The Year of the Human – Intellect
The first “official” work week of 2020 is underway and I’m already seeing some indicators of what may be on tap for this year. As a continuation of my thoughts from “Adios 2019, Hello 2020” I stand by my prognostications of Talent Management as a major initiative for organizations and AI being “The Universal Peanut Butter” spread over all digital things. What will be fun to watch this week is the news coming out from CES 2020 (Consumer Electronics Show). Hopefully there’s more exponential thinking and announcements rather than linear TV, Phone and Laptop feature-creep.
Overall, I truly believe 2020 will be a BOLD year. Unemployment is at historical record lows, tech has established a solid foundation (in the cloud) to grow. But its not going to be Technology that makes the headlines – it going be those who figure out the “Secret Sauce” for it’s use. The ones that can make sense of all the HR Tech options out there and how they align to support the business and its people are going to be the BOLD ones. This isn’t necessarily the domain of just the CIO, but rather it will be the CHRO/CLO or a Senior “Architect” that will lead the strategy.
The latest issue of Chief Learning Officer Magazine has some great articles that hit on this very point. From Mike Prokopeak’s “Time for Some T” discussing the “T-Shaped” employee (I’ll touch on that), to “The Evolution of the CLO,” there’s lots to unpack in these articles. What I found most interesting was the approach for both articles centers on experienced professionals as the enabler of something greater.
As I’ve discussed in my article on Critical Thinking, and then through CHRO conversations during my trip to India, the ability to see the big picture or a solution from multiple data points is an essential skill. Unfortunately for Millennials, experience over time contributes a great deal to this particular skill. Mike Prokopeak highlighted why a “T-Shaped” employee is essential, “What’s needed now are people shaped like a T, with vertical skill in a particular area but also a horizontal breadth of experience across multiple fields.”
This very point of “experienced” professionals is also the source of some initial teeth grinding already in 2020. It’s been clear for a long time that Generation X or “Gen X” has been overlooked. Hilariously to the point of major news outlets completely neglecting the Generation when listing all others from 1900 through today. Most of us in Gen X have come to accept it. As I read an article in HR Executive over the holidays, there was the overall platitudes of “Millennial” and “Boomer” references; however this time when acknowledging my Generation, instead of actually using “Gen X” the article used descriptors such as “workers over 40” and my favorite “older workers.” Really?
Now for the good news; Gen X will get the last laugh. As I mentioned, in the title this will be the “Year of the Human – Intellect” because us “older” and “over 40” workers are uniquely positioned to not only see the forest for the trees, but lead our teams and organizations through to the other side successfully. 2020 will be a year of “Architects”, “Consultants”, “Ecosystem Engineers” and “People Experience” roles, all working to leverage technology successfully to meet human needs. And while we’re solving the latest organizational and technical challenges, we’ll continue to listen to the “80’s on 8” as we watch Millennials and Boomers debate who’s more important.