I recently purchased a set of hard backs complete with Green Eggs & Ham for my 1 year-old nephew. As I flipped through the delicate folds of nostalgia book after book, I realized how relevant the gold nuggets of knowledge are, concealed in rows of prose, to the 2.0, nay 3.0 World of Work. Seuss is still making house calls in the digital era, and this week’s Top 5 Trends in the World of Work are brought to you courtesy of the Dr. himself.
1. “You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut”
It seems to be the broken record of today’s industry pulpit talk. We slice and dice innovation into ways we think are more consumable only to realize it is no longer recognizable. It’s a form of control and it’s thriving in the company petri dish, or at least it’s making a good college try…but why? This article tells a compelling story of the business-to-bullpen innovation gap as the absence of “a culture in which social technologies facilitate the democratization of ideas.” It urges us to believe that community cannot be engineered in a top-down model when social is the culture and is itself the very catalyst for capturing ingenuity from talent and customers.
The Trend: Innovation is creation without borders or orders, and ego is a preventative measure for crowdsourcing. Youtopia is here and now, and it’s social.
2. “Step with care and great tact, and remember that life’s a great balancing act”
If you want to be successful, you’ll need to get your sit together. No, it’s not a typo, but type of hot topic that seems to be gaining momentum and attention. Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project and author of Be Excellent at Anything , calls it “magic,” and it seems to be working just like it. The secret sauce to success according to Schwartz is…. doing one thing at a time and not working in instant and constant gratification mode. With good personal governance — renewal through yoga, for example — or doing the most important things in the morning, focus, energy and results are more accessible. Stillness is a practice (believe it or not) and even if it feels like boredom, it can be a creativity cultivator.
The Trend: The only person you need permission from to ignite your potential is YOU. Make yourself an agenda item and set a reminder for first thing in the morning.
3. “A person’s a person no matter how small”
You are a sovereign republic. Yes, you, the job candidate. You can’t control what happens outside your borders, but you can choose if you want someone to cross into yours. Well, maybe. You can stop people from trying, though. Well, maybe not. Yes, it’s confusing and it might just get more complex before it becomes clearer. I’m talking about social media and the person of interest in the matter of employment. “Privacy is the fame of the future” – as recently read on Twitter: a reality that is much closer than we think with the recent controversy of employers asking for Facebook passwords as part of the job application process. The pandemonium this practice has caused in traditional and social media alike may be temporary, but the issue is here to stay…for now.
The Trend: The personal brand is getting personal. Know where you stand and what you will and will not stand for.
4. “Sometimes the questions are complicated but the answers are simple”
How can I be a better leader?
With leadership always being trendy, there are some great lists to grow from that are buzzing this week. Paul Shoemaker in his popular post talks about developing strategic thinking hygiene. He offers bullet points of brilliant advice, such as being decisive — grace has no place in ambiguity, especially if you fall from it, right? We’re also getting schooled by Mike Myatt on leadership communication secrets — for instance, swapping ego for empathy and leading between the lines by zipping your lips and witnessing what’s not been seen by just hearing the story.
The Trend: There’s no excuse for poor leadership if you “Shut-Up & Listen”
5. “Oh the things you can find if you don’t stay behind”
One person’s fearless is another one’s flaw, and an Israeli start-up is testing this out by reducing its recruiter footprint to zero by 2015. It’s nothing short of a true but sci-fi type story that’s being told at the intersection of internet and social media, where artificial intelligence plays a role. What’s next, the death of the job fair? Maybe…
The Trend: Sometimes thinking social means thinking extinct…and it’s a good thing.
That’s what caught our attention in the World of Work this week. What trends are showing up for you? What’s on your radar that we should have on ours in the #TChat community? Add your ideas and experiences to our community list.
In classic Dr. Seuss fashion, I’ll leave you with one last timeless tenet of truth to ponder: “Only you can control your future.”
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