Photo courtesy of Max Kiesler and Flickr
“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.”
Albert Einstein
Physicist, winner of the
Nobel Prize in Physics, 1921
The newsfeeds are full of articles about artificial intelligence, robotics and big data. The rise of digital technology is met with increasing calls for a “Universal Basic Income”, amid fears of ‘technological unemployment’ and the biggest societal changes since the industrial revolution. A few weeks ago, Japanese insurance company Fukoku Mutual announced the replacement of 34 insurance claim workers with IBM Watson Explorer. In this week’s article, I’m going to share an excerpt from my Sunday Times Bestseller, RESULTS: Think Less, Achieve More that speaks to the enormous changes that are set to sweep through our society (Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd ©2016 Jamie Smart):
The exponential nature of technology is transforming our world at an ever-increasing pace. Robots are becoming more versatile and artificial intelligence is becoming more commonplace. According to MIT Sloan School of Management professor Erik Brynjolfsson and his collaborator Andrew McAfee (co-authors of the book Race Against the Machine) repetitive jobs are being automated more quickly than new jobs are being created. As computing power continues to get faster and cheaper, whole categories of employment are likely to disappear. The jobs at the highest risk of automation are those involving repetitive tasks and expertise that can be specified and codified. The jobs at the lowest risk of automation are those requiring high degrees of perceptiveness, creativity and social intelligence. There’s an obvious conclusion you can draw from this…
The capacities you need to prosper in the 21st century can be summarised as
perceptiveness, creativity and social intelligence…
The data on this chart has been “cherry-picked” from a list of over 700 jobs spread across the range from low probability of computerisation to high probability. This has been done a) for reasons of brevity and b) to shine a light on the extremes, highlighting the jobs with the lowest and highest risk of automation…
Perceptiveness, creativity and social intelligence
Many professions which we may not ordinarily think of as having these qualities are actually rich in them, for instance…
– Scientists and engineers need to be able to think creatively to solve problems
– Trial lawyers need to have a high degree of social intelligence to influence judges and juries (and public opinion, in some cases)
– Surgeons need to be perceptive, thinking systemically and working with high levels of manual dexterity to operate successfully on a patient
NB. The fine motor skills required to perform surgery are another thing that can be particularly difficult to automate. However, Oxford University have recently agreed to run human clinical trials of PRECEYES, a system for robot-assisted eye surgery that will give surgeons an unparalleled degree of precision.
The rise of the transformation professional
A large number of the jobs at an extremely low risk of automation involve transformation professionals (E.g. psychologists, clergy, physicians, nutritionists, coaches etc); roles where bedside manner counts, and much of the value is created through connection, creativity and insight. The “wellbeing industry” is growing by leaps and bounds, and the past decade has seen hundreds of thousands of people drawn to the “profession of transformation”. As our global consciousness continues to rise, industries are disrupted and working patterns change. More and more people are seeking greater independence and freedom. We’re being drawn to values-based, purpose-driven work that utilises our gifts and passions. And when it comes to perceptiveness, creativity and social intelligence, there’s something important you need to know…
You’re already connected to the source of creativity and innovation…
You’re already optimised to thrive as a socially intelligent being…
You’re already endowed with the powers of perceptiveness and persuasion…
You already have these capacities. They’re as integral to your nature as your ability to see, hear or feel. The only thing that slows your development or gets in the way is contaminated thinking, arising from the outside-in misunderstanding. The reason people have struggled to teach these “emotional intelligences” until now is because they’ve been using additive approaches. But remember: embodied understanding is subtractive. As your understanding of the principles behind clarity continues to increase, your capacities for creativity, perceptiveness and social intelligence automatically come to the fore.
The Clarity Equation
Clarity of understanding gives rise to the qualities you need to thrive, prosper and create meaningful results in the 21st century.
Reality check
So am I saying there’s nothing else to learn? That if you deepen your understanding of these principles, you’ll automatically know how to develop a mobile app, master the latest social media tool and play the guitar like Jimi Hendrix? Of course not – that’s a ridiculous notion. As the rate of innovation continues to increase, there are new skills to learn and tools to master. Whether it’s “soft skills” such as selling and negotiating or “hard skills” such as software development and data science, there are some things in life that are responsive to instruction, practice and mastery. You wouldn’t want to travel in a plane flown by a pilot who had never been to flight school and was just “trusting their intuition”. But by the same token, you wouldn’t want to travel in a plane flown by a pilot who was highly skilled and experienced, but who was lost in an outside-in La-la Land ruminating over a pay dispute. And that’s the key: As you get a deeper understanding of the principles behind clarity, you automatically benefit from your innate capacities, and increase your bandwidth and selectivity for learning the skills and capabilities that aren’t innate. Your ability to create results relies both on your innate capacities, and on the skills and abilities they enable you to learn.
Keep learning, and have a wonderful week
Big love
Jamie
PS. Being able to talk about what you do in a connected, clear-minded way that has an impact is one of the things we go into in-depth during Project Glasswing (aka Coaching Package Power) . The doors are now closed for Project Glasswing 7 and the programme is fully underway. We’re now taking applications for Project Glasswing 8 which is starting in April. Here’s how you’ll know if you’re a good fit:
– You are a coach, therapist or change-worker (Eg. Sports coach, psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, business coach, consultant, bodyworker etc)
– You have at least one year’s experience of working with clients (either paid, pro-bono or both)
– You probably charge by the hour, but want to use a “coaching package” model and increase your income /stabilise your income
– You have room to work with at least one longer term, high-value contract client, starting in May 2017
– You’re an enthusiastic, friendly people-person
– You have a coachable spirit, and are willing to step out of your comfort zone if necessary, and
– You can keep a secret
If that’s you, then email me at info@jamiesmart.com, and let me know where you’re located and a little about yourself (if you don’t know what to tell me about, look at the list above for inspiration). Change the subject line to “Project Glasswing 8 JST”. Talk to you soon!