Learn Unlearn Relearn

Do you know that almost 40% of what students are learning at universities right now shall be redundant in the next ten years when they will be working in jobs that have not yet been created?

It is true that the only constant in life is change. Its not just change, the pace of change has been mind boggling in the last 3 decades. My children wonder how I could submit a school project without Google, without computers. They are at a loss to understand how I kept in touch with my friends without social media.

Automation, continued innovation in technology and globalization of talent have not only made working life impermanent but also unpredictable. Not just technology, intense changes in demography, longevity and social changes in family structure will not just change the nature of work but how and where we do it. The lockdown during the pandemic has permanently changed the way we perceive the place called office. When one can work from anywhere, careers transcend geographical boundaries. Skilled workforce becomes available to the developed nations at a lower cost. Unless people reinvent themselves, they risk being considered dispensable by their employers.  Adaptability and learning agility now defines the course of one’s career. There is an oft cited quote attributed to Charles Darwin – It is not the strongest of the species, not the most intelligent that survives, it is the one most adaptable to change.

Let us list some of the jobs/services that didn’t survive over the past 30 years are listed below:

Typesetter

Movie Projectionist

Encyclopaedia salesperson

Switchboard Operator

Liftman

Photocopy centre

Cyber cafes

Video cassette parlours

Video Game centres

On the other hand, some of the jobs that will not survive the next decade are:

Travel agent

Librarian

Retail Cashiers

Legal secretaries

Social media manager

Telemarketer

Postal worker

Real Estate agents

Car Driver

The above list might appear astonishing since careers like social media management are thriving at this point in time. Think professional photographers from 20 years back. Today almost everyone who owns a decent smart phone considers himself/herself to be a pro at photography. Similarly social media management will be so commonplace that it will no longer be a speciality in the next 10 years.

Covid-19 gave us a glimpse into how dispensable jobs are. One in six youth lost their jobs during the pandemic. Manufacturing companies’ sales shrunk by 42% and profits shrunk by 62% in the June 2020 quarter. In the Sept quarter sales fell by 9.7% but profits surprisingly grew by 17.8%. Companies slashed salaries and cut jobs in pursuit of higher profits despite a sinking top line. 

To avoid being obsolete, you must constantly be in a state of evolution. You have to let go of old paradigms and be ready to learn new rules. Constantly being able to reinvent yourself will keep you relevant. This is what Stephen Covey calls sharpening the saw.

Unlearning is letting go of old thought processes rather than acquiring. We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.  Business magnates like Kishore Biyani and Elon Musk feel that an MBA teaches people all sorts of wrong things. Elon Musk has famously quoted that he hires people despite of an MBA rather than because of one. The induction process in such organizations involves training the new joinees to unlearn the rigid paradigms instilled by traditional MBA and then relearn how the organization expects them to contribute towards its vision. It is akin stripping old paint from the surface before repainting it.

Around the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, careers were linear and the only way to grow was to work hard as per the organization’s requirements. We now have to adopt career lattices which encourage employees to pursue interesting roles, assignments and projects which are a good fit for both the employee and the organization, whether it involves lateral, upward or sometimes even a downward move.

Gone are the days when generations could continue in the same career. A carpenter’s son and grandson would be assumed to carry on with the same profession 50 years back. In today’s rapidly changing world a person might have to change about 3 careers over a lifetime.

Initially unlearning and relearning appear very difficult but the neuroplasticity of the brain adapts as we keep practicing it.

However, it isn’t learning for the sake of learning. You have to choose the domain conscientiously. Am listing some areas on the lines of which you can relearn to prepare yourself for some of the sought after careers of the upcoming decade:

AI Ethics manager

Data Detective

Cyber City Analyst

Digital tailor

Genome specialist director

Man-Machine teaming manager

Drone traffic controller

Walker/Talker

Virtual Store Sherpa

Personal memory curator

Genetic diversity officer

Alvin Toffler’s statement aptly sums up this discussion- The illiterate of the 21st century will not be the ones who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.

Not just career, if you want to advance in life, you have to let go of old habit patterns and consciously adopt new mind-set from time to time. Unless we emerge from our old patterns, we end up projecting our past into the future. The intention is not to predict the future but to create it by being in a constant state of evolution.