Future-Proofing Your Organization - Now is the Time to Strike
Companies have downsized dramatically in the last few months. As the economy turns around (as it will) and companies begin to rebuild, the smart-move is to methodically and purposefully build for the future by maximizing the productivity each employee is capable of. To do so, you’ll need a development plan in place before a hiring plan.
Step 1
Don’t think about the skills and positions you need to fill today – think about the ones you need to meet tomorrow. The World Economic Forum just published their 2020 Jobs Report (which looks ahead to the skills that will be needed in the next five years), and of the 15 skills listed, 11 are soft skills like creativity, negotiation, and self management. (Note to job-seekers: these are the key words you’ll want to weave into your resume as well.)
While the skills they list may not align directly with your organization’s needs, you should spend some time identifying not just the skills, but the capabilities of your future workers. This is not an exercise that can be done in ten-minutes nor one that should be considered a “brainstorming activity.” The compilation should be something you let your subconscious work on as you observe present-work and consider where you want your business to be in the future. One idea is to set up a whiteboard or post-it note area and as ideas occur to you, add them to “the wall.” After a month or so, review the wall and see if you can bring the capabilities together into themes. For instance, “emphasis on the customer” and “collaborative teamwork” might both fall under a communication theme. With increased verbal communication skills your employees will be able to both form better relationships with the customer as well as work with their colleagues more effectively.
Step 2
Create a purposeful, long-term plan for developing the skills that your organization will need. Every organization is unique in terms of the soft skills they need to embrace. For instance a hospital system may need to weave ethics and critical thinking into every development opportunity, while a manufacturing organization might need more emphasis on creativity and stakeholder management.
From the moment your newly-hired employees walk in the door, they should have a development plan, a career path, and an understanding of the five or 10 key skills needed by the organization (such as ethics or stakeholder management, as stated above).
What is most critical in this approach, however, is that the skill development is done consistently and that it is woven into the fabric of work responsibilities. What training and professional development has done to its own detriment, in the past few decades, is deliver skills training in isolation from on-the-job application. Training classes have been reduced to mere hours instead of meted out slowly and methodically as the knowledge and concepts are needed (think of an apprenticeship model as the ideal), so employees are barely acquainted with the knowledge and skills they need to do their work and advance their careers.
In my 2017 book, Future-Proofing Your Organization, I provide an example of teaching risk management which isn’t focused on the concept of risk management so much as the command of risk management. Ensuring employees have a command of risk management requires teaching it from different angles and in different scenarios over time, not just in one short training class.
Step 3
Weave mentoring and coaching into all management and employee development activities. One of the most critical linchpins to developing capability is the use of mentoring and coaching as an on-going development process. Too often companies see these methods as “programs” that take time away from “the business.” With just a few tweaks it is possible to integrate mentoring and coaching into the normal course of business and accomplish outsized ROI in comparison to the time, effort, and logistics required of training programs.
Going forward into 2021 and beyond, companies will do themselves the most good by re-thinking what professional development looks like and how it is delivered, so that they can create a fully-capable, maximum-output workforce that will future-proof their organization.
Will a Robot Take My Job? Maybe.
Here’s How to Protect Yourself
In almost all professions there is a growing concern about AI (artificial intelligence) and robotics, how they will impact the workplace, and which jobs will be impacted, specifically.
In many areas of life we embrace AI and robotics, such as our smart-home devices, navigation devices, and robot vacuums; for the most part those devices have enhanced our lives, without taking jobs away (unless you were a professional map reader).
On the other hand, AI and robots are encroaching on and eliminating jobs in many industries such as banking (many banks now have video conferencing at ATM machines, which enables a teller to assist with more complex transactions and allows the bank to eliminate the brick and mortar location – and the employees), car sales (Carvana has been selling used cars from vending machines for six years), and the production of steel (over 100,000 jobs lost in the industry in the last 20 years, due to automation).
Many skilled and tenured employees are wondering: Will a robot take my job? And the answer is: Yes, quite possibly.
There is almost no telling where an AI technology can be used to supplant a skilled employee. While the most obvious jobs to be impacted are those that are transactional and repetitive (bank teller, fast food worker, cashier), more skilled professions can be impacted as well such as a surgeon or design engineer.
Human-Only Skills are Needed
According to the Future of Jobs Report published by the World Economic Forum, the “jobs of the future” will rely on critical behavioral skills (not technical skills) such as problem-solving, critical thinking, and creativity.[i]
A more recent study published by IBM[ii], which surveyed over 5800 senior business leaders in 50 countries identified “ability to work effectively in a team environment” and “ability to communicate effectively in a business environment,” as two of the top five skills needed in business today.
What these studies show is that 21st-century work is about thinking and contributing, not just about doing and certainly not about following directions. More than having the right skills, future workers need to possess the right behaviors, and behaviors are not something corporate America teaches.
How to Protect Yourself
If you would like to protect yourself from robot-replacement you need to develop the types of behaviors listed above. Your function may be replaced, but you will not, because you will be making a uniquely human contribution to the organization. Here are 3 skills which will help you stay employable in the 21st century – and how you can demonstrate them.
Creativity
Most people think creativity refers to being able to conjure something up from nothing, like an artist or author. But in business, creativity means recognizing that there is no “right answer” to most dilemmas and the creative individual will look for multiple solutions before deciding up on the best one – not the right one. To develop creativity, be sure to not accept the first answer or solution that presents itself; use phrases like, “What else is possible?” “Let’s think about this and revisit it in a few days.” or “How can we break this?”
If you’d like a free 3-page guide to increasing creativity in the workplace, visit https://www.trainingdr.com/special-reports/ways-to-boost-creative-thinking/
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is ancillary to creativity; it is another way of ensuring that the first reasonable solution isn’t seized upon. One way to think more critically is to conduct research – who else has encountered the same type of issue? what do your customers think? can you test-drive the solution in some way? One of my favorite ways to think more critically is to answer the question “What could go wrong?” People are naturally inclined to think their ideas or solutions are sure-fire winners, but a critical thinker will look at the idea from all angles and consider how the outcome might not be ideal.
Ability to Work in a Team Environment
More and more, output is accomplished by teams. Even if you work remotely, from your home, it’s likely you are part of a team. Although young people have often participated on teams, being on a team is not the same as working as a team. And teaming is not a skill that is taught in corporate America. In order to be a successful team contributor you’ll need good listening, paraphrasing, and feedback skills. Asking for, and respecting, other people’s opinions is also critical; people feel more a part of a team when they feel they’ve been heard and considered, even if ultimately their input isn’t utilized.
Conclusion
Being able to stay ahead of the robots means being able to contribute those “uniquely human skills that cannot be done by machines,” says HR researcher and analyst, Josh Bersin. Computers can only manipulate and react to data, while humans have curiosity, perception, possibility, and communication on their side.
The future is not that far-off – think about how quickly smartphones have become a must-have device for almost everyone you know. The time to prepare yourself for your future job is now when you have the ability to plan your career success, rather than waiting to see if a robot will take your job or not.
Updated June 19 2020
According to The International Federation of Robotics, for every 10,000 workers, the following countries have robotics:
Singapore - 831
South Korea 774
Germany 338
US 217