What’s Love Got to Do with It?

In the rapidly evolving landscape of today’s workforce, there is a myriad of experts and resources available to guide individuals on their career paths. From traditional education routes like universities and community colleges to the emergence of online learning platforms and the demand for specialized skills through apprenticeships and trade schools, the options seem endless. 

The advent of artificial intelligence has further catalyzed the transformation of job requirements, creating a need for a versatile skill set that can adapt to the ever-changing demands of the market.

It is a sea of opinions, research and sentiment. The shift is more palpable than ever. The pliability of jobs has resulted in a vortex of jarring ideas of how to “prepare” the workforce. AI alone has altered what is needed for skills so rapidly that we will have jobs that none of us can describe. An exciting era for sure, and the economic development and academic preparations are attempting to work along with business leaders to align for this “preparedness” only to rapidly realize that the skillsets are often misfiring. 

We have learned from the work with apprentices and with K-12 schools, that this dynamic state is moving so fast that to figure out ways to course correct to ensure vitality for careers, that we have to mash up a whole lotta things which creates some messiness that is more attributable to entrepreneurship than that of linear career paths.

There are many who believe that if you do what you love, you live a life that provides meaning, decent prosperity and purpose. That if your work provides you with what your own purpose is or as Simon Sinek refers to as your “why” that you will live a life well lived. But what if we also agree that the competencies that we refer to as “soft skills” are truly the hard ones AND we need to learn them as EARLY as possible?

These skills include resiliency, critical thinking, investigative inquiry, civility, collaboration, inquisitiveness, improvisation, speaking, and fiction writing. Along with math, sciences, art and humanities, the core competencies would be measured by the even more complex skills which include tolerance and debate. Not meaning to sound like let’s make education revert, but instead, embrace the skills that are the most important in this age of artificiality which is not negative but enhancing. 

And to me, even more important, are teaching basic business skills at the earliest of ages. Not merely the lucrativeness of business, the profits, the margins, the finances but the understanding of customers, recipients of goods and services rendered. The voices of the end user, the customer, in any relationship. 

Perhaps then, we can hold our reins with gentle gallops and make room for all. Because those are the skills that will take us through this next era. The age of knowing will require us to navigate the efficiencies with speed as we have never seen. The human connection will be what differentiates our successes. Finding that in the age of knowing will result in new business opportunities that we can only imagine and will be our realities in a few short years. 

Are we looking for work love in all the right places?