I’ve been writing a great deal recently about the destruction of jobs by what is variously called, the third industrial revolution, knowledge economy or new machine age. This situation creates a whole new set of challenges for everyone who wants to earn a living in these tough times.
Most of us know it is happening. What's thin on the ground is information about what we can do about it.
We need new solutions and we need to take personal ownership of our own countermeasures.
This isn’t just my opinion. Multiple and diverse organisations are reporting the same thing:
Manpower states that despite the recession, 31% of employers struggle to find qualified workers because of
“a talent mismatch between workers’ qualifications and the specific skill sets and combinations of skills employers want.”
The American Management Corporation says that employers want workers who can think critically, solve problems creatively, innovate, collaborate, and communicate.
The National Association of Manufacturers reports,
“Today’s skill shortages are extremely broad and deep, cutting across industry sectors and impacting more than 80% of companies surveyed. This human capital performance gap threatens our nation’s ability to compete . . . [and] is emerging as our nation’s most critical business issue."
The National Academies claim that
“The danger exists that Americans may not know enough about science, technology, or mathematics to contribute significantly to, or fully benefit from, the knowledge-based economy that is already taking shape around us.”
The New York Times reports that low-skilled workers are being laid off and
"turned away at the factory door and increasingly joining the swelling ranks of the long-term unemployed . . .” This issue results from a disparity between the skills that workers have and those that employers need.
So what can we do about it?
If the last time you sat in a classroom was at university or an employer’s course, the chances are high that your learning skills have significantly reduced. Of course we all acquire job specific skills at work, but what we don’t generally continue to develop in our jobs are the
learning skills that are now critical for 21st century career survival.
If we accept that the pace of change in the world is accelerating, then it is logical to conclude that our ability to adapt to change must also be increasingly critical. And the key enabling mechanism for coping with change is
learning.
What are the key learning skills for the 21st century workplace?
21st century skills are a set of abilities that everyone needs to develop in order to succeed in the information age.
The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has identified three key learning skill areas.
I call them the three Cs of thinking; critical thinking, creative thinking and collaborative thinking:
Critical Thinking
Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally. It includes the ability to engage in reflective and independent thinking. Someone with critical thinking skills is able to do the following :
- understand the logical connections between ideas
- identify, construct and evaluate arguments
- detect inconsistencies and common mistakes in reasoning
- solve problems systematically
- identify the relevance and importance of ideas
- reflect on the justification of one’s own beliefs and values
After we leave education and start to exist in the world of our jobs, our critical thinking skills may easily become rusty. Other factors start to influence and direct our thought processes. The competitive environments we often experience encourage competitive reactions – the exact opposite of one of the other Cs – collaboration.
So good critical thinking skills not only break the force field of groupthink, they also encourage collaboration.
Creative Thinking
This is the process by which individuals come up with new ideas or new approaches to business. New ideas could result in new products, procedures or policies. They could also result in a new process that cuts costs or improves quality - for example, a bagless vacuum cleaner.
Fresh ideas give businesses a competitive advantage and help make their goods or services stand out in the market place.
We can make use of several different thinking techniques to improve our creativity:
- Lateral thinking or thinking outside the box. An example of this would be breaking down the steps taken to serve coffee in a café and asking 'why' at each step to see if a better process can be created.
- Deliberate creativity uses thinking techniques to spark off new ideas. For example, putting on different thinking hats to tackle problems from different angles. 'White-hat' thinking looks at facts and 'black-hat' thinking looks at drawbacks.
- Blue-sky thinking involves a group of people looking at an opportunity with fresh eyes. As many ideas as possible are generated in an ideas generation session where no ideas are rejected as silly.
Collaborative thinking
There are generally accepted to be seven rules for all collaboration:
Look for common ground: find shared values, consider shared personal experiences, pay attention to and give feedback, be yourself and expect the same of others, be willing to accept differences in perception and opinions
Learn about others: consider their perspectives and needs, appeal to the highest motives, let others express themselves freely
Critique results, not people: do not waste time on personal hostility, make other people feel good, avoid criticism and put downs
Give and get respect: show respect for others' opinions, be considerate and friendly, put yourself in the other person's shoes, be responsive to emotions, speak with confidence but remain tactful
Proceed slowly: present one idea at a time, check for understanding and acceptance of each idea before moving on to the next. Speak in an organized and logical sequence.
Be explicit and clear: share your ideas and feelings, pay attention to nonverbal communication, speak clearly and make eye contact, select words that have meaning for your listeners
Remember the five "Cs" of communication: clarity, completeness, conciseness, concreteness, and correctness
It's not a co-incidence that the social web or internet 2.0 also functions with these principles at its core.
New Skills for New Jobs
These skills have always been important for personal development, but they are now absolutely critical in our information-based economy. When most workers held jobs in industry, the key skills were knowing a trade, following directions, getting along with others, working hard, and being professional - efficient, prompt, honest, and fair.
To hold information-age jobs though, people also need to think deeply about issues, solve problems creatively, work in teams, communicate clearly in many media, learn ever-changing technologies, and deal with a flood of information. The rapid changes in our world require us to be flexible, to take the initiative and lead when necessary, and to produce something new and useful.
But these thinking skills aren’t just relevant to our careers and jobs. They play a part in making the world a better and more just place for all of us. I think there’s a good argument that the absence of these thought processes within the management of the banking world was the biggest single factor in the financial collapse of 2008. If we ever needed an example of the terrible consequences of endemic groupthink, we need look no further.
So next time you are considering what skills you could acquire to enhance your career prospects, think outside the box and think about what you can do to improve your thinking skills. Not just for yourself but the world as well.
