Are you afraid that the technical revolution may make your work and career obsolete? If you have been reading the recent series of books on how technological advances are now combining to make advancements much more rapid in virtually all types of work, you probably have an understandable case of the shakes.
How does a busy career professional prepare for what is coming? I have four recommendations:
1. Recognize that most changes in the way work is done are going to be gradual and done in stages. This is one of the issues I have with these books that are written by specialists following technology who are not necessarily thinking about the process of implementation. Organizations will make their transitions at different times depending on such things as size, financial resources, and competition. This process and the many roles that will be needed to make the transitions smoothly mean that aware professionals will likely be able to adapt, keep learning, and build their knowledge while working.
2. There will be many roles required during implementation and many of them will not require broad ranging technical knowledge although it will require learning the technological choice in some depth. Many of the roles will require a good understanding of the business processes that are the goals of the technology. This is business experience that professionals develop over the years. What are some of these roles?
— analyzing technical options to decide what to implement — managing the transition — training people to use the software or its output – converting from the old technology – figuring out how to adjust the new technology to the specific needs of the organization/product — developing “workarounds” where the technology fails in terms of the needs of the organization – becoming a problem solver for technical difficulties – and finally, recognizing the new possibilities in products or services that the new technology makes possible
3. Most will need to revise their attitudes about learning technology. Now most workers view new technology as a time-sink because it is something they have to learn in order to do what they have been doing in a different way. It may make the work flow better but it doesn’t necessarily make it easier for them. Also, higher level professionals have often not paid much attention to new technology because that was something those lower in the organization learned. Now the specialists are saying that the new work requires a more intimate integration between individuals at all levels and the technical innovations. This is one place where reading the recent series of books on the issue can be helpful. They provide insight into the potentials of the technology and sensitize readers to how to think differently about the learning process.
4. Another way the recent books can be helpful is in helping individuals think about what technology to learn about. Experienced workers who know what needs to be done will be sensitized to the coming technical possibilities and that will help them pick technical innovations to learn about which will have significant impact in the next few years vs. what might be too costly or require added innovations to have significant business impacts.
Scary as reading these books or hearing these authors might be, it’s important to remember that societal advancements evolve based on financing and human needs as well as what is possible. That said, big change is coming; global competition and the cost of workers in developed economies mean that organizations will be forced in this direction. Learn to surf the waves of change.
Sources:
The Race Against the Machine, How the digital revolution is accelerating innovation, driving productivity, and irreversibly transforming employment and the economy (2011) by Brynjolfsson and McAfee
Average is Over, Powering America beyond the age of the great stagnation (2013) by Tyler Cowen
The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies (2014) by Brynjolfsson and McAfee
Sally Power, Ph.D. is a writer, researcher, and personal consultant accelerating successful career transitions