We talk a lot about the changes in the company, and it is that not a few workers who have reached their fifties have experienced some important and even concurrent ones: work by objectives, computerization, teams, internationalization, travel, communication methods, empowerment, staff cuts, reengineering, quality systems, e-learning, the PC on the table, the Internet, the flood of information…; We have had to adapt to all of them. But there were also great changes in the past.
It could be said, in effect, that we have had to live through a time of great changes, and that does not seem debatable; But the fact is that the workers of a hundred years ago - our great-grandparents - also experienced great news in their environment. Then we can reflect with the reader on the most shocking socio-labor changes in the daily life of our days in 2005, but let us now, precisely and simultaneously, look at some details of the neosecular scenarios of the XX and XXI… We will soon agree on that great changes were also witnessed about a hundred years ago; but we will also notice, when formulating them, a certain parallelism of a changing sign. Some trends seem to be sustained a hundred years later, and others seem to be manifesting in the opposite direction.
In two times
- Around 1900, the development of the telegraph, telephone and rail reduced distances. Around 2000, the development of means of transport and communication seems to contribute to eliminate barriers and distances: it is globalization. Around 1900, New business opportunities promoted entrepreneurship. Around 2000, new business opportunities, sometimes online, promoted entrepreneurship…, with uneven results. Around 1900, competition intensified. Around 2000, the Competition continues to intensify. Around 1900, the economy of scale encouraged business merger. Around 2000, the economy of scale seems to lose consistency in some industries: it is no longer so much that the big fish eats the boy, as than rapid disarmament to slow. Around 1900,Young people were beginning to look for work as employees. Around 2000, youth entrepreneurship was encouraged and boosted. Around 1900, salaried managers appeared: employees hired to lead. Around 2000, salaried executives were Suspicious: some top executives get rich, while their companies are devalued. Around 1900, organization and methods were a challenge for every large company. Around 2000, organization and methods were an innovation challenge for each large company. Around 1900, bureaucracy developed in large emerging organizations. Around 2000, some bureaucracies were suffocating, and some even seemed dissuasive; but companies are trying to streamline it. Around 1900,The concept of “worker” was consolidated. Around 2000, the concept of “knowledge worker” seems to be advancing. Around 1900, Spanish workers migrated to cities, and then even to other countries. Around 2000 We Spaniards receive immigrants from very different countries, and their integration is not always complete. Around 1900, training initiatives were formalized in the company. Around 2000, the concept of lifelong learning was consolidated, and the protagonism to the individual. Around 1900, the first business management congresses are organized. Around 2000 there are congresses every day, and some interventions are by videoconference. Around 1900, the first headquarters were built. 2000, the Directorate is decentralized and distributed: empowerment arrives.Around 1900, there were high levels of illiteracy to be reduced worldwide. Around 2000, computer illiteracy was tackled, and one began to think about informational. Around 1900, the first business schools emerged in the United States (HBS in 1908).About 2000, the business of schools around the world seems to be consolidating. Around 1900, the industry develops rapidly. Around 2000, we experienced constant industrial decline and sudden death of some industries. Around 1900, the industry creates many jobs. Around 2000, the massive layoffs started decades ago in large companies still continue. Around 1900, raw materials were the focus of wealth. Around 2000, the material The information itself is, to a great extent, the first: the Information Society is being consolidated.
The reader could complete this list, but we only wanted to insist that the changes are not exclusive to our days, although they can certainly be precipitated at some moments in history. Let us now focus on the changes we are witnessing in our own career path for 21st century citizens. We have concluded the relationship with reference to information, which undoubtedly seems to be a common working tool for everyone, if not a solid raw material. In this Information Society of today, many of us are already identifying with the idea of "knowledge worker" formulated by Peter Drucker; For many, information, rather than a tool, certainly seems to be a raw material.
By focusing only now on our daily performance, many of us have a computer on the table, often connected to the Internet. We attended the information revolution decades ago, and we are now witnessing, through the Internet, the information revolution. Peter Drucker also says it: if the most revolutionary of the industrial revolution was not so much the steam engine as the railroad or the telephone, the most revolutionary of the computer revolution has not been so much the computer as the Internet and all that it has brought: lots of information.
Information: today's great change
If we have the image of the manual worker from a hundred years ago, remember that it was more than 40 years ago that the aforementioned management prophet coined the expression “knowledge worker” to refer to workers who continuously manage information and make the best decisions. However, even today this concept of the new century worker seems to point to the future, as if the 21st century were still to come. Although we accept that many of us have to complete our professional profile as new “knowledge workers”, it would seem that progress is slow and that we do not always make the decisions that would have led us to a greater degree of knowledge, derived from proactive access to more complete and suitable information.
We understand knowledge as the ability to act, that is, to make the best decisions; but the fact is that the demand for knowledge often seems to grow faster than learning, and also faster than the efforts to organize knowledge (knowledge management) in companies. Let us insist that, for the so-called "knowledge workers", information is the essential raw material: for managers, engineers, researchers, architects, journalists, economists, doctors, psychologists, technologists, consultants, teachers, lawyers, nurses, managers, sociologists, pharmacists, politicians…
All these professionals, and many others, experience continuous learning in a special way; often they must act asking also for their imagination, their intuition and, above all, they must make daily use of special informational skills. Having stopped learning from being an almost passive activity (listening to the teacher) to start demanding a permanent proactive attitude, the individual now needs new and specific informational skills; It requires, among other skills, the ability to learn for yourself from the information available (not always very didactic, nor very rigorous, nor very handy).
So, among the many changes we have been witnessing in recent years, it is worth highlighting the need to continually learn, and, in line with this, the need to "learn to learn", proactively. The reader may have already heard of this, but I would like to move you to reflect on the fact that, sometimes, it is your own stored knowledge that prevents the arrival of new ones; nor should we forget to "learn to unlearn", which would have something to do, perhaps, with flexibility, open-mindedness, reflective thinking, self-knowledge and self-questioning, the catalysis of change…
Final message
I found it useful to compare the panorama of the changes at moments that coincided with the turn of the century, because, already in the late-century scene of years ago, there were many attempts to relate those -the changes- with the calendar. There was even talk of the arrival of the "third" millennium (as if nothing had happened before Christ…), perhaps emphasizing or dramatizing the emerging changes.
But our life is short, and we will not reach the next millennium or century; it would be enough if today (2005) we could see with some clarity the panorama of 2015, or 2010, or just 2008. After this modest attempt to gain momentum, I propose that you test your vision for the future. Make your own reflections, and even question this small dose of information resulting from my modest observation; But take advantage of kinetic energy to do “reflective time shifting” exercises, to your own past and future. What learning and development requirements will become visible in 2010? Were you aware of your own current situation just 5 or 10 years ago? How do they live the changes?
