“Despite concerns that they are not prepared for the new era and the job losses that will result from automation, majorities in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S. believe that advancements in machine learning will do more good than harm overall. And when asked about the best skills to withstand artificial intelligence, six in 10 respondents in Canada and the U.K. believe teamwork, communication, creativity, and critical thinking are most important in the new era of automation; whereas Americans are split 50-50 between those “soft” skills and technical skills like math, science, coding, and working with data.” -via TechXplore Ignore the hand-wringing headlines about the impending AI revolution, but get ready for the disruption
We live in a time of disruption…
A time that is being defined by the current level of digital disruption we are experiencing. And unfortunately, it is technology, not humans that seem to be taking center stage and playing the hero in the future narrative we are currently writing.
In many ways, we only have ourselves to blame, as we have set the stage for this story…
From government, to business, and even education, we have pushed through the 19th and 20th centuries on a mantra focused on efficiency and standardization. Our Tayloristic assembly-line approach that provided efficiency and effectiveness in prior times, seems to be a bit of our undoing in the present and for the future. As John Hagel shares in Rethinking Race Against the Machines, “If you have tightly scripted jobs that are highly standardized where there’s no room for individual initiative or creativity, machines by and large, can do those activities much better than human beings. They’re much more predictable, they’re much more reliable.”
Efficiency and standardization has become a sign of our past and present times…
For our future, of one that is being continuously shaped and shifted by our ability to automate and infuse artificial intelligence, this idea of standardization should then be sending some very strong signals of discord and incompatibility. Especially as we find that the very idea of standardization has set the stage for the entrance of machine learning and with it, greater levels of automation.
Which means we have to begin to consider not only the skills that will be necessary and needed in and for the future, but those skills that are also uniquely human. Those skills that stand the test of time, and automation.
While there are many, the road always seems to lead back to creativity.
In many ways, we live in times where we all have to be creative now, no matter what we do. Creativity has always been, and even more now, continues to be a vital skillset for the future. Unfortunately, in the past, we tended to relegate creativity to something that was only needed by the artistic class, rather than a skillset that serves us all, in both our personal and professional lives.
Too often, we have limited the idea of creativity to that of the artist, instead of seeing that creativity can exist in all that we do. Especially as we look to the future and the skills that it is requesting – critical-thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, innovation – we see that creativity can and should be infused into how we approach and utilize all of those skills. As Creative Director Stefan Mumaw defines it, “Creativity is problem-solving with relevance and novelty.” Which means, that we live in a time when efficiency and standardization have effectively run their course, and the need for more creative thinking and creative solutions is taking center stage and exponentially expanding into every profession.
In an age that is being defined by automation and artificial intelligence, we can no longer afford to not be creative.
We begin first by realizing that creativity is not a trait that only certain “artistic” individuals are born with. Rather, it is a skill that we all possess. Creativity is a skill that we can continuously improve upon, that we can continue to get better at. However, with that said, it is also like a muscle, and the more we use it the stronger it gets. And vice versa. The less we use it the more atrophied it gets. Which is why it is important that we exercise our creative muscle more and more, as it is a skill that makes us uniquely human in a time when what makes us uniquely human is becoming more and more vital to our future success.
Second, we have to determine, in regards to creativity, that we begin to unlearn, in order that we may reengage and relearn. As what we have learned, is that we have become better and better over time of diminishing our creative spirit. As shared in the article, What is Creativity? Defining Defining the Skill of the Future Kylie Ora Lobell adds, “Research proves that non-creative behavior is learned overtime. According to George Land’s Creativity Test, young children are creative geniuses, and become less creative as they age. His study took a group of 1,600 five-year-olds and tested to see how creative they were. Ninety-eight percent were deemed creative geniuses, thinking in novel ways similar to the likes of Picasso, Mozart, Einstein and other creative personalities. He tested them again at 10 years old. That number dropped to 30 percent. By 15 years of age, it had declined to 12 percent. He gave the same test to 280,000 adults and found that only 2 percent were creative geniuses.”
We can no longer afford to diminish, be that in our business or educational organizations, the creativity and creative thinking of our people. Instead, we have to look to opportunities to reengage and flex our creative muscles, especially in a time when the solutions to our most pressing problems may require a much more creative and innovative approach.
Or as Mike Walsh shares in his book The Algorithmic Leader, “Here is the important part of the story: while machines will get dramatically better at extracting insights from data, spotting patterns, and even making decisions on our behalf, only humans will have the unique ability to imagine innovative ways to use machine intelligence to create experiences, transform organizations, and reinvent the world.”
While the future is currently being defined by changes brought on by the digital disruption, automation, and artificial intelligence, which is bringing about deep changes to how we communicate, learn, live and work. What have to realize, especially in regards to this skills upheaval, is that some skills will continue to shift and change, and some skills will continue to stand the test of time.
Creativity is one of those skills to continuously stands the test of time. One of those skills that remains uniquely human.
So, while it seemed that in the Industrial Age, we were intent on finding the Einstein’s. In the Exponential Age, more and more, we find ourselves looking more for the DaVinci’s.
“You can provide a great education, but if that education is not getting drafted into future skills, questions will be raised about the value of that education.” -T. Kapilashrami, Group Head, HR Standard Chartered Bank
