Active Networking via Harvard Business Review

Some tips for progressing your professional network - online from +Harvard Business Review .  Quick take = be a generous connector.

Read the full HBR article  "Keep Your Network Alive" here

Work Skills for the Conceptual Age

Organizations and companies are grappling to identify talent and skill sets essential in the new economic environment.  Many thought leaders have identified that work has moved the from knowledge age to the 'conceptual' age.

As a result, future employers will seek and value creative problem solving skills.  

Of the many thought leaders in this area, Lisa Bodell of futurethink stands out by her articulation of essential skills for a conceptual age.

1. Strategic Imagination
2. Provocative Inquiry - or as I refer to it Intellectual Curiosity
3. Creative Problem Solving
4. Agility
5. Resilience

Indeed, her framework helps us answer our core question - how best to prepare for jobs that do not exist yet.

Read the full article published on CNN.

Workforce Preparedness - Skills for 2020

The Apollo Research Institute published an excellent and coherent report identifying skills necessary for success in the workplace.  While the report is titled Future Workskills 2020, the reality is that many of these skills are required for the current workplace, especially in digital environments.

The full report and online seminar are linked in the Futurework section.

Below are the 10 skills identified - new media literacy is key to acquiring some of the other skills.

• Transdisciplinarity: literacy in and ability to understand concepts across multiple disciplines. More about transdisciplinarity.
• Virtual collaboration: ability to work productively, drive engagement, and demonstrate presence as a member of a virtual team. More about virtual collaboration.
• Sense-making: ability to determine the deeper meaning or significance of what is being expressed. More about sense-making.
• Social intelligence: ability to connect to others in a deep and direct way, to sense and stimulate reactions and desired interactions. More about social intelligence.
• Cross-cultural competency: ability to operate in different cultural settings. More about cross-cultural competency.
• Cognitive load management: ability to discriminate and filter information for importance, and to understand how to maximize cognitive functioning using a variety of tools and techniques. More about cognitive load management.
• Novel and adaptive thinking: proficiency at thinking and coming up with solutions and responses beyond that which is rote or rule-based. More about novel and adaptive thinking.
• Computational thinking: ability to translate vast amounts of data into abstract concepts and to understand data-based reasoning. More about computational thinking.
• New media literacy: ability to critically assess and develop content that uses new media forms, and to leverage these media for persuasive communication. More about new media literacy. More about new media literacy.
• Design mindset: ability to represent and develop tasks and work processes for desired outcomes. More about design mindset.

Your opinions + ideas are most welcome in the comment section.