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
Thinking Skills and Teaming Skills go Hand-in-Hand
The sheer complexity of business today means that no one person can know it all or be in command of it all. With the global marketplace, the importance and reliance on technology, and the imperative for innovation, cross-functional teams are the only way to develop viable business solutions. Learning to be a contributing member of a team is so critical that Carter Cast, former CEO of Walmart.com, deems it one of only two reasons for career derailment - the other being a lack of self-awareness.
There is a misguided assumption that teaming comes naturally.
Oftentimes organizations provide team building events, such as experiential activities (rope climbing) or retreats (three days off-site) which are designed to enhance interpersonal relationships. But these types of events are not related to the work itself.
Teaching individuals how to work together as a team is a different outcome (see Team Capabilities, below) and requires learning team skills in the context of conducting team work. Being a contributing member of a team is as much about the personal contribution of one's role, as the functional role.
The capabilities listed below don't come together overnight. They require multiple exposures to team assignments and projects, and to be truly successful they require an understanding of the various functions of a business and how each contributes to the overall organization. This is just a short list - you can find the full list in the Future-Proofing book. Collaboration and Cooperation - knowing how your work fits in to the larger-whole means you make decisions based on the impact to others / the organization.
Communication - expressing ideas as well as feelings AND being open to receiving communication demonstrates the ability to "make sense" of information and people.
Sharing credit - being able to share credit demonstrates an ability to see one's role in perspective and demonstrates leadership.
Promoting understanding - being open to new or conflicting ideas, asking for more information, allowing "unpopular" sentiment to be heard and valued all stretch one's thinking abilities,
Appreciating diversity - well-developed thinkers appreciate that almost everything can be seen from multiple angles and that more diverse ideas bring about better outcomes.
Moderating conflict - the ability to resolve conflict without anger or resentment demonstrates a mature thought process and commitment to the greater good.
Putting a group of people together does not make them "a team." Teaming skills are developed through the give and take of team-related work over the course of months and sometimes years.
Twelve Weeks to Becoming the Manager of the Most Kick-ass Department in Your Company
As organizational development consultants, we are often tasked with creating activities or events that "move an organization forward." Clients ask us to solve problems related to communication, teamwork, poor workmanship, lack of commitment or accountability, and many other issues which stymie output and frustrate individuals.
Every organization is different, of course, but if you are a manager who would like to elevate your profile and your department's reputation, here is an activity that anyone can use to achieve both. All you need to do is commit to one hour per week for three months and follow the process below.
Week 1
This works better if your team is co-located. There is something to be said for looking your colleagues in the eye.) Bring together your team and have each person stand, state their name, their role, and declare how their role interacts with or is enmeshed with another person in attendance and their role. Repeat until everyone has spoken.Be aware: This will be an uncomfortable struggle at first, but by week 6 people will easily rattle off their inter-dependencies and accountabilities.
Weeks 2 - 6
At subsequent weekly 1-hour meetings add one-more-individual to the interdependency declaration. In other words, in week 1 each speaker must choose one other individual and declare how their role interacts with or is enmeshed with that person’s role. In week 2 they'll need to choose two other individuals. In week 3, they'll choose three other individuals, and so on. Slowly your department will begin to recognize how they are dependent on one another. This process works because it is visual, verbal, requires people to think to make the association, and is repeated week after week.
Weeks 4 - 6
Once people have the routine of choosing co-workers and declaring how they work together, "step it up" by having them add something about the other role that is frustrating, confusing or that they always wondered about. This might sound like, "I'm Susan Jones. I schedule the demo-rooms for the sales group. Sean Rhodes is one of my internal customers; he frequently meets with prospective clients in the demo rooms. Sean, I've wondered how far in advance you schedule meetings with prospects that need a demo. Is it usually the same-week or do you have more notice?"
What Susan is really getting at is, "I am tired of Sean always yelling at me that he has a client arriving within the hour and no where to put them." But perhaps Susan doesn't realize that Sean gets little advance notice himself. Or perhaps she just made Sean aware that he needs to schedule the demo rooms with more notice than he has been giving.
Further conversation can happen after your 1-hour meeting, allowing Susan and Sean to come to a solution so that neither of them regularly feels frustrated by the other (without your meeting, and this process, the chance of this conversation happening at all is slim and perhaps the whole "issue" would lead to a major blow-up down the road).
Weeks 7 - 12
Time to step it up again. Now that you've got your team regularly focusing on the way they work with and are dependent upon one another, start bringing in "guests" from other departments (directly upstream and downstream are easiest at the start). Stretch their knowledge of and accountability for other roles and departments. The same process is used, but now each speaker must include someone (the guest) outside your immediate group.
Let's assume you invited a mechanic from the maintenance group. This might sound like, "I'm Susan Jones. I schedule the demo-rooms for the sales group. I also issue a monthly report to maintenance for each machine, which logs how many hours each machine was used during the month."
Susan may or may not know that the hours-used report allows maintenance to conduct preventative maintenance on the demo-machines which are otherwise out-of-sight, out-of-mind for them. Preventative maintenance ensures that a salesperson isn't embarrassed by a demo-machine that fails during a client presentation. If Susan doesn't know that's what her report is used for, she'll learn it during your monthly meeting (by asking "I've often wondered what that report is used for,") and will understand the value and utility of it.
If Susan does know and declares the purpose of her report, the rest of the group will come to learn that this maintenance occurs unbeknownst to them in order to ensure the sales group has the equipment they need to be successful.
In addition to your current group of workers becoming more knowledgeable about, and accountable to, their co-workers and the larger organization, this is a great process for bringing new hires into the fold. They will quickly understand the work processes and outputs of your department and how they are interrelated, which is crucial to doing their own job well and knowing who to ask for help.
In just 12 short weeks you'll have the most highly functioning department in your organization, guaranteed.
Drop us a line and tell us how it went. And don't be stingy! When other managers ask how you created such a high-functioning team - share the process, like we just did for you.