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