Digital disruption, global reach, and the changing workplace affect us all, and at all levels - individual, team, organisation, and community. Gihan Perera is a futurist, conference speaker, author and consultant who gives you a glimpse into what's ahead - and how you can become fit for the future.
In their report “The Future of Jobs 2018”, the World Economic Forum identified the top 10 skills we need for Australian workplaces to be fit for the future.
It’s been a challenging year for many in the financial services industry, and you don’t need to be a futurist to see some of the immediate changes ahead, for example:
Increased monitoring and oversight from ASIC, backed by the Government
The end of the vertically integrated model
An acceleration of advisers leaving the industry
But what other changes can we expect, especially from trends and technology outside the industry? Let’s polish our crystal ball and look at what experts are predicting for the next few years.
In an article for the FPA’s magazine Money & Life, I wrote about three important trends, one over-hyped technology and three key skills for the future.
We all know the workplace of the future will be very different from the workplace of today. But what will the workplace of the future look like? It’s more than just technology and automation – it’s about the environment you create for attracting the smart, talented, savvy people with the skills we need for future-proofing our organisations.
The bad news is that those “stars” are in demand, and can choose where they work. Are YOU providing the sort of workplace that will attract and keep them?
You can watch the recording here:
After the webinar, I asked participants “What was the most useful thing you learned today?” Here are some of their answers:
“The quality of thinking and clarity is first class-excellent mentor”
“Reverse mentoring”
“I liked the five from/to scenarios. they are all aligned to becoming agile, but without mentioning agile.”
“The 5 reasons why people love their workplace”
“Different perspectives”
“Reverse mentoring. Of course I had heard about the concept, but what a great provocation. A real “ah ha” moment for me! :)”
“Reverse mentoring.”
“The reverse mentoring is very important. One aspect I have done which is similar is 360 reviews where staff review managers and visa versa. Had a great impact on the management team.”
“Up to date information to pass on to my clients”
“setting up formal mentoring for my team”
“The references you used, some of which I have accessed already, but others I hadn’t and want to do and look them up.”
The Future Proof Webinar Series
The Future Proof webinar series will keep you in touch with our future – what’s ahead, what it means for us, and how to stay ahead of the game.
In each webinar, I’ll cover an important topic about the future – for example, the shift of power to Asia, the changing workplace, healthcare technology, the shift to customer-centric business, big data, and more. This is not just theory; I’ll also give you practical examples and ideas for you to future-proof your organisation, teams, and career.
I hear a lot of talk about leaders talking about their business or industry being disrupted, and they want to know how to deal with all this “disruption”.
I think that’s the wrong way to look at it.
Two decades ago, Harvard scholar Clayton (“Clay”) Christensen wrote the book “The Innovator’s Dilemma”, in which he coined the term “disruptive innovation”. Over time, many people have abbreviated this to just “disruption”, but that’s dangerous!
His original idea was about innovation, not disruption. But we’ve distorted it so much that few people think of innovation when they hear the word “disruption”.
Disruption is when it happens to you, innovation is when you do it yourself.
Innovation is all about change. Yes, it’s about disruption, but with you in control. In other words, it’s disruption by design.
You might have heard this joke:
The Dalai Lama orders a burger from a stand, hands over $20, and gets his burger but no change.
“What about my change?” he asks the vendor.
The vendor replies, “Change comes from within.”
Innovate from the inside out. You disrupt yourself, but in a positive, progressive way that positions you better for the change happening in the world.
So, as we head into 2019, instead of thinking about disruption, think about innovation and change.
The world has changed – but have you?
Broadly, most organisations go through three phases.
First, you see a problem and notice many people with that problem. In this “strive” phase, you build an organisation with the skills and resources to solve that problem.
In the next phase, the world has moved on, and customers face an entirely new set of problems. They expect a completely different set of solutions, and your organisation is no longer relevant. You haven’t become “dumber”, but you have become less relevant. You’re doing all you can just to “survive”.
If you do the things you’ve always done, your organisation won’t survive. The organisations that thrive now solve a different set of problems. It doesn’t matter whether these organisations even existed in the “old” world. In fact, in many cases, it’s an advantage if they didn’t, because they aren’t carrying all the extra baggage that comes with solving the problems of the past.
In the past, when the world wasn’t changing as quickly, you had time to adapt, adjust, and evolve your organisation to solve new problems. Now, you need to move much faster – and disrupt yourself or be disrupted.
That means you need new skills.
You can’t solve new problems with the same skill set you used to solve old problems. You need new skills, and it’s not difficult to guess what kind of skills you need: collaboration, diversity, independence, flexibility, and so on.
The good news is there are smart, talented people out there with those skills.
The bad news is they have a choice of work.
So, the question is: Do they want to work for you?
That puts the responsibility for success back on you. If you want to thrive, create a better workplace so you can attract – and keep – the best people!
We all watched The Jetsons and either laughed at or desperately wanted its futuristic flying cars. Now, more than 50 years on, the idea may soon be a reality.
I was recently interviewed on this topic by news.com.au journalist Adrianna Zappavigna.
We talked about drones, air taxis, flying cars, and even a real-life Iron Man suit.
As we get close to the end of another year, you might wonder what new things could change everyday life in 2019. Flying cars and true artificial intelligence are still a long way in the future, but some other things might be closer than you think.
Here are four things that are just around the corner:
1. Driverless cars – coming soon to a road near you.
Everybody’s been talking about our driverless future, but it’s finally becoming real.
In the next few weeks, Google will release its first self-driving taxi service to the public. Not on private roads, not in a controlled environment, and not with an engineer with a big red Panic button ready to take over in an emergency.
After almost a decade and over 10 million miles of testing, Google’s self-driving car company Waymo will be offering a self-driving taxi service in Phoenix, Arizona. The initial offering will only be to a few hundred volunteers who have already been part of earlier tests.
It will be some time before this is available to everybody. But one thing’s for sure – there’s no turning back now!
Photo: Grendelkhan
2. Walk out of a shop without the checkout queue.
We’re moving fast to a cashless society, and with mobile payment systems on your phone or watch, we’re even moving away from credit cards.
But Amazon is taking this a step further with its Amazon Go shops, where you can just walk out of the shop without paying. No queue, no self-service machine, and no security guard chasing you out into the carpark!
Amazon uses facial recognition and AI to identify you when you walk in to the shop, an app on your phone knows what you put into your shopping trolley, and when you walk out, your Amazon account gets automatically charged.
3. Parlez-vous anglais? No? No problem!
Did you hear about the Coke vending machine in Auckland International Airport that greeted arriving visitors with a friendly, “Hello, death”!
A sign on the vending machine read, “Kia ora, mate”, which is supposed to be a quirky combination of Maori and English. But in Maori, the word “mate” means “death”.
How can you avoid this problem when you’re travelling to a country where you don’t speak the language? Easy – bring your translator with you. But it’s not a person – it’s an app on your phone or a device you stick in your ear.
When speaking to a local, you say something out loud and your phone immediately repeats it in the other language. When the other person responds, again your phone instantly translates it into English for you.
4. Finally get a good night’s sleep.
It might be hard to believe, but a good night’s sleep can be one of your healthiest habits. It’s nature’s equivalent of, “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”.
The Australian Sleep Foundation says a lack of sleep affects mood, memory, your IQ, and can lead to health issues like obesity, diabetes, and depression. That’s why companies are scrambling to help us sleep better.
The quickest technology you can get is an app on your phone, which uses your phone’s technology to track your body at night.
You can also use wearable trackers like Fitbit, Garmin, or Apple Watch, which will give you more accurate monitoring.
If you don’t like wearing a watch at night, you can buy sleep-tracking devices like Apple’s Beddit product, which is a strip of material you slip under the sheet to do the tracking for you.
Photo: CreateHealth.com
“I wish I hadn’t said that!”
“It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.”
– attributed to a Danish politician
Futurists don’t always get it right (I know, I know, it’s hard to believe!). Here are some expert predictions from the past that turned out to be spectacularly wrong.
22nd January 2019 by gihan
The Future Proof webinar series will keep you in touch with our future – what’s ahead, what it means for us, and how to stay ahead of the game.
