The age of mechanisation, which
we are about to leave, had as its central metaphor the wheel and the cog. The
wheel was the steady and unflinching manufacturing of goods and services. The
cogs of the wheels are those people engaged in this process of manufacturing. As
the world of work became mechanised, so too the process of manufacturing was
broken down and divided into its smallest possible pieces and tasks, which
could then be carried out by people with limited skills and to all intents and
purposes acting as automotives. What was required in these bureaucratic
hierarchies, was hours of labour – not innovation, not creativity and certainly
not the ‘whole person’. Personality, aspirations, hopes were to be left at the
door of the departing home.
The five future trends work
together to provide a unique opportunity to shift from the age of mechanisation
to the age of craft. In this new age, people can put their stamp on their work
with regard to who they are and what they choose to do. This has immense
benefits as it enables each one of us to become more authentically ourselves.
However, it carries with it the necessity to become more aware of what it is
that is unique about us and to craft credentials in a thoughtful and energetic
way.
The need to become a master of
something and have some specialisation is crucial to the age we are entering.
It could be a specific skill or competency; it could be a breadth of knowledge
and insight; it could be particularly valuable networks and connections. The
actual specialisation or mastery is not the point – the point is that to thrive
in the future you have to have something.
Of course developing deep
mastery and specialisation is important – but you will also have to demonstrate
this to others. In other words, your credentials will have to be prominently on
display. Professionals such as doctors and lawyers have historically relied on
professional bodies to calibrate and label and display their credentials. A
complex system of examinations, references and mentoring ensured that every
medical professional had a set of credentials which they carry with them and
which demonstrated their value and specialisation at any point in time.
Similarly, companies have often
played the same credential role. I recall that the first job title I had, when
as a novice psychologist I joined British Airways, was ‘Selection Methods
Officer’ on Grade 9. This positioned me with great accuracy in the hierarchy.
There was a Senior Selection Methods Officer to whom I reported, whilst my
grade signalled I was not yet a manager. If the job title did not provide
sufficient measure of my credential, then the size of my office (small and
shared) and the power of my car (I did not have one) signalled just how far
down the pecking order I stood. Hierarchies and bureaucracies are marvellous
places for creating clear credentials – just as professional bodies
historically have.
However, as companies become
flatter and more project based and as work becomes more specialized, so too
there will be a need for talented people to create their own verified
credentials, which rapidly and accurately portray who they are and what they
can do. This process of verification will place a premium on feedback and self
authoring. Here are some ways to think about this:
*
Think about
creating the new ‘craft communities’, which like the old professional bodies
act as repositories of member’s credentials.
*
Work
steadily and actively to build your personal credentials or brand using all the
emerging social media technologies.
*
Be sure
that every project or task you complete has a means of verification so that
your performance can become part of the credential package. This means you will
have to have transparent and shared performance ratings.
Not sure how this will work?
Well, be inspired by the thousands of physicists working on the CERN project in
Switzerland. They engage in a collective task and yet are able to verify their
individual contribution by putting each of their names on any of the outcomes
of their joint work. Or think about how the programmers who use O Desk post
their performance ratings, so that potential buyers of their work can assess
their competence.
Stepping back, ask yourself
these three questions about your current work:
* If I left tomorrow what
could I take with me that demonstrated to others what I have achieved?
*
How do
people doing my sort of work show the skills they have learnt – particularly to
others who are outside of this type of work?
