Keep Reinventing
Fortran, Cobol, Pascal, C – used to be my skillsets when I graduated from college. I taught Unix & C. None of these skills will help me get employed any more. Luckily I have new skills in the field of writing and business which keep me fed and clothed.
Position Yourself Against A Machine
In the future your competitor is most likely an algorithm. What differentiates you from a machine? In other words, how human are you? You’ll need to invest in skills like collaboration and consensus building which are very people-specific. Sales will be more about changing someone’s mind because information is self-service and if a person knows what they want they can complete the transaction with no human intervention.
As per a World Economic Forum research, the top 10 skills in 2020 include complex problem solving, critical thinking and creativity.
Survival Skills in the Age of AI
- Listen carefully to the environment
- Think differently – the fluency of ideas will be very important
- Adapt the narrative constantly
- Act to create a preferred future
- Collaboration
Are your C-Suite Colleagues working with you? Do you have an external network of partners and peers you can reach out to? As the world gets interconnected, we need to be generalists to connect the dots. Visionary leadership is required.
Think Human
The products and services of the future will be the ones that make people feel good about themselves – safer, more loved, respected and empowered. Can you understand what’s in it for others? Appreciate what makes them tick? This insight will be key to survival.
Remember, if you can’t master the machines you will become their minion.
Superb article Jessy. I always love reading you short, refined and to-the-point articles which add so much meaning to my reading!