34 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 2
pany from crumbling. All this volatility and
speed means companies must be able to
quickly make major shifts—like culture
changes—frequently.
2. HIRE FOR DIVERSITY (OF PERSPECTIVES)
Now that diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI
for short, has begun to take its rightful place
at the top of corporate priority lists, let’s re-
member why. Yes, it’s illegal to discriminate,
but study after study has shown that it is the
range of approaches, insights, and views that
benefit the business. In practice, that means
finding people who have vastly different life
experiences, not more brogrammers who
happen to have different colored skin. It’s
time to recruit more different kinds of differ-
ent: genders, sexuality, ages, abilities, be-
liefs, histories, geographies, and political
leanings to name a few.
3. COMPANY VALUES BECOME COMPA-
NY DIFFERENTIATORS
Many leaders understand that company val-
ues are a critical culture tool. The problem is
that most values are uninspired platitudes.
To be useful in the design and management
of culture, values need to radically different.
Why? Values guide employee decision mak-
ing. That’s their job. The more unique the
more meaningful, helping employees be-
come better stewards of the culture. Run of
the mill values are everywhere, but it is pos-
sible to go beyond “innovative” and
“trustworthy” to something that will make
your company stand out to candidates and
customers alike.
4. WORKERS RE-ESTABLISH WORK-LIFE
BOUNDARIES
Emails, texts, and slack messages don't care
if it's 10:00am or 10:00pm. Those little red
dots almost seem designed to keep your
mind at work. To stop the ever-expanding
workday from seeping into every nook of
life, it is only a matter of time before em-
ployees erect self-imposed dividers, so when
and where can become choices
again. Forward-looking managers will not
only accept this as the new reality but do
whatever they can to enable this new evolu-
tion of boundary setting.5. MICRO MULTI-NATIONALS
Despite trends toward political isolationism,
businesses continue to untether from geo-
graphic confines. Its only time before even
small companies go international. Inexpen-
sive but fabulous talent will be too big of a
draw to ignore for companies comfortable
with remote workers. This shift could have a
massive impact on working hours as full-
time becomes fluid-time. Whether this new
world-wide web of employees becomes a
business advantage or a challenge too large
to surmount depends on the company and
how they manage the shift from 9-to-5 to
anytime.6. F2F ON THE RISE
Speaking of remote, by the year 2020 work-
ing from somewhere that is not a company
office will shift from exception to acceptance
to predominance. But, as remote work be-
comes more prevalent, so will the im-
portance of in-person connections. Just look
at the investment hyper-remote companies