At a time of high structural unemployment and a paradigm shift, it is highly desirable to identify the skills and professional profiles required to work for the next decade, in order to take the appropriate actions to achieve success in the future.
The change is manifested in that companies like ODesk and LiveOps, for example, are able to form teams of collaborators in the "cloud", for sales, customer support, and many others. Five years ago it would have taken NASA years to classify the photographs taken with its telescope, through collaborative platforms, the task can be carried out in a few months with the participation of thousands of volunteers.
For this reason, and thinking about the next decade, it is necessary to question about i) the forces of change and ii) the new personal skills necessary to succeed.
i) What are the forces driving this CHANGE?
In a work entitled “Future Work Skills 2020”, carried out by the Institute of the Future (IFTF), the combination of:
1-Extension of life expectancy.
This affects the nature of careers and learning. More and more people will work beyond the age of 65 and will need to adjust their approach to professional career, family life and education to adapt to this new situation, to maintain their standard of living and have sufficient resources for retirement.
2 -Generalization of intelligent machines and systems.
The automation of the workplace frees the man from repetitive tasks. The real power of ROBOTICS lies in its ability to increase and extend our capabilities. We will enter a new world of collaboration with machines that will reinforce our strengths, leading to a new level of collaboration and man-machine codependency
3- Computational world.
The massive increase in sensors and process power will turn the world into a data processing system. Every object, every interaction and every thing with which we are in contact will become data, this will increase the manipulation work in order to obtain the desired results. We will enter the era of “EVERYTHING is programmable”. As a consequence of this, we must strengthen our personal potential for data management and processing.
4-New multimedia ecosystem.
The new communication tools will require new people trained beyond the usual profiles. New Technologies allow us to change the way we communicate: videos, digital animation, augmented reality…. A new ecosystem will form around these areas. We are literally developing a NEW LANGUAGE.
5-Organizational superstructures.
SMO technologies facilitate new forms of production and value creation. Through a new level of collective intelligence and based on resources from social connections, it is possible to reach scales previously only achievable by super organizations. The new structures go beyond the usual forms and processes that we know. It means collaborating and playing on extreme scales: from the micro to the massive. This makes it possible to conceive projects outside the traditional limits.
A new generation of organizational concepts is arriving from fields like game design, neuroscience, and happiness psychology. These fields entail new paradigms of training and tools, for which new skills and knowledge are required.
6-Globally connected world.
Increasing global interconnectivity places diversity and adaptability at the center of organizational operations. The United States and Europe no longer have a monopoly on job creation, innovation, and political power. The key to a successful presence in emerging environments is no longer just employing local people, but integrating local employees and business processes into the global organization structure to remain competitive.
In a later entry we will develop point ii) the new personal skills necessary to succeed.
