The future of travel that’s boring?

The 9 rules of innovation

Collaboration is the new competitive advantage 

Startups , Innovators and Technology Companies are under attack by the ATO and AusIndustry

I usually write and post about positive things and growth ..... this reticle is different - as I believe something needs to be done - soon.

The positive news - is that we have an innovation minister in Karen Andrews that seems to be listening and is looking to make a change.

The Bad News

Australia has slipped from 16th to 18th place, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) - And is getting worse !

The top 7 places in the global digital competitiveness rankings are dominated by Singapore, China, northern Europe and the US. These countries lead the way in embedding and leveraging digital technologies. Critically, they are characterised by business and governments that embraces new digital technologies and innovations. 

Innovators , Startups and Technology companies start off as high risk ventures - going out on a limb to build new products, services and businesses . 

These businesses in Australia have recently been under attack and at risk for claiming R and D tax Concessions .

The rigid re-interpretation and tightening of the laws regarding the eligibility of software claims - has resulted in a clawback of $200 million in the 2018 financial year from companies that had made claims under the R&D Tax Incentive (RDTI) , and has effectively put all software developement and innovation at risk - resulting in a reduction in R&D support going where it is best deployed, at the cutting edge of Australian technology.

This is putting the survival of many SME and Startup companies focussed on Research and Development and innovation at risk - which will, in my view, is not in the best interests of the future of Australia.

AirTree Ventures co-founder Daniel Petre (former Innovation and Science Australia board member ) has call government’s treatment of tech companies “appalling”.

Small business ombudsman Kate Carnell has launched an investigation into this after receiving complaints from small business about unfair treatment by the ATO and AusIndustry in relation to R&D tax incentive claims.

“Of particular concern are audits going back several years, which have resulted in the ATO demanding businesses repay the R&D Tax Incentive, often with a severe penalty applied,” Ms Carnell said.

“Unfortunately some of these businesses have been told to pay back the tax benefit years after the R&D has been completed. This is well after they received the refund from the ATO and reinvested that money back into the business,” she said.

“Most of these businesses were genuine in their belief they were undertaking R&D and that their claims were totally justified.”

The Good News 

Industry Minister Karen Andrews has engaged with industry through a series of stakeholder roundtables since the election where the administration of the R&D tax incentive has been raised as an issue, particularly among startups.

I look forward to reporting a positive outcome for our Innovators , Startups and Technology Companies. 

Here’s hoping that we can once again bring Australia to the forefront of Global Innovation - and encourage innovators to take risk, innovate , and do research and development - with the blessing and support of Government 

If you are innovating or are interested in being a part of our innovation community , join us at our bbg innovation forum 

https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/bsi-innovation-forum-powered-by-bbg-tickets-50474711220

Is your organisation ready for the tsunami of change from digital disruption?

“If the rate of change on the outside is greater than the rate of change on the inside – the end Is near” Allen Pathmarajah quotes Jack Welch – Former CEO General Electric

We are undergoing massive technological change. Is your organisation ready for the inevitable change?

Monika Graham shared with me the results of a survey of 900 business, transformation and change leaders and consultants in industries from banking and finance, manufacturing, technology, consulting, government, academia and health was undertaken on the effects of digital disruption  by the Australian Transformation and Turnaround Association (AusTTA)  last year with some interesting insights . 

These were some of the issues identified

Boards and C-suite leaders are well aware that digital disruption is happenning - creating new competitors and making existing processes redundant (for better or worse!) but 42pc of those surveyed identified the resistance of boards and senior management to change.

16pc identified the lack of expertise in how to meet today and tomorrow’s challenges as an issue and 17pc  listed increased competition. 

Interestingly, technology was not considered a major challenge

Strategies to address these issues 

• Obtaining information and continuous learning on  how to transform needs to be a major focus 
• Revisit the value proposition, embracing change, and accelerating innovation and transformation.
• People are key – the best ideas for transformation come from their own people – they have the first-hand experience of what works, what does not and what customers want.
• Leaders have to bring their people on the journey with them. Management and staff are open to change if provided with the tools, leadership vision and empowerment to make a difference. - cost-cutting in favour of technology is the antithesis of this.

We have a choice  on how to embrace this tsunami of change. With excitement and optimism or fear! 

One thing is for certain - our organisations cannot leave our future in the hands of consultants, government or anybody else . 

We as leaders and individuals need to equip ourselves with the knowledge and surround ourselves with most experienced people around us - and embrace the concept of continuous learning - to survive and thrive in today’s changing environment and its myriad of challenges and opportunities. 

• How are you going to take advantage of the tidal wave of technology, machine learning, AI and blockchain, using your existing untapped potential of your workforce.
• How are you going to embrace this change and in fact be part of this innovation and change that promises to take your organisation to a new level of productivity, growth,profitability and sustainability?
• Is your organisation’s operating system too rigid and lacking in novelty that comes with different perspectives and world views?

An organisation is not a machine based on algorithms that can be disposed of by a used by date. It is a complex mass of humans with people on the fringe and exceptions to the ordinary – brimming with potential, ideas, innovation and improvements wanting to be released.

How can your organisation release this potential?

We need to embrace diversity as the portal to innovation and antifragility.

Staying the same, maintaining the status quo and doing the same thing as you’ve done before – doesn’t cut the mustard – you will go backwards into oblivion. - Ivan Kaye - BSI 

How can we get the humans in your organisation to feel safe and share their ideas and innovations? (#psychologicalsafety)

How can we get them to have a voice?

How can you feel comfortable in your organisation, to contribute and embrace the inevitable change?

Here is a survey for you to fill out for the 2019 survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/AusTTA2019Survey

People who fill out the survey will be invited as my guest to a food for thought panel in October with leaders in the space of Transformational Change. 

How do Companies gain , retain and maintain talent

Great Insights from George Giamdakis - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ggiamadakis

Companies want to attract and retain great talent, especially millennials and Gen Zs

To achieve this millennials and Gen Zs look for and seek evidence of:

👍a clear and motivational vision (not motherhood statements) 

👍the genuine approach of giving back to a community cause (not just token actions)

👍an inclusive sharing culture that shares the same values and beliefs (not just a poster at front reception) and

👍leadership with empathy (not managing from a distance with no real interest in people’s lives and what makes them tick)

👉Q How clear and motivational is your vision?

👉Q How do you live profit for good?

👍Enjoyed this post click the thumbs up icon

#millennials #recruitment #peopleandculture #business #motivation #genz #talent

The CEO conspiracy - Should CEOs seek a new purpose? Is Capitalism crumbling?

“Move Over, Shareholders: Top CEOs Say Companies Have Obligations to Society” - WSJ 

“Group of top CEOs says maximizing shareholder profits no longer can be the primary goal of corporations” - Washington Post 

So what should the Corporate Purpose be?  - is it about shareholders profit or more? Has the pursuit of profits worked? 

The heart of capitalism and stock exchanges has been for organisations to  exist to provide more money now and in the future for shareholders of the organisation.

No more - said the powers at “The business roundtable” (181 of the 193  CEOs including the chief of executives of Amazon, American Airlines, and America's biggest bank, JPMorgan Chase and Johnson and Johnson)

A corporates purpose should include a 

• Commitment to employees providing fair wages and "important benefits," 
• Support communities where they operate and dealing ethically with suppliers.
• Diversity and Inclusion

These changes  have been as a result of demands from employees , activists and social media. 

"This new statement better reflects the way corporations can and should operate today. It affirms the essential role corporations can play in improving our society when CEOs are truly committed to meeting the needs of all stakeholders." Johnson & Johnson chief executive Alex Gorsky

Other signatories include General Motors' boss Mary Barra, Ford's Jim Hackett, and Apple's Tim Cook.

Seven CEOs declined to endorse the statement, including Larry Culp of General Electric Co. and Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group Inc.

What are ways in which corporates can add value to their stakeholders and their communities?

Is being held accountable by employees and stakeholders to do the right thing enough? 

'Should those of us who are blessed pay more tax?’

Should governments  penalize companies for data breaches or force them to improve the diversity of corporate boards or determine make up of employees in an organisation? 

My View 

My view is that capitalism works . Organisations that will survive and thrive will look after its employees and stakeholders and customers . 

If customers do not support them - they will go out of business . They will drive corporates to do the right thing”_

What do you think ? 

So what is Agile ?

The Wall Street Journal provides an informative  article on Agile and its power . Thanks Curtis Carlson for the link.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/are-you-agile-enough-for-agile-management-11565607600

And thank you Stephen Denning from Forbes for the amazing insights on the power of Agile 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2019/08/13/understanding-the-agile-mindset/#854553d5c17f

Below is a succinct summary of what Agile is by giving 2 real life examples - Starmark and Campbell’s soup 

As Gary Hamel says, “Strategy gets set at the top. Power trickles down. Big leaders appoint little leaders. Individuals compete for promotion. Compensation correlates with rank. Tasks are assigned. Managers assess performance. Rules tightly circumscribe discretion.”

One method of implementing the strategy is Agile - so what is Agile 

Agile is a set of tools 🧰 based on core values and a leadership mindset of efficiency, empowerment and accountability - with doing things in small bursts and having the customer as a core member of the team .

It’s about using any resources available to the organisation - and a focussed effort of breaking down silos 

Below is a great summary of differences by Stephen Denning on the differences between an Agile and A beurocratic mindset . 

What they did at Starmark 

Accountability  happens by daily 20-minute check-in meetings. All employees describe in 60 to 90 seconds what they are working on, what they plan to deliver that day and what obstacles they face.. 

Jacqui Hartnett, Starmark’s president says about the accountability sessions . “You make and keep promises to yourself and others, and do what you said you were going to do.”

Clients get to review finished features or functions of their projects at two-week intervals, or sprints. “You fail faster, and that’s a huge relief,” 

Mr. Edenfield says. One team made a quick midcourse correction in a branding campaign recently by showing the client a prototype of a website, rather than the finished product. 

When the client objected to the color scheme, Starmark fixed the problem right away, saving the team a few days of makeup work.

That shift also reduces stress, says Brett Circe, Starmark’s chief digital officer. “There’s no late night or weekend work re-engineering the project at the end.”

One Starmark client, senior marketing executive Brandon Hensler, says meetings at the agency are brutally honest but often improve on his team’s ideas, aided by people from all Starmark’s departments working together. 

When Mr. Hensler asked Starmark to produce a two-minute branding video for the website of his employer, Nova Southeastern University, Starmark suggested three shorter videos instead that could be used for more purposes, including social media. “They took our concept and made it so much better,” he says.

Campbell soup case study 

Craig Slavtcheff, vice president and head of R&D Campbells soup 

The approach is helping trim the company’s average launch times for new products to nine to 12 months from 18 to 24 months.

He says the biggest hurdle for employees was ignoring old silos and reaching across departmental boundaries to access any resources they needed. Meeting discussions are terse and fast-paced,

“We have a rule: Go no faster than the slowest person,” Mr. Skeels of AgencyAgile says. “Before we move onto another point, we say, ‘Does everyone get that?’”

Meeting participants are often asked to call out blockers—colleagues or clients who are impeding their work. Talk about obstacles is supposed to be free of blame or punishment. “When a team meeting is done right, there are few things more inclusive and soothing,” Mr. Skeels says.

But critical or aggressive team members can wreak havoc by demeaning others. “If a manager runs the meeting like a dictator,” Mr. Skeels says, “it becomes the worst meeting of the day.”

About Agile in USA

Some 75% of North American employers are using agile practices at least sometimes, up from 71% last year, according to a survey of more than 3,130 project managers by the Project Management Institute.

Agile techniques can speed productivity by 20% to 50% and improve the quality of products and services, says Jack Skeels, chief executive of AgencyAgile in Los Angeles, who consulted with Starmark on its conversion. But the principles need to be tailored to fit particular teams, their mix of work and the company culture, he says.

A GUIDE TO AGILE JARGON

Agile: A tool kit of practices for turning complex projects over to self-managed teams that work closely with customers to deliver work in stages and respond quickly to change.

Backlog: A prioritized list of everything that needs to be done to complete a project.

Sprint: A work period of a fixed length, usually one to four weeks, that ends in a demonstration of work accomplished.

Promise: The work a team has committed to deliver during the current sprint.

Scrum: A popular framework for putting agile methods into practice.

Scrum master: A person who helps teams manage themselves, making sure they have the information and resources they need.

Stand-up (or huddle, scrum or check-in): A meeting held at the same time every day when team members report briefly on work completed, tasks planned for that day and obstacles that are getting in the way.

Kanban or scrum board: A display showing one sticky note for each task in progress, aligned in separate columns based on their status—to-do, doing or done.

Stories: Narratives defining features, functions and other work to be delivered, explaining for whom the task is being done, what the customer wants and why.

Timebox: A maximum period of time allotted to produce something of value for the customer.

Waterfall method: A traditional method of organizing projects, moving an entire body of work in steps from planning to designing, testing and launching.

Australia develops first AI created flu vaccine

Australian researchers just released the world's first AI-developed vaccine and it could prevent another horror flu season

Researchers at Flinders University have developed a new vaccine believed to be the first in the world to be designed by an AI program called SAM (Search Algorithm for Ligands). This was done by taking existing drugs that work,and drugs that don't work or have failed, and showed all of that to the AI program called Sam . Sam then took and tested, different formulas and came up with a winning vaccine 

Funded by the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to the tune of $50m, the vaccine is currently being rolled out for 12-month trials in the US.

The rammifications could be huge, with the technology expected to be able to create better vaccines years ahead of humans and at a fraction of the cost.

Research Director of Australian biotechnology company Vaxine and Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky led this development with the help of USA NIH funding to the tune of $50m, after being rejected for funding by Australian institutions.

“The US system values ambitious, innovative and futuristic research whereas Australian funding bodies are highly conservative and only fund me-too incremental research where the outcome is largely already known,”

This was exceptional as Australia has a great record at publishing basic medical science and has a poor track record of developing new drugs or treatments. “ 

Click here to find out more 

Squirrel AI - a unicorn created from China’s obsession with education and AI - edtech at its finest ?

Karen Hau has written an amazing paper on how China is investing in edtech and AI - and compares 2 edtech’s in Shanghai - one of which is Squirrel - Shanghai’s edtech’s unicorn . Click here to read her article 

The exponential Growth of Squirrel 

Since it’s inception 5 years ago, Squirrel has opened 2,000 learning centers in 200 cities and registered over a million students—equal to New York City’s entire public school system. It plans to expand to 2,000 more centers domestically within a year. 

To date, the company has raised over $180 million in funding, and has gained  unicorn status, surpassing $1 billion in valuation. 

Squirrel has  recruited several Americans to serve on his executive team, with the intent of pushing into the US and Europe in the next two years. One of them is Tom Mitchell, the dean of computer science at Carnegie Mellon; another is Dan Bindman, who led the user experience and editorial teams at ALEKS.

They have heavily marketed their technical capabilities through academic publications, international collaborations, and awards, and have opened a joint research lab with Carnegie Mellon University this year to study personalized learning at scale, then export it globally.

It is no wonder why it is the darling of the Shanghai local government.

The Pain

China’s obsession into education is renowned worldwide, with immigrants in Australia topping institutions  and schools wherever they are. 

In China, academic competition is fierce, with Ten million students a year take the college entrance exam, the gaokao. Your score determines whether and where you can study for a degree, and it’s seen as the biggest determinant of success for the rest of your life. 

Parents are willingly paying for tutoring or anything else that helps their children get ahead. 

It so no wonder that China is investing and focussing its energy into edtech, with the government giving significant grants and tax incentives to companies investing in AI ventures that improve anything from student learning to teacher training to school management. For VCs, this means such ventures are good bets.

As a result, AI-enabled teaching and learning has exploded with tech giants and startups popping up like mushrooms! 

The Pain Killer 

Squirrel focuses on helping students score better on annual standardized tests, which taps straight into national gaokao anxiety; more than 80% of its students return year after year.

Dr Wei Cui, partner at Squirrel AI Learning says  “We can help every student  with high quality education. Their family doesn’t need to pay to go to the high quality school, don’t need to pay for the one-to-one tutoring, the experienced teachers. The system we can replicate is anywhere, any time – it is unlimited.”

Squirrel has been designed to capture ever more data from the beginning, which has made possible all kinds of personalization and prediction experiments. It has over 400,000 video courses and 10 million questions - which is growing daily .

AI in education is becoming ubiquitous with tens of millions of students now use some form of AI to learn, and in his 2018 book Rewiring Education, John Couch, Apple’s vice president of education, lauded Squirrel AI. (A Chinese version of the book is coauthored by Squirrel’s founder, Derek Li.) 

Squirrel’s innovation and how it creates its courses 

AI and adaptive learning is not new - Squirrels innovation and genius is through its granularity and scale. 

For every course it offers, its engineering team works with a group of master teachers to subdivide the subject into the smallest possible conceptual pieces. 

Middle school math, for example, is broken into over 10,000 atomic elements, or “knowledge points,” such as rational numbers, the properties of a triangle, and the Pythagorean theorem. The goal is to diagnose a student’s gaps in understanding as precisely as possible. By comparison, a textbook might divide the same subject into 3,000 points; ALEKS, an adaptive learning platform developed by US-based McGraw-Hill, which inspired Squirrel’s, divides it into roughly 1,000.

Once the knowledge points are set, they are paired with video lectures, notes, worked examples, and practice problems. Their relationships—how they build on each other and overlap—are encoded in a “knowledge graph,” also based on the master teachers’ experience.

One of many students benefitting  from Squirrel AI

Zhou Yi was terrible at math. He risked never getting into college. Then a company called Squirrel AI came to his middle school in Hangzhou, China, promising personalized tutoring. He had tried tutoring services before, but this one was different: instead of a human teacher, an AI algorithm would curate his lessons. The 13-year-old decided to give it a try. By the end of the semester, his test scores had risen from 50% to 62.5%. Two years later, he scored an 85% on his final middle school exam.

“I used to think math was terrifying,” he says. “But through tutoring, I realized it really isn’t that hard. It helped me take the first step down a different path.”

The new classroom

In the classroom , there are no whiteboards, projectors, or other equipment—just one table per room, meant for six to eight people - with each student having a laptop. 

Students work out practice problems on pieces of paper before submitting their answers online. In each room, a teacher monitors the students through a real-time dashboard.

At different points, both teachers notice something on their screen that prompts them to walk over and kneel by a student’s chair. 

They speak in hushed tones, presumably to answer a question the tutoring system can’t resolve.

“It’s so quiet,” I whisper to the small gang of school and company staff assembled for my tour. The Hangzhou regional director smiles with what I interpret as a hint of pride: “There are no sounds of teachers lecturing.”

The fallout 

AI can help teachers foster their students’ interests and strengths - but could it entrench a global trend toward standardized learning and testing, leaving the next generation ill prepared to adapt in a rapidly changing world of work?

• Collaboration , group discussion and communication - is no longer a main form of upskilling - is this a good thing?
• Is standardized learning and testing a good thing? 
• Is this technology taking  China to a point of education that any progressive pedagogue or education system is moving away from? 

(Ik comment :- It’s not either or - You can still teach collaboration and discussion - why link learning stem to collaboration? )

How is this learning shaping the nature of work?

As machines become better at rote tasks, humans will need to focus on the skills that remain unique to them: creativity, collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. They will also need to adapt quickly as more and more skills fall prey to automation. 

This means the 21st-century classroom should bring out the strengths and interests of each person, rather than impart a canonical set of knowledge more suited for the industrial age.

AI, in theory, could make this easier. It could take over certain rote tasks in the classroom, freeing teachers up to pay more attention to each student. Hypotheses differ about what that might look like. 

Perhaps AI will teach certain kinds of knowledge while humans teach others; perhaps it will help teachers keep track of student performance or give students more control over how they learn. 

Regardless, the ultimate goal is deeply personalized teaching.

Squirrel’s approach may yield great results on traditional education, but it doesn’t prepare students to be flexible in a changing world.

The students journey at Squirrel 

A student begins a course of study with a short diagnostic test to assess how well she understands key concepts. 

If she correctly answers an early question, the system will assume she knows related concepts and skip ahead. Within 10 questions, the system has a rough sketch of what she needs to work on, and uses it to build a curriculum. 

As she studies, the system updates its model of her understanding and adjusts the curriculum accordingly. As more students use the system, it spots previously unrealized connections between concepts. 

The machine-learning algorithms then update the relationships in the knowledge graph to take these new connections into account. 

Squirrel has offered some validation of its system. In October 2017, for example, a self-funded four-day study with 78 middle school students found that the system was better on average at lifting math test scores than experienced teachers teaching a dozen or so kids in a traditional classroom.

The students Karen spoke to at the learning center had high praise for the tutoring program as well. All were finishing middle school and had been coming to the center for more than a year. 

One girl, Fu Weiyi, tells Karen she’s improved far faster than when she got individual tutoring from a human teacher. “Here, I have a teacher both on and offline,” she says. “Plus, the instruction is very targeted; the system can directly identify the gaps in my understanding.” Another student echoes the sentiment: “With the system, you don’t have to do tons of exercises, but it’s still effective. It really saves time.”

“I wish I had more interaction with real human teachers”

Squirrel’s founder Derek Li

Squirrel’s founder Li, is keen to integrate his curriculum directly into the main classroom. and is already in discussion with several schools in China to make its system the primary method of instruction.

Teaching Emotional Intelligence 

Much of Squirrel’s philosophy stems from Li’s own experiences as a child. When he was young, he didn’t have very good emotional intelligence, he says, and reading books on the subject didn’t help. So he spent half a year dividing the skill into 27 different components and trained himself on each one. 

He trained himself to be more observant, for example, and to be an interesting conversationalist (“I spent a lot of time finding 100 topics, so I have a lot of material to talk with others,” he says). 

He even trained himself to keep smiling when others criticized him. (“After that, in my life, I do not have any enemies.”) The method gave him the results he wanted—along with the firm belief that anything can be taught this way.

Teachers will be like pilots 

Li uses an analogy to lay out his ultimate vision. “When AI education prevails,” he says, “human teachers will be like a pilot.” They will monitor the readouts while the algorithm flies the plane, and for the most part they will play a passive role. But every so often, when there’s an alert and a passenger panics (say, a student gets bullied), they can step in to calm things down. “Human teachers will focus on emotional communication,” he says.

Li thinks this is the only way humanity will be able to elevate its collective intelligence. Entrusting teachers with anything else could risk “damaging geniuses.” He’s playing out this philosophy on his own kids, using Squirrel’s system as much as possible to train them. He boasts that his eight-year-old twin boys, in the second grade, are now learning eighth-grade physics, a testament that his method is working. “Only adaptive systems could make such miracles,” he says.

So, what is a successful career in the 21st century?

Thanks Heather McGowan and Thomas Oppong !!Thanks Tanya , Jed and Maya 

I have just spent an amazing week with Tanya (an accountant and my daughter  , Jed (an architect and her life partner ) and Maya (their baby and my grandchild) - and we have been talking about the future of work, plans, how AI and machine learning will disrupt - and the importance for them to work in an environment that is in line with their values , belief system and the future  that they envision for themselves. 

As always - Heather McGowan’s posts come in  a timely and opportune way - and again reminds us of the importance of learning how to learn 

“A career is a portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set, and constantly reinvent you as a brand.”  Tom Peters - In Search of Excellence  #futureofwork 

The Skill and Qualification That Got You The Job is Not What You Need to Build Career Longevity - says Thomas Oppong  https://medium.com/swlh/the-hard-skill-that-got-you-the-job-is-not-what-you-need-to-extend-your-career-longevity-7637be727c52

Things change at a rapid pace, and if you do not keep up to date with the changes that occur - your qualification and skill will very quickly become redundant.

One thing you can be sure of ..... there will be massive change happening in your field of expertise .... and your world of work today won’t be the same tomorrow. 

So how do you stay relevant? 

Your performance, skill, and ability will decline with time unless you deliberately take control of your personal development, and undertake a regime of continual learning (or vocational education). 

Your qualifications and technical skills - will need to be kept up to date and you will need to know how to harness the AI and machine learning that will make your job that much easier and efficient- so that you become better, smarter, faster .

More and more relevant will be your soft skills — a combination of people skills, communication abilities, personal habits, emotional intelligence, time management, and leadership skills.

Continual personal and technical development. 

If you want to continue to be an expert in your field - you will need to keep up to date - however it might be wise to re-skill  , gain new expertise, and reinvent yourself to keep going.

As Heather McGowan shared with us - the average millennial in Australia will have 17 different jobs in a variety of jobs and industries - and that’s by the time they are 40!!!

So what’s the answer?

How can we get ourselves and our children ready for the 4th industrial revolution?

We need to teach them to “learn how to learn”

We need to instil in our work environment an environment of continuous learning .

A law of nature comes into play - If you don’t continue to grow - you will stagnate and whither away. 

Continuous learning is the only way to survive in the ever-changing world of work. Self-education and a student like mindset - needs to be ingrained into our psyche as a daily habit. 

You need to continue to hone your current skills and develop new ones while enriching your mind. 

Then, when the time to adapt arrives, the transitions  will just flow.

So what does learning entail? 

Continual investment in your professional growth 

• Connection, collaboration, continual learning, 
• Finding mentors that you want to emulate 
• Attending conferences, forums, workshops, 
• reading 
• Doing online courses 
• Creating an unconscious competence 
• hearing from experts 
• mentoring others, 
• Sharing your knowledge, 
• Being part of a cross-functional project 
• Continual review and feedback of your performance continual Professional Development 

So these are some of the tips that Thomas Oppong writes in “The Hard Skill That Got You The Job is Not What You Need to Build Career Longevity What a “successful career” means in the 21st century!

(Ik comment ..... I cant help myself....... go to www.bbg.business  and join a forum!!! ) 

Use networking opportunities to engage with others higher up the corporate ladder. Use your contacts, such as a previous manager, colleague or mentor to ask for introductions if necessary. If there is an opportunity to speak at a company event, seize it.

If team management skills are increasingly becoming important in your field of work, perhaps you could ask and shadow your manager or asked to be coached by someone you admire in that position.

Say you’re a programmer. Why not study project management? Or let’s say you’re a graphic designer. Why not study team management?

“You should get better and faster at whatever your craft is over the course of your career, whether that’s coding, designing, researching, or something else. But if that’s the only area you improve in, you may find advancement more elusive than you’d expected, explains Ximena Vengoechea.

The rise of online resources and access to professionals anywhere means it’s easier than ever to improve yourself from your office desk or at home.

Equally important is the message personal learning sends out if you are employed; it shows you are investing in yourself and that your career is still in ascendance.

If you’re looking to climb the career ladder, develop people management skills. Leading teams and practical training programs are particularly effective because you can apply those skills easily. It’s important that you engage, discuss, and experiment with the knowledge you obtain.

To get started and take your career to the next level, assess how the skills you want fits with your overall career goals. It pays to know your readiness for a new level of responsibility. No matter where you are in your present career, take a minute to find out exactly where you are today.

Can you work both independently and collaboratively? Can you negotiate and still keep your relationship intact? Are you a team member or leader? Do you have a good relationship with your colleagues or managers?

The further you want to go in your career, the more decisive these traits will become — if the corporate ladder means a lot to you.

Wherever your next challenge lies, with a future-focused plan, you will prepare yourself for the future.

www.bbg.business

So - “do you celebrate the misfits” or focus on a strong “team” ?

An interesting article about the culture of “Atlassian” - which sort of resonates with me ......

However, so does Steve Jobs” Apple philosophy on celebrating the misfits.

Atlassian 

frank.chung@news.com.au wrote an interesting article on the cultural shift at Atlassian after interviewing Atlassian head of talent Bek Chee. https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/at-work/atlassian-ditches-brilliant-jerks-in-performance-review-overhaul/news-story/82a5e2abba1939f51d68ae81db8f05bd

Atlassian want to more fairly measure people on how they bring their whole self to work, and they want to reward the right behaviours. 

The $47 billion Australian software company, Atlassian is completely overhauling how they conduct performance reviews, by de-biasing the performance system and taking into account an employee’s entire contribution to the company’s culture.

They says it will no longer tolerate “brilliant jerks” who deliver results for the company but make life hell for their co-workers.

The performance review will now have very little  to do with job skills. That is just a given and an opening hand to be at the table!

Two-thirds of every review will be given to how each of its 3000 employees impacts others on their team, and to how they live the company values. 

The Values of Team and Collaboration lead to high performance and this will be encouraged !!

3 Grading Levels in the performance review 

A crowdsourced idea from its employees, performance is  graded on one of three levels based on “growth mindset language” 

• rather than a score, they either get an “exceptional year”, 
• a “great year” or 
• an “off year”.

Atlassian also encourages peer feedback. 

Does the person sap energy or create energy?

“Your teammate can say, ‘This person really did support the work I was trying to do or went above and beyond to help me’,”

“Or on the flip side you may have a colleague where (you think), ‘My gosh just working with them takes time away from me to make up for their work.’”

Social conscious is important to the millennial and gen Y and Z crowd  and is integral to their value system. The corporate culture needs to align with this. 

The company needs to walk the talk - no bullshit and all talk 

“Our top performers we know nail it in terms of living values and being part of the team and delivering in their role,” Bek said.

It’s interesting to how different the above approach is to the values of Apple -

The Apple Manifesto

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.

— Steve Jobs, 1997”

A culture of team and encouraging misfits, genius and brilliant jerks .....

Is their a place for both? 

Government places Innovation squarely on the Agenda

The Minister for Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews has identified the need to build on Australian’s strength in the Technology and Innovation space and has opened up dialogue with industry.

She is hosting two technology industry roundtables over the next week to boost collaboration and tackle the global challenges and opportunities of Technology and how Government can help.

Below are statements from the Minister 

“Strengthening the technology sector is key to Australia’s economic growth and securing jobs for the future.”

“From new start-ups to large multinational firms, the tech industry underpins Australia’s ability to create and harness technological advances and remain competitive in a global economy,” 

“Digital innovation presents a $315 billion opportunity over the period to 2028 to enhance our technology capabilities.”

“Artificial intelligence and big data create new opportunities to grow the economy. Taking advantage of these opportunities will be crucial in reaching our Government’s target of 1.25 million new jobs over the next five years. “

“I want to hear from industry leaders firsthand about issues and challenges facing the tech sector like access to skilled workers and the need for balanced regulation.”