PART II

WHAT NEXT?

Spectrums of Choice for Better Working and Living

I don’t predict the future. All I do is look around at the problems we are neglecting now and give them about 30 years to grow into full-fledged disasters.¹

OCTAVIA E. BUTLER

As the initial COVID-19 crisis raged, the What Next? question that preoccupied many organizations was this: When can we go back to the office?

We agree that when to go back is an important question, but it is number six on our list of Seven Spectrums of Choice for offices and officing that we introduce in part II. The first question to ask is the purpose question: Why do you want to go to an office at all?

There are good reasons why some organizations want physical offices, but whether or not to have an office should be a question asked, not an assumption made. You must look at a complex range of choices that cross the seven spectrums we explore—and it should not be a simple choice. Each chapter in part II applies futureback thinking to increase your clarity by spotting signals, sensing drivers, and forecasting possible futures.

The purpose of part II is to explore the question: What Next? To inform your choices for a better future, consider that each of the Seven Spectrums of Choice for offices has a sliding scale. Remember, there is a full spectrum of possibilities between each of the polarities. There are no simple binary choices.

To help imagine what’s next, we invited artists from across the globe to read our forecasts and create illustrations inspired by the scenarios in each part II chapter.² These remarkable people (and one AI art generator called Midjourney) created the art of Office Shock.

We invite you to read our scenarios, look at their illustrations, and visualize your own stories.

   Purpose (chapter 4): Sharing Navigational Stars, Katia Herrera, Dominican Republic

   Outcomes (chapter 5): Cascading Outcomes, Yeti Iglesias, Mexico, and Anaelle Press, Israel

   Climate Impacts (chapter 6): A Regenerative Office, Dustin Jacobus, Belgium

   Belonging (chapter 7): Celebrating Uniqueness, Analia Iglesias, Argentina

   Augmentation (chapter 8): Embodied Augmentation, Proxima Centauri B, Germany

   Place and Time (chapter 9): Officeverse Emerging, Joseph Press, augmented by Midjourney

   Agility (chapter 10): Braided Agility, Yeti Iglesias, Mexico