What should our Children learn at school?

Education in the 20’sis not what students will learn, but how they will learn it: 

The advantages of AI and VR to the lifelong learner and educator 

Artificial intelligence in education is and will continue to be an indispensable  tool to support both teachers and students. Robits and artificial intelligence should be embraced as it can improve the human side of the school experience.

Tracking students’ behaviour, data and engagement with the learning material through AI will enable students to customise their experience so they can learn in a way that is optimal to their personal style, and also raise red flags for educators to notice and offer help to students who seem to be developing not optimal behaviour.

Educators workloads will be greatly reduced as technology takes care of collecting data, highlighting learning and behavioural patterns, planning and grading.

Teachers will focus on valuable class time while which will improve their quality of life and reduce the  feeling of overwhelm to the point of wanting to quit.

Learning through video, and gamification will make learning more immersive through virtual, augmented and mixed reality. 

Students with learning disabilities and other difficulties will also benefit greatly from instructional videos, text-to-speech technology and a wealth of other aids available as compensating tools that give them a fairer chance at learning at the same pace as their peers.

The key is - what does the content need to change to - what is the new curriculum  ? 

What do our children need to have in their armoury to face the doubting world of the future of work? 

I for one am super positive of the future of learning and the opportunities that will stem from the various technologies that are available. 

Onwards and upwards I say! 

Lifelong Learning - a key ingredient to the future of work

Life-long learning has been proved to be one of the ways to stay relevant and not get disrupted by machines. 

Acquiring new knowledge is a such an integral part of your life - you need to learn how  to absorb new knowledge and eventually create your own knowledge  - which is key to not only to your advancement.

It is clear that for us to advance an indeed continue to proliferate the  survival of human existence. we will need to learn how to effectively and efficiently learn new skills - over the course of our lives! 

So.... what do we need to to learn how to learn ? 

There is a great article by Erika  Anderson https://hbr.org/amp/2016/03/learning-to-learn

that shares 4 attributes needed to learn how to learn all based around your mindset. 

• aspiration - you truly need to want to learn new skills 
• self-awareness 
• curiosity, 
• and vulnerability. 

Well worth a read 

Below are 6 C’s that will help you to learn how to learn 

(Following the theme of the 5C’s of BBG -coined by Monica Graham - connection, collaboration, contribution, continuity and community) 

Cerebral - Mindset 

A Mindset shift to change your focus from challenges to benefits - self talk is key 

Think about the last time your company adopted a new approach—overhauled a reporting system, developed Referron , replaced a CRM platform, revamped the supply chain. Were you eager to go along? I doubt it. 

Your initial response was probably to justify not learning. (It will take too long. The old way works just fine for me. I bet it’s just a flash in the pan.) 

When confronted with new learning, this is often our first roadblock: We focus on the negative and unconsciously reinforce our lack of aspiration.

When you want to learn something, you focus on what you’ll  gain from learning it—and envision a happy future in which you’re  reaping those rewards. 

That propels you into action. 

Chunk  it 

Focus on the process vs the finished product 

If you are writing a novel, focus on the chapter at hand. If you are writing software focus on the iteration, you are on right now, and everything will eventually connect.

Procrastination is a killer - and I am so good at it! delaying or postponing something that you are very well aware of needs to be done. If this is a problem work our strategies on how to deal with procrastination.

Emails, whatsapp, LinkedIn , Facebook notifications, tiktoks , YouTube and anything else that gets your mind off your task - shut it down so you can chunk that knowledge into your brain.

You have got to know the signals that get you off your attention spree and learn to shut them down for a period. 

You can reward yourself after you have accomplished your goal, by maybe doing some social media!

Learning in short bursts followed by either taking a nap, social media or doing some exercise helps your brain make the necessary neural connections that build long-lasting chunks of knowledge into your long time memory.

Challenge yourself 

Be comfortable being uncomfortable and vulnerable - by testing your knowledge by doing challenges that will force you to remember what you studied.

Continuity is king and Queen 

Practice is key , and going deep into the subject over a period of time - plan your activities 

Collaboration 

It is much easier learning with others - especially if you know like and trust them 

Building long term relationships with people who are interested in like minded things will hold you in good stead 

Coach and having a mentor 

Having a mentor or coach that cares about you is key to your ability to learn and get you to your top game. There is a reason why top athletes and CEOs have coaches! 

How cool would it be for BBG to create a process to enable lifelong learning! 

The Future of Work

What you need for the future of work 

An interesting piece on Adecco’s report on the future of work 

There is no doubt that digitisation, automation, and advances in artificial intelligence will disrupt the way you work ...... 

• 62 percent of executives believe they will need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce by 2023 
• By 2030 as many as 375 million workers—or roughly 14 percent of the global workforce

• Lifelong learning is key 
• Being connected is key 
• Building your network is key
• Mindset is key 

You need to have an

• agile mindset 
• resilient mindset 
• continual learning mindset - being open to be  mentored  and on the job soft skill learning,

You need to be digital literate AND take on additional digital skills training ready for the digitisation of the future of work.

The future of work is exciting - with such cool opportunities !

The rise of technology in the workplace needs to be embraced . 

AI could make work more intellectually stimulating by automating routine tasks, freeing up  time allowing more creativity, collaboration, and customer focussed attention. 

Technology is going to create jobs, however, the jobs will be different and will continue to change at a rapid pace (Moore’s law)

The Winning Organisation 

The  Organisations that will win and attract the brightest and the best will need to have a policy of continual  training of its workforce. Your Organisation  Experience will need to be as important to your Employee as a Harvard degree, and their experience with you will be proudly included in their CV for the future of work - and be rated as part of the lifelong learning curriculum.

The Winning You

Open to lifelong learning

Being relevant 

Having a powerful network

Love what you do 

What else?

CSL’s Seqirus to build an $800m plant in Victoria

Australian listed CSL’s subsidiary Seqirus  (ASX: CSL)  is building an  $800m flu vaccine facility in Melbourne in 2021 to be ready in 2026.

This investment is on the back of a 10-year deal with the Australian Government to supply flu vaccines for the local population as well as the Q-Fever vaccine and antivenoms for Australian snakes, spiders and marine creatures.

Utilising the cell-based techniques currently used at Seqirus' facility in North Carolina, the Melbourne facility plans to supply domestic and global needs for flu vaccines, both for seasonal and pandemic purposes.

The facility will also produce the company's proprietary adjuvant MF59, which helps improve immune response and is being used in its combined trials for a potential COVID-19 vaccines with the University of Queensland.

CSL chief executive officer and managing director Paul Perreault and Seqirus general manager Stephen Marlow say that  the facility will be an important addition to the Company’s global influenza manufacturing supply chain, and will ensure more than 1,000 science, technology, manufacturing and engineering jobs in Victoria, and a supply chain worth more than $300 million annually.

Victoria's Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Martin Pakula says that the facility will position Victoria as a global leader in cell-based influenza vaccine production and further boosts the capabilities in R&D, commercialisation and advanced manufacturing.

CSL - a share to watch!!

Hendrik Lourens - Getting The Most Out Of New Technology

 

Are Job Descriptions redundant

Are Job descriptions awash with the last centuries thinking and redundant? 

We need to embrace the future of work... how?

Does “a job description”.... stifle innovation, put you in a box and does not let you grow and innovate ?

A job description is great for systems to work and scale .....there is a  need for a “job description” - for a machine ..... 

if your job is defined as a job description.... by definition it can be .... and indeed will be...replaced by a machine.....

So...... how should a job ad be framed in the future of work? 

Leading sales recruiter, James Michael - talks about the need to  focus more on the outcomes that will be delivered vs how those  outcomes will be delivered.... 

What are the “smart” deliverables or goals that people are looking to be achieved? 

Will people be looking for core competencies .... what are your  human traits? 

You will need to have the basic competencies to do the job ..... write code, project management, accounting and analytical skills, be a doctor, architect, engineer etc  ....... 

you will continually need to learn how to learn, upskill, reskill, learn new ways to code, write up books, use technology .

Who have you worked for in the past?.... what skills have you acquired along your journey? ....

What skills do you still want to acquire on your journey? ....

You will need to get on with the team.... what is your psychological/disc profile ? 

Imagine 

Imagine if you had this all in a digital wallet- that could be searched for .... that you can seamlessly be connected to the ideal opportunity ! 

How cool would that be for you? 

How cool would that be for the “sponsor” 

#futureofwork 

#recruitment #jobdescriptions #talentacquisition

10 Gems to be Agile and thrive in the Nexttech Revolution

There were some interesting presentations at last week's Drucker Forum 2020.

The conference discussed (amongst other things) the rise of China as well as the need for Europe and USA to regain its leadership in technology. 

One of the key ways to do that is to build a culture of agile - and those bureaucratic giants will suffer the same fate as the dinasour! 

Steve Denning wrote a brilliant piece based on the presentation of Kevin Nolan, President and CEO of GE Appliances (GEA) now taken over by Chinese Company , Haier CEO. Kevin Nolan spoke about the massive cultural shift that needed to happen for it to survive.... 

GE seems to have lost their way - drowning in a sea of bureaucracy - there needs to be a change - big change!!! It seems to be slowly dying. Revenue and EBIT are flat - new competitors are coming in and challenging the status quo. How can GE rise to the occasion and not rely on its old model. 

GE is slowly being killed by obsolete ideas and layers of bureaucracy.

Dinasours become extinct - how did Nolan break this behemoth into small, agile, innovative powerhouses - with a common value system?

Rendenhayi Is  the answer says Nolan 

• its all  about the individual. 
• the  individual wants to contribute. 
• the individual wants to  interact. 
• the management needs to believe in that so as to unlock the value
• accountability, agility, and competition amid key 
• customers were the only boss.
• everything is about getting close to the customer.
• who is the customer? 

What did GE Appliances do to change? 

They  broke the company from four major product lines into fourteen, and  continue to try to make the pieces smaller and smaller. 

The goal was to achieve “zero distance with the customer” driving accountability down to micro-enterprises.

Each microenterprise had its own goals and make sure that they supported the firm’s overall goal.

Their compensation was tied to their results,  so individuals felt the impact. And what matters in GE now is the result achieved for customers.

Today , even during the Covid crisis, GE Appliances now has the highest employee satisfaction rating in the history of the firm.

Below are Nolan’s 10 tips for change 

1. defeat the bureaucracy. The firm needs to let people control their future and their decision making, so as to unlock their creativity.
2. the customer is the boss. get outside and meet their new boss. It means meeting the boss they always had, even though they had not understood that.
3. burn your org charts. Org charts are stagnant. They represent hierarchy. They represent bureaucracy. They represent internal power lines. When the customer is the boss, the org charts aren't meaningful anymore.
4. live in a zero distance world. how can we get closer to our customer so that we can anticipate the needs of our customers. They look at their individual customers. Who are they serving? What's the response from those customers.
5. the commercial teams are the firm’s eyes and ears. The commercial teams are about  understanding the customer. Identifying problems - there job is about developing relationships 
6. create ecosystems. The focus is on what's the experience of the customer. It's not about the product. It's about the experience and feeling that the product provides. So the whole effort now is: how do we get more ecosystems out there to interact with our customers?
7. people are smart; companies are not. let people be human again. Let people flourish. Let  people reach their potential.
8. fight  bureaucracy. Defeating bureaucracy isn’t easy. Think of it like weeds. They're ingrained in how everyone thinks. Procedures and policies are needed to scale - but it can stifle
9. cope with crises. Covid has been a test!! The micro-enterprises respond!! Things are changing at the micro-enterprise level with no central control. They all leaned in to the Rendanheyi philosophy during the crisis and were able to solve issues at the speed of the market. They had plants up and running before competitors. They were able to keep associates healthy and keep the business doing what it needed to do and being there for customers, because everyone knew that was the most important. They let their customers and alliance partners identify the opportunities and create the solutions.
10. trust your people. believe in the human spirit. be vulnerable and trust your employees. Trust their capability. Trust the entrepreneurial spirit they have. When you do that, you will get results 

These are 10 amazing gems 💎 that any organisation , community or country can adopt to improve its triple bottom line ! 

What are some of your gems