5/2/2023 0 Comments The next big thing 2015In effect, you need to build the ark before the storm. The reason is that when calamity strikes-a rapid environmental change, a new predator or whatever-the only ones that can survive are those that already have adaptive traits already in their gene pool. In fact, it is often the ones that are most highly focused on the present environment that are most likely to go extinct. It is used to convey the idea that only the strongest survive and therefore firms that are efficient operators can weather any storm. The need for empathetic relationship builders is even more crucial when you take into account the need for agility.ĭarwinian evolution is a commonly used metaphor in business circles. The most critical skill today, therefore, is empathy-the ability to discern what other people are thinking and feeling, and responding appropriately. Rather, he argues, the best employees today are not accomplished “knowledge workers,” but “relationship workers.” You no longer need the “smartest guys in the room, but the ones who can work the best together. He also highlights research that shows that the best teams are not necessarily those that are made up of the most accomplished solo performers. Today, he points out, most of the important work is done not by individuals, but teams. However, in Humans Are Underrated, author Geoff Colvin argues that this approach overlooks the reality of 21st century work. If you want to be a top performing organization, you need to have top performing people. This, to all appearances, seems sensible and logical. Job descriptions invariably include a specific level of education, experience and accomplishment in those skill areas. Talk to just about any senior executive and they will tell you they are looking for top performers with specific skills. The Rising Importance Of Empathy And Teamwork In effect, the key competitive attribute is no longer efficiency, but agility and that means that organizations today need to work with an unprecedented level of interoperability. Social media, for instance, was first seen as a marketing tool, but it soon became clear that to be successful, customer service and operations needed to be integrated too. More often than not, the change has to happen throughout the enterprise, not just one part of it. In this environment, it is not enough to bring in new resources and train employees on new skills. New protocols like Hadoop and Spark become standards within a few short years. New startups like Cloudera, Palantir and Theranos become billion dollar companies at blazing speed and transform entire industries. In an information driven world, many business processes are upgraded electronically, where they are replicated with perfect fidelity throughout an enterprise. As MIT’s Brynjolfsson and McAfee have put it,we live in a world of scale without mass. These days, however, we live in an age of disruption, and most of the changes that happen are informational rather than physical. That, in the final analysis, is far more valuable.Įarlier generations could afford to follow trends, which emerged fairly slowly, giving firms time to retrain staff, retool factories and develop a new strategy. True, these skills will not tell anyone how to optimize a social media campaign or operate a new piece of software, but it will help them learn for themselves, communicate with others and evaluate new trends effectively. I’ve often been amazed at how many senior strategy and analytics professionals don’t know simple concepts taught in a freshman statistics course. It’s ironic how much corporate executives harp on about the ability to be “data driven” and how few have the requisite skills to evaluate data. Clear and cogent writing, critical thinking and learning how to learn-to take in disparate facts, put them in context and express them clearly- are all crucial business skills that many businesses neglect.Īnother overlooked area is math skills, especially with regard to statistics. Yet as Fareed Zakaria argues in his book, In Defense of a Liberal Education, there are some skills that never go out of style. Many “hot” digital strategies only last as long as Google and Facebook let them. Business models rise and fall, software protocols change. Yet all too often, the emphasis is on narrow skills that will soon be out of date. Corporations spend an enormous amount on training, according to one study over $70 billion in the US and $130 billion worldwide.
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