can’t just say to people, ‘Here’s a work-life balance course, go teach yourself how to manage your inbox,’’ Mr. Bersin said. ‘It’s way more complicated than that.”

6. How Do You Define Digital Learning?

With so many software learning tools available, each with their own way of defining digital learning, it’s hard to pin down what exactly constitutes the genre and not. Are all these tools required for the modern employee to learn? Are they even effective? Josh Bersin, a leading industry analyst suggests that learning should be integrated into work. In the future, we are likely to see employees trained as they work, rather than in addition to. Insightful Quote: “Our new research, ‘High-Impact Learning Organizations, 2017,’ shows the learning profession is in the middle of a minor crisis; employees give L&D a net promoter score of minus-15, not highly recommended. This likely is because the digital workplace appeared faster than expected, and it’s taking time to build the next-generation solutions employees expect.”

7. Tech Company Founder: Train Your Software to Work With Employees

Published in Chief Learning Officer, Rephael Sweary, WalkMe co-founder and president, points out that the complexity employees face when dealing with multiple software systems can be tackled with contextual learning. In the future, employees will be able to be trained for their specific role, directly on the software used to get the job done. Insightful Quote: “If you use traditional training, the time it takes to produce all the materials and the amount of money you invest becomes irrelevant the day you finish them. Regulation is changing daily, the capabilities of the software that the employees are using is changing daily. The way that technology is moving — the way the workplace is moving — means the current training is broken.”

8. Contextual Learning Could Soon Replace Traditional Learning

Training to completion just means that the trainee completed the course, not that they learned it. Contextual learning means the trainee is engaged with their learning method in the context of their real-world use. This is a much more effective method that we can expect to be widespread in the next 5-10 years. Insightful Quote: “While this is certainly not the end of classroom training, employers should consider losing the term ‘instructional design’ and think of the future of corporate learning as ‘strategic design.’ Contextual learning has its roots in the everyday, on-the-job experience of learners.”

9. Introducing Digital Adoption Platforms

Leading industry research firm, Constellation Research gives a preview of their work on Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs). A DAP can transform the way organizations approach training employees and customers alike. We might see a future where organizations train their employees with the same technology they use to train new customers. After all, an efficient digital training tool shouldn’t be exclusive to one or the other. Insightful Quote: “A new category of software is emerging that can be integrated into applications and websites to help guide people from right within the context of the task they are trying to perform. Constellation Research refers to this category as Digital Adoption Platforms (DAPs) and organizations of all sizes are using this new type of software to coach people toward more successful adoption of applications and websites.”

10. Digital Business is Not Web Business; Competitive Implications

Andy Mulholland, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, discusses the threat of startup technology to large and enterprise businesses. Mulholland recommends looking at digital opportunities to provide more value rather than simply putting something online. The question to ask after reading this blog is if institutions rooted in longstanding policies will be able to adapt fast enough. Insightful Quote: “The individual startups across your industry sector are shaping the new market even of they are not substantial enough to have direct impacts on your existing customers and revenues. Collectively they are educating customers to understand a wholly new business value proposition, and create a whole new market segment. A true example of white space!”