The discussion on the change in the world of work is in full swing. What experts like Gunter Dueck long predicted is now in full swing. Way of working, entire professions, and yes, that too HR-Industry will change. How can we face that.

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Change of the working world: freshly scarfed vs. Experts |

Since his almost historic Lecture at the re:publica 2011 I'm a fan of Gunter Dueck, mathematicsProfessor and at that time Chief Technology Officer at IBM Germany. Like many others, I found this lecture outstanding at that time and - if you look at the current development - almost visionary. That's why I made the video here online again.

Nevertheless, I know how I found it exaggerated at the time, e.g. doctors theirs Significance but now we see that many developments that were predicted and ridiculed at the time have happened today - just think of data mining or language assistants.

Reinvent professions

Of course, what particularly interested me at the time was the aspect of reinventing professions and with them a whole new social system. Dueck also sees this as the decisive task for digital Future.

According to his prognosis, many professions will become important verlieren, because we thank you Internet can do it themselves - for example buying tickets or researching information. What remains are the difficult advisory and administrative tasks, for which Germany needs more skilled workers.

The transformation of the HR industry

What is exciting for me is where the HR and Recruitingindustry sees and where it will be in the future. Because if this meritocracy actually transforms into a creative society, then the administration of labor productivity, i.e. the task that the human resources industry traditionally takes on, will be obsolete in the future.

And it is precisely on this subject that I would like to speak next week at Zukunft Personal Süd in my session with the Audience to discuss.

Digitization - a historic turning point

As is well known, we are now again at a historical turning point: routine tasks are increasingly being taken over by machines and the People can and must get creative Tasks turn to Through the digital Revolution More and more professions are disappearing, as Gunther Dueck relentlessly pointed out in his presentation.

There is only one thing left: rethink, away from the Protestant work ethic, towards more creativity, cooperative working together and ultimately more joy at work. The more I deal with digital technologies, the more I am convinced that thanks to the internet, social media and mobile technologies, we are on the verge of a drastic paradigm shift in Society and working world. Because this is the only way to create the innovations that our Economy so badly needed, which our reader Wolfgang pointed out so aptly in his comment.

Does service have its day?

Just this week I had one like that again at an Oracle event in Frankfurt Conversation with an advocate of the performance dogma: I heard that XY is only so successful because he can market himself well. And: Specialization and specialists are important and in demand.

It is thanks to the ideal of the Protestant work ethic, which was described by the sociologist Max Weber among others - and which historically is by no means natural, but rather a fairly new phenomenon:

Idleness as a condition for creativity

It was Martin Luther who turned the hitherto value-neutral work into a holy one imposed by God mandatory and declared idleness, which I believe to be essential for creativity, to be a sin. Then in the 17th and 18th centuries, following one's calling became a sacred and material duty for Puritans Success through hard work was seen as proof of God's mercy.

However, these changes were only made possible by the fundamental economic upheavals of that time: industrialization. The rapid increase in population led to an increased demand for goods that had to be served. In addition to technical progress, the optimal utilization of human labor through the centralization of work in factories and the systematic division of routine work processes, the division of labor, became necessary. the strictness required Organization and the dependency on rigid working hours was only made possible by the invention of the clock and electric light, which made it possible to work even without daylight.

Opportunities and risks of networked work

The Internet now offers us excellent opportunities for networked cooperation, in which cooperation is also possible over large geographical distances. Like no other tool before it, social media offer the possibility of communicating over long distances Contact to stay and even deep emotions exchange.

That is one of the reasons for the success of Facebook - whatever else you have recently in the Criticism guessed blue giant may hold. But that's exactly the point: many people mainly have the disadvantages of this development in their lives Head.

Fear of change

In my lectures on social media, I keep finding out how great the need for clarification is in this regard, so that the Internet as a positive development is understood.

Because the change makes many Anxiety. In my books The 110 percent lie and Naked in the net I have dealt in detail with the uncertainties of employees and executives in a rapidly changing everyday working life through digital media:

Permanent accessibility and constant communication compulsion

Constant availability and supposed permanent communication obligation, Teamwork With spatial separation or constant distractions are stressors that directly affect the performance and thus the productivity of Companys influence and which we have to face.

In other words, to take advantage of the Internet and networked collaboration, it is necessary to say goodbye to the dogmas of the Protestant work ethic: quite different skills are required in the digital age - and which, I will shed more light on in the second part of this article ,

What we need to know in the future

But Background alone is not the decisive factor, as Dueck explains: “Complex tasks require not only specialist skills (this is even provided to a large extent by the Internet), but also social and emotional dexterity Intelligence, management talent, negotiation skills, personal responsibility, entrepreneurial spirit.”

At the point I want to the very good Interview with Regine Heidorn point out, which in my opinion already explains what Gunther Dueck proposes: Thanks to the Internet, theirs Job create yourself. She is an excellent example of what we will have to learn in the future in order to meet the requirements of the new world of work.