I make a living speaking at dozens of conferences each year, advising some of the world's most forward‐thinking organizations, providing thought leadership to vendors, and creating content for anyone to access, including podcasts, videos, and articles. As a futurist part of my job isn't to predict the future but to keep people and organizations from being surprised by what the future will bring. Not only do I explore the future of work, but I also look at specific industries ranging from finance to pharmaceutical. Every organization around the world is powered by people and the influx of AI and technology is finally forcing us to consider what a people‐centric organization actually looks like.

One evening while writing this book I was watching a show on TV and a commercial came on for a particular drug. At the end of the commercial the side effects were listed—weight gain, nausea, anxiety, difficulty breathing, sleeplessness, hair loss, bleeding from the eyes, skin discoloration, and possibly death. I nearly fell off the couch! Who in their right mind would take a drug like that? Then I thought about it for a moment and realized that most of us work for organizations that have the exact same side effects. Why is it that we aren't willing to take the drug with the scary side effects yet we are willing to subject ourselves to countless hours of working for an organization that has the same results? Save yourself some time, stay home and just take the drug.

Now think about your organization and ask yourself what the side effects of working there are. Do you have anxiety, arguments with your spouse, weight problems, or issues with bleeding eyeballs? Or perhaps you feel inspired, fulfilled, curious, challenged, and supported. Interestingly enough when I have confidential discussions with executives I ask them, “If I could bottle up what it was like to work at your organization and give you that in pill form right now, would you swallow the pill?” Almost always the answer is “no.” How can we expect employees to swallow that same pill when the leaders who work there won't? It's time to change that.

As I look at the various trends that affect the future of work—AI and automation, alternative work arrangements, organizational design, changing behaviors, and the like—one thing is resoundingly clear. We are now at a crucial point when organizations must make a choice. Do they redesign themselves to put employees at the center, or do they keep carrying on the way they always have? Focusing on short‐term Band‐Aid solutions is no longer enough. We need new engines.

All the data that I have compiled and all the companies I have researched clearly show that the business impact of employee experience is great but only if you go all in.

I understand that the task is great and that the decision isn't an easy one to make. Should you really get rid of the decades of older work styles and approaches in favor of this concept of employee experience? Yes, you should. As I look ahead to the coming years, it's quite difficult to imagine a scenario in which an organization can thrive without focusing on employee experience. To reach a higher peak, organizations must first climb down the mountain that they have been traversing. My hope is that this book has given you the inspiration, the guidance, and the tools you need to begin or continue on that journey.

Life is short. We all deserve, and in fact, should demand, to work for an organization that has been (re)designed to truly know its people and has mastered the art and science of creating a place where people want, not need, to show up to work. We all deserve and should demand to be a part of an Experiential Organization. We live in a world of “short‐termism” with a focus on quarterly profits which is makes it hard to want to invest in something that can potentially take years to see impact from. What we need now our executives with the commitment to change, managers with the willingness to lead the change, and employees with the courage to speak up to force the change to happen. Are you that executive, that manager, or that employee?