The World Economic Forum recently released its report on “The Future of Jobs.” The results have important implications for job seekers, hiring managers, and anyone else who wants to build professional skills that will be relevant into the decade ahead.
The section “10 Skills You Will Need to Thrive in 2020” is particularly relevant. People management, emotional intelligence, negotiation, and other “soft skills” deemed essential in previous years still rank high on the list. However, creativity, critical thinking, and keen judgment are now ranked higher than before, suggesting the increasing utility of mental flexibility, brainstorming, and other related skills. Traits that have been traditionally associated with artists, designers, developers, strategists, and other “intellectuals” or “creative types” are now considered vital for anyone who wants to build a sustainable career and flourish into the future.
Let’s look at the WEF’s top five skills to cultivate in anticipation of the year 2020.
1. Complex Problem Solving
Automation and artificial intelligence are poised to eliminate many jobs in administration, production, and other areas tasked with solving simple, routine problems. This will leave humans to focus on larger, systemic, global challenges, which will demand higher-level thinking and the ability to adapt, reframe, and psychologically challenge ourselves.
2. Critical Thinking
Rather than placing blind trust in traditional sources of authority, the future demands that we become more open-minded with a certain degree of skepticism, thinking many steps ahead of our current challenges and distractions. We can hone our critical thinking skills by controlling our information diets, taking charge of our mindsets, and learning from experience.
3. Creativity
Creativity has never been the exclusive province of playwrights, classical composers, and aesthetes. Rather, creativity is a muscle that we all need to exercise. Find out how to best defy your fears and make every day a storytelling adventure. Then apply creative thinking to all of your personal and professional decisions, to be ready to pose radical solutions for the serious problems we’re tackling as a species.
4. People Management
Just as the inspired artistic genius is no longer a useful model for creativity, so the solitary crank or bully is no longer an effective role model for professional success. Relating to others, practicing compassion, and understanding what makes people tick is increasingly required of us all. The individual is no longer the dominant paradigm for understanding the human experience – it’s being replaced by the network. What’s more, building strong relationships with others is its own reward.
5. Coordinating with Others
Interdependence and interconnectedness are important values of the future. As a new array of stimuli distracts us, making it harder to coordinate efforts and to meaningfully connect, much power will accrue to those who appreciate the practical challenges of team and relationship-building and devise ever better ways to do it.
At Artisan Creative, we know that today’s future is tomorrow’s present, and we pride ourselves on thinking ahead. Be prepared – contact us today. We hope you’ve enjoyed our 466th blog.