I know we would all like to have a crystal ball. Jobs and the environment are changing so fast that it makes one dizzy to consider, how to maintain our employability or guide our children concerning what they should study. But the only truth is that no one can predict what will happen, although we should not ignore what we already know. Yes, digitization has broken into our home and work, changing many things.
Will Digitization Destroy Jobs?
But will we be out of work because of digitization? I do not think so. The world is changing, and so are we, but don’t worry, you don’t have to become a robot—instead, the complete opposite. Think about the following questions: what makes you unique? What will you always do better than a robot? The answer is easy. Just be what you are, a human being.
It is clear that I do not know what the future will bring, but I do see a new trend that I love: the “over-humanization” of organisations. That is, to value employability qualities and highlight aspects that only humans are capable of (listening, empathising, leading, negotiating…). Today more than ever, what we have always considered soft skills replace those sought after in previous times hard skills.
The hard skills represented that knowledge that made us unique. Indeed, learning does not occupy a place, but it is less and less differential than those qualities that help us shine in such changing and uncertain environments. In other words, faced with two candidates with the same degree of knowledge, the one with the most qualities of the so-called soft will win.
Profile That Companies Are Looking For In The Worker Of The Future
Companies, like society, need resilient people with characteristics as intrinsic to being human as optimism. People who quickly adapt to change, inspire, listen, help, work as a team, have initiative, and are capable of innovating. They understand that they are not paid to work but to add value.
I do not mean that digitization does not transform our work with this. Wow, let them tell the taxi drivers with the Uber ticket. Of course, things will change. However, as human beings, we have always experienced transformations. We have adapted to the new circumstances and have moved on.
Another excellent example of the ability to adapt so that the fear of the future that digitalization holds will go away is what happened when the motor vehicle burst onto the market. How did this affect the coachmen and their horses? Well, as in everything, some would reinvent themselves, and others disappeared.
The future cannot be stopped, but we can rethink what this new environment asks of us. Our objective will be to survive it in the best possible way. In my opinion, the recent change brought about by digitization allows us to focus on what we do best. We have to be human beings who care about their growth and evolution, for being better day by day, and taking care of helping others. In this way, thanks to this attitude, we will be creating high-performance environments together.
The 6 Skills Of The Future
The digitization of physical and business society requires people with specific characteristics. Various studies highlight the following characteristics as the skills of the future:
- Create Sense: It is the ability to detect the meaning of something more profound than what is appropriately expressed or the importance that a person gives to an individual or collective experience.
- Social Intelligence: An individual can relate to other people in a powerful and empathetic way. When someone has this ability, he communicates more efficiently and can manage emotions to get what he wants from the social environment.
- Adaptive Thinking: This section refers to continuous learning. It is the ability to challenge our own beliefs to force us to act, rethink concepts, adapt, and react to change with greater resilience.
- Cultural Adaptation is about understanding and comprehending different ways of thinking, cultures, and languages. This ability endows the human being with greater empathy, facilitating finding solutions in a multicultural environment.
- Transversal Skills: The ability to understand and solve a problem using transversal skills.
- Design Mindset: comprises our vision and the tools we use to be more creative.
These 6 competencies, in combination with cognitive abilities or the ability to work with virtual teams, are what most experts mark as fundamental to successfully developing a job in the future.
When reading them, the same question always arises without wanting to delve much into them: where is this studied? I don’t know about you, but as a mother, I am interested in my son developing them. And it is precisely here where the great paradigm arises.
Of course, these skills can be worked on daily at school, universities, or family. However, most of them refer to how we react to the environment:
- How we interpret it.
- How we relate to it.
- How we manage what we have learned, not from the point of view of knowledge but rather from the point of view of thinking correctly and relating to others in the same way.
It is precisely here where I connect with what is important to me. In such a fast-paced world where we must move forward and innovate by constantly transforming ourselves to adapt to new realities, what is needed are people who take responsibility for their career paths, actions, and knowledge.
People who want to inspire, respect, learn and strive to understand, advance, and adapt to diverse environments and people. It goes without saying that all this is just the icing on the cake of our studies and learning languages. Digitization brings an opportunity to develop professionally that none of us can miss.
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