Here’s what high-performing firms and independents need to know and do to win the future of the workforce!

Friday: Miles Everson @ Harvard Club of Boston: How a Global CEO Reinvents the Workforce FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: Last July 16, 2021, I had the honor of speaking at the Harvard Club in Boston to deliver the webinar, “Miles Everson @ Harvard Club of Boston: How a Global CEO Reinvents the Workforce.” In this event, I talked about why I decided to leave my job at PricewaterhouseCoopers and pursue my current role at MBO Partners. I also took this opportunity to discuss the four forces that are currently shaping the future of work, why many Americans are choosing to become independent contractors, and how to win in a modernized workforce. You may click on this link to listen to the recording of the webinar: Miles Everson @ Harvard Club of Boston: How a Global CEO Reinvents the Workforce I also encourage you to keep reading below as I’ll be highlighting some key takeaways I’ve chosen from the webinar. I hope you find this topic useful as you work towards achieving a high performance level in your independent career. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Here’s what high-performing firms and independents need to know and do to win the future of the workforce! Many people know that the rate of innovation is increasing along with the development of technology, artificial intelligence, and computing power. As a result, there has been a significant shift in the workforce because many workers have switched to a remote setup and have even become independent professionals. In an article we published together with Emergent Research in the Harvard Business Review, we wrote: “The number of Americans describing themselves as digital nomads rose from 7.3 million in 2019 to 10.9 million in 2020―an increase of 49%. And the composition of this cohort shifted. In previous years, the ranks of digital nomads were dominated by independent workers: Freelancers, independent contractors, and the self-employed.” So, when I had the opportunity to conduct a webinar at the Harvard Club of Boston last July 2021, I took that time to share why I left my 30-year career at PricewaterhouseCoopers and became CEO of MBO Partners. As someone who’s been in this industry for more than 3 decades now, I saw that there’s an expanding gap that needs to be filled in our current workforce. … so that was what I decided to address. Allow me to share with you some of the highlights of my speech: The Rate of Change is Accelerating. I believe this isn’t new news to anybody familiar with the industry. When the rate of change is accelerating, that means the rate of innovation also must accelerate. So, what happens when you have more innovations? They start to converge. That’s when you get a demonstrable impact. The consequence of this is that progress becomes deflationary. There’s Been a Migration From Knowledge Stock to Knowledge Flow. First of all, what is a knowledge stock? This refers to a single asset that you trade in binary transactions. In other words, knowledge stock pertains to pipeline business and this was how the industrial era was built. Meanwhile, knowledge flow is a trade-off of the flow of information associated with the transactions. In this model, competitiveness is not measured by the number of workers but by the degree of access to a global pool of talents. So, moving from knowledge stocks to knowledge flows helps the business industry innovate more rapidly and creatively to produce new products and outcomes. Fractionalization of Assets. When you fractionalize assets, you make it easier for more people to use that asset or to take advantage of it. I believe there’s a massive market to fractionalize in today’s workforce. And for most high-performing companies, the most valuable assets they can fractionalize are their people and workforce. This leads me to my next observation about another growing trend in the market nowadays Erosion of Employee Tenure. If you’re under 45 years old in the US today, you’ll probably change companies every four and a half years. If you’re under 35, you’ll change every 2.8 years. Now, here’s my question for business leaders and executives: Do you really believe you have a stable workforce? Why am I asking this? Because this is what’s happening in 2021. Welcome to what I’ve coined The Great Realization, where 46% of employees say they plan on changing jobs within the year. This is a massive change! How can anyone conclude that they're good at managing a variable workforce if their primary focus when they talk about their people and their talent is their full-time workforce? I don’t mean you should forget your full-time staff. What I mean is you should not only pay attention to your full-time workforce at the peril of other assets that can help grow and create value in your company. Asynchronous Communication. Asynchronous communication has been going on since the rise of social media and advanced technology. This is the communication model that is used by most education institutions in the last 15 months. I believe asynchronous communication is going to be a significant form of communication in the conduct of business. You can’t be successful in managing a transient, fluid workforce if all you do is synchronous communication. You also have to learn to communicate asynchronously to drive productivity into your workforce. Opportunities are mostly around continued innovation so that you can effectively work as independents. I do believe we will continue to see an adoption of project-based operating models and this will fuel the use of independents. This is because for the hottest, deepest skills that are needed on the planet, not every company needs all of those people all of the time. And if by definition, you're the best at what you do, you will be an independent―not because this is the growing trend nowadays but because you will trade yourself at your own price. Hope you’ve found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Friday! Stay tuned for next Friday's article where I’ll discuss an ancient health routine that can help you live a fuller and happier life inside the workforce and out!