WINGS The 5 primary skills for the future of work

[Music]

the fable of the rooster and the swallow

there once was a rooster with feathers

of gold

he carried his colors with pride and

bravado

he reigned like a king while the

chickens adored

his wonderful talent to crawl with

vibrato

a traveling swallow was tired of flying

and casually happened to land in the

coop

the rooster was shocked and yelled are

you trying to undermine order and peace

in my troop

swallow politely responded i’m sorry

that’s not what i want i’m not that kind

of guy

but now that i’m here and i’m not in a

hurry

perhaps i can teach all of you how to

fly

how dare you small birdie the rooster

replied

i don’t want to fly what a foolish

proposal

and order my chickens i keep them inside

they have to be constantly at my

disposal

okay said the swallow good luck to you

stranger i don’t want to mess with

your personal things but please keep in

mind that you’re living in danger

until you succeed to develop your wings

along came the farmer the very next day

the rooster fought bravely the battle

was vicious

some call it unfair but i heard people

say that

this coco van was extremely delicious

hi i’m walter and i’m a swallow

on a mission i’m here to give you wings

wings that will make you fly and prepare

you for your future

and we all know it’s hard to make

predictions

especially about the future in fact the

only true thing we can say

about the future is that it will be

different from today

so at least my talk will be a wake-up

call for you

to prepare yourself for change however

that change may look like

and that’s especially true for the

future of work

here’s what we know for sure the all

jobs

from the past will be replaced by new

jobs in the future

and most of our industries will be

severely disrupted

world economic forum foresees that by

two 2022

and that’s in less than two years from

now

42 of all the core skills required

to perform existing jobs will change

this means that in an average company of

let’s say 150 people

63 among them will have to re-skill

within the next two years

and they also predict that 1 billion

jobs

worldwide that’s almost one third of all

the existing jobs

will be completely transformed by

technology within the next

decade technology

the magic word is out in every scenario

we imagine for the future

technology will always play a leading

role it has always been like that

even in the past but the difference with

previous industrial revolutions is that

this time

not only the so-called lower jobs are in

danger

with the fast evolvement of ai and

machine learning

even the most highly skilled

professionals are replaceable

imagine computers being better than any

experienced doctor in diagnosing

diseases

they exist today complex

calculations and constructions that only

the best engineers were able to perform

in the past

ai has taken over and

even the academic world of education is

in danger

what if tomorrow professors will become

processors

now that all sounds very depressing

doesn’t it

well it shouldn’t because if we

realize that whatever work we are doing

and whatever industry we work in

lifelong learning will become an

integral part of our life there’s not so

much to worry about

all we have to do is keep updating

ourselves

keep our eyes and ears open wide and

embrace an eager mindset of learning and

evolving

day after day after day

now here’s a model that you might

recognize

the professional of the future is t

shaped

and like any t it has two axes

on the vertical x we go deep

this is all about knowledge and as we

all know in our

fast changing world knowledge evolves

quickly

what we’ve learned yesterday might not

be true anymore today

and will certainly be different tomorrow

so we have to keep

updating ourselves on the work we do and

the industry we’re working

so we need skills that we call work and

industry

specific skills you might also know them

as hard skills

but my focus is on the horizontal ax

here we find the skills that are

independent from the work we do

and independent from the industry we

work in because you need them

everywhere

and that’s why we call them work and

industry neutral

skills you might also know them as

behavioral skills or

soft skills but in fact they’re all bird

staffs

it’s in fact these skills that make us

grow as a person in our job

that’s why i like to call them growth

skills

and if we add that to what we already

have we come to the world

work and industry neutral growth skills

and i know that’s a mouthful and i don’t

expect you to remember that what i’d

like you to remember is the acronym that

comes out of it

wings or wing skills

now here’s the good news unlike the hard

skills the knowledge skills on the

vertical axe

those growth skills or wing skills are

much less

sensitive to the changing world and

that’s because they’re intrinsically

human once you’ve developed them they

will stick with you for the rest of your

life

wherever you go whatever job you might

do in the future you will

always have your wings with you

now a lot of service and research has

been done

on which of these growth skills will be

the most in demand

in the future and i’m sure you might

have seen one or more of these lists on

linkedin world economic forum the

academic world

other organizations and from my side i

have

analyzed all these lists hoping to find

the differences

as well as the overlaps but what i was

really looking for were the roots the

fundamentals

just like you have blue red and yellow

the primary colors

with which you can compile all the other

colors

or the primary flavors that compose our

entire palettes of flavors so i wondered

would it also be possible to detect a

fixed number of

primary skills that are the roots of all

the other growth skills

and guess what yes it is

and i’m so proud and happy to share this

with you today

for the very first time so here are

wings

the five basic skills you’ll ever need

in the future

they are creativity

critical thinking self-management

social intelligence and

attention management now

let me explain each of them one by one

creativity to the question what is

creativity

the best answer i can give is coming up

with ideas that are

at the same time new and useful

creative people are problem solvers and

they’re never happy

or satisfied with this for the first

answer or solution that they think of

they are driven by a curiosity and they

look at things from different angles

they connect things that were never

connected before

all to make things better that’s

creativity

number two critical thinking

and at first sight you might think oh

this is just the opposite of

creativity but it isn’t creativity and

critical thinking

complement each other like the yin and

the yang that keep you in balance

as a creative thinker you don’t think

simply accept all the arguments

and uh and answers that you’re given but

you

analyze and question the facts

as a creative thinker you’re good in

making the right decisions

and in developing opinions visions and

strategies

number three self-management

this one is composed by two components

and the first one is knowing who you

really are or what you really want

and once that’s all clear the second

component comes in

working towards the goals you want to

achieve so

in other words self management makes

people confident

and target focused and as a result

relaxed

and resistant to change

it’s the most natural way to find your

personal everyday

motivation

number four social intelligence

and this one is closely related to what

we know emotion

emotional intelligence so

this is all about communicating

connecting

and collaborating with others social

intelligent people

are good in listening and responding

in motivating and giving feedback

they are able to convince people and to

create a very positive

group dynamic and the last one is

attention management and you might also

know this skill

under the name of time management but as

you cannot manage

time you’re obliged to divide this time

into useful moments of attention so yes

this is all about organizing yourself

and finding your natural

flow and rhythm to enhance your daily

productivity and proactiveness

because as we all know failing to plan

is planning to fail

creativity critical thinking

self-management social intelligence

attention management the roots of all

the skills

that appear on the list i showed you

earlier

and let’s take a look at some of the

skills that appear on these lists

for instance complex problem solving

it’s listed number one as

the skill of the future by world

economic forum

well in fact complex problem solving is

based on two

of the wing skills creativity

on the one hand and critical thinking on

the other hand

another one that pops up regularly is

conflict management

this one is based on three of the wing

skills

social intelligence creativity and

critical thinking

again and to give you a last example

leadership this one is fed by

five all five of the wing skills because

a good leader

has to be able to think out of the box

he has to make the right decisions and

develop the right

visions and strategies he has to be

self-confident and motivated

and he has to be a good communicator and

be able to motivate others

and last but not least he has to be well

organized and proactive

now as i mentioned earlier these uh grow

skills or wing skills are much less

sensitive to a changing world than the

knowledge skills

but that doesn’t mean they are easier to

acquire

some people even claim that you cannot

learn or improve them but that’s just

because they are trying to use the same

learning methods as they do with the

knowledge skills which is totally wrong

because

wings are a mindset and what do i mean

by that

take creativity as an example as one of

the wing skills

everyone is born with a certain amount

of creativity

that’s at the first level that’s what we

call a talent

now whatever amount of creative talent

you have you can improve it

by learning the mechanisms behind

creativity so it becomes a skill

and that’s the second level you can

dig up that skill whenever you think you

need it just like you do with the

knowledge skill

but the wing skill goes further you have

to practice it

every day in every situation possible

so it becomes a habit a reflex a natural

way of thinking

acting and reacting and then you reach

that third level that’s what we call

a mindset and the same goes with

all other four-wing skills once you

reach that third level

it will be it will become part of

yourself and i even there say that it

will

change your personality and your life

beyond your

work so let me wrap up

with three pieces of advice for your

future

number one never stop learning

always update yourself on the changes

that relate to the work you do

and the industry you work in so you stay

relevant

number two develop your wings

improve your creativity your critical

thinking your self

management your social intelligence your

attention management

so you keep growing as a person in your

job

and number three go even further make

your wings

a mindset so they become part of

yourself

and your personality and don’t be a

rooster

be the swallow and i’m sure you will

face the future with confidence

thank you so very much

you