“Flexibility defining careers, workplace”

An article on my perspectives on the future of the career has run in a wide variety of papers across the country.

The full article can be found here in Adobe Acrobat format.

Some of my key observations, as quoted within the article:

• Recognizing the disappearance of a one-job career, workers will need to be flexible, capable of instantly adapting to new processes and able to absorb stunning amounts of new information and knowledge…..
• the next generation of workers will be far different than any which has gone before. They will be far more entrepreneurial because many already think self-employment is more secure than a corporate job.
• one segment of the workforce will be expected to be far more specialized to deal with this explosion of new information
• others will be expected to be flexible enough to shift between careers and jobs
• there will also be those who help people deal with the complexities of everyday life and their workplace.

The latter point links to the trend I’ve identified of the emergence of complexity partners, brand new careers (or entire organizations) which simply involve the management of complexity.

The article caught my comments on this particular trend:

• “One of the hot new jobs created by the fact that medical knowledge is doubling every eight years is the “hospitalist” — someone who not only helps patients navigate their way through the medical system ……
• While the term didn’t exist before 1996, there are now more than 10,000 hospitalists in the United States.”

All of these observations tie into my Trends Analysis, “10 Unique Characteristics of 21st Century Skills,” posted a few weeks back, and also available here. There are massive changes underway within the global workforce, which makes talent, not money, the new corporate battlefront.