When did you last learn something new, or update your skills? Has it been in the last month, last year, or even longer?
As Change Practitioners, it’s our role to lead organisational evolution, equip people with the skills and mindset for the future of work, and ensure our approach is humanising and engaging. But we can’t do that if we ourselves are not embodying growth. We might be preaching change to anyone who can listen, but we have to ask ourselves whether we’re really walking the talk?
Continued professional development is the way we keep our minds sharp and our toolbox well equipped. Without eagerness to learn, and a dedication to our own development our skills stagnate, and before we know it, we’re no longer relevant to the needs of those we serve.
If we are to make work better collectively, we need as many people on the journey as possible. We can’t have some on the path and others lost in the forest; it’s a seismic movement we need, and one which only comes from the energy of passionate people.
Here’s how holding back on continuous development harms progress, and what the future holds for organisational professionals.
Complexity demands curiosity
The danger of letting skills stagnate is that we become less effective in our abilities to create transformation. We rely on outdated knowledge and capabilities, and we don’t keep up with the emerging demands of the complex world we live and work within.
The shifts we see in our outer environment, from cultural to economic, means we are seeing ever more changes on a constant basis. As we’ve seen, things can change overnight, and we have to be able to adapt and be agile to these changes. We can’t be rigid in our thinking, or chained to any specific approaches that leave little room for experimentation.
Complexity requires us to be consistently learning, to consider not just what we face in the present, but what we may also face in the future.
In this volatile world, we have to be eager to learn and adapt. Because ultimately that’s how we not only survive but thrive. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one most adaptable to change." Often wrongly attributed to Charles Darwin, the sentiment is highly relevant. Without continuous learning and adaptation, our skills can quickly become obsolete.
Diversity of skills
Our background and experiences provides us with our uniqueness, and when we bring ourselves to new learnings, we inadvertently advance the body of knowledge through our ability to connect these areas together. Incredible innovations and breakthroughs have occurred because individuals were willing to continue to be a student.
No skill, knowledge or experience is ever redundant when it comes to taking the next step in our own professional development. It all counts, and all goes towards creating a diversity of individuals who can bring their piece of the puzzle.
A major factor in our ability to diversify our skills and broaden our thinking, is opening ourselves up to collaborating and learning from others. In many circumstances we can fall into bad habits of never taking the time to actually engage with our peers. This lack of connection and collaboration limits us, and means we not only get behind on emerging themes happening in the industry, but means we can often be struggling alone with a challenge that could be halved with a little support.
Unfortunately, we can all default to being notoriously insular around our efforts in transformation, whether it’s because we’re working internally and don’t want to share too much, or whether it’s because we have the age-old ‘competitive’ mindset. Each of these ways of being doesn’t help anyone progress. The opposite happens, things get stuck and we get frustrated, and lonely on the path.
What does the future look like for Change Practitioners?
In 2020 the World Economic forum revealed that skills in active learning, resilience, and flexibility would all be required in the future of work.
As we continue to see the emergence of technology, especially with the recent increase of AI, work will inevitably change. These advancements mean organisational professionals will need to be at the forefront of reskilling teams and businesses for the new world of work.
Technology has always stimulated larger organisational change. From the age of the industrial revolution, to the digital revolution. When technology changes, the workplace follows.
According to PWC 30% of jobs will be at risk of automation by 2030, this means many people will need to be retrained and moved into other roles. What many predict is that there will be an increased need for change-makers who can support agility, and provide guidance to organisations and individuals needing to adapt.
Organisational professionals, in any guise, will be required to not just create pathways of evolution, but to break out-dated methods of talent development within organisations which will ultimately become obsolete.
The approach which may emerge first is that of the skills-based organisation, where diverse skills are brought together in a more agile way responding to the needs of the business, rather than just following orders within a defined job role.
How does Semco Style unleash new ways of working?
There is a mantra of “always be learning” that resonates strongly with Semco Style, because once you immerse yourself in this progressive way of thinking you are always gaining new knowledge and skills.
Without a doubt, the tools and practices that are available to play with in Semco Style offer up an invitation to try something new. When you learn these techniques, you instantly have a library of ways in which to holistically approach change with teams and organisations. It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach, but something that you can fit alongside your existing body of knowledge and experience.
If you’re eager to go in deep and be able to support companies on the journey to self-management, this is possible thanks to the Semco Style Roadmap. But if you just want to pick and mix the practices to ease change in a more traditional business, this is also an approach you can take with confidence.
It is all too easy to stay in our lane and never exploring what others are doing in the realm of workplace transformation. Semco Style offers not just a wealth of tools and practices, but also an entire community of global experts always learning from each other, always sharing and collaborating. It’s a powerful group to be part of as you’re constantly in touch with incredible transformations and inspiration from around the world.
Are you interested in finding out more about how you can be part of this global community? Drop us a note to find out more about how you can become part of our community.
