Three important work skills of the future

A couple of weeks ago we - a group of Futures Specialists Helsinki people - took a challenge. We wanted to find out the essential work skills of the future. This is how we proceeded.

First, I gave a short presentation about the work skills of the future as seen from my point of view as a non-fiction writer and organization coach. 

Then we picked up three topics that felt commonly important. They were 1) networking, 2) intuition and 3) inspiration.

After a co-creative session we ended up crystallizing these three work skills of the future:

1 Out-of-the-box networking

In the future, work isn’t so closely tied to places, teams or organizations anymore. That creates new challenges. How do we find the people available for certain tasks? And how do we know if we can trust them?

Some sort of molecular networking platform might be a solution to these problems. You could call it Tinder of Work. Anyway – isn’t the workforce market a place for matching interests? 

The world has become a global brain with an ever evolving CV. Those companies which will invent new ways to connect work-related needs and offerings in the global market will have a great competitive advantage. 

Out-of-the-box networking might become highly important for both freelancers and self-employed and for companies seeking specific competencies. If so, inventive ways to connect efficiently will be a big thing in the future.

2 Shared consciousness

Intuition has been one of the buzzwords of working life lately. There has been interesting academic research published about the subject, too. Asta Raami’s PhD thesis Intuition Unleashed (2015) is one of them. 

According to Asta Raami, intuition is a resource we all have. We just need to learn how to apply it. For that, we need to know ourselves and learn to utilize certain tools.

Most discussions about intuition have concentrated on personal intuition, though. We think that in the future intuitive skills of groups will be more important. When problems are becoming more and more complex, the group mind’s ability to solve them gets highly essential. 

We think that practical methods to train group intuition might become strategic skills in the future. When people have an experience of ”shared consciousness”, they report also having feelings of purpose, joy, and fulfillment. This could be used as a positive employer brand asset, too.  

3 Group inspiration

Many people are seeking inspiration daily. They seek it to spice up their work or their personal life or both. Without inspiration life feels flat. 

There are certain dangers in inspiration, too.  You can get addicted to it or even get an overdose of it. Nevertheless, most people become happy when inspired.

What we figured out though was that group inspiration is more powerful than getting inspired alone. Those companies who know how to create and manage the flow of group inspiration will be the winners in the future.

To put the co-creative session to an end we declared a new concept: The power of ”co”. With the skills of co-networking, co-intuition and co-inspiration the future of working life seems bright and sparkly. 

There’s so much power in ”co”. We recommend: let’s all go co! 

Maaretta Tukiainen is a non-fiction writer, future enthusiast, TV host and change facilitator who enjoys helping companies and employees finding their true potential and co-creative powers.

The picture is a snapshot of Keiichi Matsuda's movie Hyper-reality.