When I speak privately with executives about the future of work, or publicly in front of larger audiences, I often find myself returning to the same three mantras: 1) that flex-work (remote, hybrid, asynchronous) requires trust; 2) that you simply cannot make new working models work successfully without real investment; and 3) that the flex everyone is talking about now (remote, hybrid, and asynchronous work) is just the beginning. With advanced robotics, generative AI and other new technologies evolving rapidly, get ready for even more changes in how we work—and how we even think about work.

Flexibility is a five-letter word.

My dear friend and former colleague Grant Freeland, a former Forbes contributor, once asked me how kids spell love. “I’ll give you a hint,” he said, “it’s a four-letter word.”

I knew it was probably a trick question, but I gave the obvious answer anyway: “L-O-V-E.”

“Wrong,” he said triumphantly, “It’s T-I-M-E.”