Image — Facebook

What Is “The Metaverse” And How Might It Impact Your Job And The Work World?

“The Metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it — from the factory floor to the meeting room.” — Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO.

“I’m skeptical that we’re going to wake up in the morning and intentionally sit at home, strap on our headsets and conduct all of our daily activities that way. We had to do that during the pandemic, and we don’t really like it so much.” — Strauss Zelnick, Take-Two CEO (video game company)

News item — Global consulting firm Accenture has purchased 60,000 Oculus virtual reality headsets to facilitate the onboarding of the 118,000 new employees it hired last year.

Until the Ukraine invasion hijacked the headlines some weeks ago, there had been several continuing BIG and sometimes breathless storylines triangulating the business press, the tech press, and the general press. Bitcoin/cryptocurrency, Web3, non-fungible tokens (NFT), and The Metaverse are several such hot topics. Because the focus of my articles is on the world of work, the focus here will be on the topic of the Metaverse because of the huge potential impact on employees, teams, bosses, organizations.

In fact, the Metaverse could change the way work itself gets done. And if that’s true, it’s not a very big leap of inference to conclude that it could change the way employees and managers interact with colleagues, suppliers, and customers.

Maybe.

So, what exactly is the Metaverse and why all the hype about it? The first part of this two-part article will be a stage-setting of sorts. Some terms and definitions related to the Metaverse will be provided as well as a few insights and predictions from some of the digital cognoscenti. It wouldn’t make sense here to jump directly into the impact the Metaverse might have on how we work differently in the future if readers are unclear about what we are even talking about.

And this initial article is also intended to save readers some time in acquiring baseline knowledge about the Metaverse in order to see what the fuss is about, as well as to have intelligent and informed conversations about it. There are, well, many articles, soundbites, videos, monographs, advertisements etc. out there. How many? Type “Metaverse” into the search engine of your choice. I used Google and it reported there are 88,200,000 results as of April 2.

Full disclosure — I’ve not looked at all 88 million items but I have read a bunch. Not unexpectedly, some of the articles are conflicting, some are super-geeky. Many focus on the technology required for the Metaverse, others on its potential social impact, both positive and negative. Lots of facts, lots of opinions. The attempt here is to share my own working knowledge of some key concepts and principles as a result of more than a few hours of screen time getting smarter about this rich and complex topic.

The second part of this article — to be completed and published about a week after this one is released -gets at the provocative question posed at the start: How might it impact the work world and peoples’ jobs? And maybe your job.

Let’s start with some more news items:

• Last October Facebook renamed and re-logo’d itself as Meta Platforms to demonstrate the new Metaverse focus of the company;
• A Goldman Sachs analyst recently called the Metaverse an “$8 trillion market opportunity;”
• Microsoft recently offered almost $70 billion to acquire video game maker Blizzard Activision to accelerate its ambitions to be a major player in the coming Metaverse;
• Roblox — which you or perhaps your kids use to immersively “game” — is a platform for virtual worlds (Metaverse) and has 50 million users/month. In the first quarter of 2021 players also spent $652 million on the site’s virtual currency, Robux, which can be used to purchase hats, weapons, hot air balloons and other digital items for their characters;
• Mark Zuckerberg recently announced that employees of Meta will no longer be known as Facebookers, but instead as “metamates;”
• Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica has recently appointed a Chief Metaverse Officer, although the global company says it does not yet have a Metaverse strategy;
• 71-year-old ex-Disney CEO Robert Iger recently announced he has made a substantial investment in a start-up company that creates avatars for the Metaverse. The company creates tools that “Allow users to create different types of avatar species, create different avatar fashion lines, and create different avatars worlds and interactive avatar experiences.” Iger will also have a seat on the company’s board;
• And speaking of avatar fashion lines, multiple Metaverse enthusiasts in the press have spoken of the need for employees in the coming Metaverse to dress their avatars (of themselves) appropriately for work, paving the way for paid avatar fashion advisors. As Dave Barry used to say, I’m not making this up…

Clearly, the hype machine is in overdrive about this future development and there is some real money chasing it.

But what exactly is this Metaverse thing that promises (threatens?) to transform our lives, including our work lives? Well, it’s sort of complicated. And there’s heavy speculation involved, ladled up with heavy doses of wishful thinking. But there is an emerging consensus on what the basic concepts or components are.

The term “Metaverse” itself was coined in a dystopian sci-fi novel called Snow Crash which was published in 1992 by writer Neal Stephenson. In his book, which has inspired a whole generation of techies as well as Silicon Valley companies, the author combined the words “meta” and “universe” to mean a 3D virtual space. The book, which came out 30 years ago, referenced avatars, virtual reality goggles, and other technologies that have since become a reality.

Experts’ Definitions

Matthew Ball heads up a high-tech venture capital fund and is a recognized expert on the Metaverse. His widely-read insights and observations about the Metaverse qualify him as an “influencer” and here is how he defines it in, um, layperson terms. “The Metaverse is a massively scaled and interoperable network of real-time rendered 3D virtual worlds which can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an effectively unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence, and with continuity of data, such as identity, history, entitlements, objects, communications, and payments.”

Got that?

Actually, once you get past what appears to be Buzzword Bingo, he does sort of nail it in terms of the different functionalities and attributes of the envisioned Metaverse (oops — that sounded buzzwordy as well…). Simply put, the Metaverse is supposed to allow us to exist in virtual space apart from our corporal or “real” world. We won’t simply be on the outside looking “in” like in old video games — instead, a version of us will be in the virtual world itself.

Mark Zuckerberg used more prosaic and youth-oriented language recently when he described his vision of the Metaverse as “An online world where individuals can participate in immersive experiences such as attend concerts, purchase digital goods and hang out with each other as avatars, in some cases using virtual and augmented-reality headsets.”

Purchase digital goods. Hang out with each other as avatars. Are you as excited as I am about that prospect?

For interested readers who want to expand their understanding of the Metaverse basics beyond this brief treatment here, there are many useful “starter” articles out there among the 88 million. A brief overview article I liked and which has a business focus to it appeared in a recent issue of Fortune magazine. Or one could choose to watch Mark Zuckerberg’s 10 minute edited down version of a much longer video he presented last November at the Facebook/Meta rebranding event. Another article readers will find useful is from a consulting firm Adecco which mercifully doesn’t read like a sales pitch.

It’s easy to imagine gaming and entertainment applications for the Metaverse. Even now, in virtual reality games like Roblox and Fortnite, one plays through one’s avatar or virtual character even without virtual reality (VR) headsets. As the technology progresses, everything will seem even more realistic and the interactions in the virtual world will be more immersive. The experts say that we’ll even be able to express our emotions in this virtual world.

The world of commerce will also undergo big changes as people can buy digital assets, try on clothing before they buy, digitally walk through homes and buildings that are for sale, take digital trips and see the world without getting on an airplane or cruise ship, etc. This is already happening, as Fortune magazine reports that someone recently bought a Gucci Queen Bee Dionysus digital handbag for $4,115. The real-world handbag sells for “only” $3,400. An avatar will definitely be styling in the virtual world… It’s almost certain that the role of salespeople will dramatically change or even go away in heavily digitalized consumer goods sectors.

Distinction — “Virtual” and “Remote” are not the same thing…

An important distinction is useful here, and that is the use of the word “virtual.” In this extended pandemic period, we have often used the expression “virtual classroom” to mean learning remotely by way of connected devices like computers and iPads via a video platform like Zoom. The same holds true for business meetings. However, the term “virtual” in Metaverse lingo has a far more distinct and technical meaning — it means an alternative or simulated universe. So, what has taken place in classrooms and in business meetings around the world during COVID should not accurately be called “virtual.” The better term is “remote.” Similarly, working from home is working “remotely” not “virtually.”

With a basic foundation laid about what the Metaverse is and is not, we can now explore the question we started with: How might this future Metaverse — this state of virtual reality, or “alt space” as some call it — impact the way we work and the way we work together? “Hanging out” as avatars is not quite the same as getting work done.

In the second part of this article, we’ll look at how some facets of work that could change (and not change) as a result of the Metaverse. For instance:

• What kinds of jobs will likely change and how might those impacted job holders perform their daily activities/tasks differently? What kinds of jobs will likely not change?
• What aspect of work might make best use of Metaverse technology (spoiler alert — I think it will be training)
• To what extent will we attend meetings not as our physical selves but as our avatar digital twins or as holograms?
• COVID masking resistance among employees has been a big issue for some companies during the pandemic. How will employees — especially older ones — respond to being required to wear a VR headset to attend a meeting or to perform a task? (Below image by Engadget)

• People wear VR headsets when they play VR games because they want to enhance their entertainment experience. It’s their choice. Some people, though, get dizzy or nauseous using them so they opt out (a big reason the much-ballyhooed 3-D TV flopped). At work, the job might require wearing the device, so how do employees opt out for reasons of their personal health? What sort of accommodations will be made? Similarly for employees with visual or other disabilities who might not be able to easily use the devices? Will there need to be ADA.2? Granted, in time the headset/goggle devices will likely shrink in size and no longer look and feel like a snorkel mask or like a squid attacking your face;
• Younger people — especially “digital natives” — embrace digital technology because it has always been a part of their lives. Middle-aged and older people, not as much so. Young employees who are gamers will feel right at home donning a headset and interacting in the digital world with colleagues and customers. Older workers might find it all a bit creepy or cartoonish. Even other-worldly. Almost all of the pictures of avatars I’ve seen are of youngish people — cannot recall any gray hairs in the groups at all. What happened to the virtues of diversity and inclusion? Will the willingness or even the ability to embrace the Metaverse technology be a factor in employees being promoted and/or developed?
• How will managers coach and demonstrate empathy as avatars? Will there be new forms of leadership training to develop managerial skills in the company’s “alt space?” Clearly, managers will need to be highly adaptable and agile to be effective in both the “real” world and in the virtual world. Will there need to be a separate managerial track for those who are really good in-person leaders but who are not equally effective in the virtual world? Will younger digital native leaders have a leg up promotion-wise on their counterparts who are not as comfortable in the digital space?

“Predicting” the future of the Metaverse

Obviously, the future of work and the workplace in the Metaverse is only starting to be written. Absolutely no one knows for sure how all of this will play out in the next 10 years and beyond and yes, that includes me. Adoption of technology rarely moves in a straight line. There are zigs and zags. There are unanticipated developments, like the quick pivot to Zoom meetings because of the pandemic. Who saw that coming?

Absolute projections and extrapolations about technology based on the present can be a fool’s errand. Very few people on the planet in 1989 — the year the internet was invented — could have predicted how it would have grown and morphed and become an important part of our everyday lives. In fact, some very smart people got it very wrong. Consider these quotes:

• “I predict the Internet will soon go spectacularly supernova and in 1996 catastrophically collapse.” Robert Metcalf, inventor of the Ethernet technology in 1995.
• “The truth is no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher… And how about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. [The] director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we’ll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Internet. Uh, sure.” Clifford Stoll, prominent scientist and author in a famous 1995 Newsweek article. Note — Newsweek ceased its print publication in 2012 and is now an on-line only magazine.

And prominent experts in the past have often failed to appreciate the potential advances in game-changing technology.

• “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, CEO, computer company Digital Equipment, 1977
• “… there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, long time IBM CEO, 1943
• “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable. It would mean that the atom would have to be shattered at will.” Albert Einstein, 1932.
• “When the Paris Exhibition [of 1878] closes, electric light will close with it and no more will be heard of it.” Oxford University professor Erasmus Wilson.

As malaprop maven Yogi Berra is purported to have said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.”

It was Alan Kay (not Peter Drucker) who said, “The best way to predict the future is to invent the future.” Many business leaders like Mark Zuckerberg are trying to do just that by pitching and investing in their vision of what this Metaverse future should look like and feel like. They will have an outsized influence on what will come about. Many are looking at the Metaverse as a financial opportunity and it won’t just happen by accidental and laissez-faire evolution.

In 2022 there are many more questions about the Metaverse than there are answers.

Next in Part 2 — The Metaverse and the World of Work

About the author: Mike Hoban is a business topics writer and leadership coach/ advisor. He is actively working at becoming a world-class grandpa to his five young granddaughters. In addition to his 35+ years experience as a leader, consultant, and business owner he has also published extensively in Fast Company and wrote many thought leadership pieces for DDI when he was there. He also wrote a business column for 12 years. His recent commentaries — including many about leading during the COVID crisis — can be found on his LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-hoban-b5756b6/ He can also be reached at mjhoban99@gmail.com.