Modern ways of working shaping 2016

I think you’ll agree that organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver value to their customers, achieve optimum results and ensure all employees are motivated.

For project managers and teams, this pressure in combination with the rapid technological development, drives the need for new ways of working. This blog will discuss three that are set to change how we will work in 2016 and beyond.

Agile working
A mega trend that will continue to gain ground is lean and agile working – delivering the same or more value to customers while minimising waste as well as reacting to uncertain and changing realities. This trend is gaining increased traction because people are starting to realise they need to work in a more efficient way to increase productivity. Not only this, but because they like this method as they feel more empowered and in control in their jobs.

It begun in the software industry, but nowdays work teams in sectors from healthcare to finance has adopted these principles to continually deliver more value, adapt, solve real problems and act quickly. The common experience is that all of this contributes to a better bottom line.

The continuation of mobile
Shifting demographics and cross-organisational trends are changing the way we work and it’s important for leadership to recognise this. Many employees don’t sit in the same office anymore and need to share information and communicate globally in order to achieve their goals. 

Mobile working has continued to grow as a trend, presenting a number of benefits, such as collaboration with external parties who can provide bespoke skills. As well as this, mobility enables organisations to choose anyone to be a part of their team creating more qualified workforces as there is no longer the restriction of location.

What’s more, the mobile trend will continue to have major impacts on the family economy as people are enabled to work from home and from a distance meaning there is less of a need to compromise on their family life, resulting in a workforce that is less stressed and more motivated. 
Technology is enabling a new way of working with more and more employees gaining increased mobility and flexibility. Although this is a trend it may become the norm in 10 years’ time.

Going Bi-modal
According to Gartner, BI-modal IT is the practise of managing two separate, coherent modes of IT delivery, one focused on stability and the other on agility and business development. This is a fast moving technique, but has been in practise in some organisations for years.

Especially interesting is if this model is applied outside IT. Some might argue that organisations already today are being divided by providers of stability and infrastructure, and teams driving the business forward. It can also be applied to the way we work by combining traditional planning with agile execution.

Organisations might consider reviewing themselves in the light of bi-modality if they want to deliver a higher flow of value more constantly. What are the stabilisers and what are the drivers in your organisation for 2016?

For a project manager, there are opportunities to adopt a bi-modal approach by joining projects and traditional resource planning with agile execution on the team level.

This blog is written and sponsored by Planview.