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Beyond the Office: Reimagining Work, Purpose, and AI's Role
- horizonshiftlab
- May 15
- 17 min read
What does the future of work truly look like beyond the office? Join us in this conversation with Dr. Joseph Press, Associate Partner at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies and co-author of "Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living." In this engaging episode, we delve into the profound shifts impacting our work lives, from the rise of AI as augmented intelligence to the evolving concepts of purpose, belonging, and individual agency. Drawing from the practical framework in "Office Shock," Joseph shares insights on navigating changes and reimagining how we work, emphasizing conscious choices, future-back thinking, AI's role and the importance of human connection and creativity in an increasingly augmented world. Discover how to move beyond the "where" of work to explore the deeper "why" and how we can collectively design more sustainable and meaningful futures.
Where to Find Joseph Press:
LinkedIn:
Get a copy of Office Shock:
Selected Links:
Kaufman, Scott Barry. Transcend: The New Science of Self-actualization. TarcherPerigee, 2020.
Florida, Richard L. The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community, and Everyday Life. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
Press, J., & Celi, M. Designing Sustainable Futures: How to Imagine, Create, and Lead the Transition to a Better World (1st ed.). Routledge, 2024.
Episode Transcript:
Raakhee: (00:00)
Hello and welcome to Signal Shift. I'm Raakhee, I have Lana here today as well and a very esteemed guest with us today, Joseph Press. A very, very warm welcome, Joseph. We're extremely grateful for your time today.
Joseph: (00:12)
Thank you, Raakhee, for inviting me. Thank you, Lana. It's a pleasure to be here.
Raakhee: (00:17)
Joseph Press is an associated partner at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. He's the vice dean of NACAA, an intercultural design institute founded by EDNA and the China Academy of Art. He's a futures architect and a professor of innovation, design and leadership who began his career as an architect designing workspaces in the US and Europe.
Following the completion of his PhD in design technology from MIT, he moved into management consulting at Deloitte for 16 years. He led the founding of Ideals, Innovation and Design as Leadership with the Politecnico di Milano, where he has also been a visiting professor at the School of Management. Joseph is also co-founder and futures architect of Make Our Future.
A global network of practitioners empowering organizations to accelerate the transition to more sustainable practices. He continues to be a research affiliate at the Institute for the Future where Lana and I have both earned our foresight certifications. And he has co-authored multiple books, including Ideals, Innovation and Design as Leadership, a Design-Driven Guide for Entrepreneurs, and Office Shock: Creating Better Futures for Working and Living.
And there's even more that I'm not going to get a chance to touch on today. So you will definitely want to look up Joseph's work and his books. In the last few weeks, we have focused our episodes on discussing the future of work, hoping to inspire more innovative thinking around what your future job could be and what the very nature of work will be in the future. And we've paid particular attention to designers who are defining new fields and developing new ways of solving problems.
Today, we want to explore insights from Office Shock along with Joseph's other work to help us navigate this topic. Office Shock provides a practical, flexible, and aspirational framework for the exploration of work, individually, for yourself, and collectively, for your team, and even with your family. So Joseph, a very, warm welcome, and we are so excited to be speaking with you today.
Joseph: (02:25)
Happy to be here. Looking forward jumping into the shocks that are still happening, reverberations and some, yeah, new shocks as well.
Raakhee: (02:35)
Yeah, definitely some new shocks with 2025. So looking forward to jumping into it. But I think just starting right off at the top, if we can explore the context for this changing nature of the world of work and have your thoughts on that.
Joseph: (02:51)
Well, particularly, I think when Bob and I and Christine set out to write the book, we set out to use the shock of where are we going to be working? And many of us would probably remember, are we ever going to go back to the office? COVID had a massive shift towards remote working for us recovering management consultants.
It was finally, we don't need to explain the value of digital tools. So that was a great accelerator for adoption of digital tools. But what we wanted to do with the book was to say, okay,
You're asking a very important question, where do I work? But that is just the beginning of the questions that we should be asking ourselves in regard to this question of work. Work fundamentally was changing the place, but it wasn't fundamentally changing some of the other very important questions about why do we work?
What are the outcomes of our work? How will this all add up for climate change? Profit is an important driver, but do we continue to drive in a very capitalistic for-profit mindset when we know how much that mindset is, the mindset and the practices are contributing to climate change? And then, Chapter eight of the book was, we had this idea that maybe this thing called AI would also change and shock the way that we work. So chapter eight, I was very pleased to have written that and learned a lot from Bob Johansson, whom you might have interacted with when you were at IFTF. He's been there from the beginning when the internet first started and seen so much evolution of technology. And what I learned from him was the importance of not talking about artificial intelligence, in other words, creating an artificial or synthetic non-human intelligence, but looking at AI as augmented intelligence, being able to augment our own human capabilities.
And I'll wrap this response up by saying Office Shock was all about that breaking up a boundary between your personal life, your organizational life, and your social life with your community. And with AI, that's really the crux of the question. How much of my cognitive activities are going to be reduced because I'm using more AI? Similar to our spatial understanding, has significantly reduced because of our dependency on Google Maps.
⁓ So anyway, lots of shocks happening and I'm pleased that the book resonated
Lana: (05:58)
When Raakhee and I were chatting beforehand and we wanted to like drill down on a couple of things, we both said augmentation was our favorite chapter. we thought that was, mean, so clearly we do resume because we were both excited to dig into that specifically.
Joseph: (06:19)
As Raakhee mentioned, I'm the vice dean of a design institute that's a joint program between a French design school based in Nantes, N-A-N-T-E-S, with an American accent, you might say Nantes. It's actually where the infrastructure for the Statue of Liberty was built,150 years ago. It's actually an interesting story of its evolution from a very, very industrial port into a creative economy. If you're familiar with Richard Florida's book, Creative Economies. And a couple of years ago, this institute was created in Hangzhou, China, which is where Alibaba is located. It's about an hour south of Shanghai. And it's one of the most well-known art academies in China. And I'm running a program that caters to about 280 Chinese students. We have three bachelor's program in product design. We have industrial design, environmental design, and digital design. And we have a master's program as well. So just to give you a very, very straight anecdote. So we have been trying to explore this spectrum of augmentation. And the spectrum of augmentation is human activity and you might say, know, technology or artificial technology or digital activity, but not human activity. And what's fascinating in the creative space, which is where we're focused, is that is fundamental, not just to the output, your creative output. So are you gonna use Mid Journey ⁓ or ⁓ DALL-E for a Gen AI image? Are you gonna use Sora or I'm now using ⁓ Kling 2.0 for a AI generated video? That's obvious, that's obvious.
But the real question is what does it mean for a designer's, in French, raison d'etre, your reason for being? ⁓ In Office Shock, in the first chapter, we talk about purpose. And purpose being slightly different than meaning. We need purpose. need an aspirational goal to accomplish. But meaning, as we talk about in the book, meaning is much deeper than just the cognitive or neurochemical pleasure. Raakhee you worked at the neuroleadership. It's not just the endorphins that are generated when you complete a task, particularly when you complete an aspirational task, which has some impact, positive impact. We talk about the SDGs in the book at the beginning as well, but meaning is much deeper. Meaning has to do with memories. It has to do with identity.
So we also referred in that chapter to Maslow's hierarchy of needs and the revised version that came out at about the same time we were writing. And for a designer, a creative, that's fundamental because when I have a good idea, when I have a good idea to create something, when I have a story that I really want to tell, my motivation, my passion comes from that raison d'etre, comes from that inner identity, that inner fulfillment. Why is that important for a designer? And an innovator is a type of designer because most people are going to reject it. Most people are going to be a bit skeptical, some more than others, particularly if you're innovating within an organization. The real challenge is how do get people to make some of the choices to adopt this new idea, this new technology, this new creative output?
I'm pleased and blessed to have the opportunity to be exploring the spectrum of augmentation within the creative field, because I think the creative field also touches on our humanity. For centuries, our humanity is expressed in language and our creative output, the sketches on the cave walls. Till today, even anyone that creates a video on YouTube or TikTok, there is some creative investment that's being made there. So that's being put into question and real questions about identity of creatives and for anyone that's not in the creative space, it really will give you a opportunity to move into the creative space or to become a pure consumer.
So the spectrum is becoming, are you creating, are you producing, or are you just passively consuming? And that is, it's an unknown right now. It's an unknown. If you see what's happened in social media over the last 20 years, the spectrum has gone to consumption. And you watch anyone, and I see it here in China, but it's everywhere. Everyone is,consuming information on their phone. there is most likely, and Raakhee, you probably know more about this than I do, significant cognitive decline because there's no real interaction, either socially, intellectually, it's just pure consumption. But that's another topic. The point being that if you know that there is this spectrum.
What we really want to do in the book is to encourage people to make conscious choices about where do you want to be for wherever you are during the day, wherever you are in your life, wherever you are with your loved ones, just to make a conscious choice. And that's why part three of the book has a lot of questions to try to encourage people to first know that you're in a spectrum, but then you've got to make a choice.
And that was the focus of my new book called Designing Sustainable Futures. It basically expanded the spectrum of climate change that we wrote about in Office Shock. And I worked closely with Professor Manuela Celi, who's a design futurist at the Politecnico di Milano. And we kind of said, look, we know there's a spectrum. There's a lot of choices to be made.
We can't continue to be relativists to say, your choice is OK because of your identity, your preferences. And I'm looking at you and Raakhee, your choices are OK because of your identity and your preferences. That's the relativist postmodern argument that has basically been a major contributor to where we are today. So what we try to do in sustainable futures was to say we need to make a choice. What is our preferred future in our community? And we can talk more about that later, but I just wanted to make the connection with this idea of a spectrum, the importance of choices to be made, and this specific example, how AI is impacting the creative space.
Raakhee: (14:02)
I'll just put this out there for everyone listening, in Office Shock, you're introduced to these spectrums of choice. And these are some of the ones that Joseph is referencing, purpose, outcomes, climate impacts, augmentation. And you get to play with really through the book, which is, like I said, it's such a practical framework. This mixing board where you get to make the choice of where you can be on the spectrum. for whoever's watching, I'm just going to show you this amazing image Shows You the Mixing Board that comes straight out of the book. So yeah, it's just such a fantastic way to consider the spectrum and where you sit. But augmentation, there's a quote in the book that I have to touch on.
I'm so curious, working with students right now in the design world, how they are feeling about this and where they're sitting with this. But the quote was, "even if people become increasingly augmented, the opportunity to highlight their distinct talents and contributions will increase". And I found this to be fantastic. But I wanted to, yeah, understand it more from your perspective and what was meant with that statement.
Joseph: (15:15)
The only way that you'll be able, anyone, and I'll speak specifically about my students here, the only way that my students are able to take advantage of Gen AIs creative powers is to be able to have some level of understanding of what they want. So what do I mean by that? Concrete example, in a lot of design work, we need to do storytelling, right? You have a good idea, what's the experience of the user? What is the products and services and how do they ⁓ actually function between an app, between a physical store? I actually did have someone ⁓ come to teach them sketching, because sketching helps you train the eye and then train the hand, eye and hand. It's fundamental for creatives. And I'm really concerned that when I, did the sketching and they did a really good job because they have passed exams to be accepted to the China Academy of Art. They did that really well to be able to adapt their creative skills to product design or environmental design. But when I had somebody come and teach AI, they just put their pencil away.
And I was like, no, don't do that. Don't do that. So example, going from one end of the spectrum to the other end of the spectrum, what does it take for a creative or what does it take for anybody to be able to come back and say, wait, no, I need to draw a sketch of the kind of angle that I want.
Lana: (16:51)
You're breaking the binary of it being like, it's either me or AI is taking my job. And you're saying, no, it's kind of more hybrid. ⁓ But I think using ⁓ the way that the book is structured and the future back thinking is sort of instead of being like, my gosh, what's my next immediate step, that sort of panic feeling, being like, OK. Let's think big picture, start at the end or like start 10 years from now. And how are we moving towards the future that you want to build? I think that, you know, that framing and I don't know, there's something interesting there about where you are in your career and how you apply some of these, you know, the office shock lessons and insights into, you know, how you design, intentionally design your own know, journey, work life journey.
Joseph: (17:51)
Exactly as you said, Lana, to practice future back thinking for yourself. So that was why we decided to make this tweak to the process three basic questions. What future? What next? What now? What future do I want? What future do we want? If that's the future that I want or we want, then what will be next? What will be the experiences of that desired future?
And if those are the experiences that we anticipate are going to be in that future, then what do I do now? What can I do now? What do I want to prioritize now? So at its core, it's foresight, inside action. But again, what we wanted to do was make it more personal. then that was really the framing of our part three of the book to have questions, across all of the spectrums
So, you going back to what you said earlier, Lana, about, you know, knowing creatives and the challenges they face, yes, the future is already here, right? And as, you know, as Gibson likes to say, and all of our, know, foresight practitioners like to be reminded, the future is already here. It's just unevenly distributed. The challenge with AI is that I wouldn't even call it unevenly distributed, it's just everywhere. It's just everywhere. So where do you start? It's overwhelming. It's it's a tsunami. So where do you start? Well, start about, well, the future is already here and everyone is using AI. That means that the experiences in the creative industry are going to be significantly under threat. Unless
You have some capacity and capability, capacity being space in your mind and hands, and capability being in your hands to be able to use some of these tools in order to, what's a creative, they're storytellers. And I'm very happy that the second bullet point on page 177 for spectrum augmentation of individuals, the second bullet point is synchronized through stories.
I intend to develop my own stories about what humans do best and how humans, including me, can be augmented to make a better life.
That's really what I think we need to be doing as creatives Everyone should be thinking about how can AI augment my creative expression, my creative ideas.
My creative storytelling, particularly if you talk about designing your own life. You need to be able to tell your own story in a way that makes sense to you in a creative and compelling way that you can tell others as well. And there's still, in my view, there's still no replacement for human interaction.
What we're left with is our ability to look at each other in the eyes, even online, to be able to look each other in the eyes and know there's a real human being there.
That makes a different conversation because that touches on the inner meaning. We are social animals. We are hardwired for looking for inner human meaning.
We really encourage everyone to make choices in this spectrum specifically to be able to make a better life for yourself, for your loved ones and the communities that you are a part of and ideally contribute to.
Raakhee: (21:26)
The other spectrum, was belonging and going to the other end of this augmentation. then the other idea of belonging and again, just another interesting quote from the book I have to call it.
It says, " office work of the past tended to help you find people like you and your background. This concept of cultural fit that we're all so familiar with, right? ⁓ "But the office and office work of the future will allow you to work with those who are purposefully different".
And there was something that purposefully different that just, think, resonated. Lana, I'm sure it resonated with you as well. It's something we try to do.
And the whole idea of know your roots and then know your roots, the actual paths as well. how do we balance exactly what I think this book is saying the future calls for versus I think some of the realities that are struggles for everyone right now in the world.
Joseph: (22:19)
I think purposely different means that there's authenticity and authenticity in choosing ⁓ identity to accomplish something, to contribute to something.
We have gone to such extreme on the spectrum of individual and collective. And you remember that first chapter on purpose is individual and collective, ⁓ particularly in the West in general.
But particularly in the United States, it's gone to such extreme individualism that there is no hope for shared purpose. There's no hope for collective action. ⁓ And I think what we were trying to call out was, yes, at the core, there is the individual. That's who we are as human beings.
But the only way for us to be able to fulfill deeper meaning is to connect with community and to connect with others. And that was why as part of chapter three, I'm sorry, as part of part three, we have those layers, the individual, the organizational, and the communal, that we need to be working with others, going back to your question in this chapter that connect us into those other spheres. Because that's the way that we will fulfill our deeper meaning as human beings. And that's where, again, I go back to what we quoted Scott Barry Kaufman, he reconceptualized Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which by the way is not a hierarchy.
And that's why we really like Kaufman's book, Transcend, the New Science of Self-Actualization. And his interpretation uses the metaphor of a sailboat, not a rigid pyramid, floating on the choppy seas of life. Excuse me for the sloppy, the kitsch metaphor. But the point being, purposely different means that you have to know where you're coming from, you have to know your past, your roots, and how did you get there.
If we want to make a better life for ourselves, for our loved ones, and the communities that we're part of, absolutely have to see belonging across those spectrums.
Raakhee: (24:41)
Joseph, yeah, think any final, any final parting thoughts from you
Joseph: (24:44)
I would just say, I would say two things. Number one, ⁓ Bob and I were very, very remorse in having the word office on the cover of the book. Because when it came out, people were already starting to go back to the office. AI was already starting to be the number one topic and everybody looked at it. ⁓ office. yeah.
We're done with that. We already have an office policy in place. So yeah, we're done with that. Tell us about AI. ⁓ And the book much more profound in my humble opinion. And that was why I set out to take this methodology, to take these purposes and to apply them to something that has not gone away, the planet. And I'd love to do a podcast with you about designing sustainable futures because I really felt like it's office shock applied to the planet and obviously applied to people, bringing them together for a design challenge. How do we design sustainable futures in a way that addresses different needs, different definitions of better futures? How does it address the importance of asking the questions?
How do we produce and how do we consume in a way to inform more sustainable products and services? And ultimately, how do we bring people together in our communities to make some of those hard choices to have an impact on climate change? Because if we don't address that, everything else, where we work and AI and belonging, there's only one planet.
So we can't be relativists about that fact. So we do need to address that. That was why I set out and wrote that book.
So it came out in November. And I'm very happy to say that the Chinese version will come out next October. Not this October, but the following October.
Raakhee: (26:52)
Think in closing, I'll touch on something you said as well, which is, yeah, this is a really profound book. So don't go with the office bit. what I love about it is it's so practical. think it's something people can take and really start to work with and apply these questions as you really are sitting with this idea of what am I going to do next? And what does the world of work look like next? I'm going to, again, there were so many gems in the book. I want to read just another little piece. And I want to leave you all with something else that I thought was really great from the book. But ⁓ here's a quote from the book as well that says, "the bad news is that there will be fewer full-time jobs. The good news is that there will be many more ways to make a living. And the even better news is that people will be free to pursue different aspects of the career they love, or even totally different careers in parallel. People will combine meaningful work with meaningful contributions to their communities. Technology will provide much more flexibility for every individual, and a variety of professional and personal communities will benefit from their talents."
So what an optimistic, beautiful way of looking at all of this and a future that we all get to co-create. It's really the actions we're going to take now that create this reality.
And I think just the last bit that I loved as well is ⁓ we might have all heard of the concept of VUCA, which is a world that's volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. And to account to that, which is so phenomenal in the book, it speaks about vision as accounted to volatility, understanding is accounted to uncertainty, clarity is accounted to complexity and agility to count ambiguity. So much is in our hands and there's so much we can do.
Joseph, thank you again so much for being here with us today. Yeah, and thank you to everyone for listening, liking, subscribing, and we will see you again next time. Bye for now.
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