Let’s make our problems disappear (not just our jobs)

Jobs are disappearing. Skills demands have changed. Wages have stagnated. Digital disruption is impacting every sector, region and business category. Businesses are disappearing. Industry sectors are under threat. The changes are happening fast. Our leaders have lost touch. Tied to election cycles – short term - when the solutions we need are long term. No direction. We are educating for a world that has gone. We are hocked to the eyeballs. Inequality = 1%. And we are focusing on trivia not the elephants in the room.

Lots of problems that are all connected. And we can’t fix one properly without fixing the others at the same time.

First problem is that most people either don’t understand or appreciate the scale and scope of the above. And we don’t have the time to wait for them to catch up.

While we talk and explain, and strategise and plan, we also have to engage in action. We don’t have the luxury of time for consideration. We’ve done that.

It is now time for launch and learn. Not learn and launch.

“Think tanks” are fine. But “do tanks” are finest.

To offset job erosion, job loss and wage stagnation, we need to actively support the growth and profitability of our productive industries.

Agriculture, creative industry, defence, manufacturing, medical & health, METS, smart trades and tourism can distribute and mitigate our risk and reliance beyond just mining and agriculture, important as they are at present.

Productive industries can all leverage the advantages and benefits of technology.

We can add value in many ways – design, branding, networking, collaboration, R&D, advertising.

Thereby generating more income and profit across a broader base than today.

Thereby enabling CEOs to use that profit to employ people – buying time while we wrestle with the wider issues of disruption.

We need to convince CEOs that there is a social contract in employment not just a financial contract. Most CEOs understand this already, but we have to reinforce that view more widely with support from “the board”.

The digital revolution offers long-term opportunities and business sustainability, not just short-term savings for the next quarter bottom line.

Any fool can use technology to increase efficiency. Any fool can save money by letting people go. But there is no smart thinking, innovation or leadership in those strategies.

It is a smart CEO that uses technology to create a sustainable and profitable business, maximising the benefits for all partners in the organisation (today and tomorrow) whether board, management, operational staff or supply chain

Old world jobs are being destroyed daily by automation, computerisation and robotisation and old world economists naively suggest that new jobs will be created to replace them. “They certainly will. But nowhere near enough.

Because it is not just jobs that are being destroyed by the digital revolution, it is the businesses that provide the jobs.

And even whole industry sectors are under threat not from robots or automation directly, but from companies outside of Australia. Our border force may protect us from people smugglers, but it doesn’t protect us from globalisation.

We are all aware of how robots, drones, GIS based software and automation are changing agriculture and mining for the better, but together those sectors only employ half a million people.

Our retail and wholesale sectors, which employ 1.5 million people, are now challenged by threats from outside – from Amazon and Alibaba. And retail and wholesale sectors provide a lot of lower skill and entry-level jobs for school children and students.

And all sectors now face challenges and threats. There are no safe jobs for life.

There is a big picture here. Some threats are to jobs. Some threats are to businesses and sectors. Some threats are from automation, and some are from globalisation. Some threats are from attitude and complacency, and some are from lassitude.

And all workers are not equal. There is an assumption by some commentators that any worker can be shifted from one job to another. All that is required is training.

Unfortunately that is not the case. Individuals have different strengths and weaknesses in intelligence, emotional and creative skills. We know this and have divided, measured and awarded individuals qualifications according to capability for decades. Forklift drivers are unlikely to be retrained as doctors. Retail checkout workers and shelf stackers are unlikely to retrain as airline pilots. And both those job categories are under threat as well.

There is a reality to job readiness, future demand and possibility that is not matched by current skills, capability and training.

And unless we want to create a new “underclass” or “slave class” of underpaid, low skilled nannies, Uber drivers, handymen, hospitality workers, personal assistants, gardeners, pet care workers, and childcare, disability and aged care support workers, we have to redefine what an education for the new world is supposed to achieve.

For the new “high paying” jobs will be jobs with higher demands. These jobs will demand not just a good education, but continuing education with a different focus than just high grades.

The knowledge economy requires people who are curious and imaginative, with creative problem solving skills, teamwork and collaboration skills, analytic and critical thinking skills, initiative and entrepreneurialism.

People enthusiastic about starting a business. People comfortable with moving from task to task and role to role, loyal to inspired ideas, meaningful goals and real vision. People with a fresh approach to what work is, whether it is with hand (trade skills), eye (design skills) or brain (thinking skills).

These people won’t arise by accident. We have to create the conditions to produce them. In our schools, our universities and our TAFES. And we aren’t.

Creativity requires fostering and support.

Walthamstow art college in London, was typical of most British art colleges in the 1960s. Hotbeds of experimentation, design, imagination, pop music, fashion and creativity. An innovation nursery, which fed into the revolution in architecture, design, film, music, fashion, advertising and culture that was the hallmark of the swinging sixties and seventies in the UK.

Then it all disappeared. By 2011 the UK had gone from around 180 recognised art schools to just 11. Economic rationalism killed them off.

What’s the ROI of an art school? What is the ROI of art, music or dance? When creative skills are applied to everything else in our society the answer is obvious but not to economic rationalists. They fail to understand the ROI of a seed.

Yet, today when we need creativity more than ever, we lack the schools, courses and institutions to encourage it. Anywhere in the world. What can’t robots do? Be creative.

We need creative skills, imagination and innovation more than ever before. We need experiment, to “try” and “see”, to fail and learn, launch and learn, ask “what if?”

We need to ask questions more than we ever have at any time in our history yet we are squashing creativity in our educational system.

We need to generate the environment that a free, experimental culture can thrive in. We have created the opposite.

Education is now “pay your way”. Music and art in schools is a second-class activity. Curiosity is punished in curricula. Research in universities is tied to predetermined objectives and outcomes.

We need STEAM not STEM. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths).

Disruption is happening much faster than our response in government policy and legislation. We are still generating policy for the old world in education, job creation, employment, health, regional development, industry and export.

In a joined up interconnected new world, we need joined up and interconnected policy and thinking. But government departments are not structured to create it or deliver it.

It is the biggest challenge we face as a nation. A joined up, interconnected revolution being addressed by short term, single-issue policy with an “eye on tomorrow’s ministerial headline and photo opportunity” and the next election. And most digital innovations are in cyberspace with nowhere to cut the ribbon or wear a hard hat for the television cameras.

And half of new jobs come from scale ups, not startups. From mature businesses not startups, where 80% are doomed to fail.

In a joined up world, somehow in our policy we have separated the telecommunication infrastructure (the NBN) from the initiatives it would have magnified, enhanced and supported. We have separated the stage from the actors and the actors from the script, the director and the play.

It all joins up. If we want a cohesive knowledge economy “the knowledge economy story” must be told, “the play” must be written. The acting parts must be defined and the show must go on. And the show requires a reliable platform for the performance to happen. And this needs policy.

We need reliable, affordable, fast broadband, and policies that support an interconnected society, organisations fully informed, understanding digital threats, and recognising digital opportunity. We need collaboration in regions and sectors and between organisations across regions and between sectors.

And collaboration between countries, between communities and corporates.

Sharing value sustainably.

Collaboration is what the RED Toolbox - https://theredtoolbox.org is all about.

The RED toolbox is a national collaboration platform for regions, RDAs, councils and other organisations to share insights, ideas, projects and activities. So if you aren’t already a partner, then become one.

We need to build relationships and networks with overseas markets, connecting Australian producers and services with major markets overseas and businesses and communities within those markets.

Which is what the EXPORT Toolbox - https://exporttoolbox.org is all about.

We have some remarkable businesses in Australia and they deserve increased exposure and promotion to markets across the planet.

We have created Groups on the RED Toolbox so businesses can talk to other businesses on common issues. We have created Export Groups to that businesses in one country can talk to businesses in another. And trade.

So any Australian business with a product, service or solution relevant to India can join the following groups for free. Just sign up.

India – Sustainable Energy, Water & Environment

           India – Advanced Manufacturing

           India – Smart Cities Infrastructure

           India – Agricultural and Food

           India – Mining Equipment, Technology & Services

We are creating a library of Project ideas so that councils and regions can learn from each other. In any state, region or country.

The Toolboxes are about resource management. We have to manage the impacts and opportunities generated by the digital revolution not just let it happen to us.

On the one hand the digital revolution brings threat and disruption and there is little we can do about that except perhaps to slow things down while we consider what that means, as Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk suggest.

And on the other hand the digital revolution brings opportunity. Ask any of the software developers, hardware producers and ICT startups and they will explain what that means to them. 

But both digital threat and digital opportunity eliminate jobs. So we have to manage the process intelligently.

Slow the threat. Build on the opportunity.

And maximise the opportunities generated through collaboration. We are not good at collaboration in Australia. Other nations are better. But we can improve.

The Toolboxes are collaborative platforms and slowly and steadily they are evolving, based on what partners say they want, on what partners are deciding to do, and on what partners suggest might be possible.

“Can we showcase business from our region to our sister city in Korea? Yes.

“Can we establish Export groups so that our local businesses can converse with businesses in Hyderabad, Mumbai or Delhi?” Yes.

“Can we establish a food cluster group?” Yes.

“Can we discuss ageing population and how to manage it with organisations in Taiwan, Japan, China and India?” Yes.

“Can we document our circular economy project so it can be shared with other councils in Australia?” Yes.

“Can we create a group to discuss the future of work and jobs?” Yes.

“Can I become a RED Toolbox partner? Yes.

Where next? You tell us.

Because it is not the platforms, it is the people that decide.

The elephants in the room, outside the door, lining up down the street and flying in by jumbo jets are all being ignored at the moment, in favour of easier issues to address.

Which is not unusual. It is always easier to deal with the problem pile, one small problem at a time and leave the bigger problems till later (ie never get around to them). It's loosely called "human nature" though that is not really an apt description.

Which is why we have to start lining these issues up in parallel not kicking them down the road. That would also help us to understand their connected nature.

The 'wicked problems" all require collaboration.

We have too many silos. Too many frogs in wells.

We have to climb out into the sun and recognise it is "all joined up".

Only then can we get on with it.

And we can get on with it. Human beings are pretty capable once they start working together as a team.

So become a Toolbox partner. Toolboxes are focused on productive industries – agriculture, creative industry, defence, manufacturing, medical and health, METS, smart trades and tourism.

Toolboxes are focused on adding value and sharing value. Toolboxes are focused on Export.

So become a partner, add your regional Export businesses to the Showcase. Join Export Groups and discuss trade. Collaborate and share ideas and projects.

And let’s move from 20th century economic “hunter gathering” into 21st century economic “agriculture”. Apply what our farmers have learned over thousands of years and start building a sustainable, shared value, future.

We can do it.