In today's age of information and technological advancements, workplaces continue to adapt and evolve to stay relevant and competitive. As we prepare for the future and the potential for technological advancements to replace some jobs, it is important to continuously contribute to organizations and society, fulfilling our natural need for self-actualization. The Institute for the Future (IFTF) in California has identified ten skills that employees and future employees should possess to remain competitive and relevant in the workplace.
Let's explore these skills:
Sense-Making
Critical thinking and decision-making skills are essential for employees to provide diverse insights and understand deeper meanings to make decisions and generate new ideas.
Social Intelligence
Humans possess complex minds to understand, assess situations, and build trust in complex ways that robots cannot replicate. Social intelligence and enhancing it is a key skill in future workplaces and society as a whole.
Novel & Adaptive Thinking
As the world continues to be shaped by technological and social factors, future workforces need to be able to respond to unexpected situations with great thought and creativity.
Cross-Cultural Competency
Employees need to be able to adapt and work in different environments and be open to diverse cultures and perspectives.
Computational Thinking
The ability to understand and translate large amounts of data is crucial for workplaces in the age of information.
New Media Literacy
Employees need to be familiar with creating content on different media platforms and be able to assess the analytics or insights brought in by these contents.
Transdisciplinarity
Employees should have at least one specialized field but also be able to communicate with different fields of knowledge to solve complex problems.
Design Mindset
Employees should have a design mindset to recognize different ways of thinking and design improved working processes for efficient business outcomes.
Cognitive Load Management
The ability to filter information and identify important details is important to avoid cognitive overload.
Virtual Collaboration
Employees should be able to make online meetings more interactive and inspirational, reflecting a sense of community where members can contribute ideas and opinions freely.
How to Start Learning Human Skills?
- Start by setting clear goals: Before you start learning, define what you want to achieve and set specificgoals. This will help you stay focused and motivated.
- Reflect on your learning process: Regularly reflect on what you have learned, how you learned it, and what you can improve. Use self-assessment tools to evaluate your progress and identify areas for improvement.
- Practice self-awareness: Develop self-awareness by paying attention to your thoughts, feelings, and actions. Use mindfulness techniques, such as meditation or journaling, to increase your self-awareness and focus.
- Develop a growth mindset: Embrace a growth mindset by seeing challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. Focus on the process of learning, not just the outcome.
- Seek feedback: Get feedback from others to help you improve your learning process. This can be from peers, mentors, or teachers.
- Use effective learning strategies: Learn how to learn by using effective learning strategies such as active learning, spaced repetition, and retrieval practice.
- Continuously improve: Lifelong learning requires continuous improvement. Be open to new ideas, feedback, and experiences. Seek out new challenges to help you develop new skills and grow as a person.
As we venture into the unknown future, developing metacognitive skills, a process for self-awareness and self-assessment, is crucial for lifelong learning and success. Let's embrace the future with open arms and continuously work towards upskilling ourselves to remain competitive and relevant in the workplace.
