“In a chaotic world, the only competency that matters is continuous learning.”
To improve and extend your career, you need to ponder what the near future holds. While predicting the distant future is tough, looking out a few short years using recent history as your foundation isn’t nearly as difficult. The last two decades have been marked by the radical adoption of technology in nearly every aspect of conducting business. The adoption of technology has eliminated once formidable barriers to entry, brought unrivaled transparency to reality, and accelerated productivity (particularly in the areas of product development and distribution). Given all of the change you have witnessed in the last 20 years, does it really make sense that the same competencies organizations sought out three decades ago will be those most of value moving forward?
I argue NOT!
While the adoption of technology has certainly been a major driver of change, there are ultimately four characteristics that define the business environment of the last two decades. Those characteristics are:
The two words that best describe our current state: continuous obsolescence. Years ago, management guru Tom Peters predicted our current state. He called it “managing under chaos.”
Evolution and change are not new, but the rate at which the business environment is changing is unprecedented. During most of the last century, economic cycles, product lifecycles, and the knowledge, skills, tools, and approaches used to produce products lasted longer. Not only did change occur slower, it occurred in predictable patterns. This stability and consistency enabled organizations to create organizational models that governed how work was broken up into tasks, who would accomplish those tasks, what tools would be used, and to predict how long work would take. A few years into the industrial era, the concept of competencies emerged and organizations started hiring to a target competency profile that has hasn’t changed much in 60 years; that is, until now!
The era of long-lasting competencies is gone, and I am predicting that it will never return. Chaos and rapid change are the new norm and will be for decades to come. In the chaotic environment that is today, one thing is clear: the approaches developed for organizing labor and accomplishing work in the industrial era have become barriers to productivity today. No longer do organizations need indefinite access to narrowly skilled talent; instead, they need medium-term access to versatile talent and short-term access to specialized talent.
It should be clear to everyone in HR that in a world of constant obsolescence, knowledge, skills, tools, and practices have an extremely limited shelf life. Instead of relying on past experience, training, or education, employees will be required to continually “unlearn” yesterday’s obsolete practices and solutions and to seek out completely new ones using the social trends and technology of the day. In that environment, the only key competency that can effectively counter continuous obsolescence is the ability to continuously learn and apply knowledge.
The continuous learning competency is the foundation behind building a “learning organization,” a concept firms like Google, Nike, Netflix, and Apple have championed since inception.
The key characteristics of the continuous learning competency include:
Stop reading for a second and ask yourself: “has my organization experienced unpredictable change in recent years, are we growing in some areas but contracting in others, and does the way we have always done things seem to be a barrier moving forward?” If you answered yes to any of those phrases, is it really likely that you can lead or dominate your industry without addressing those issues?
Accepting obsolescence of knowledge and experience is hard, but if you are going to be successful in a world of chaos, innovation, and constant obsolescence, you need to realize that “yesterday’s answers” are not only rapidly losing their value, but reliance upon them may be a liability. If as an individual you desire to be successful and enjoy job security, you need to become a “learning machine.” If you want to make your organization successful in a chaotic world, declare “continuous learning” to be your organization’s No. 1 core competency.
A while back I was attending a formal meeting at Google. Demonstrating my total attention (in stark contrast to the Googlers in attendance) I left all of my technology packed away. Immediately following the meeting I was asked to discuss the ramifications of a major industry event that had occurred during the meeting. I excused my lack of knowledge and awareness of the event using my dedicated attention to the meeting with executives. Much to my dismay, the employee responded with a scowl, dismissing my excuse, and proceeded to walk away mumbling to himself and shaking his head in disbelief. I learned that day that the cost of not knowing “everything immediately” at Google is extremely high. Don’t let my excuse be yours. Learning cannot stop because you are otherwise engaged!