Preparing for the Modern Age
A couple of weeks ago we announced that we are launching a new partnership model. This new model is a direct influence of the changing time we see ahead. If you missed it, you can read the announcement here.
If you are interested in partnering with us, please read more here and connect with us!
Over the next couple of weeks I’m interested in exploring the potential futures that lies ahead of us. Having a had a year full of COVID responses to, I see the need to deliberately work towards future scenarios already now. Whereas such planning may not fully prepare you for an event like COVID-19, having a better understanding of potential futures at least prepares yourself, your team and organisations to better weather the storms.
Last week I enjoyed a panel debate run by Skills of the Modern Age as part of the launch of their future work report “A Vision for the Modern Age”. For me, the report and the session, revealed just how far into a tectonic shift we are and the frictions this is putting on society’s relationship work. For example, job automation is expected to soon reach 30%, 49% worry about what job they will do in the future, 63% said that their workplace needs to invest more in the skills development of it’s people and a whopping 81% feel they do not use the most cutting-edge frameworks, technologies or models in their work.
There is a sense of falling behind, a fear of what Skills of the Modern Age calls “Race to Irrelevance”. In this fear there is a call for upskilling, reskilling and space for growth as acceleration increases around us. Here there is an opportunity for organisations to take greater measures in deliberately developing their employees and staying relevant and adaptable to the ever-changing markets.
What if instead of hiding from inadequacies, we focused on learning?
What would happen if we built trust within our teams so that we dared to make mistakes?
This is what Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming, and Matthew Miller discuss in their book An Everyone Culture – Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization. The deliberately developmental organizations (DDO’s) they met have formed cultures of honest and trusting teams that fostered high personal growth. One of these are the famous Bridgewater Associates featured in Ray Dalio’s Principles. However, as Kegan at al. noted in their HBR article – Making Business Personal – there are very few organisations like these. And yet, as we go through testing times and are looking ahead into futures that will disrupt everything, these are the types of organisations we need.
Question: What future scenarios do you see? What does your organisation do meet this and to foster continued development?