FUTURE OF WORK—PRESENT TENSE
Acquisition University, she has a firm grasp on the military work- force and culture, as well. In an interview with Army AL&T, she spoke about how the Army can take advantage of its pandemic- related shift to telework, and the leadership skills needed for managing remote teams.
“It’s really interesting, because all the things we talk about in this class are things that actually had to happen because of COVID— the remote teaming, fully virtual companies with employees in different countries, all working on specific tasks together,” she said. Te key, she said, is that leaders must be willing to ask ques- tions. A lot of questions.
“Proximity, especially in the military, is where control happens,” she said. “Te military is a command-and-control organization, so how do we pivot to what is now this very dispersed workforce, if we are going to be working with people remotely? What does leadership look like in a remote workforce? What do meetings look like? Do we have meetings? What do efficiencies look like and what are the focus points? How do you measure what’s getting done? And how do you measure people, when it comes time to evaluate them? And what’s worth measuring, anyway?” Don’t worry. Muskopf said that the emphasis should be on asking the questions—no one expects you to have all of those answers today.
LEADING THE CHARGE For Army leaders, there is much to consider. Muskopf said the starting point should be focusing on the mission first. “Te number one thing is obviously the mission at hand. What is it that you need to accomplish? And then thinking, how can you leverage this new opportunity, and you should see it as an oppor- tunity, to have people working flexibly to support that mission,” she said.
“I think most people had a bit of a panic once they realized, ‘Now I have to work remotely. I have to figure out this Teams thing.’ So far so good, right? I mean, things weren’t perfect, but they went pretty well. So now that we have some basic capabili- ties installed, and we’ve learned some things from the pandemic, including what went right. How do we take those lessons learned and make this even better?”
Te next step, Muskopf said, is for leaders to check in with their people. “We can talk about the processes and infrastructures and technologies we need to keep doing our work, but I don’t think enough people are talking about how people are doing with regard to COVID. It’s a stressful time for everyone, but certainly for people in the military environment.”
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WORK FORCE
ALWAYS A STUDENT
In April 2017, Muskopf was enrolled in the Columbia University M.S. in information and knowledge strategy program where she now teaches. (Photo courtesy of Jamie Muskopf)
WORKPLACE
FUTURE OF
WORK WORK
FUTURE OVERLAP
When studying the future of work, it's important to consider how people, work and technology intersect—changes in the workplace reflect changes in the people, the technology and the work itself. (Graphic by National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health)
Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2022
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