The world is changing fast, and so must you.
This is the time to upgrade your skills for the new economy
In the past few weeks, the whole world was shaken up. Companies that seem invincible are ceasing operations and in risk of insolvency. Jobs that were thought to be the most stable are seeing the rug pulled out from under their feet. Even the strongest nations in the world (if you look at GDP) were brought down to their knees.
The world is changing rapidly, and therefore so must you. I believe the health/lockdown issues would go away in 3-8 months. But afterwards, unemployment caused by bankruptcies during the shutdown will impact us for the next 3-5 years.
During this time, I believe all the things we already knew the world was moving towards would be coming sooner than expected:
- Companies will take this cease-in-operations to replace their infrastructure with robotics/AI
- Remote teams will become more popular, as companies try to continue to save money on travel/flights
- Each individual needs to learn to use more tools to make up for a reduced but more efficient workforce
- There will be a global surplus in “labor” (systematic work) but a global shortage in “talent” (creative and problem-solving work)
- The world will change at an accelerating pace. What you know now may become obsolete 5 years from now
While I am preparing myself and my own team for this, I wanted to make sure this also doesn’t hit my Octalysis audience by surprise. The (half-way) good news is that, this is also an opportunity to position yourself and give yourself an edge in the new economy.
If you’ve ever watched Game of Thrones, the cunning (but villainous) character Petyr Baelish states that “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” Of course, we aren’t going to purposely create chaos like a villain just to climb the ladder (aren’t they supposed to be chillin’?) – but when chaos strikes, we can and should be prepared for it.
Earlier this year the World Economic Forum published a list of Top 10 Skills in 2020. I made a 3-Part Video on Octalysis Prime to explain why these are important skills in the future, as well as what has changed since their list in 2005 (Negotiation, Quality Control, Active Listening got nerfed, while Creativity, Emotional Intelligence, and Cognitive Flexibility got buffed).
Watch Part 2: https://vimeo.com/384891095/ef3848258f
Watch Part 3: https://vimeo.com/384892323/bf549f207c
Here’s also another video I made on How to Become more Visionary as a Leader:
So what’s your plan to upgrade yourself?
Now is the time to make a plan on how you would acquire needs skills, crafts, and upgrade your Complex Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity skills. It doesn’t have to be through my materials (of course I will try my best to keep up myself and share the latest things I’ve learned), but when things are changing so quickly, standing still would likely be the worse action of them all.
Would love to hear back on what you have been doing or plan to do to upgrade yourself for this new economy. Time to take things next level!
Let’s get through these turbulent times together!
Yu-kai Chou
Chief Mentor for Octalysis Prime: https://join.octalysisprime.com/op-fr/
Wikipedia Page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu-kai_Chou