Talent Transformation in the Digital Age takes a new shape and significance
Workers choose Employers
The Future of Work forces us to think of a scenario where it is the Workers who choose which employer to work; the Mapping and Matching criteria being Quality of Work to the Quality of Talent. Imagine the inversion of the pyramid of employment from Quantity to Quality. An employer could be an established enterprise, a startup, Government or NGO or simply another individual anywhere in the world. In all the scenarios, what matters is talent, be that of an individual or a machine that can be available on-demand to perform the required work efficiently. Why not? The laws of the previous industrialization changes as we advance from the 3rd to the 4th wave. At the very outset, if this is treated as just another variation of the past, it is a huge mistake.
It is not Full time, Permanent, Part Time, Gig, Freelance or any such work. It is work optimized mapping and matching with talent; packaging data, resources, materials and infrastructure to a well defined work that produces desired outcomes. The work outcomes being transformational and sustainable at the same time is a clear option for packaging the work appropriately.
The Characteristics of Industry 4.0
The present Industry 4.0 is radically different to its previous versions. Glocalization: A combination of globally available methods and practices enabling locally available resources either virtually or physically to undertake and produce work outcomes in every sphere of life. Well almost! The Advent of Gen A & Z Workforce: That thinks very differently about life priorities and its ability to contribute and shape life with kindness on this planet sustainably. The Digital Alternative: That includes Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Biotechnology, Nanotechnology, Enmeshed Networks and 3d/4d Printing in a Pervasive Computing environment powered by the availability of data.
Sustainable Materials: Becoming a necessity to replace and renew the retailization of Life Sustaining Products and Services; from Responsive Production to Responsible Consumption. The Connected Life: People and Living beings taking charge of democratic systems to a higher threshold of capability and consequently a better quality of life. These five factors force us to see our future differently to the past. It is not enough to duct tape the Structures, Synergies and Systems of the past. A fundamentally new approach renewing a progressive and connected way forward.
Talent Transformation is the First Stop
Whether it is machines or people that actually work, the four steps that are non-negotiable for Talent Transformation are Education, Training, Practice and Learning. This is what makes Intelligence, the ability to make meaning for a given context and allowing progression our work outcomes. Where Talent is the expression of the latent; the reserve hidden and unmanifested interest in a subject. Education be it formal or informal establishes the latent in People and Context in Machines. Training enables the expression of the latent with renewed methods and tools for implementation. Practice embellishes the potential into a fine performing form.
Learning through Scoring enables one to understand the maturity of Capability (The Capacity to Transform and the Ability to Perform). Work in digital world is collaborated and shared fusing People and machines with Intelligence. This can be nothing else than fusion to create new patterns that raised the threshold of Capability of both work and its outcomes. Employers made it their responsibility to conduct training and Learning as part of their Operative Expenses creating vast Capital Expenditures in Machines and Buildings to retain employees. It was and continues to be limited in impact because it also has never really served the elementary cause of employee retention or reduction in attrition where it matters.
Much less the holistic learning of the individual since such initiatives are driven not from a social motive but from one that keeps an eye on revenue returns. Those that have never had an incentive to transform or change like the waiters, miners, retail workers and such stayed the course of their work as what they considered their destiny. It never dawned upon them that they could transform themselves, leave alone the world. But their children and grandchildren are born to a different world and belief system where both entitlement and enforcement have little respect.
Cognitive or Business Intelligence
In an age when there is information, resources and material available on tap for talent, what is required is Visualizing the Context in which these resources can be put to the most optimal use, isn’t it? This requires an independence of thinking and action; not the forced set of Requirements and Instructions that cannot be questioned. Not global expansionism driving consumerism versus local communities thriving in a joyous environment. Cognitive Intelligence creates unscripted outcomes that is in the best interests of Customers and Consumers whereas Business Intelligence is known to create scripted outcomes. The question to ask therefore is what is appropriate in the modern context? Do we want people to follow a script at work or be creative?
If it is the former, the very premise of digital which is to enable ecosystems work in realtime is useless. If it the latter, creativity cannot be controlled or chained. It has been more than three decades since