“Change is not a threat, it’s an opportunity. Survival is not the goal, transformative success is.”
Seth Godin
Author, entrepreneur, marketing philosopher
As you may know, I’ve spent much of the past five months sequestered in hotel rooms, working on my forthcoming book. It’s due for publication in September 2016, and I’ll be revealing the title very soon, but for now I’m in the final stages of “putting it to bed”. I sent the first draft to my publishers a few weeks ago, and later today I’m due to deliver the full finished manuscript. I’m spending the rest of today tuning, tweaking, polishing and generally doing my best to improve the manuscript, but I thought you might like to look at an excerpt from one of my favourite chapters. The excerpt references the chart (pictured below) which has been “cherry-picked” from a list of over 700 jobs spread across the range from low probability of computerisation to highest risk of computerisation. Here’s the excerpt from the book, due to be published by Wiley-Capstone, 2016:
The transformation economy
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”.
Case Study: What would you do if it was OK to fail?
Over 26,000 people follow Christina’s Instagram feed where she posts recipes and photos of the delicious, nourishing meals she prepares. Christina is passionate about nutrition, but by day she works as an auditor. She had just put up her new website, and was getting inquiries from potential clients wanting to work with her, but she had a problem. Christina had been hit by a paralysing mix of emotions. She suddenly doubted her ability to do the work she loved, and was gripped by “fraud” feelings, with a sense of unworthiness and “who am I to do this?” She comes from a very traditional family, and her parents don’t understand how she could make a living by following her passion. They’re concerned for her security and wellbeing, and want her to stick with something “safe”, like her current job. Christina was terrified at the thought of failure, and of disappointing her parents, so she asked me for help. In the midst of our conversation, I asked a standard “coaching question”…
Jamie: “What would you do if you couldn’t fail?”
Christina: “I’d do it. I’d become a nutritionist.”
Jamie: “Great. Here’s a slightly different question. What would you do if it was OK to fail?”
Christina: “Same thing. I’d become a nutritionist.”
Jamie: “Great. That means the only issue you’ve actually had is that you didn’t realize that it’s OK to fail.”
Failure is a concept; it doesn’t exist in reality. Every time you do an experiment, you get a result. It may not be the result you wanted, but you can learn from it and feed that learning into the next experiment. I said, “You weren’t born with a fear of failure, otherwise you would never have learned to walk or talk.” And like learning to walk and talk, success in a new enterprise is almost always built on a foundation of numerous failed experiments. That’s part of the nature of learning.
Christina said she understood, but that she still felt worried and anxious at the thought of making a mistake and disappointing her parents. After exploring this with her for a few minutes, I said…
You’re feeling THOUGHT in this moment, not the future… or other people’s opinions…
Your feelings are giving you feedback on the glasses you’re wearing, not what you’re thinking about…
We looked up “nutritionist” on Frey and Osborne’s chart and found it at number 11 (with a score of 0.0039) meaning they’d evaluated it as among the least likely of all jobs to be computerised. According to Frey and Osborne’s research, when it comes to the risk of computerisation, being a dietician or a nutritionist is one of the safest jobs there is. We then looked up Christina’s current job role, “auditor”. Frey and Osborne had scored it as a 0.94, meaning it was among the most likely of all jobs to be computerised.
Christina sat silently for a few moments as she realized that the jobs her parents considered safest were actually among the most vulnerable to computerisation and elimination. The job that looked the most dangerous to them was actually the least vulnerable. She told me that the firm she worked for was already planning redundancies, and that she’d been looking for another auditing job so she could “play it safe”.
Christina’s passion for nutrition, combined with her talent for social media mean that she is well-placed to prosper in the transformation economy. The education system has trained her for a world of work that will soon disappear, so there are new things for her to learn. But if she’s willing to go through the three transformations we’re exploring in this book, and continue experimenting, she has every reason to be hopeful.
I look forward to sharing more from my new book with you in the months ahead. By the way, if you’re already a transformation professional, then you may be a good fit for something I’m doing next month. Here’s what I’m looking for:
– 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 to increase your income & make it more consistent
– You have space in your practice to work with at least one longer term contract client, starting in May
– 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 just email me at jsmart@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). Make the subject line “Project Glasswing”. I’ll be choosing people in the next couple of weeks. Talk to you soon!
Big love
Jamie