Writing about the future is a thankless but necessary task.
Why? Because if even one person will reflect on what was said and think over some possible scenarios, you’ve done your job. You have prepared someone for action (or reaction, at least).
Here are my thoughts about the future. They will obviously change when the future comes. We all know that nothing is as constant as change.
Choose Your Camp
When we think about the future, we can really go only two ways — either anxious or excited about it.
Fear begins in a place in the brain called the amygdala. The amygdala processes a situation and decides if you need to escape a dangerous situation. If something seems wrong (an unknown future often triggers it) hormones are released in order to get you into fight, flight, or freeze mode.
Such a state was very helpful when our ancestors were running away from predators. It does not help us much now. Do you really expect a tiger to chase after you soon?
We need to learn how to replace our fears with a feeling of excitement when we think about the future.
Harvard professor Alison Wood Brooks, in her 2014 study, discovered that when most people believed that the best method was to try to calm down, people who “reappraised” their anxiety as excitement not only felt better but also performed better.
So, choose your camp — Fear or Excitement?
Follow Listeners
There are couple of Future Forecasting Tribes: Horror Story Tellers, Fairy Tale Writers, and Listeners.
The first ones are scared themselves and they frighten everyone around them. About everything. Artificial intelligence is terrifying. Automation is harmful. New ideas are “brrrrr” (and so ridiculous by the way!). Do not go there, do not do this, do not even think about that. In summary, there is nothing good about the future.
The second group is totally opposite. They are striving to get to the future so hard and so fast that they forget about everything the past has taught us. Young and brave hearts. Only some will survive. You might recall the stories.
Finally, Listeners. They are true treasure. They analyze what is being said, ask questions, look for answers, reflect on their own experiences, and look for the stories of others, then they reflect again, and then they share their knowledge.
Follow them.
In my professional HR world, Josh Bersin is an amazing “Listener” to follow. Check his article on Skills of Success for the Future.
Use Time Cones, Not Timelines
Amy Web, professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of the Future Today Institute, has an amazing tool that helps organizations to prepare for the future.
Use the same approach to plan yours. Think about time differently. For any given uncertainty about the future — whether that’s risk, opportunity, or growth — don’t have timelines but build a cone with four distinct categories: (1) tactics, (2) strategy, (3) vision, and (4) systems-level evolution.
Rely on Data
Every year tons of great information is being published free of charge. The Canadian Government, as well as many well-established consulting companies, have research departments focused on the future of work, and they publish trends reports yearly. For example: Deloitte or Future Skills Centre — Conference Board Canada. Devote your time regularly to reading such papers. Listen to what challenges workplaces, government, and society in general face and ask yourself: where and how do I fit in? How can my knowledge and capabilities make a difference? What skills do I lack to be ready for the future? Start your own discussions about the future of work in your field. You will be impressed with the diversity of thoughts and ideas. This will bring you clarity on “What is next?”
Create Your Own Job
I know that this sounds strange, but believe me. There are many workplaces that have no clue what kind of job roles they will need in the future. Help them. Relying on the same data, learning about problems they are trying to solve, and analyzing the opportunities that they might potentially miss, builds a solid business case for your own type of job. Stand up for it. Promote it. Sell it. Succeed!
The new jobs of the future that I have recently heard about and believe are needed:
-
Super Teams Builder
Person helping multigenerational workforce (humans) and machines work together effectively.
-
AI Ethicist
As AI is trusted to make more complex decisions, it will become essential that it is programmed, deployed, and maintained responsibly.
-
Data Trust Officer
Data is the new oil. Period. Data will spawn hundreds of new job categories. Better you learn to read, understand, and analyze it.
-
Aging Assistant
Genetics and aging will be in focus. Humanity wants not only to live longer, but also to perform better over all these long years of life.
-
Cyber Security Professional
This role remains the hottest job in tech industry.
Today we can only see a small slice of what the future holds for us. There is no place to go and check what expects us there, behind the corner, in the future. We might get overwhelmed, scared, anxious, and worried about the day ahead. With COVID 19, the world has been shifting towards remote workplaces and long-term distanced relationships. New capabilities and skills need to be developed.
All this might look troubling to many of us.
At the same time, little can be done to prevent the future from coming. It doesn’t matter if we are ready or not — tomorrow will come.
So get excited instead, listen and learn every day, plan accordingly and strategically, and — most importantly — take care of yourself!