The Most Valuable Skills for Society 3.0 #21 #cong20

 As a lecturer and parent I constantly carry out a reality check: what are the most important skills we should be teaching students and the skills we should attain ourselves? How could we prepare for Society 3.0 marked by uncertainty?

But this should not be an exercise focused on academic skills only or even on competencies for the future of work, but it should more broadly include practical life skills to help manage health and well-being and solve problems throughout a lifetime; they should be independent of specific career paths, valuable to our personal, organisational and collective well-being and ideally, such skills ought to be relevant for a few decades. While the list I’ve come up with is not exhaustive and skills are not all mutually exclusive I’ve zeroed in on twelve skill areas, which are far from being novel, but seem to be gaining relevance.

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1. Building Society 3.0 will require a mix of “hard” (technical) and “soft” (people) 21st century skills.
2. Although far from novel, it is a good idea to revisit the skills map to more closely align it with our challenging times.
3. The skills associated with innovation are central to nurturing responsible citizens and leaders.
4. The 12 skill areas may be treated as practical, useful, real-world skills to help build the kind of Society 3.0 we aspire to.

Victor del Rosal is Senior Consultant and Lecturer of Innovation and Emerging Technologies for MSc programmes at National College of Ireland in Dublin. Book author: “Disruption: Emerging Technologies and the Future of Work” (Amazon/Kindle), used as a textbook in universities in Ireland, Switzerland and the US. Victor has worked as Head of Business Analysis for High Tech & Telecom at the Tata Consultancy Services Supply Chain Center of Excellence (Dublin), as Director of Strategy and Business Development for Irish cloud services provider CloudStrong (recently acquired by Arkphire). Victor holds a BSc in Industrial and Systems Engineering (Monterrey Tech) and MSc in Management (UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School) and he is certified in “Managing Innovative Technology” (Oxford University, UK)..

You can connect with Victor on LinkedIn.

By Victor Del Rosal.

Amidst a second lockdown in Ireland and widespread global social and economic disruption, even the idea of a “new normal” for 2021 is uncertain at best. It might be fitting to recall a quote coined by American writers Laura Riding and Alan Graves in 1937: “the future is not what it used to be.” It does feel like we have crossed a threshold which is more like a one-way portal into a parallel version of reality, where still much is unknown.

As a lecturer and parent I constantly carry out a reality check: what are the most important skills we should be teaching students and the skills we should attain ourselves? How could we prepare for Society 3.0 marked by uncertainty and accelerating trends such as cognitive automation?

But this should not be an exercise focused on academic skills only or even on competencies for the future of work, but it should more broadly include practical life skills to help manage health and well-being and solve problems throughout a lifetime; they should be independent of specific career paths, valuable to our personal, organisational and collective well-being and ideally, such skills ought to be relevant for a few decades. While the list I’ve come up with is not exhaustive and skills are not all mutually exclusive I’ve zeroed in on twelve skill areas, which are far from being novel, but seem to be gaining relevance.

So, what could be the most valuable skills for building Society 3.0?

1. Curiosity and play. In 2015 the World Economic Forum with Boston Consulting Group produced a landmark report titled the New Vision for Education that lists sixteen 21^st century skills and included in that list is curiosity. I have it at the top of my list because I contend that without curiosity, which equates to a genuine interest in something, it is incredibly hard to devote the time to learn—and never mind—master any knowledge domain. It is perhaps the key that unlocks the appetite for proactive learning and exploration based on a primal need to discover, hence I see it a gateway to many of the other skills listed below. I also recognise how important it is to stay curious outside of school and work, perhaps as a way to avoid mental health issues.

Closely connected to curiosity is play. Harvard Education PhD Tony Wagner posits that allowing students to follow their curiosity should naturally lead to a state of play and exploration and this in turn should help develop future professionals who are genuinely interested in pushing their disciplinary boundaries. This approach could contribute to building a more vibrant Society 3.0.

2. Learning to think.Also very high on the list is the ability to thinking logically, critically, analytically and, more broadly, developing common sense which should also include the ability to spot and avoid the many fallacies of thinking (including “fake news”). This also includes computational thinking, or the ability to recognise patterns, represent data, generate abstractions and generalisations, among a long list of thinking abilities.

3. Creativity.It has been said that creativity is intelligence having fun. From an innovation perspective, creativity is about letting the mind make novel connections and new insights between seemingly disconnected information. While creativity per se does not require that value be added or that a problem be solved, it is indeed a key component to complex problem solving and to innovation, and Society 3.0 will require huge doses of it.

4. Learning to learn and adapt. If one lesson could be extracted in 2020 is the need for people and organisations to be willing and able to learn and adapt, requiring the disposition and the ability to learn to learn. “It’s more important today to be able to become an expert in a brand-new field in nine to twelve months than to have studied the ‘right’ thing a long time ago,” says AngelList founder Naval Ravikant. Staying nimble, willing and able to adapt and to learn will be an asset in Society 3.0 marked by accelerating change and steeper learning curves.

5. Communication and collaboration.This is a key component of people skills necessary for working with others, also closely associated with emotional and social intelligence. It has become increasingly evident how important it is for people, teams, organisations and nations to be able to negotiate, to cooperate and to aim for win-win scenarios—with a growing expectation for remote collaboration. It is hard to envision how Society 3.0 could be effectively built without proper communication and collaboration.

6. Managerial and leadership skills. Closely connected to the previous skillset, are management and leadership skills which are both art and science. This also includes a strong work ethic, initiative, persistence and grit. It should be noted that managerial skills which do not follow a predictable pattern cannot be easily automated thus increasing their future value. Leadership will be a key ingredient for steering communities towards a desirable version of Society 3.0, and it might be more art than science and less likely to be automated.

7. Scientific and technological literacy.The global pandemic has highlighted our intimate connection to science, strengthening in many the appreciation for the scientific method. Society 3.0 ought to further embrace it as a clear path to solving our collective challenges. Also, the ability to learn and apply technologies including cutting-edge ones will expand the toolset with which challenges can be addressed.

8. Social and cultural awareness. Appreciation for diversity and history as well as sensitivity to personal, social, cultural and racial differences will signal a more inclusive Society 3.0 that works for all, while reaping the benefits of diverse intellectual capital.

9. Ethics and universal values. Behaviour that is consistent with humanity’s moral compass and which demonstrates appreciation and respect for universal values including peace, freedom, social progress, equal rights and human dignity will be central to building a kind and compassionate Society 3.0.

10. Financial literacy and business acumen.Individuals with a sense of how the private sectors works and adds value to society will be better positioned to generate sustainable solutions to all sorts of industrial and societal needs. Society 3.0 will also  benefit from people with ability to save, budget and invest, contributing to the collective financial health.

11. Resilience. Defined as “the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness,” it includes the ability to manage stress, take care of oneself and develop mechanisms to cope with pressure in all walks of life. It is also associated with enthusiasm, self-confidence and mindfulness.

12. Innovation. If we understand innovation as adding value to stakeholders with a novel product, service or process it can be seen as a by-product of many of the previous eleven skills.  Innovation is directly connected to problem-solving, problem prevention, continuous improvement and creating breakthroughs addressing all areas of human endeavour.

I close with a focus on innovation as I see it as a central to nurturing responsible citizens and leaders. While the collective set of skills may seem aspirational, the intent is that these be treated as practical, useful, real-world skills for school, work, personal and family life, to help build the kind of Society 3.0 we want to live in.

I am certain however that I am still missing some skills or that I have made some obvious oversights, so I am eager to discuss as part of Congregation 2020.