International Keynote Speaker | LinkedIn Top Voice | Best-selling Author | London Business School Lecturer | Serial Entrepreneur | nexxworks Co-Founder
In 1970, Alvin Toffler famously wrote "The illiterate of the twenty-first century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Fast forward to today, and this insight has never felt more relevant. The pace of change of the Never Normal demands not only new knowledge and skills but also the courage to shed outdated mindsets. But that's not all. We will also need to re-learn some basic skills that we once took for granted: not just technological knowledge but deeply human habits. Some examples: LEARN The percentage of employees noticing a shift in the skills needed for their jobs, averages 25 percent annually, up from 9% pre-pandemic (and 20% during COVID). A significant driver is of course the rise of AI, which not only creates uncertainty but demands extensive new knowledge and skills. UNLEARN Command and control leadership styles are completely unfit for the Never Normal, yet they are still deeply engrained in many organizations. Leaders who want to turn this world’s challenges into opportunities, will need to follow the same trajectory as AI: from rule-based thinking - if there is one thing that the Never Normal is NOT, it’s a linear if/then environment - to permanent learning and adapting. RELEARN According to Gartner, 30% of U.S. employees actively avoid their colleagues—a striking reminder of how much we need to re-learn the pretty basic human interaction skills we’ve neglected since the pandemic. So, it’s interesting though perhaps not surprising that companies are increasingly investing in “guided collaboration”: initiatives without technology, aimed at teaching employees to collaborate in a “normal” way again. “Unlearn” and “relearn” are becoming the cornerstones of the future work culture. HR has a golden opportunity to guide companies into the future. As the relationship between humans and machines is being deeply redefined, new skills and competencies must take center stage. Read all about it in my piece “Why we’ll need to relearn essential human skills”: https://lnkd.in/eHSmgmuP
I also strongly believe in COLEARN: using AI to advance personal and group learning, via AI-assisted communities of interest, flipped classrooms, knowledge gap analysis, and AI-based learning assistants to fill those gaps. A lot of unknown unknowns will remain, but AI can help us find the ones we should know!
Joris L.
1w
Digital binarism as a doctrine? You have options which are options and options which are no options. Your choice. The mindwash of this digital age is fear inducing as it absorbs people's mind rather than enriches them. Internet, supposed to bring a culture of Knowledge, could not get off the ground. Not until massive amounts of porn and spam infused the business. Social media, made to connect people, quickly became an instrument of mass influence and even surveillance. Smart phones, supposed to enable people, turned too many organisation people into swiping zombies. Cyber security culture, meant to curb cyber crime has indirectly enabled a culture of fear which helps various shades of arguable business to thrive. I am holding on to my heart when considering what AI would do, thus far it seems the end to reasonability. Take it with as much grains of salt as you want, just saying. In the end things typically flatten out, luckily no one remembers the victims / losers.
About un-learn: maybe we over-estimate very intense social interaction.
The system that made us unlearn these skills will not be the system that will make us relearn them Everybody with a leading position over the last 15 years first needs to move out of the way
Bear in mind the concept of ‘relearning’ social and collaborative skills can often be rephrased to just ‘learning’ for the younger generations. There’s more than one twenty-something student in my New Technology class this year who mentioned wanting to “expand on their real-life social skills because they’re working and interacting on screens all the time”.
“HR has a golden opportunity to guide companies into the future.” True, but I believe it will take more than HR only: it will be a joint effort by HR, senior leaders, colleagues and advisors. And perhaps the entire society: to instill relearning of basic human skills in an era dominated by screens and social media.
I feel honored to be in the same sphere with you and Nexxworks on Alvin Toffler: https://tobintrevarthen.substack.com/p/uncertainty
Een wetenschappelijk artikel dat je zeker zal interesseren, Isabel, is https://www.linkedin.com/posts/lewiswalkerai_microsoft-on-ai-agent-challenges-ugcPost-7272656508834701316-fr_7/ over de uitdagingen in human-agent communicatie. Conclusie is dat het bouwen van zo'n agents niet de grootste uitdaging is, maar eerder het optimaliseren van de communicatie tussen mens en machine, en ik voorzie ook enorme change management uitdagingen op weg naar een optimale samenwerking.
Hassan Abbas
1w
We are in a time when agility is everything. Learning and relearning new skills will define the future of work. AI is here to stay, but it’s the ability to adapt that will truly set leaders and teams apart. Insightful take.
Innovation Speaker & Founder Red Monkey Company
1wBut ... HR is most of the time Clueless & Powerless ... "having no knowledge, understanding, or ability" & "authorization" ... without the right executive team ... it is 'Game Over' ... 🍻 And ... forget 'Unlearn & Relearn' ... just 'Learn' will do the job ... if you keep 'Learning' then 'Unlearning & Relearning' just happen ... 8-) You don't 'Unwalk & Rewalk' ... you just keep 'Walking' but in other directions ... 💪