9 Insights From Adobe Digital Summit About How We Work

How do the attendees at this year’s Adobe Summit conference feel about work?

Do they feel like their coworkers can effortlessly see their contributions? Do they feel like they have a clear sense for what other departments at their company are doing? Do they feel overwhelmed by the pace of technological change?

We were curious to get answers, so we spent the first day of the conference surveying more than 250 attendees to get their views.

Here’s what we found.

1. Most workers feel like their teammates do have a clear view of their contributions at work.

2. However, they don’t feel like other departments have a clear view of everything their department is working on.

3. Most frequently feel frustrated by how many separate business apps their workplace requires them to use.

4. Most feel like the apps they use don’t interact seamlessly with each other, so data in one app is automatically available in another.

5. They don't feel overwhelmed with the pace of technological change where they work.

6. They feel like they often have to search for content in multiple places such as email, Slack, or Google docs.

7. When they return from Adobe Summit, most feel they won’t be able to see all their new work requests at a glance.

8. Most aren’t using a digital proofing tool.

9. Most are using a work management tool.

Taken together, this data shows that knowledge workers are facing a digital work crisis. As we’ve written elsewhere, too many companies are managing work in an outdated manner, using yesterday's metaphors (folders, files, and spreadsheets) for today's complicated digital landscape. This carries big implications for executives, who are too often flying blind with no way to plan, execute, and measure work at a strategic level.

Put simply, the digital work crisis is the combination of all the pressures that come with digitization, including overwhelming software options, endless iterations, global competition, isolated workers, communication overload, information overload, and increased rate of technological change.

To properly address the digital work crisis, we must first understand these new pressures and then know how to effectively rein in the chaos the crisis brings.

For specifics on how to reign in this chaos, see 7 Work Management Essentials: A Checklist.