With the lines between work and nonwork already badly frayed, Gartner Inc. predicts that the nature of work will undergo 10 key changes through 2020. Organizations will need to plan for increasingly chaotic environments that are out of their direct control, and adaptation must involve adjusting to all 10 of the trends.

“Work will become less routine, characterized by increased volatility, hyperconnectedness, ‘swarming’ and more,” says Tom Austin, vice president and Gartner fellow. By 2015, 40 percent or more of an organization’s work will be “nonroutine,” up from 25 percent in 2010. “People will swarm more often and work solo less,” says Austin. “They’ll work with others with whom they have few links, and teams will include people outside the control of the organization. In addition, simulation, visualization, and unification technologies, working across yottabytes of data per second, will demand an emphasis on new perceptual skills.”

Organizations will need to determine which of the 10 key changes in the nature of work will affect them, and consider whether radically different technology governance models will be required.

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