Friday, February 16, 2018

Paul's Update Special 2/16

The future of work continues to be a trending subject in the weekly selections. Here are three articles from this week, the first addresses how we can all prepare for the future of work, the second tells how to help students prepare, and the third demonstrates the kind of facility companies seem to be looking at for the future.



As employers prepare for the future of the workforce, they will face more challenges, according to a new study released earlier this month of 2,700 business leaders and 2,700 employees across the world, compiled by Oxford Economics and SAP.

The Workforce 2020 study found that only 39 percent of workers worldwide are satisfied with their jobs. This means employers will have to shape workplaces that not only fulfill their business goals but also inspire, engage and reward their employees.

Here are five ways employers can prepare for the future of work, from managing employees across different generations to adapting to new trends:
1. Prepare leaders for a diverse workforce.
According to the Workforce 2020 study, only 44 percent of the U.S. executives polled believe their leaders can lead a diverse workforce.  

2. Offer more generous compensation and benefits.
Thirty-nine percent of U.S. employees surveyed said higher compensation would improve their engagement and loyalty at work. The study also revealed 84 percent of U.S. employees desire competitive compensation, 75 percent of them want retirement plans and 62 percent seek more vacation time. If employers want to retain top talent, they should focus more on employee compensation and benefits.

3. Prioritize the needs of millennial talent.
More than half of the American executives surveyed hire recent graduates to fill entry-level positions and 35 percent say arrival of millennials in the workforce is having an effect on their approach, the Workforce 2020 study found. Additionally, the study also revealed millennials want more formal training and mentoring to develop their skills.

4. Invest in skills training and ongoing learning.
One of the biggest fears that employees have about upcoming years is that their current skill sets will become obsolete in the workplace. Only 41 percent of employees worldwide said their employer provides opportunities to learn new skills.

5. Use crowdsourced talent.
As businesses begin to shift to offering more services than selling products, employers will need to tap into external talent. The Workforce 2020 survey found that 83 percent of executives worldwide plan to increase use of consultant, contingent or intermittent employees over the next three years.




Preparing students for 21st-century jobs that have yet to be imagined will require teaching “soft skills” and new teaching strategies, a worldwide study by the Economist’s Intelligence Unit found.

Here are several charts that summarize the findings from the educator portion of the study.

Educators said the best way to help students acquire the skills they will need in the workplace is with “active learning,” in which students are engaged in activities like reading, writing, discussion or problem-solving. That was followed by project-based learning and “cognitive activation,” in which students are encouraged to focus on how they reached an answer, rather than the solution itself.
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Educational technology was seen as being a helpful tool, but not a panacea, for addressing the need for workplace skills. Educators indicated that technology could be “very” or “somewhat” effective in supporting the strategies outlined above. Teachers said educational games are the second most effective technology in the classroom.

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In schools where teachers are given the most autonomy, the respondents consistently expressed higher confidence in their colleagues’ abilities to teach the skills, compared to those from schools with lower levels of autonomy.Inline image
Another topic tackled in the study was the question of how teachers prefer to learn themselves. Here, the strategy of teachers personalizing their own learning took the top spot, although large-group training and project-based learning tied as a close second.

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An industry leading panel of experts discussed their understanding of occupiers’(leasing) requirements and debated what is important to a new generation of workers. it started with an overview of Airport City and its potential as a connected, enterprising business development.

Touching on what firms want from Airport City, Lynda Shillaw, CEO of MAG Property said: “A lot of businesses who are looking at us are interested in campuses. So they don’t want a big monolithic building, they want a series of buildings that can be linked.

Tim Heatley, co-founder of property developer Capital & Centric, said: “We spotted fairly early on that people want experiences and that’s a great way for businesses to attract talent. “From a millennial’s perspective, what they value isn’t just a high pay packet, that’s not what they use as a social cachet, it’s about lifestyle, feeling accomplished, sharing experiences with friends and on social media.”

To address this, Capital & Centric has shifted its focus towards experiential benefits like being greeted by a barista at a cafe bar rather than a formal reception area. “It is about trying to create that third place that is not work and not home,” Heatley adds.

“Flexibility is also important across the generations but what people mean by that varies quite dramatically. “Millennials want the opportunity to travel for six weeks or six months and have a job when they come back. “For older generations it means being able to fit working life around other commitments, like family or secondary care.”
                                   
Touching on the personal experiences employees have come to expect, she reasoned: “Wellbeing is not just in the physical bricks and mortar. You can design them, but it is more about the attitudes and behaviours and it is across the spectrum.

Another game-changer is the use of technology in the workplace and how it has enabled the workforce beyond the constraints of physical space. Rob Mukherjee, head of North West regional business at Vodafone, joined the debate as his firm continue to invest heavily in both physical and virtual environments for workers. With 150,000 employees globally including 1,700 at their Wythenshawe base, they have to stay on the front foot of creating the right working environment, not only to stay relevant but to retain staff in a competitive market.
Spicer agrees: “We are going to see a new seismic shift with the introduction of AI into the work space. “Huge chunks of the workplace will go virtual and the people who are in those roles will not be doing them in 20 years’ time.” Heatley brings the topic back to harnessing technology to measure productivity with things like wearable technology.

Lovell quite rightly points out that “the sharing economy is one of the most disruptive trends going on in the real estate sector at the moment”. “It is changing the whole nature of how people are thinking about workplaces,” she adds. “That’s why, for example, you have the likes of PwC taking significant space at WeWork and that trend will only continue. “People are worrying about over-digitalisation and so that’s why in big corporate spaces you are seeing more emphasis on human colliders in internal space.”

Spicer says, “A great environment, great first impression, brilliant workspaces will all bring people into the organisation, but there very quickly becomes an expectation and it is the fundamentals behind that in terms of the nature of the work, opportunities that you create and the colleagues that you interact with in terms of retaining people.”






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Friday, February 9, 2018

Paul's Update Special 2/9




Here are a few hidden reasons why your to-do list–no matter how you write it–might be holding you back.

1. IT DAMPENS YOUR MOOD THE FIRST THING IN THE MORNING

Confronting your to-do list as soon as you sit down at your desk is frequently depressing. 
2. YOU CAN’T MAKE YOURSELF DO THINGS

The sheer fact that so many of your to-do lists get left unfinished should give you pause. It turns out that humans are pretty bad at making ourselves do things we don’t like to do.
3. IT’S KILLING YOUR CREATIVITY

To-do list reminders rarely inspire creative thinking. The relentless pressure of the tasks on your to-do list close off those serendipitous possibilities that can make you more productive and successful in the grand scheme.
At one point in my career I was mulling over the idea of starting my own company. About that time my boss dropped by my cubicle and asked me to take a visiting actor, Marshall Bell (Starship Troopers, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption), out to lunch. We went to a local seafood place, and by the end of the meal I’d sketched on the back of a napkin the plan for my new business: Marshall and I would provide coaching to top-tier executives. I’d teach them how to create their speeches, and he’d train them in delivery. Imagine if I’d passed up that lunch to complete the pressing items on my to-do list! We wouldn’t have launched our startup together, which–many years on–now employs 60 people and reaches clients around the world. It’s harder to think creatively enough to even notice opportunities like these when you’re focused too narrowly on racking up tiny, short-term wins . . .
4. IT WEIGHS DOWN YOUR LEADERSHIP POTENTIAL

. . . which brings me to the final reason to tear up your to-do list: Leaders don’t lead with lists. They lead by being available to others. 

If you’re banging away at your to-do list, you’re likely to say “not now” when a coworker pokes her head in your office and asks, “Do you have a minute?” You’re less likely to stop a colleague in the hall and say, “That was a great idea you shared earlier.” You’ll be on the run–more anxious to knock out today’s tasks than to focus on people, share your thoughts, and hear theirs. You won’t get closer to your team, your boss, or your clients by completing your to-do list.

So throw it out–so you can break away to create, inspire, listen, and lead.

There’s only one thing, one constant thing that I believe keeps me moving closer to my goals, and keeps me fixed on what I want to do. It’s got nothing to do with being close to the universe or attracting things to me with positive energy.

My secret weapon is that I read.


There’s only one thing, one constant thing that I believe keeps me moving closer to my goals, and keeps me fixed on what I want to do. My secret weapon is that I read.
I read constantly, throughout every single day. I read obsessively, consuming new books and revisiting old at an alarming rate. I read because I want to see the world through new sets of eyes. My bookshelves strain under the weight of comics, graphic novels, the complete works of Shakespeare, the Harry Potter series, books about Steve Jobs and Wall Street and Walmart and business and histories of the Holocaust.

I read books about business, and startups, and entrepreneurship — because there’s always something new to learn, something that could shift my point of view or expose me to a different way of thinking. And because when I want to quit, the paths and advice of those who’ve gone before me act as a guide.

But there’s more. I read books about dragons and wizards and ancient spells, and I read books where there are worlds full of fantastic creatures and heroes, and I read books where there are sacrifices and victories and where good people mourn their lovers.
I read new books, to find new characters and ideas, and old books because there’s always a detail I missed or a theme that I’ve forgotten, no matter how many times I’ve gone over them. I read, because there’s so much more to the world than my corner of it. If I never tried to find it, I’d be limiting myself.
Through my bookshelf, my Kindle and my browser, I can access the entire store of human knowledge, insight and imagination at any hour of the day, and I think sometimes I’d be mad not to take advantage of that.

So here’s my advice. If you want to accomplish anything of value, challenge yourself to read. And I don’t mean just read my blog posts — if you have the choice between reading something by me and reading a good book like Life After God, by Douglas Coupland, go for the book. If you don’t read, you won’t gain the information and the insight and the inspiration that you need to make the right calls, at the right time. Make reading a good book a part of what you do.




Natural catastrophes aren't the only contributors to chaos in the next decade, says Bob Johansen, distinguished fellow at the Institute for the Future in Palo Alto, California. Johansen has been an applied futurist for more than four decades. In his new book, The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything, he says that the speed, frequency, scope, and scale of disruption from global climate change, cyberterrorism, pandemics, and more are likely to increase in the next decade—with few clear patterns to the upheavals. Most people, business executives included, are not prepared for the extreme dilemmas they will face in the years ahead, Johansen argues.

This emerging world will demand new kinds of leaders: those who are very clear about where they are going but very flexible about how to get there. They will need to navigate through disruption while providing the direction necessary to make it tolerable, even motivating, for the people under them. To be convincing, leaders will need to face their own fears and learn from them.

Either flexibility nor resilience will come naturally. Johansen offers advice for how to rehearse for the future and develop the skills to navigate the high-risk realities ahead.

Q. You argue that the future will be so dangerous and difficult to understand that most of today’s leaders will be ill prepared to succeed.

Bob Johansen: We are going to be operating in a future that will be a lot more complicated, a lot less certain, and a lot more dangerous. Enduring leadership qualities like strength, humility, and trust will still be important, but the future will require new literacies in order to thrive.

The word I find myself using a lot is scramble. For at least the next decade, the world will be in a scramble; many things that have been stuck will become unstuck, and there will be an unusually high number of unintended consequences. It will be an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world—VUCA.
 
Johansen: Healthcare providers and first responders conduct a lot of training using simulation, but I have not seen a single company take this approach enterprise-wide. The simulations that are popular are more often designed to help people navigate present-day challenges than to prepare for future possibilities.

Q. How can companies encourage leaders to have experiences like those of gamers?

Johansen: Video games are intense. There are other ways to challenge yourself with immersive experiences. Living in a foreign country where you’re unfamiliar with the language, the people, and the cultural norms is a form of immersive learning—one that I’d encourage all leaders to undertake.

When you get that awkward feeling in the pit of your stomach, that’s a key indicator that you’re in a learning space. Unfortunately, most senior leaders avoid such learning experiences; they don’t want to be uncomfortable or embarrassed.

But if you push past the discomfort, there’s another phenomenon that happens when you’re in a deep learning state. Activities that are risky and hard to accomplish can ultimately stimulate a sense of discovery that has a natural flow to it. There’s an energy you get from overcoming the obstacles. Overcoming obstacles is meaningful, and everyone needs a sense of meaning if they’re going to thrive in the midst of the scramble.

Q. You say that in a world of constant disruption, leaders will need grit. Can you learn this?

Johansen: Absolutely. In her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, former McKinsey consultant and inner-city schoolteacher Angela Duckworth described it as “the tendency to sustain interest in an effort towards very long-term goals.” The people who will succeed in a shape-shifting future will be full of grit, hope, and optimism, and it will be up to leaders to keep people that way, seeing adversity and change as opportunities more than challenges.

Some characteristics of grit are endurance, optimism, creativity, and courage. These qualities can be developed well through immersive learning. When you’re immersing yourself in these experiences, you do it not just to increase your adaptability; you’re building grit. Resilience will be necessary but not sufficient for the leadership demands of the future; grit will be required.
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Friday, February 2, 2018

Paul's Update Special 2/2




(This article has a difficult time differentiating management and leadership. The central point it makes however, is important.  Paul)

Why have decision-making structures in large organizations changed so little since the industrial revolution? Leaders still base decisions on retrospective data that has percolated up through layers of filtering and consolidation. Decisions are then handed down through progressive layers of management, where they are adjusted to practical realities.

Such a world forces leaders to make educated guesses based on often flawed assumptions, and to have faith rather than evidence that the organization is doing what leaders decide, and that the results expected are indeed being achieved. Despite a torrent of information demands, when failures occur, leaders often learn that the causes were common knowledge to everyone, except leadership.

Technology can change all of that. What if leaders knew as much about their organizations as Google knows about them? By deploying appropriate technologies, it is possible today for organizations to capture data on practically every interaction and consolidate every performance metric in an organization.

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Automating management offers decisive advantages. As the system knows exactly what everyone is working on and what is being produced, accountability is clear. Coaching and feedback can be automated, tailored to the individual, and delivered exactly when required

So, is this science fiction? The New York Times best-seller The Decoded Company describes how a company named Klick has made technology and culture inseparable. There is a culture of hyper-transparency, where an entire project team can comment on every aspect of their project. Every transaction, interaction, input and outcome is stored in a ‘Wisdom Layer’ of data that enables “gut feel” to be combined with data to inform rich insights. 

In an age when management of most work processes can be automated, leaders can be freed to focus more of their energies where their judgement and experience truly add value. But they must first embrace new organizational models based on accountability, transparency and collaboration, informed by data.

Leaders aspiring to be great will be challenged to build their understanding of data science, learning how to augment their personal experience, intelligence and insight with rich data sets and predictive AI.

They must also become skilled social media activists, using technology to communicate their vision and nudge the organization to achieve it. They must be coalition builders, making the connections required to deliver complex change programs. And leaders must drive new cultural norms, showing that failures are not a reason for blame, but an opportunity to build learning.

Leaders must also be comfortable that transparency goes both ways. With everything recorded, no leader can credibly say they did not know. And with every action recorded, the real value that a leader adds is clear to all.

Without question, much of what has traditionally constituted organisational management can and should be automated. Companies like Klick have proven that it can be done, and to profoundly positive effect.

Automation of leadership, by contrast, may be neither possible nor desirable. However, by augmenting leadership with technology, companies can become more effective, agile and better places to work.

Leaders should not be fearful of embracing managerial automation, nor of accepting the power of data and AI to augment their personal effectiveness. Both are urgently necessary advances in an increasingly disruptive world. 




It seems beyond debate: Technology is going to replace jobs, or, more precisely, the people holding those jobs. Few industries, if any, will be untouched. It is easy to find reports that predict the loss of between 5 and 10 million jobs by 2020. Here are four ways to think about the people left behind after the trucks bring in all the new technology.

The Wizard of Oz Is the Wrong Model
In Oz, the wizard is shown to run the kingdom through some complex machine hidden behind a curtain. Yet the CEO and founder of Fetch Robotics, Melonee Wise, cautions against that way of thinking: “For every robot we put in the world, you have to have someone maintaining it or servicing it or taking care of it.” The point of technology, she argues, is to boost productivity, not cut the workforce.

Humans Are Strategic; Machines Are Tactical
McKinsey has been studying what kind of work is most adaptable to automation. Their findings so far seem to conclude that the more technical the work, the more technology can accomplish it. In other words, machines skew toward tactical applications. On the other hand, work that requires a high degree of imagination, creative analysis, and strategic thinking is harder to automate. 

Integrating New Technology Is About Emotions
When technology comes in, and some workers go away, there is a residual fear among those still in place at the company. The wise corporate leader will realize that post-technology trauma falls along two lines: (1) how to integrate the new technology into the work flow, and (2) how to cope with feelings that the new technology is somehow “the enemy.” Without dealing with both, even the most automated workplace could easily have undercurrents of anxiety, if not anger.

Rethink What Your Workforce Can Do
Technology will replace some work, but it doesn’t have to replace the people who have done that work. Economist James Bessen notes, “The problem is people are losing jobs and we’re not doing a good job of getting them the skills and knowledge they need to work for the new jobs.” Such jobs may not be in your current industrial domain. But there may be other ways for you to view this moment as the perfect time to rethink the shape and character of your workforce. Such new thinking will generate a whole new human resource development agenda, one quite probably emphasizing those innate human capacities that can provide a renewed strategy for success that is both technological and human.

As Wise, the roboticist, emphasized, the technology itself is just a tool, one that leaders can use how they see fit. We can choose to use AI and other emerging technologies to replace human work, or we can choose to use them to augment it. “Your computer doesn’t unemploy you, your robot doesn’t unemploy you,” she said. “The companies that have those technologies make the social policies and set those social policies that change the workforce.”

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