Learning Agility: 5 Strategies for the Future of Work

Areyou prepared for the robot apocalypse? No, I’m not talking about hoarding tinsof beans as we hide from Terminator-style killing machines. I’m talking aboutthe future of work.

I’musing “robots” in loose terms as a broad catch-all for the rise of automation;increased pervasiveness of digital ecosystems, including the Internet of Things;and advances in cognitive computing, including AI and machine learning.

Nowwe’ve clarified that, do you think the “apocalypse” reference is alarmist?

Itmight be—the jury is still out. Most studies on the topic agree that automationwill replace existing jobs, the main point of debate remains how many new jobswill be created in the process.

Mygo-to reference here is the MIT Technological Review, which tracks studieson the topic and recently concluded that “we have no idea how many jobs will belost in the march to technological progress.”    

So,let’s focus on what we do know starting with the simple fact that robots arebetter than us.

Atleast, robots are better than us at countless fields that demand rapidinformation recall, repetitive tasks, and predictable rule-based problemsolving. Ironically, by superseding us in those areas, the rise of technologyprovides huge opportunities for us to truly embrace what we’re good at … beinghuman!

Ipreviously shared this summary of future-proofing skills to survive the robotapocalypse in the my first “Learning Agility” column.

Figure 1: Keyskills for the future of work 

Thecenterpiece of the diagram is about embracing what makes us human—empathy,collaboration, and complex applied critical thinking.

Learningagility, or learning to learn, develops those skills and ultimately empowers usto work with and within change. Specifically, it empowers us to engage withchange in three aspects that are captured in the following diagram.

Figure 2:Learning agility as learning for a change 

Sowhat strategies can we use to future-proof ourselves, our audiences, and our organizationsagainst technologically-driven and accelerated change?

Hereare my top five picks to get started.

Figure 3: Topstrategies for performance in an era of accelerated change

Thesestrategies combine three areas of development and two to “augment” and supportperformance. Each of these warrant their own article and are explored in somedetail in Learn2Learn but, for now, here’s abrief overview of each.

Developing higher order thinking

Thisis a huge topic so I’m going to focus on one aspect—developing mental models.

I’musing the term mental models in its broadest definition to encompass generalizations,concepts, heuristics, and frameworks. They’re short cuts and cognitive toolsthat we use to understand ourselves, the world, and to take action as a result.

It’sa term first popularized by PeterSenge in his seminal work around learning organizations andI’ll definitely be exploring them further in future articles.

Bringingconscious awareness to mental models not only supports overcoming unconscious bias, but also helps us tomethodically develop what entrepreneur and investor Charles Munger called “alatticework of mental models.”

AsWarren Buffett’s business partner, Munger is a wonderful case-in-point ofsomebody who continues to develop and apply this latticework to great impact.

Again,I’ll deep dive into this in a future article, so for now I’ll leave you with asimple yet powerful technique, which is to shop for mental models from diversedisciplines. Taking the key ideas from other fields and combining them withyour existing expertise and mental models helps drive innovation.

Forme, this has involved embracing disciplines such as design thinking, marketing,and behavioral economics in a learning and development context.

Developing mindset

You’reprobably familiar with Carol Dweck’s work around growth mindset, which has been animportant contribution in popularizing metacognition and self-awareness inlearning. Other mindset issues worth highlighting are the need for curiosityand the ability to be optimistic in the face of ambiguity.

Developingand shifting mindset is no small thing. It’s a complex process of taking actionand bringing awareness to your inner voice. Skilled coaching and an environmentof psychological safety (which was explored in my “Learning Agility: Failing to Learn” column) can particularly helpthis process.

Figure 4:Developing mindset

Developing soft and complex skills

Callingthem “soft skills” just doesn’t do them justice. Whether you call them human,permanent, employable, or priority skills, today, they’re the ones to focus on.They’re also challenging to embed.

InOutliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwellargued that it takes 10,000 hours to develop expertise in an area. Since then,Anders Ericsson, the researcher behind that claim and author of Peak, has taken painedefforts to explain that expertise isn’t just created by turning up, it’sdeveloped through deliberate practice.

Figure 5:Cycle of deliberate practice  

Inaddition to the conscious attention, expert feedback, and targeted action thatis deliberate practice, other strategies to develop complex skills includedeveloping deep pattern recognition through experience, mentors, observation,and stories (with reflection).

Experiencesand stretch projects should particularly be scaffolded with coaching, teams,and just-in-time resources.

Augmenting with systems and habits

Ratherthan fighting the tide of automation, ask yourself what part of your job youactually want automated? Importantly, consider how that might free you up to bemore human and add value to your work elsewhere?

Systemsinclude technological infrastructure and ecosystems but might also be low-techstrategies around habit formation—identifying external triggers, and embeddingpositive routines with rewards. Even better, it might combine leveragingsystems and habits.  

Forexample, here’s my current personal technological ecosystem.

Figure 6: Asnapshot of my personal performance and learning technical ecosystem

Iuse the systems above in conjunction with habits to help prioritize and embedimpactful learning. For example, I’m constantly extending my “outsourced-brain”via Pocket, saving and tagging any article of interest from my extendednetwork.

I’mparticularly on the lookout for useful mental models and capture them inEvernote. I use a spaced-recall app to help embed them into my memory and givethem six months to be used or discarded.

Ofcourse, I’m not advocating specific software. The point is to establish whatworks for you and your audience—use JaneHart’s wonderful Top Tools for Learning list to help.

Thisis an area to watch as the conversation is shifting from how do we supportourselves and people with simple performance tools to how do we leveragetechnology to support true “augmented workers”?

Augmenting with people and networks

Lastbut not least is consciously expanding “know who.” Effectively doing this willinherently help us to develop, particularly expanding mental models andmindset. But, more than that, it’s another way to develop capability byextending our “outsourced brains.”

Quitesimply, investing in developing meaningful and reciprocally beneficialrelationships in the teams and people around us is a massive competitiveadvantage.

Akey technique here is to showyour work or workout loud. Sharing your unfinished work and intention withpeople who you are also looking to contribute to and support.

Final word—it’s about you

Thishas been a crash course in surviving the human apocalypse. There’s much, muchmore to it, but developing these five areas will be a great start to furtherdevelop our own humanity and relevance in an era of robots.

Future“Learning Agility” columns will continue to explore how to enable others inthis area but, before focusing on that, consider what it looks like for you.

Today,learning and development professionals have a huge opportunityto help enable learning agility. To do that, we have tobecome visible champions of these techniques. So yes, use these strategies inyour organization but first be sure you’re applying them in your own work andlife.

Pleaseshare your personal experiences in these areas in the comments below or with mevia LinkedIn. How are you developingthose three areas? How do you augment yourself, particularly with technologicalsystems? I look forward to reading and learning from your experiences.