Future of Work: Imagining Better Ways to Work

Time Investment: 60-90 minutes of reflection, research, and creative work

Introduction: Beyond Business as Usual

This page is inspired by the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR)’s “Imagining Possible Futures” event, particularly their interactive zine-making workshop. DAIR’s program brings together researchers, activists, and communities to critically examine how technology shapes society and to imagine more equitable futures.

The DAIR approach asks:

What problems bother us about technology?
In an ideal world, how would we design tech?
What would a world look like where the problems we identified are unimaginable?

We’ll adapt this framework to explore the future of work—moving beyond critique to actively imagining better possibilities.

Current Realities: How We Work Now

When people discuss the future of work, certain narratives dominate the conversation. Many business discussions focus heavily on technology—particularly how AI and automation will replace entry-level positions, how remote work technologies enable global teams, or how digital tools increase productivity and efficiency.

Common assumptions about work’s trajectory:

Increasing automation will eliminate many current jobs
Technology adoption is inevitable and inherently progressive
Remote work is the future for knowledge workers
Individual productivity and efficiency are paramount
The market will sort out who succeeds and who doesn’t

Discussion: Unpacking Assumptions

Before we can imagine better futures, we need to examine what we think about current work structures.

Post your thoughts in the Innovation discussion forum:

Question 1: What’s a problem that bothers you about the way we work?

Consider issues like:

Work-life balance and burnout culture
Precarious employment and lack of benefits
The pressure to constantly upskill and remain “relevant”
Geographic inequalities (where you live determines opportunities)
Commute time and environmental impact
Workplace hierarchies and power dynamics
The invisibility of certain types of labor
Credential requirements that exclude capable people
Something else entirely

Question 2: What assumptions underlie how we currently organize work?

For example, the assumption that work must happen during set hours, that productivity can be measured by output, that careers should follow linear paths, that certain work is more valuable than others, or that competition drives innovation better than collaboration.

Format: Write 200-300 words addressing both questions. Be specific about problems and explicit about assumptions.

Ideal World: How Would We Work?

Now shift from critique to imagination. In an ideal world, what would change about work?

Exploring Alternative Work Models

Different organizations and movements are already experimenting with alternative approaches to work. Here are some dimensions to consider as you imagine possibilities:

Work Location & Environment:

Remote, hybrid, or in-person arrangements
Co-working spaces, distributed teams, intentional communities
Environmental design that supports wellbeing
Considerations for neurodiversity and different working styles

Work Structure & Time:

40-hour weeks vs. shorter workweeks vs. flexible schedules
Project-based vs. ongoing employment relationships
Sabbaticals, career breaks, and non-linear career paths
Recognition of reproductive labor, care work, and community contributions

Compensation & Security:

Universal basic income models
Cooperative ownership structures
Profit-sharing and equity arrangements
Benefits decoupled from specific employers
Recognition of non-market value creation

Decision-Making & Power:

Flat vs. hierarchical organizations
Worker councils and democratic governance
Community accountability structures
Transparency in operations and compensation

Social & Environmental Responsibility:

B-Corp certifications and benefit corporations
Regenerative business models
Measuring success beyond profit
Embedding care and sustainability into operations

Research Activity

Explore one of these paths:

Option A: Research DAIR’s Blog

Visit the DAIR Institute blog and read at least two posts about how work, technology, and society intersect in different global contexts.

Post on discussion forum:

Which posts did you read?
What alternative approaches to work or technology did you discover?
How do these approaches challenge dominant narratives about work’s future?
What resonated with you? What surprised you?

Option B: Find a Future-Forward Company

Research a company or organization that approaches work differently. Look for:

Cooperatives or worker-owned businesses
B-Corporations with strong social missions
Companies experimenting with 4-day workweeks
Organizations with radical transparency or flat structures
Businesses built around community care or environmental regeneration

Examples to explore:

Basecamp (4-day summer weeks, anti-hustle culture)
Patagonia (environmental activism, work-life balance)
Platform Cooperatives (tech worker ownership models)
Your own discoveries

Post on discussion forum:

Which organization did you research?
How do they structure work differently?
What problems are they trying to solve through their approach?
What challenges do they face? What seems to be working?
Could their model scale or translate to other contexts?

Option C: Design Your Ideal Work Scenario

Imagine the specific conditions under which you would thrive professionally. Consider:

Environmental factors:

What physical space supports your best work?
What sensory considerations matter to you?
How does your environment connect to nature or community?

Socially-responsible factors:

Whose work do you depend on? How are they treated?
What’s your relationship to the supply chain?
How does your work contribute to or extract from communities?

Psychological & emotional factors:

What gives you a sense of purpose and accomplishment?
How much autonomy do you need? How much structure?
What prevents burnout in your ideal scenario?
How is failure handled? How is learning supported?

Practical considerations:

How do you balance income needs with meaningful work?
What role does work play in your overall life?
How does your work connect to your values?

Post on discussion forum: Share your ideal work scenario (300-400 words). Be as specific and imaginative as possible. Don’t limit yourself to what currently exists—describe what you actually want.

Unimaginable Futures: Beyond Current Trajectories

The most powerful question from the DAIR workshop is: What would a world look like where the problem you identified is unimaginable?

This question asks us to move beyond incremental improvements to fundamentally transformed realities. It’s not about “better work-life balance” but about a world where the work-life split itself no longer makes sense. Not about “fair wages” but about societies where meeting basic needs isn’t contingent on employment.

The Trap of Constant Critique

We’re often encouraged to identify problems, critique systems, and point out what’s wrong. This critical work matters—but it can become a trap. Some people benefit from keeping us focused on arguing about what’s broken rather than building something better.

As writer and organizer Adrienne Maree Brown writes in Imagination Battle:

“We are in an imagination battle. Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha McBride and so many others are dead because, in some white imagination, they were dangerous. And that imagination is so respected that those who kill, based on an imagined, radicalized fear of Black people, are rarely held accountable. Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to a millionaire as part of a shared American dream. Imagination turns Brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination gives us borders, gives us superiority, gives us race as an indicator of ability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s capability. I often feel I am trapped inside someone else’s imagination, and I must engage my own imagination in order to break free.”

The current trajectory of work—increasing automation, precarity, surveillance, and extraction—is not inevitable. It’s the result of specific choices, power structures, and whose imaginations are currently shaping our systems.

Your Creative Response

You might express your response through a short essay describing a day in this transformed world, a mind map showing interconnected systems and relationships, a poem or creative writing piece that captures the feeling of this future, a speculative business scenario detailing how organizations operate, or another format that effectively communicates your vision. Focus on concrete details rather than abstractions—show what this world looks like, feels like, and how it functions in practice.

Guidelines for Your Response

Be specific rather than abstract:

Instead of “people are happier,” describe what brings joy
Instead of “work is different,” show how a day unfolds
Instead of “society is more just,” demonstrate what justice looks like in practice

Ground your vision in values:

What matters in this world? What’s been deprioritized?
How do people relate to each other? To the environment? To technology?

Acknowledge complexity:

Utopias are often boring. What tensions or challenges still exist?
How does this world handle disagreement, scarcity, or change?

Connect to your position:

How does your identity, experience, and field shape this vision?
What perspectives inform your imagination?

Conclusion

The assignment for this week is to contribute to our class zine: Emerging Business Trends, inspired by the DAIR event. You’ll be asked to further develop one of the activities you’ve completed this week—working with an article you identified, building out a more complete authentic-performative framework, or developing your unimaginable future vision—to make your own creative point about business innovations. You might combine elements from multiple activities or focus on expanding one thoroughly. The goal is to exercise your imaginative capacity and practice envisioning alternatives to dominant narratives about work, business, and progress.

As you prepare your zine contribution, consider: What future are you helping to create by imagining it?

📥 Download this Content

Find this file on our repo and download it.

🤖 GAI Study Prompts

Copy the downloaded content and try it with these prompts:

“Help me develop my ‘ideal work scenario’ into a more detailed speculative fiction piece”
“What are examples of successful worker cooperatives or alternative business models around the world?”
“Generate questions that help me think more deeply about what makes work meaningful to me”
“How have conceptions of ‘work’ varied across different cultures and historical periods?”
“Help me create a mind map connecting work structures, environmental sustainability, and social wellbeing”
“What are critiques of common ‘future of work’ narratives that center automation and AI?”
“Suggest creative formats for expressing a speculative vision of transformed work”
“How can I make my future vision specific and concrete rather than vague and abstract?”

Next Activity: Emerging Business Trends Zine Assignment