A guide for individuals and organizations navigating the complex and ambiguous Future of Work
Foreword byNew York Times columnist and best-selling author Thomas L. Friedman
Technology is changing work as we know it. Cultural norms are undergoing tectonic shifts. A global pandemic proves that we are inextricably connected whether we choose to be or not. So much change, so quickly, is disorienting. It's undermining our sense of identity and challenging our ability to adapt. But where so many see these changes as threatening, Heather McGowan and Chris Shipley see the opportunity to open the flood gates of human potentialif we can change the way we think about work and leadership. They have dedicated the last 5 years to understanding how technical, business, and cultural shifts affecting the workplace have brought us to this crossroads, The result is a powerful and practical guide to the future of work for leaders and employees. The future can be better, but only if we let go of our attachment to our traditional (and disappearing) ideas about careers, and what a "good job" looks like.
Blending wisdom from interviews with hundreds of executives,The Adaptation Advantage explains the profound changes happening in the world of work and posits the solution: new ways to think about careers that detach our sense of pride and personal identity from our job title, and connect it to our sense of purpose. Activating purpose, the authors suggest, will inherently motivate learning, engagement, empowerment, and lead to new forms of pride and identity throughout the workforce. Only when we let go of our rigid career identities can we embrace and appreciate the joys of learning and adapting to new realitiesand help our organizations do the same.
Of course, making this transition is hard. It requires leaders who can attract and motivate cognitively diverse teams fueled by a strong sense of purpose in an environment of psychological safetydespite fierce competition and external pressures. Adapting to the future of work has always called for strong leadership. Now, as a pandemic disrupts so many aspects of work, adapting is a leadership imperative.The Adaptation Advantage is an essential guide to help leaders meet that challenge.
Foreword xiv
Introduction xix
Breaking with Identity to Seize the Adaptation Advantage xix
So Whats Changing? xx
How Did We Get Here? xxi
How Big is the Challenge? xxii
The Adaptability Gap xxv
Amid Rapid Change, Keep Calm and Adapt On xxvi
So Whats in This Book? xviii
Who is This Book For? xxix
Notes xxx
Part I: Adapting at the Speed of Change 1
1 The World is Fast: Technology is Changing Everything and Planting Opportunity Everywhere 3
Wait a Second 3
Technological Climate Change 5
Environmental Climate Change 8
Climate Change of the Market 10
The Force of Three Amplifying and Interlocking Climate Changes 12
Notes 15
2 The Only Things Moving Faster Than Technology are Cultural and Social Norms 17
Shifting Ground Beneath Our Feet 17
From Linear and Local to Exponential and Global 19
Race 20
Religion 22
Age 23
Family 25
Gender Identity 25
Truth and Trust 26
Consent and Power Shifts 28
Death of Distance Reshapes Human Relationships 30
So, Who are You? Occupational Identity and Expertise 30
Notes 32
3 Youre Already Adapting and Not Even Noticing 35
Weve Already Begun to Outsource Our Memory 35
People Arent Horses 37
Atomization, Automation, and Augmentation 38
Atomization in Action 39
Automation in Action 39
Augmentation in Action 41
Putting Atomization, Automation, and Augmentation Together 41
Notes 46
4 Getting Comfortable with Adaptation: The Slowest Rate of Change is Happening Now 47
The Power of Pause 47
From Scalable Efficiency to Scalable Learning 48
From Stocks to Flows of Knowledge 53
From Learning to Work to Working to Learn Continuously 54
Identifying Patterns to Build Bridges 56
Notes 60
Part II: Letting Go and Learning Fast to Thrive 63
5 What Do You Do for a Living? The Question That Traps Us in the Past 65
The Questions That Limit Our Identity 65
The Identity Trap 71
How Identity is Formed 71
Narratives Can Trap Us in the Past and Limit Our Future 73
Gender, Narratives, and Identity 73
The Confidence Gap 74
Identity is Never Done 77
An Occupational Identity Crisis Isnt Limited to Job Loss 78
Notes 80
6 Finding the Courage to Let Go of Occupational Identity 83
What Does the Parable of the Three Stonecutters Have to Do with You? 83
The Day 1 Mindset: You are a Prototype; Start with Why 85
How Job Loss Can Be a Gain 89
Modeling Vulnerability: We Share Our Hard Lessons 91
What Do You Do Now? 95
Notes 95
7 Learning Fast: Why an Agile Learning Mindset is Essential 97
Learn FastWhat Does That Even Mean? 97
What Do We Mean by Learning? First-, Second-, and Third-Generation Learning Organizations 98
The S-Curve of Learning: Explore, Experiment, Execute, Expand 99
The Curse of Expertise: The Challenge of Unlearning 102
The Iceberg: The Substance Beneath the Surface 102
Identity: The Core of the Adaptive Mind 103
The Agile Learning Mindset 104
The Enablers: Uniquely Human Skills 108
Why We Need the Agile Mindset: The Broken Education-to-Work Pipeline 111
ABL: Always Be Learning 114
Notes 114
8 Rise of the Humans: Developing Your Creativity, Empathy, and Other Uniquely Human Capabilities 117
Play is the Way Forward 117
The Uniqueness of the Human Drive to Learn and Create 119
The Predictive Markets Declare Future Skills Favor Humans 122
Understanding Uniquely Human Skills 127
Chasing STEM at Our Peril 128
The Skills Battleground: Humans Need Apply 132
The Return on Being Human 133
Return on Humans for All Jobs: The Special Power of Empathy 134
Evolving Beyond Shareholder Value: The Purpose of a Company 135
To Maximize Human Potential, Place the Human in the Center 137
Notes 139
Part III: Leading People and Organizations in the Evolution of Work 143
9 Leading in Continuous Change: Modeling Vulnerability, Learning from Failure, and Providing the Psychological Safety that Builds Trusting Teams 145
You are at the Wheel 146
Leadership, Power, Cookies, and Chickens 146
What Makes a Modern Leader? 153
Transformational Leadership 167
Transformational Leadership and Change Management Models 168
Leading with Fear: The Burning Platform 170
Putting It All Together 173
Notes 173
10 The Adaptive Organization: Creating the Capacity to Change at the Speed of Technology, Market, and Social Evolution 175
What Should We Measure? 175
The Power of the Culture and Capacity Focus 177
Culture at the Core 177
Capacity: Cultures Partner 184
Capability and Context: The Scissors Metaphor 186
In Accelerated Change, Focus on the Inputs Rather Than the Outputs 187
Becoming a Learning Company 190
Notes 193
11 Capability is King: Looking Beyond the Resume to Design Your Adaptive Team 195
No More Little Boxes 195
The Job Description is History 197
Job Descriptions Become Traps 198
Fire Your Job Description 200
Hire for Cultural Alignment 205
Hire Adults and Let Them Do Their Jobs 208
Turn the Right People into Great Teams 209
Embrace Cognitive Diversity 212
Get Comfortable with Failure 214
Live in a State of Continuous Learning 215
Manage a Multigenerational Workforce 216
How Do We Get from Here to There? 217
The New Leadership Imperative 218
Notes 219
12 Getting Ready to Seize Your Adaptation Advantage 221
Notes 223
Additional Resources 225
Books 225
Videos 226
Acknowledgments 227
About the Authors 229
Index 231
