This week I was going through old stuff I had saved on my computer (somebody told me I should do that in the spring, and, at long last, it looks like spring may have finally come to Florida.) One of the more interesting finds was a list of the “Top Ten Workplace Trends of 2006″, as identified by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

To be honest, they hit the nail on the proverbial head with much of their prognostication (with a few notable, and glaring exceptions). And yet, four years later, what hits me right between the eyes is the clear fact that the list was written with absolutely no foreknowledge of the economic cataclysm that was lurking just off the calendar, and that came ashore just two short years later.

Here’s the list:

1. Rising health care costs.

2. Increased use of outsourcing (offshoring) of jobs to other countries.

3. Threat of increased healthcare/medical costs on the economic competitiveness of the United States.

4. Increased demand for work/life balance.

5. Retirement of large numbers of baby boomers around the same time.

6. New attitudes toward aging and retirement as baby boomers reach retirement age.

7. Rise in the number of people without health insurance.

8. Increase in identity theft.

9. Work intensification as employers try to increase productivity with fewer employees.

10. Vulnerability.

OK – right off the bat, we’ve got 3 of the 10 trends dealing with healthcare. And they were right on target with all 3. The game changed last week. Whether for better or worse remains to be seen. But there’s no question that they were right on this one. That healthcare would become, to paraphrase Joe Biden, a “big deal”.

But look at all the stuff about retiring baby boomers. What retiring baby boomers? Of course, back in blissful ’06, we didn’t know (though maybe we should have?) that our 401(k)’s were headed for shriveldom, and that the unemployment rate was gonna be up there where our 401(k) returns used to be…in the good old days.

I thought it interesting that the list included the two seemingly oxymoronic trends of work intensification and increased demand for work/life balance. The battle rages on, but work intensification is winning. The balance thing has taken a back seat to being lucky enough to have work in the first place. Sad, but true.

But in addition to the economic meltdown and complete flip-flop in the labor supply and demand relationship, here’s what else the ’06 list missed, and in a big way:

• The disintegration (well-earned) of trust in leaders (at work and elsewhere).
• Continued and growing dis-connectedness between workers and the institutions they “appear” to be working for. People simply don’t identify with their “employer” to the degree they once did. Maybe with their profession, their career; but not their employer.
• Continued and growing need for connectedness to something, as manifested by the whole social media phenomenon.
• The coming (and now already here) dearth in leadership development efforts by employers, in large part due to the unforeseen recession.

These trends, and others, help form the basis for the new book we’re working on, along with our friend and colleague Meredith Kimbell, entitled Rebooting Leadership. Look for it this summer.

Meanwhile, what trends do you foresee in the workplace in the next, say, five years? Leave us a comment with at least two serious workplace trends that you see, or expect to see, and we’ll put you on a list to receive a free copy of Rebooting Leadership when it comes out.

Thanks!