Future-proofing Ourselves.

Meta increased revenue by over 25 percent from a year ago with nearly 25 fewer employeesIn the first six weeks of this year according to layoffsfyi 157 tech companies have laid of 39608 employees a rate faster than anytime in the last few yearsIn the much smaller media content sector the rate of job losses is the highest it has been with at least 8000 job cuts made in the UK the US and Canada last year include 300 jobs lost in the collapse of news startup the Messenger 70 at Business Insider about 30 at Time 115 at the Los Angeles Times about 50 to 100 people at NBC News and 12 at Condamp233 Nastamp8217s PitchforkThree forces are fusing and resculpting employment and the workplace 1 Technology 2 Unbundled and Distributed work 3 Just in time global marketplacesA board room that is not planning on how to leverage some combination of the exponential productivity power of AI the ability to hire talent anywhere due to unbundled distributed work and the availability of global marketplaces for just in time resources from talent to technology to reimagine rethink and reinvent their business will soon lose their board seats or control of their companyWhy would anyone run a company in 2024 the way they ran it in 2019 If one launched a firm today would it look like the firm of 2019As the cost of knowledge goes to zero and it becomes clear that AI is significantly underhyped every knowledge workers job will change before the end of 2024The rate and impact of change of new workplaces new markets and new tech feeding off each other will drive greater change much faster than seen in decadesThis is not the time to wish for the best keep our head down hope that we can retire before the tsunami hits or wait for our company or boss to help transform usDelegating our future to anybody else is not a good strategyStarting right now we must invest time and resources to hone sculpt and architect the six key skills will be essential in the future to complement machines coexist with change and ensure continuous reinventionThree of these have to do with individual competence Cognition Creativity Curiosity and how we connect with each other and the world outside our minds including new AI agents Collaborate Communicate ConvinceCognitionCognition is simply learning to think and keeping our mental operating system and skills constantly upgradedIt is no longer good enough just to be up to dateWe need to be up to tomorrowThis requires deliberate practice and sustained work Improved cognition is achievableBut one must work at it and many of us are so swamped with keeping up with our daily workload that we do not invest in growing our skills and expertise This proves to eventually lead to irrelevance as the needs for yesterdayamp8217s skill sets erode and one has not replaced them with a new set of skills for the futureIf we cannot upgrade our mental operating systems we will become less relevantStart using and leveraging Microsoft CoPilot or Gemini Advanced or the Open AI set of tools Buy the paid version since they are six months ahead of the free version and far superior The increased productivity and time savings will be multiples of the fifty or sixty dollars a month one might spend to subscribe to multiple resources and free up the time we all claim we do not haveAlso begin thinking of operating like a Company of One by combining skills reputation and collaboration that your existing company would want to hire or partner withThe more you have options the longer you will stay in a company you love Maximize career optionality to ensure long term career in one place Read how to become a company of oneAnd here is a step by step way to learn how to learn and to unlearnCreativityCreativity is connecting dots in new ways looking beyond the obvious and this skill will be key as AI powered computers data crunch and corelate faster than we ever willTo be human is to be creativeCreativity is at its heart the way we deal with a world of change by adapting evolving and reinventingWe need to learn and feed this inside us The future will be about data driven storytelling and not just data or storytelling and the ability to leverage modern machines and algorithms to unleash connection and meaning will depend on creativityThis requires every one of us whether we are creative or not to start using the latest tools that will turbocharge creativity If you wish to see what is possible spend a few minutes looking at how you can create video with text in seconds without having any coding or video or traditional creative skills here httpsyoutubeHK6y8DAPN0CuriosityCuriosity is simply being alive to possibilities questioning the status quo and asking what if Today the key competitor or opportunity in any category comes from outside itCuriosity may have killed the cat but the lack of curiosity killed the careers of many people When boundaries between industries shift and our minds are like champagne corks swelling and no longer fitting into the past the key is not to accept but question the status quoAI corelates and connect dots and look back but rarely anticipates forward and what is next Humans ask why As well as why notBy constantly upgrading our cognition expressing our creativity and feeding our curiosity we seize tomorrow versus fearing tomorrowThe 3Camp8217s of ConnectingBeing cognitively up to date creative and curious will not be enough since we are living in a connected world where ecosystems teams and linkages are how ideas are born value created and longterm careers forged For these we need to hone and build and train for three other skills which are collaboration communication and convincingThe parts of our job that are built around collecting and arranging information and data or monitoring allocating and distilling is rapidly going to be done either by machines or someone in a market far away but the ability to work with people write and present and be a world class sales person taking the data and new resources to build new stories will remain relevantThe machines and the markets will not be the differentiator it is how we work with them present and convince others willCollaborationCollaboration is key to work in a world where APIamp8217s Application Protocol Interfaces are not just about handshakes between softwarehardware but between individuals with different skills teams in different countries partners suppliers and much moreAs the world reimagines and reconfigures itself we need to be like Lego pieces and learn to fit and connect and combine with others to transform ourselves and our companiesCollaboration with others and machines which we will learn to complement is a way to ensure that EQ and HI Human Inspiration will add value to the IQ and AI of digital agents and algorithmsCommunicationGet better at writing Enhance presentation and speaking skillsIt may be so old school but watch the people who succeed and they are good at communicationCombine the roots of old traditions of writing and speaking and human engagement with the new methods of AI and cloud marketplacesLearn to provide points of view not just data provocation versus the both sides information dump that AI is engineered for perspectives that combine past and future and math and magicGreat communication skills will be the differentiator versus chat bots and virtual presencesBut communication is not a oneway street and as important as it to write speak and present it is as critical to be able to listen to hear and to understand what others are saying with an open mind and a sense of empathyEmpathy and looking for the unsaid and unexpressed is what the machines cannot doConvincingEvery one of us is a salesperson regardless of what we believe our title is This is true even if we do not sell anything at work We must convince colleagues of our points of viewWe all must learn to convince and learn to sellHumans choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what we doHumans are stories Stories are data with a soulConvincing is often a soup of facts and storiesBy investing and combining the Six Camp8217s Cognition Curiosity Creativity Collaboration Communication Convincing each of us can thrive in the new future and help our companies and customers growThese skills will never grow old or out of date and will ensure that we can embrace the future adapt ourselves and organizations to whatever comes and complement others and machines in ways that are synergisticPosted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership selfpublishing platformClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageorgMyersBizNet

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

Future-proofing Ourselves.

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Rishad Tobaccowala

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE MEDIAVILLAGE CONTENT | BECOME A THOUGHT LEADERSHIP CONTRIBUTOR

Future-proofing Ourselves.

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Rishad Tobaccowala

TAGS:

Cookies