Five Tool Knowledge Worker for the Robotic Age

In my job these days, I am focused on deploying technology and automation to all manner of white collar office work.?The impact of robotic process automation, AI, machine learning and cognitive computing will be significant and profound, likely upending the traditional recipe for organizational capability; people, process and technology.?The proportion of these ingredients might be reformulated to something like technology, process, people.?So, what’s a human to do?

Among old-time American baseball people, there is the idea of the proverbial five-tool ballplayer.?The five tools are running, throwing, fielding, hitting for average and hitting for power. Individuals who have all these skills are uniquely talented players that come along rarely, only a few each generation.?Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Ken Griffey Jr., Derek Jeter, Mike Trout and Bryce Harper are some examples of five tool players over the years to today.?This metaphor can be adapted to describe the skillset that I believe will be required for modern knowledge workers to thrive in an environment where robots and automation dominate many roles previously performed by people.

The future value-added human will be multi-disciplinary and versatile.?The late Peter Drucker, the father of modern management thinking, gave us the knowledge worker concept.?Gartner built on that and coined the term, Versatilist, to describe this archetype.?The five tools that a Versatilist needs to acquire and hone to stay one step ahead of the robots are:

Quantitative Thinking – Be good with numbers, possess an analytical curiosity and be able to understand profit/loss and cash flow.?Numbers and data are the currency of business.?If you can’t participate and contribute in this area, you’ll find it difficult to get a seat at the table.?Robots are good at numbers, too.

Communication Skills – To convey ideas, influence decisions and inspire others, you need to be a good communicator.?Writing and speaking the right words, at the right time, in the right way can make the difference between being successful and less than effective.?I’m not sure that robots can do this, yet…

People Centricity – Developing strong, trusting relationships and making connections with others is a uniquely human phenomenon.?Actively listening, empathizing and looking someone in the eye can create a bond that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts.?Enlisting and mobilizing others in a common cause has great power and you should try to get good at it.?On this one, robots not so much.

Planning/Process Mindset – Combining the first three tools, you can get tasks and work done, but to accomplish bigger things, you need to develop a planning/process mindset.?Bigger objectives can be attacked by breaking them down into small pieces and placing them?in time/sequence.?Similarly, pernicious problems can often be solved by further understanding the situation by examining the process that produces the outcome, rather than trying to fix the result.

Critical Thinking – This is a biggie which is why I saved it for last.?Critical thinking has many forms; strategy, creativity, innovation, etc.?It’s about connecting the dots in novel ways to get to a better place.?Critical thinking is a higher order skill that draws on experience and the other four tools.?It’s the foundation of the vision thing.

So, those are the five tools that the modern knowledge worker needs to develop to be able to contribute something that robots can’t.?The real power of the five tools comes when they are used situationally and in combination with one another.?You’ll be naturally disposed to be better at some than others.?Play to your strengths, but keep developing the others as well.

In other articles, I expound on each of the five tools and I’ve been kicking around some thoughts in my head around the five tools of character during my long runs on the weekends.?I should have plenty of material to put out there. Please feel free to contribute your comments and feedback.