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In a recent post I talked about the importance of communication skills in a technological world. I am going to build on that post because after listening to a podcast interview with the Chief Economic Opportunity Officer at LinkedIn, Aneesh Raman, I am even more convinced of the value that humans can bring to a changing world.

In the interview, Raman talks about his new book, Open To Work, where he explains that the traditional way of looking at your career as a 'ladder' has changed. Until now, people ascended in a vertical line- they took their boss' job, then their boss' boss' job and so on. Nowadays, say Raman, we climb the 'career wall' instead of the 'career ladder,' and we can move between industries and go horizontal and diagonally to 'ascend,' much like a climber going up a mountain.

In order to prepare for this, says Raman, you should start seeing your profession as a series of tasks, rather than a job. He says that making a list of the tasks that you do in a typical week is a better way to get ready for the changes that are coming than to think of what you do as a job.

"70% of the average skills needed for jobs will be different by 2030," he says. "We will decide how these skills change," adds Raman, and to do that we need to think of tasks and not of jobs.

For example, you could say, I do a lot of analysis, coding, organising, talking to my team, managing, making powerpoints, writing reports etc. These are your tasks, and it's important to think of them as tasks and then decide which ones only you can do.

The way to do that says Raman is to think about a framework he calls "the three buckets:"

Tasks that only AI will do (coding/summarising/quick coding etc.)
Tasks that humans will do with AI (use AI to create your ideas)
Tasks that only humans will do (humans with tools working with other humans with tools)

You will give some of your tasks to AI, but that means you will have more time for human only work like talking with your team. Because the best things we do as humans is to work with others, and this collaborative nature will be even more important in the future because so many mundane tasks will be done by AI.

So we need to work on how we are going to remain relevant. The good news is, we are capable of doing human tasks that AI will never be able to do.

Raman calls these things the 5 C's: courage; compassion; curiosity; creativity; communication.

These are human skills that we can train and improve to take advantage of AI and technology. And the people who are able to show courage, compassion, curiosity and creativity, and then communicate what they have done and learnt in the best way, are the ones who will have more professional value in the future.

AI is able to write your powerpoint, but it can't communicate it to an audience, or feel compassion when a customer complains and you need to respond. It can't create and collaborate with other humans, or give courage to someone when they need it. Only humans can do these things.

So if you want to increase your value in a tech world, focus on human skills- train them, use them, and be the person who is always curious and who can create and communicate with courage and compassion.

You just need to start...

TIPS

Invest in human skills!
Think about the tasks you do, not your job title.

CONTENT

This is the podcast episode. I also recommend listening to the show because it talks about all things related to communication skills.
Open To Work book on how humans can work together with AI and how to take advantage of it.
To start training and improving your human skills, sign up to my Fluent In 50 Days Course. You can get a free week of material here:

SEND ME THE FREE SPEAKING MATERIAL