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Work Disrupted

Opportunity, Resilience, and Growth in the Accelerated Future of Work

The future of work swept in sooner than expected, accelerated by COVID-19, creating an urgent need for new maps, new mindsets, new strategies, and, most importantly, a trusted guide to help us navigate this journey. That guide is Jeff Schwartz, a founding partner of Deloitte Consulting’s Future of Work practice.

About the book

If you only read one book on the future of work, Work Disrupted: Opportunity, Resilience, and Growth in the Accelerated Future of Work should be it.

When COVID-19 hit, everyone had to rapidly adapt to new ways of working without a playbook. Companies had a choice: panic or pivot.  Those that embraced this as an opportunity to accelerate forward are prepared to flourish; those that panicked or tried to continue down the paths they’d set out on are struggling.

But this is only the beginning of the changes to come according to Work Disrupted by Jeff Schwartz. When disruption happens, as it always will, we need new guides and maps to help navigate opportunities amid the chaos.

  • Work Disrupted begins by identifying the opportunities that lie ahead for positive change as we partner with artificial intelligence (AI), diversify employment models from full-time jobs to gigs and crowds, and move to flex work and hybrid workplaces.
  • From there, it moves on to explore how we can build resilience in our careers, organizations, and leaders so we can better plan for the unexpected.
  • In the final chapters, readers will learn how we can equip ourselves as individuals, leaders, citizens and communities with new playbooks for the growth and the potential the future of work holds.

Schwartz brings clarity, humor, wisdom, and practical advice to the future of work, a topic surrounded by misinformation, fear, and confusion. With a fundamental belief in the power of human innovation and creativity, he presents the key issues, critical choices, and potential pitfalls that must be on everyone’s radar.

Work Disrupted offers an alternative to similar books on the topic that tend to lack a broad perspective or dwell on problems rather than solutions. With 25 original cartoons created by leading business illustrator Tom Fishburne, these visuals bring the complex issues surrounding the topic to life.

Work Disrupted is now available! Order your copy today:

Watch “5 Key Decisions to Manage the Future of Work in the Next Normal”, a 30-minute webinar where Jeff Schwartz, senior advisor to Deloitte’s Future of Work practice, and Columbia Business School Professor, Stephan Meier, chair of the Management division, discuss the five key decisions that leaders need to make in 2021/22 to help them reimagine why, where, and how work gets done—and unleash the energy and endless possibilities of human potential.

What you will learn

Written for leaders, employees, students, and community leaders alike, everyone invested in the future of work will learn how to:

  • Welcome AI. Historically, technology has created more jobs than it has taken. It’s time to explore how to embrace new tech and create value by empowering people to team up with machines.
  • Value a diversity of work arrangements. Integrating new talent models, such as part-time, freelance, and gig work, can benefit your career, company, and community.
  • Build on what the pandemic has taught us. Expect to continue to work anywhere, anytime, and with anyone. Use this to your advantage as we integrate our work into our lives.
  • Embrace new capabilities to lead teams and innovation. Smart leaders will shift away from a narrow vision of cost and efficiency to an expanded one of growth, innovation, and meaning.
  • Reimagine careers as portfolios of reinvention. Prepare to adapt, reskill, upskill, and develop a portfolio that combines education, work, and personal pursuits throughout your lifetime.
  • Rethink and reset. Education, labor regulations, job transitions, and ethics can all inform and strengthen the values and value of the future of work at local, national, and global levels.

Equip yourself with the right guide for your journey to the future—order your copy today.

Read the introduction for a sample of the book

Praise for Work Disrupted

“As the future of work becomes the ‘new normal,’ finding navigation tools will be crucial. This is exactly what Work Disrupted offers. With a range of case studies and industry insights, it brings much-needed clarity in these unprecedented times.”

– Professor Lynda Gratton, founder of HSM and author of The New Long Life

“In what seemed like the blink of an eye, the coronavirus pandemic seemed to challenge everything we know about work. In Work Disrupted, Jeff Schwartz delivers decades of expertise and sheds new light on the topics we’re all grappling with—the intersection of humanity and AI, where and what work looks like today and tomorrow, the rising importance of teams, and many fresh nuances on the shifts we can make as leaders. This is a timely must-read for managers and associates alike.”

– Jeffrey J. Jones II, president and CEO of H&R Block

“Jeff’s fresh work codifies the possibilities—and uncertainties—ahead as organizations everywhere struggle to reshape employment models fueled by the blistering pace of technology advances. Just as importantly, Work Disrupted offers pragmatic, agile solutions for the ever-evolving next-normal workforce and workplace.”

– Cathy Benko, member, board of directors, NIKE Inc.; former vice chairman, Deloitte LLP; and best-selling author of Mass Career Customization and The Corporate Lattice

“Jeff’s marvelous book is a road map for the new world of work with clear signposts. His insights will help readers discover opportunities, take actions, and find hope in uncertain times. The ideas are fresh, beautifully crafted, and immediately applicable. This is a book you will not only read, but savor and use.”

– Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan; partner, the RBL Group; and author of Reinventing the Organization

“Work Disrupted offers well-researched and nuanced forecasts of the future of work combined with concrete guidance for leaders and managers. This engaging read is both helpful and hopeful.”

– Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America

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