Reimagining what the workplace will look like in the future
NEW YORK -- As some companies have made their workers return to the office post-pandemic, others have settled into some sort of hybrid world.
Therése Gedda, founder and CEO of the company Reimaginez, has been advising CEOs for more than 20 years.
She has worked with thousands of company founders and weighed in on whether the traditional office will become extinct one day.
"We are reimagining work so the old way of bad lighting, bad seating, bad air quality, yes, that's going away really for most companies," Gedda said. "Companies that are more future oriented and high performing, they are looking for new ways to bring people together for specific goals.
"So, if we are looking to do something creative, you want to be in a creative environment. If you want to have deep work and really focus you want to be in a more focused environment, so we are reimagining how we are bringing people together," she added.
As for how AI will impact how people work, Gedda says it depends on the intent of how companies use technology.
She says if companies focus on the possibilities and the positive aspects of AI, "It can increase positivity, efficiency, collaboration and even profitability."
She provided one example.
"One of our clients, they work in a lab environment. When scientists are producing a sample they are irreplaceable and worth millions of dollars sometimes so we need to make sure the sample doesn't go bad in the refrigerator," Gedda explained. "This company, they are using predictable analytics, a form of AI, to tell the lab manager is the sample going to go bad because the refrigerator's about to break or not. So there's a lot of user cases outside of what we're seeing from general public, which is really interesting."
As for how people will stay connected in the changing work landscape, Gedda points out some leaders are brilliant offline, and there is room for innovation, improvement and elevation in a digital word.
"They need to look at leadership in a new frame. We call it "futuristic leadership," leading on culture, achievement, appreciation, mastery and autonomy and really create these peak experiences, a sense of belonging and connection, when we actually are bringing people together," Gedda said. "We can achieve greatness both in person digitally and everything in between."
For additional insight into future trends in the workplace, Gedda has written more about the topic.