“The very concept of a ‘job’ is changing,” argues a newly released white paper from the Upwork Research Institute. The paper notes that for the most part, since the Industrial Revolution, “individuals’ jobs have been discrete and straightforward,” requiring a specific and relatively fixed set of skills. Now, though, the tasks that make up jobs, and the skills required to perform them, are more in flux than ever before.

We recently spoke to Kelly Monahan, managing director of the Institute and co-author of the white paper, about what that means in practice for the way employers think about teams, projects, and organizational priorities. Below is a transcript of our conversation, lightly edited for clarity: