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We believe passionately that every organization needs to serve all of its stakeholders – employees, shareholders, customers, communities and society at large.

The challenge is to achieve this by creating work that is meaningful, rewarding and productive.

Welcome to the FutureWork Forum

We are a worldwide network of professionals passionate about the evolution of work and its impact on our lives. Today’s professional landscape is one of continual and rapid transformation of how work is organized. The Forum provides leaders with lucid and practical perspectives on the way forward – by opening frank discussions on the implications for their organizations and society.

We believe in a human-centred approach to work design. This fresh perspective recognizes the vital role that committed workforces makes to the increased value of organizations, enabling them to make a long-term positive contribution to society. Leaders need to respond to the new values and perceptions of work – driven by technology leaps (not least artificial intelligence) and post-pandemic demands that that workers are making of their employers.

In their rush to adapt to the rapidly evolving workplace and market pressures, many managers are forgetting the simple fact that people at all levels of an organization want to be recognized and listened to. We are convinced that human-centric leadership will do more to motivate people and boost corporate value than any new management framework.

We see many people re-evaluating how work best fits in their lives; and that the broader workforce is questioning previously accepted assumptions about how work is done. How to embrace and encourage this transformation is what tomorrow’s leaders must do.

Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson

We are deeply sorry to announce the death of our founder and Chairman, Mike Johnson, who passed away peacefully in hospital on August 15th

Mike was a hugely charismatic and inspiring person. A journalist by trade, he wrote 12 business books, including “Winning the People Wars” and “Starting out on your Own”. He contributed to several world of work studies for the Economist and the Financial Times and consulted with many Fortune 500 firms and global institutions.

A truly engaging person, Mike was great company. His huge range of friends will remember many (often long) evenings spent putting the world, and particularly the world of work, to rights. He was well travelled and knowledgeable on global affairs. Never shy to share his opinion and provoke new thinking he would often challenge the status quo and disrupt vested interests He lived for many years in Brussels where he had a wide circle of friends. He returned to live in the UK with his wife and newborn son and settled in Lymington, where he quickly established himself in the community.

An example of Mike’s vision was the founding of the FutureWork Forum in 2003 – long before ‘the future of work’ became a fashionable term. The FWF was established to help leaders and organizations prepare for the challenges ahead and continues to flourish today. Partners of the Forum who knew Mike well will miss his stimulating contributions to meetings and his journalistic ability to express his ideas in writing. In recent years, his health had been in decline, following a stroke in 2014, which was then followed by the loss of his wife Julie and their son Cameron, both of whom he missed terribly.

Click here to reader some tributes from friends and colleagues.

FutureWork Forum Services

Its the rich mix of talent, expertise and experience that makes the FWF offer so unique. The diversity of its people and their collective knowledge and skill set them apart from other groups and although each have a set of individual specialisms, the services are arranged in the following broad categories.

Coaching

Coaching

Personal advice to senior managers about their leadership style in the digital age.
Consulting

Consulting

Working with organizations to implement change and achieve business objectives.
Research

Research

Gathering and analyzing data, writing reports, and presenting conclusions on future-of-work subjects.
Speaking

Speaking

Conference presentations and keynote speeches on a broad set of issues related to the changing world of work.
Training

Training

Improving the skills and knowledge of managers and staff through conferences, seminars and workshops.
Writing

Writing

Producing articles, papers and books addressing key business issues.

FWF Partner Organisations

Partners of the Future Work Forum have their own independent organisations providing a variety of services. We also have a select group of Patrons whose organisations support the Forum. For more details click on the logos below or see the Partners page.