Food for Thought on Labor Day Weekend
In the U.S., Labor Day marks the “unofficial end of summer” and, according to the U.S. Department of Labor website is the “annual celebration of the social and economic achievements of American workers.”
Let’s look past the barbecues and backyard parties to the social and economic achievements of the working population. The contribution I’d like to make to the conversation is to focus our attention on the continual investments we must make in #upskilling and #reskilling our workforce.
Technological and structural disruption of the market for labor is an age-old story. However, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution - where computers that can “think” at low, but ever-increasing cognitive levels, the relevance of humans in the world of work depends on our ability to shine as humans and work alongside computers.
In my book, Balancing Act, I introduce what I believe are four core competencies of a future-ready workforce.
The first, and in my opinion, most important future-ready skill, is to hone a wide portfolio of human (behavioral, soft) skills such as communication, collaboration, storytelling, active listening, adaptability, logical reasoning, constructive conflict, self-regulation, self-motivation, courage, and resilience - just to name a few.
Next in line are three technical skills: financial acumen, data literacy, and commercial acumen. Why did I pick these three?
1. Finance and mathematics are literally the language of business. It’s shocking how many folks lack basic numeracy and financial skills. Operating income, cash flow, cost per lead, capacity utilization, etc., are likely foreign concepts to most.
2. Data is everywhere and your business is likely generating more data today than at any point in its history. Much of that data goes to waste because the teams that generate it lack basic data literacy skills to identify which data points have potential value and how to extract that value by working alongside data scientists and other experts. Note the difference between literacy and expertise.
3. Collaboration and teamwork are two of the essential human skills mentioned above, but many in your organization don’t understand what their counterparts across the aisle do on a daily basis. To get the most out of cross-functional projects, it’s essential that team members take their blinders off and learn the basics of how the dots are connected across the organization.
As a leader, I recommend that you invest in experiential learning opportunities for your colleagues in all of the aforementioned topics.
Just some food for thought as you fire up the grill...
Andy
