The pace increases year by year

The working world is becoming increasingly fast-paced, with hardly any time to catch one’s breath, and few opportunities to readjust one’s strategy. Everything must happen without delay, project milestones have a shorter half-life than the planned time for achieving goals, and a maximally agile approach is demanded across the board.

Last but not least, digital business models, mobility, smartphones, technologies such as Big Data, Data Analytics or AI are major causes and drivers of our new “always on” philosophy. It seeps into our working world day by day, doesn’t stop at our privacy, and has long since merged both worlds.

In short, those who believe they can escape or successfully resist this fact have already lost. Those who are smart deal intensively with the advantages and disadvantages and adapt their business, i.e., processes, organization and culture to the new framework conditions. Those who adapt quickly and smartly, don’t try to work against it, identify advantages for their company and adjust structures, create added value for their company.

What does “Work 4.0” specifically mean for the way of working in the digatus Group?

To answer this question comprehensively, one must understand that the development outlined above has one major advantage for employees. They are much more actively involved in shaping the new work culture and can thus very actively and modularly influence the working environment.

The fact that the boss knows everything and knows better than his employees is long gone. The issues have become too complex, the cycles of change too fast, and every single change too disruptive.

The role of boss, superior, manager – whatever you want to call it – is fundamentally changing. The boss of tomorrow must form teams, shape teams, develop employees, coach high performers and support them in delivering top performance. The challenge is, among other things, to achieve this in the context of the new work structures already outlined above. This also includes creating and maintaining optimal framework conditions and continuously working to optimize them.

Eye-level is the new cultural maxim

The boss acts as a colleague, represents their own specialist area or area of competence, and accepts that other specialist or competence areas are represented by colleagues. Team building, trust, and a constructive discussion culture become especially important in these constellations. It’s exclusively and only about the matter at hand, apart from hierarchy and position. Decisions are made based on facts and realities, regardless of who formulated and worked them out. Whether junior or senior, boss or not boss, everyone is heard, everyone is allowed to contribute.

Digital workplace creates speed and freedom

The new technological possibilities allow for working independently of time and place, thereby creating maximum availability of employees for companies. Everyone is almost always available and reachable. Self-evident things like attendance, regulated working hours, clear assignment of individual, fewer topics, personal interaction and much more, fade into the background.

Additionally, the mobile and digital workplace enables efficient, transparent and real-time teamwork, fast and unbureaucratic communication, as well as quick processing of requirements, ideally faster than the competition.

Those who use this side of the coin must also grant their employees the resulting flexibility.

‘Always on’ can mean that the employee travels to Italy with their family for vacation on Thursday, completing necessary work and calls from the campsite, then closes the laptop and is immediately on their Italian holiday.

Without these technical possibilities, companies will simply no longer be able to maintain the required speed in the near future.

Creating a productive work environment for one’s own employees and generating a good atmosphere are, for me, crucial leadership qualities and characterize the leadership of tomorrow.

Stephan Bals – digatus CEO

The Manager of Today is Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur

Well-known managerial airs are passé. The manager must not only execute instructions but also consider in a much more team-oriented way how to implement their directives and achieve goals in the future.

The familiar pattern of receiving goals from above and delegating them down has become obsolete. Creativity is in demand, teams are becoming crucial for success!

In the future, the manager must motivate, inspire, coach, lead at the right moments of course, and always keep an eye on resource utilization. Thus, they must do significantly more for their success in the future.

Fun and Self-Responsibility Create Motivation

This development creates significantly more room for design and action, as well as space for more creativity and self-realization of employees. Tasks and responsibilities are distributed across different expert shoulders, thereby increasing self-responsibility. The more independently tasks can be worked on, the more creativity is allowed, the more equality is lived, and the more employees see their ideas and approaches implemented, the more fun is created!

Fun inspires and motivates and is ultimately the long-term driving force for a successful company!