Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think

by Joseph B. Fuller, Judith K. Wallenstein, Manjari Raman, and Alice de Chalendar

MANY MANAGERS HAVE LITTLE FAITH in their employees’ ability to survive the twists and turns of a rapidly evolving economy. “The majority of people in disappearing jobs do not realize what is coming,” the head of strategy at a top German bank recently told us. “My call center workers are neither able nor willing to change.”

This kind of thinking is common, but it’s wrong, as we learned after surveying thousands of employees around the world. In 2018, in an attempt to understand the various forces shaping the nature of work, Harvard Business School’s Project on Managing the Future of Work and the Boston Consulting ...

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