The New Normal - The Future of YOUR Work

Introduction.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, there are a lot discussions on line on the topic of The Future Of Work, about right-skilling and future skills. In general, this topic is discussed between senior managers and 'experts' of large management consulting like the The 'Future Of Work After Covid-19' by McKinsey (February 2021) when they apparently thought Covid-19 was almost over.....

The inconvenient truth about these 'corporate' predictions on 'The Future Of Work' is that

1) Covid-19 is not over yet at all and will continue to impact the lives of all of us on planet Earth for the years to come, including of young people as you can see in the header of this article during one of the few offline masterclasses in the last year I was allowed to facilitate at a social-distance.

2) The future (if any....) of your work largely depends on a) where you are currently working and in what role. On things like your age, your gender and your skillset. b) where you want to work and/of can work in the future given your age, your gender and your skillset.

In this article, you will get some definitions and some practical tips on do's and dont's to ensure the future of YOUR work.

Learn New Normal Corporate Skills: 'Survival Strategies For Corporates. How To Survive The Covid-19 Crisis In 5 Steps' & 'Digital Strategy Mapping. Digital Leadership In The Online Platform Economy'.

Right-skilling and future-skilling.

The New Normal Economy requires significant “right-skilling” – retraining yourself as:

1) Corporate senior manager and corporate employee.

2) Existing independent online and or offline independent entrepreneur as I was forced to do as many inpedendent entrepreneurs worldwide since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and

3) From corporate job to becoming an independent entrepreneur: as I did since 2001 as hybrid entrepreneur, making money online from home as a side-hustle with ebooks and software and full-time since 2011, including digital entrepreneurship, working at home and hybrid entrepreneurship education (see here):

From my own experiences sinces 2001, I know that THE future skills do not exist.

THE future skills do not exist.

What does that mean? That means that I have learned that the soft-skills and hard skills including digital skills that you have to learn to become a corporate manager and employee (inclusing in large Governmental organisations by the way) are not very usefull if you want to change your career towards 3) for instance.

That also means that most of the corporate courses and programs are basically a waste of precious time and money. A great example are courses around 'Lean', 'Agile', Business Model Canvas and 'Lean Startup'. Why?

Well, when you start your own company by yourself with your own virtual organisation, or as a founder of a startup or a director of a scaleup, your organisation is already Lean and Agile! And you want to keep it that way!

Startups and scaleups are already Lean & Mean and they want to keep it that way, using ICT!

You need different different tools and methods when you start your own company by yourself with your own virtual organisation for instance, or as a founder of a startup or a director of a scaleup. One of the issues is a rather simple one: your organisation is already Lean and Agile! And you and your possible customers as a startup consultant, trainer and or coach want to keep it that way!

Conclusion.

My advice to you is to start to think hard on The Future Of YOUR Work in the New Normal Economy. Because of ICT developments and because of the impact of the virus, the nature of your choices on right-skilling and 'future skilling' and how you are going to organise that, how long that right-skilling will take and how much it will cost in terms of time, energy and money are becoming critical. Critical for your personal survival in The New Normal.

The issue is not about if the courses are online or offline, but about if the content is relevant for you personally or not and if it is on-demand learning or not. Given your personal profile, your possible ambitions and last but not least 'if your current (corporate) job is at risk or not'.

Finally, I wanted to add one more thing: I left ABN Amro 10 years ago and I have never regretted that step for one minute. I now lead a happy and balanced life, with a much better life-work balance, with less stress and with a much better mental and physical health. And by the way...... I am much more productive........

If you want me to help you with your personal right-skillingplan and your on-demand hybrid learningplan, just email me here or send me an inmail here on linkedin, ok?

In the next article, I will share some of my real life experiences around on-demand learning as an independent entrepreneur and 'pivoting your life'.

Dr. Tony de Bree EEP MBA is a born survivor. He worked 26 years in ICT, E-Learning, global banking & finance. As turnaround manager and program manager and in corporate ICT-strategy & change, e-commerce, corporate venturing, outsourcing, offshore banking & splitting up ABN Amro Bank globally.?

In 2001 he started as digital business owner, selling digital products in 2001 next to his dayjob working from home as 'plan b', as a side-hustle.?

In 2011, he became an independent businessowner helping customers online & offline with digital products including many e-books and digital services including on-demand online consulting, training & coaching