The Future of Work

Do you remember when you first did something really useful, work-wise, on your phone?

I distinctly remember logging into my phone to access my work emails for the first time — and with that one sign in, I was suddenly unchained from my desk.

Not that most of us realised it at the time, but that small element of freedom and flexibility has gone on to make a big difference to our work lives. (For better or worse; individual results may vary..)

But that was the better part of 15 years ago now, and since then, we haven’t really changed the stereotypical work dynamic that much.

Most of our work lives — our digital lives in general, really — are still viewed through one small rectangle we take with us, a bigger one that flips open, and sometimes a bigger one still that we have perched on our desk.

(Don’t get me started on the smallest one on our wrist. Or the medium one we also carry around that sort of does all the same things we do on the one that flips open, but worse..)

Everything that we do online; everything we create, say, hear, plan and send, is shuffled between and arranged to fit within these rectangles. And we’ve become very good at doing just that. The past two years have really shown us that we can do almost anything, from anywhere, using a random combination of these rectangles and some good connectivity.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the BEST way to get stuff done.

From the earliest days of my interest in immersive technologies, I’ve always seen incredible utility being the eventual reason for wider adoption.

No one started using mobile phones so they could play snake on the run. They started using them because they were useful — they saved time and improved your life.

It will be the same with AR and VR (and metaverse-like 3D web technologies more broadly).

Most of my career to this point has been spent explaining what I saw as the future utility of immersive tech, while designing experiences that worked in the here and now. Which have not generally been that useful. And other than a few notable and impressive exceptions, that has also been the story for most of the wider industry. There is a certain maturity and refinement that is needed for technologies to cross over from a novelty to a genuine utility.

Now, I feel like we’re very close to that tipping point; a confluence of pandemic-led adoption of hybrid work and a new found appetite for workplace innovation, combined with the steady improvement of the hardware and software that underpins it all.

I’m not the only person who feels that way either.

Recently I began talking to Co-founder and CEO Daragh McGrath about what the future looked like for his impressive team, Enablo.

Enablo is a workplace collaboration and communication company that was founded in Brisbane, Australia around 6 years ago. Since then, they’ve done an incredible job introducing a vast number of employees, from some of the biggest organisations around the world, to new ways of working together — primarily through seamless rollouts of Workplace by Meta, Asana and Google Workspaces.

These tools have had a transformative effect on the businesses that have adopted them — allowing all employees to communicate more effectively through pandemics, overnight pivots, natural disasters and more.

Once they sign businesses up, they don’t leave for one very good reason; life is better with better tools at your disposal.

And this is something I can personally attest to. I’ve never felt so quickly up-to-speed and immersed in the culture of a business than I have since joining Enablo. In fact, for name-challenged people like me, this type of communication has been a revelation — allowing me to put faces and personalities to names faster than I ever have been able to before.

But now, as well as continuing to showcase how best to use other people’s tools, Enablo is going to start creating their own — within a new division called Reality Labs.

This team will combine their knowledge of optimal workplace communication, their deep connections to industries of all types and their technical knowhow to help create the future of work.

It’s the right team, tackling the right problem at the right time; and I am excited to say I am now in the process of building the Reality Lab team and leading it into this exciting future.

Our mission will be to equalise the digital and physical workplace for all, with frictionless immersive workplace experiences that genuinely add value and utility to your day. We’re not aiming to build for the bleeding edge, we’re building to help employees in all industries to communicate and collaborate better.

Enablo Reality Labs (ERL) will free you from that array of rectangles I mentioned earlier, starting with the VC rectangle we have all become intimately familiar with over the past two years and expanding out from there.

What could that look like? Well, that’s something I would love to continue talking to you about over the coming months and years as we get creating. But for now, let me leave you with a concept of the more distant future that we can imagine today.

Day one at a new workplace — they send you a box with a keyboard and a pair of glasses in it. That’s it. No laptop, no mobile, just something that looks really similar to normal glasses, but inside, they’re anything but. Once on and operating, an array of sensors constantly analyses the world around you, building up a three dimensional digital representation, while others sense all of your movements and facial expressions.

This data is sent via 5G to the cloud, where it is processed, rendered and sent back in real time for display within the clear lenses in front of your eyes. Together the real world and the digital world combine in your eye to form a live, coherent, augmented view of your surroundings.

It could be as subtle as being able to silently read a message in your periphery while doing something else, or as complex as a house full of persistent digital artwork and home decor that dynamically brightens your home and changes each day. Oh and don’t expect to buy a TV again when you can just anchor any size screen to any wall throughout your home — and always have it on the channel you want.

But that’s all for later. Today, this device is going to help you get stuff done.

You pull out your keyboard and fire up your ‘workstation’. (You can use these glasses without a keyboard — a digital representation can be projected on any surface at any time — but we all love the kinetic feedback of a real button press.) A resizable monitor appears floating in front of you. You can also add others of any size or configuration that works for you, creating an infinite (and infinitely customisable) office without one additional peripheral. Your screens (why not have heaps!) aren’t just floating 2D panels either — images that relate to 3D objects appear as just that, rotating models that you can move around and examine. Your keyboard controls what’s happening on all of these digital panels, along with small gestures of your hands and fingers, allowing you to navigate your way through your onboarding information with ease.

You hear a knock and look up to see your physical doorway light up with a digital glow, then a representation of a new colleague walks through into your room to welcome you. No longer confined to a mid shot in a rectangle window, they can walk into your space and talk naturally, face to face. And that includes eye lines, hand gestures and all those other non-verbals that make talking in real life easier and less draining than when confined to a 2D box.

Later on, you decide to explore the office further. You hit a button and the real world dissolves away, and you find yourself in a common area designed to exactly mimic the common area within your new head office. There are all sorts of people in here talking, or having a coffee; two are even playing table tennis. Least no one has to collect the digital ball when a shot is missed!

A group of people are also in there discussing an upcoming project they’re excited about. You move closer and the conversation slowly comes into earshot. Despite the fact that you are all separated across thousands of kilometers, you can all see each other and interact naturally. You can see accurate facial expressions and body language, leading to something that feels more like a free-wheeling conversation — not a stuttering meeting.

You wander away and the conversation fades. You then notice post-it notes on the wall with handwritten notes, left there digitally by people all over the world. You open up your toolkit and write one yourself to say hi, before sticking it on the digital wall for others to read later.

After that, it’s time for your first design review meeting. You toggle the slider to bring your real surroundings back into view — but on your desk is the focus of the upcoming meeting — a 3D model waiting for feedback before going into production. The other participants appear in your room to begin the session, gathered around the object but occluded by your desk and other physical furniture.

After that’s done, it’s time for a walk — but something urgent pops up for response as you cross the park. You sit down at a bench and with a flick of your wrist, instantly your full workstation is hovering in front of you. Your fingers dance across virtual keys, projected on the table. Another flick of your wrist and you’re back to your walk.

Last on the list today is a stakeholder meeting. You jump into the elevator within your digital work space and enter the details for the meeting — and soon you are, visually at least, in their foyer. You can see and hear employees and others passing through it talking casually. You head for the meeting area and find the right space — while waving to a few old friends you recognised in the hallway.

This is some of what I imagined being possible the first time I pulled on a VR headset and held up a phone to try AR.

The devices we have available to us today are a long way off being able to achieve this — but genuinely useful experiences are starting to emerge.

Being able to recreate the full gamut of normal workplace experiences and interactions regardless of location is the key ingredient needed to unlock the value of immersive technologies. It’s also the best way to equalise and enhance the employee experience for all, leading to a connected and engaged team that can do almost anything, together.

That will be a powerful force for your business. I look forward to working with the team and Enablo to help bring it to you as soon as we can.