UP-SKILLING: CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT IN AN ECONOMIC DOWNTURN

This last week started with the Dow Jones Stock Market dropping 680 points. Woooo! With the roller-coaster ups and downs of stock markets all around the world, some strange and probably challenging economic times are before us. And with millions of people being laid off (made redundant), and millions of others losing major portions of their retirement (30 to 40 percent here in the USA), and with “recession” now being announced in Germany, Japan, Britain, and the USA (as well as other countries) —economic growth has shifted downward and people seem to be pulling back in terms of expenses.

If all of this sounds like bad news, there is some good news within it. The good news is that as the world changes and as the changing of the world accelerates so that there’s more uncertainty, more radical shifts, more ups and downs of markets, economics, politics, and so on—the people who will come out through it on top will be those who are more prepared to adapt to the changes. The good news is that flexible adaptability will become increasingly important as will the ability to learn quickly and thoroughly and to unlearn patterns that no longer serve you.

Test yourself on these qualities and competencies. Gauge yourself from 0 to 10: __ I am able to flexibly adapt to changes. __ I embrace change as inevitable and look forward to it as an exciting challenge. __ I have develop flexibility skills so that I’m among the first to embrace change. __ I have develop my learning skills so that I can learn quickly and thoroughly. __ I know how to unlearn and to release old patterns that are no longer effective. __ I am always working to expand my current skill-set of competencies. __ I know how to keep skilling-up for jobs and opportunities that don’t even exist yet. __ I think of myself as a free agent and totally responsible for my career and career development.

0 ______________________________________________________ 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So how did you do? How well do you know that your worth in the marketplace and your competitive advantage there is a function of your productive capacity and performance? And if you know that, then you know that it is up to you to take charge of your career and to always be thinking about the next level of skills that you’ll need. You will have an eye on the coming trends.

So even if you have a great job, you know that it is a matter of wisdom to have a second one in the wings. You know that it’s wise to think about your next career as the world changes. The onus is on you to understand where things are going and how you will need to market your skills in the midst of changes. It is completely your responsibility to keep gaining new skills.

Sometimes this means taking a job that pays less money so that you can put yourself somewhere where you can pick up the next set of skills you’ll be needing in the future. Sometimes it means asking for new challenges in your current job simply for the purpose of expanding your skills (and get paid for it). Sometimes it means investing in your own competency development through training and coaching.

In all of this, your success and financial well-being is all about skills, competencies, and expertise. It is about your adaptability, flexibility, and accelerated learning. It is about your personal, intellectual, emotional, and creative capital and how you keep developing that capital. It is about your personal creativity and innovation. And if it is about this kind of capacity development, then it is also about attitude, frames of mind, and your personal meanings. It’s about how you interpret things and your interpretative style.

So here’s a futuristic prediction: In the future those at the top of their professions, those who adapted the changes of the 21st century, and those who mine the times of change for resources are those who adapt, who use their mental and emotional flexibility to keep learning, to keep expanding their skill-sets, who look forward and identify their next level challenges. They were the ones who keep learning and who learn to learn faster and more throughly than others (meta- learning). They take on personal coaches and consultants; they invest in training, in books, in DVDs.

They are the ones who think about their marketability and know that their ability to create wealth was proportional to their ability to create and add value in the market. So they look for how to extent their skills, to become more competent in creative problem-solving, and to actualize their highest and best talents.

In the short-term, there’s undoubtedly going to be more bad news of lay-offs and economic slow down. We are all connected on this planet as never before so there’s a lot of leveling out as our world becomes flatter (Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat, 2005). Yet even in the short- term, this will be good news for those of us in the business of developing human capital, unleashing potentials, and equipping people via coaching, training, and consulting. Those who realize that their economic future depends on their capacity development will be seeking you out for up-skilling. So here’s to the further unleashing of your up-skilling abilities!