País Semanal 11/03/2012 No 1850 published an interview with Lynda Gratton which I recommend reading. I have extracted some paragraphs that I think are key. Lynda is Professon of Management Practice at London Business School and is the founder of t he Hot Spots Movement.
“How do you think is going to be working in the future….”
In the past, children followed more or less what their parents did; nowadays, following the same path will not work out.
“This is a pitty and at the same time a blessing…”
We have to reinvent ourselves. We have to take our own decisions and accept the consequences. The generation who is now between their 20´s and 30´s don´t have strong perspectives. The world is now a place where knowledge is most valued. It is been sold and bought. To acquire this knowledge you have to learn constantly. Human Capital comes first, secondly you have to share your knowledge andconvert it in connections, these relationships will give value to the knowledge you can have, specially on the internet. It is important to avoid fragmentation and isolation. Lastly, you have to understand that consumer´s times have reached to its end. There will not be enough richness to satisfy so many things to buy, therefore we must search other ways of fulfillment it is reinvention that I feel is so necessary, searching and creating a new job that satisfy us will become key in the future.
” This is very easy to say”
In Spain, specially, the capacity that this country has to share things in group and in community is great; more than inthe rest of Europe. Human contact, this can be widened with shared properties. Why do we have to buy a bike or a car when you can share it in group? You don´t need to have things to be happy.
“Regarding some business people, they don´t seem to be up to it” I mean to increase early retirements to put the ball in Government´s court”. Is it understanding the context to take advantage of it? Demanding work reforms as the ones that have been aproved today? Is this for creating employment or to make people redundant as they please?”
Government and big companies are working on the short term, one of the reasons why I wrote this book is to make people aware that who thinks in the future is each of us. Don´t wait Government to do it for you, or companies; some do it because of the importance of the products they manage, but this is not the bank´s case. What is urgent is that each of us need to face our life for ourselves, not waiting that anybody comes to resolve us anything.
I believe it is important to understand that the work market as we know it, will not come back and that each of us have their own initiative. In my opinion one the big issues of this “ Spanish generation so well prepared” is the lack of putting the theory in practice with work experience. One of the great challenges is how to achieve this when you don´t find opportunities in your own country. Immigration is one option, it is not easy but it is very valuable, the key thing as Lynda said is to reinvent oneself. I think that we all need help in a change process, this is not a path we must undertake on our own.
My message to young people who is now overqualified and without experience is not to comply; fight, travel and explore. Working on breaking cultural barriers and opening new ways of working for a better future.
Lynda talks about this in her book The Shift: The future of work is already here. http://www.lyndagratton.com/
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