Future skills in Europe? Or not?
On the consequences of #Digitization & #AI
While many in Europe seemingly still experience all things digital as ‘Neuland’, the world is moving on to the implementation of artifical intelligence. Moreover, the notion of ‘digitization’ suggest a process, possibly a gradual and longer transformation of industry, education, and government. However, this could be an error in perception and fact. In too many instances we witness not gradual change and transformation but the fast emergence of new technologies, companies, and ways of living. If so, what is the new and possibly radically different skill set required?
The other day I attended an ideation workshop in Berlin organized by the Stifterverband and McKinsey. The Stifterverband is a favourite of mine because they bring together enterprise and philanthrophy for the effective support of science and education. That day, their mission was exploring which future skills are valued and required, and how these might be acquired best. ‘Future skills’ means key competencies as well as more specialized capabilites.
The discussants were drawn from startups, older companies, higher education, and the public sector. What were the results?
As I saw it, the ‘establishment’ favored an interesting blend of general cognitive and social competencies, e.g.
- creative thinking but also the power of judgement,
- critical thinking but also an entreprenurial attitude,
- leadership and the power to persuade but also team spirit, empathy, and tolerance.
With regard to the more specialized capabilities, they focused on all things data and the digital (user) experience.
The startups disagreed. They prioritize as key digital competencies
- the ambition to innovate,
- intrinsic motivation,
- the capability to deliver reproducible results.
The more specialized capability required is a deep(er) appreciation of technology and its logic as well as superior project management capabilities.
What does this difference between startups and the establishment signal? Startups envision and experience a fundamental shift in our working lives. Established practice is often about KPIs, divisions of labor, and task lists. Future skills, however, are about value creation, asset development, and solving global challenges. Of course, VC-backed startups are mostly about shareholder value. Yet, any startup, and particularly also those aiming for social impact, will be prioritizing value creation and asset development.
Because of the ubiquituous and cheap nature of digital technologies, worldwide anyone who is online can contribute. This implies a very large potential for further democratization and the betterment of humanity. In this sense, the ambition to innovate and intrinsic motivation are the essential future skills. Complementary, however, is the capability to deliver reproducible results as solving global challenges requires reproducibility for universal implementation.
So, what about Europe? Evidently, future skills are alive and kicking. Perhaps primarily in habitats like Berlin and other cosmopolitan startup agglomerations. Yet, thanks to online platforms, future skills can be aquired online everywhere. This presents a formidable challenge to anyone hoping to transform the current educational institutions in time for educating the next generation. Moreover, educational institutions have been underfunded and slow to change. Surely, more autonomy, new methods, and more digital technology may help but it seems easy to foresee that the most valuable future skills will be trained and acquired outside the classroom. Of course, if you are hoping for a gradual transformation that is a formidable challenge. If you are comfortable with a more disruptive approach, that is a huge opportunity: an opportunity for the democratization of innovation and education, and thus for solving the major challenges of humanity this century.
