The Hare and the Tortoise

The irony is that the industry of learning is perhaps the least prepared to meet the onslaught of the future-proof workplace. Traditional approaches to delivering early education have changed little in decades, if not hundreds of years.

Teachers are required to teach to a standard curriculum and topics to ensure that all students receive a similar baseline education. This approach creates a passive experience where students spend the day sitting in a classroom listening to their teacher tell them what they need to know. It cannot meet the needs of today's workforce, let alone the future-proof workplace.

If our current approach to education worked, we wouldn't have employers reportedly struggling to find employees with the right combination of skills, training, and credentials. Technology is a prime example of the skills shortage, with a near zero unemployment rate across all disciplines.

A global survey of 4,000 IT leaders by Harvey Nash, a global recruitment company headquartered in London, reported that 59 percent of employers said they face a skills shortage. The same percentage said that this skills shortage will prevent their organizations from keeping up with the pace of change.

Business leaders across industries are feeling the pain of this problem, too. Fifty-four percent of the nearly 700 respondents to a recent Harvard Business Review Analytic Services study said they lack the people and skills they need in order to compete effectively in the connected economy.¹

A recent Deloitte survey reported 39 percent of company executives were either barely able or unable to find the talent their firms needed. Learning and re-learning is the twenty-first-century imperative.²

It's not just what we are learning that needs to change. We also need to transform the time it takes to acquire knowledge. In most western countries the standard school system looks something like this:

Contrast this with the oft-quoted Moore's Law, which states that computing power doubles every 18 months. The rate of change outside the academic world is lightning fast, the hare to the education tortoise. And we haven't even touched on the cost of acquiring that education.

Is it any wonder we have skills gaps in any role or industry, let alone in the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and math? It's not just because students aren't selecting these career paths; it's because when they do emerge from their studies, the environment they are joining has already moved on.

Welcome to the Nano-Degree

Not only do we take too long to deliver a higher education but the twenty-first century has diluted the importance of a degree.

In 1950, approximately 3 percent of students went on to higher education. In 2016, this number was closer to 49 percent, breaking records in the United Kingdom for the number of applications received by universities. This pattern is repeated around the world with demand being fueled as more and more employers require an undergraduate degree for even the most entry-level roles.

The ripple effect continues with enrollment into post-graduate programs increasing as individuals seek to differentiate themselves from their peers. If our best and brightest are spending 12 years in secondary school, and then feel pressure to spend eight more years in higher education, our ability to respond quickly to change is vastly reduced.

“Come back in a decade, we'll have your engineers for you then” is not a viable business model when employers need them now.

Udacity is one of many new kids on the block when it comes to online learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), much like Khan Academy and Lynda.com. What's transformational is that Udacity offers an alternative to the four-year degree: nanodegrees. It's advertising states, “Find free online courses, make a career change, or get a new job by completing a Nanodegree program.”

A bold statement and one that is gaining traction. Given that the average job in Silicon Valley lasts 18 months you can see how a four-year degree might not match that need or demand.

Udacity's nanodegrees provide training and certification in technical subjects and skills (cybersecurity, software engineering, and web development, for example) and take 6 to 12 months to complete.

Before you dismiss the nanodegree as not having depth or credibility, consider that more than 4 million people in 168 countries have watched or completed Udacity programs.

We predict that the next iteration of graduate education will include not just timeline flexibility (traditional degree course condensed into a short time frame) but also content flexibility to allow learners to pick a more à la carte approach to the content of their degree.

Curiosity in the Driver's Seat

It's not just how we teach that has huge implications for the future of learning, it's also what we teach to meet the skills required of the twenty-first-century workforce.

Historically, learning has focused on the acquisition of knowledge, the what of content, and a deep specialization followed by the how of applying that knowledge in a given role. Usually the how is learned at the coalface (excuse the Industrial Revolution throwback) on the job—with new workers thrown in at the deep end of real-world experience.

However, spending four years learning the what of business seems archaic when we all have the ability to Google the answer to nearly any question. The future of learning needs to be tipped on its head, a focus on how knowledge is going to be used, the context in which learning will be applied, that will determine the priority of what needs to be learned.

We've all been asked at some point in our lives, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” or “Where do you see yourself in five years?” In both cases the expected answer is a job title—and a senior title at that. However, these questions don't reflect the rapid pace of change that has occurred in the design of the workplace.

New jobs are continuously emerging that didn't exist just a few short months or years ago: Uber driver, CrossFit instructor, Android or IOS developer, data scientist, 3-D printing engineer, or big data analyst to name just a few. For example, in just five years, from 2008 to 2013, more than 25,000 application developer jobs were created in the market,³ and the number continues to grow. It's estimated that 65 percent of children entering primary education today will work in roles that don't currently exist.⁴

Now consider the job listings of the future, including robot repair technician and hologram stylist.

A single education, a linear education that is focused on developing the skills to succeed in a single expertise, is the legacy of a bygone era. While the process of learning is currently structured around the age of the learner, the reality is that most teenagers have access to almost any information at any time.

Scarcity drives value. Today, it's not information that's scarce, it's people who know how to use it at work.

As the organizational hierarchy changes and becomes flatter, the traditional vertical promotions that equated to career success become less relevant and less attainable. The future-proof differentiator is no longer seniority; instead it's a focus on horizontal and lateral moves—building a personal tool kit that allows us to add value wherever we work.

As industries come and go the need for new training becomes paramount. In the auto industry, thousands of workers are trapped in a shifting employment landscape by geography and lack of reskilling.

AT&T is facing the need to retrain tens of thousands of employees, and it is doing this in partnership with Udacity.⁵

Morag is the mother of three teenage boys and sees this change occur in real time. They don't want to wait to see what the teacher is going to share in their school classroom next week; they want to know now. They can know now.

Morag's on her fifth career, and an example of the importance of being a lifelong learner. If she dusts off her original career goals, after long-distance truck driver (honestly! she wanted to see the world) and space explorer (she's a huge StarTrek fan) she was planning to be an engineer. She actually enjoyed applied mathematics and physics.

Fate introduced her to a high school economics class and inspired the first change in direction. Instead of engineering she jumped into a finance career and nearly 15 years analyzing business plans, cashflow forecasts, and financial documents. From there, pivoted from the numbers side of the business into the people side, with a passion for leadership development.

More recently she's moved from solopreneur to entrepreneur, becoming an author and a speaker at industry and corporate events. Five careers in one lifetime and who knows what opportunities await!

A single degree in finance got her started, ongoing post-graduate studies in human resources management allowed Morag to pivot, and a commitment to lifelong learning is fueling current and future success. That original finance qualification is no longer relevant to the work she does. Not only is that degree old enough to drink, it's old enough to be a parent in its own right.

Learning agility and a healthy curiosity are going to be key skills for future success.

Introducing the “T” Learner

Now before you start burning your diplomas or college applications, we're not suggesting that formal learning should be thrown out with the proverbial bath water. There are fundamental skills that we all need to learn in order to have a basis from which to leap frog. The three Rs—reading, writing, and arithmetic—are a requirement. These are the entry-level minimum requirements that get us a seat at the table, our first project, our first job.

However, what will keep us at the table will be our ability to continue to learn and the breadth of learning that we embrace.

In the past, education could be described by “I”—deep knowledge and expertise in one area. Another ironic thought, the I of the traditional learner may explain the lack of collaboration and crossfunctional skills that many of our clients are trying to resolve. It's all about the I, the me-first focus instead of the horizontal we focus, but that's a thought for another time.

The shape of the future-proof learner is better represented by a truncated “T.”

The increasingly complex workplace no longer fits neatly into one area of expertise. Instead, the need is there for all of us to become increasingly flexible, to have an understanding across disciplines.

Morag's first cars were a Citroën 2CV and an MGB Roadster (Google them if you don't recognize these). Those early years of car ownership regularly had her under the hood fixing the car, referring to the Haynes manual for pictures and step-by-step instructions. Even if Google existed back then, it would have been limited to a desktop PC and wouldn't have been much use in the garage.

Mechanical knowledge, an awareness of the impact of corrosion on the exhaust pipe, the cam belt, drive shaft, and a basic understanding of the internal combustion engine was enough to fix them as needed. And they did need fixing. Often.

Fast-forward to more than 30 years of car ownership and neither of us would even consider trying to work on our cars today. The complexity of the automobile industry has made it more difficult for the hobby enthusiast, unless we decide to relive our youth and buy a classic (a.k.a. simple) car. Today's car mechanic is a great example of the new T learner, with a deep knowledge of mechanics, in addition to engineering skills to support the electronics that have been added to the car's design.

The future-proof mechanic will need to extend that T wider as software expertise is required to support self-driving cars and the vehicles of tomorrow—deep expertise coupled with ever-increasing skills.

It's not just the car industry. The merging of technology in the health care industry has brought about transformative change. Surgeons leverage robotics to operate, and pharmaceutical companies are developing unique formulas to support personalized health care.

The T-shaped learner is the new world order, with transferable skills that are not specific to one job or one industry.

Soft Skills Finally Take Center Stage

While the nanodegree may provide a solution to a specific content need, the need for soft skills, also known as people skills, necessary for success will only increase.

In our work with clients around the world, the shortage of technical skills drives employers up the wall with frustration. But the far bigger cause for complaint is the lack of soft skills graduates seem to have.

Its social skills that underpin communication, collaboration, and teamwork—and these are rarely developed in a lecture. This is little surprise when students are scheduled from sunup to sundown and recess is seen as a luxury or used as a brief respite from the classroom.

Think about it in your own childhood. Recess is where we learned how to bond, build relationships, influence others, experienced conflict, and hopefully to resolve conflict.

A recent article on CBS MoneyWatch highlighted this lack of soft skills with employers complaining that new graduates may have the book smarts but are not work ready.⁶ The same article stated that 60 percent of companies found new graduates lacked critical thinking skills and attention to detail, while 44 percent complained about the lack of writing proficiency, and 39 percent were critical of their public speaking ability.

Today there are laptops in every classroom, many schools no longer teach cursive writing (we called it joined-up writing in England—cursive sounds so very posh) and pupils type notes directly into their digital notepads. Ironically, research indicates that a step back to the old-fashioned pen and paper for note-taking may be needed. Some brain research shows that we are better able to recall items when we write them down rather than type them out.

Emotional intelligence and other core leadership skills are slowly being introduced to technical curricula. Learning opportunities that focus on team performance, not simply solo performance, are being adopted. But the rate of change is slow and perhaps too slow.

It is anticipated that 40 percent of traditional jobs will be automated in the next 15 to 20 years to be replaced by…who knows what.⁷ By 2020 it is anticipated that 36 percent of jobs across all industries will require complex problem-solving as a core skill, compared with the 4 percent that will need physical abilities.⁸

The World Economic Forum indicated that the top 10 skills needed for future success include intellectual reasoning, social and creative skills (such as intuition, critical thinking, influencing, and persuasion), abstract thought, and interestingly, the ability to apply ethical judgment. These are skills that can't currently be programmed into computers or provided through artificial intelligence.

If you want to future-proof your own career, develop your interpersonal skills and stay one step ahead of the competition—and the robots!

Collecting Credentials Instead of Certificates

If the four-year degree is dead, then so is the certificate earned at the culmination of the program.

With the advent of MOOCs, anyone can access a higher education and any education online. Harvard Business School was one of the first to convert its classroom and on-campus programs to a virtual online MOOC. Stanford, MIT, and others are transferring their curriculum online, available to all, for free. Whether we're in Boston, the Outer Hebrides, or a small village in Africa, as long as we have access to the Internet we can access a Harvard program or any MOOC that captures our attention.

This learning is laudable—until you try to use MOOC learning to enter the workforce. At this time, employers are still stuck in the 1900s when it comes to their attitude about self-learning and online learning. Qualifications earned this way do not seem to be given same consideration or gravitas, and they are not as widely recognized. This attitude has to change because it's holding both employees and employers back.

The irony is that nanodegree certificates are considered lightweight and not necessarily proof that you know anything, whereas the traditional degree certificate may demonstrate book smarts but does little to show that you can actually do anything!

There has to be a major change in how we capture, assess, and value learning. If the four-year degree is not relevant, if the end of course certificate is no longer available, then a whole new educational industry will need to emerge. It's already in existence in some areas such as professional organizations that require continuing professional development, providing credits that are accumulated by attending various programs. This bite-sized learning is recognized by way of badges and credentials.

It was not so long ago that the press was mocking McDonald's for providing its staff members with stars on their name badges—stars that reflected their experience and learning. But we are all entering the era of the McCredential, a way to demonstrate our learning agility. The seeds of change are emerging, Arizona State University no longer differentiates in their transcripts between online or in-person studies. Starbucks offers all employees working 20-plus hours free online tuition after three months.

Are You Learning Agile?

Change is coming your way. What are you doing to stay ahead of the tsunami of change that's bearing down on you?

Hope is not a strategy that can be relied upon. If you believe that change will simply carry you along into the future, understand that this wave of change crushes anything in its wake.

Time to take an internship as a lifeguard or some online swimming lessons.

Modernizing Talent Management

If lifelong learning and midcareer relearning is the new normal, then the question becomes, who owns the learning contract?

Who provides the ongoing learning opportunities? How do we develop a future generation of leaders and managers who don't have the luxury of a 10-year apprenticeship but need to stay current for a 60-year working career?

Traditionally, the learning contract is owned by the employer and provided to a select few—the high-potential (HIPO) workers—or staff at certain leadership levels. While predictable career transitions will continue to exist, like moving from an individual contributor to a manager role, for most employees and employers a more flexible solution is needed.

A one-size-fits-all or a one-size-only-fits-a-few approach is no longer appropriate. The challenge is equipping the workforce with timely knowledge that allows individuals to respond to an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment. In the past, many managers learned through a period of apprenticeship (formal or informal), attending corporate learning events, and biding their time until they were promoted into their new role.

With the predictable surprise of the demographic time bomb—our baby boomers and Gen Xers retiring—we don't have much time before our millennials need to step up and take the reins.

The idea of having the top 20 is out. Everyone must be up to the task. Companies need to invest in every person to ensure that everyone can deliver on the innovation required—not just the top 20. Think about your strategy and stop thinking about your talent as top, middle, and bottom. Think which skills are required to achieve your strategy. Who has them now, and who needs to develop expertise?

Put plans in place like Rich Sheridan did at Menlo Innovations to pair people up to transfer needed skills and spark new ideas. Get rid of the old talent templates.

The challenge will be how do you provide 10 years of experience in 6 months—because talent today will likely not be with you in 10 years.

The Old Days of Too Young

As a Gen-Xer, Morag, experienced the early stages of this conflict between readiness and old-world thinking; being told that she was too young to be a bank manager. The fact that she'd just graduated from the bank's accelerated management development program seemed to be lost on the powers-that-be, who happened to have created that very program.

In 20 years not much has changed. This same mind-set is being applied to our next generation of leaders and young managers—the assumption that age equates to success in the next role. We know this is not always true.

Not only is the time until moving to a new role shortening, but so is the patience level of millennials who are being asked to wait for advancement opportunities. If exciting work, project, or career opportunities aren't in regular supply in your company, millennials are more than ready to chase them elsewhere.

We need a different way to think about readiness for the big role or next promotion. How about right person, right role, right time? Now there's a novel idea.

We Can't Afford a Training Budget

Often training budgets are one of the first items to be cut when cash flow is tight. This may save a few dollars in the short-term but undermines the growth of the organization.

We've all heard the old cliché where the CFO turns to the CEO and says, “What if we invest in our people and they leave?” To which the CEO responds, “Yes, but what if we don't and they stay?”

In the future-proof workplace investing in your employees will be the differentiator that makes you an employer of choice.

Today there's a joint ownership for talent development.

If we are to remain ahead of the career curve, we need to invest in ourselves and push out of our comfort zones. We can't afford to leave this to chance or to our current employer. Investing in ourselves, proactively learning, and seeking new experiences will differentiate us from other potential candidates.

Learning Is a Contact Sport

Leadership and management development have come to a point of being too individually focused and elitist.

But there is a transition occurring from the old paradigm in which leadership resided in a single person, job title, or role. The future-proof mind-set is one where learning is a collective process that is spread throughout networks of people. It becomes a contact sport (metaphorically) as successful learners learn from each other.

The focus of talent management discussions will move from “Who are our leaders?” to “What conditions do we need for leadership to flourish in this team and this organization?” and “How do we spread leadership courage and capability throughout the organization?”

We need to cultivate a learning culture and a community of learners. Another reason why culture is so important to the twenty-first-century organization.

Build a Learning Culture

The best way to build a learning culture is to hire the right people.

We often hire for the boxes we can check: certain experiences or degrees instead of hiring for learning agility. How can this be incorporated into the hiring process?

Use behavioral interviewing, and look for clues in job candidates' previous experience. Do they demonstrate curiosity and learning agility? Or did learning stop when they received their diplomas? Some candidates might pass the test, but can they continue to learn?

Instead of looking at job-hopping as a red flag, look for the story behind the different roles.

Leaders need to build continuous learning into how we do business. In the twentieth century, continuing education was a checklist, not necessarily a learning exercise. Learning can happen every day in the office if we cultivate curiosity about what worked and what didn't. Instead of a blame game, we lower our defenses and learn from experiences.

Learning has to move from being an event to being a process. We need to build a culture of learning and an expectation of lifelong learning. Learning isn't just an HR function, it's a business priority. And a personal imperative.

We must avoid the quick and cheap approach to learning. Sure there are free online resources available, but a human connection with a real-life teachers is crucial.

In the future-proof workplace the role of the manager changes from sending an employee to a training course (or receiving surprised looks when the manager actually attends a seminar), to the role of mentor and coach.

A good coach provides access to the appropriate content and encourages application of the learning. The focus must shift from one of pure results to include a development mind-set. In doing so, employees and team members are more likely to receive effective feedback coupled with specialized training to help them increase their contributions to the team.

Everyone needs to be a coach and mentor. Coaching for the top echelons is an artifact of the twentieth-century. The twenty-first-century learning culture ensures that coaching is available for all.

Coaching circles are a powerful mechanism for peers to act as coaches and mentors to each other, and to help them learn and grow. Coaching has to become part of the culture and fabric of a learning organization.

If managers are to become mentors, how they are recognized and rewarded needs to include clear expectations that go beyond the financial metrics and include building talent and organizational capability. They also need to be held accountable for their own professional development.

If managers feel unprepared to become mentors, they must learn and step out of their comfort zones. Mentoring can be as simple as asking questions and really listening to the answers. Be genuinely curious about your team and about What worked? What didn't? and Why?

Curiosity may have killed the cat—but it can uncage the lion.

In team meetings ask, What if? and What would it take? Question the status quo and have the courage to admit you don't know the answer.

It's not just the manager's role to provide the coaching. Many organizations are introducing the concept of peer coaching and learning circles. Google is an example where more than 2,000 employees volunteered to teach a class or skill in one year alone.

Building a culture of peer learning and feedback accelerates the learning curve for everyone involved. But simply asking colleagues to coach each other will not deliver the change needed. An investment is required to build the capabilities of each and every employee to identify coaching opportunities, and to ask, listen, and respond.

In the same way, leadership development programs need to evolve to ensure they are providing the skills to support learning in a geographically diverse workforce.

A Global Learning Mind-Set

If the workforce is geographically dispersed, then so, too, are the leaders and managers. As a result, there are real challenges to bringing people together in real-time to attend a classroom-based program.

This doesn't mean that classroom training doesn't have a place. It does. Perhaps even a more vital place in the learning arsenal. If we want to learn human skills, reading a book or completing an online program will only get us so far. In years to come we'll be able to attend programs with our virtual headset. Until then don't underestimate the need to invest in bringing people together to allow them to collaborate, problem solve, make mistakes, succeed together, and build professional relationships.

With access to the Internet, problem solving becomes a different game—a series of critical thinking tests:

• Can I determine the core problem that I'm trying to solve?
• Do I know the appropriate question or keywords to enter into Google?
• Can I then assess the information returned to sort fact from fiction?
• And then, most critically of all, can I synthesize that information and apply it to solve the issue that I am facing right now?

Real-life challenges don't follow the formula in a textbook. Four years of book-learning and memorizing isn't enough. It's the in-the-moment learning through a process of search, analyze, and apply that matters. The traditional gap between academic learning and vocational learning needs to close.

The future-proof leadership development programs that we are developing in partnership with our clients span beyond the classroom. They include a breadth of learning resources including self-study, e-learning, virtual delivery (webinar or telephone conference), as well as real-world workshop-based learning. Our experience continues to show the importance of in-person opportunities to practice new skills in a safe environment.

If you want to learn how to develop your teamwork and collaboration skills, you can't do it alone. You have to practice communication with real, live, breathing humans.

Our future-proof programs are also designed to deliver lasting benefit during, and after, the learning experience—momentum that transfers learning from the theoretical into the real world. It's powerful. It's possible.

Simply wishing for a learning culture will not make it so. The future-proof workplace takes action to make it so.

Content Curation and Knowledge Management

Institutional knowledge will be walking out the door during the next 10 years as baby boomers finally retire. The time to capture this knowledge is now, before it's too late.

Knowledge management matters, not because of the ticking demographic time bomb, but also because of the new flexible tour-of-duty mind-set of the millennials. People will be coming and going from your organization, and it would be naive to think you can retain someone forever. Instead, build the processes that help everyone to share knowledge while they are part of your team.

Whether it's organizational, academic, or vocational knowledge, learners need a personalized approach. Even if you have a library of 1,000 files, learners need help navigating this library. Companies need to curate the content and align it to the roles, certifications, and performance goals that the employee is being held accountable for.

Often the onboarding process for new hires or contract staff doesn't include access to key information. Many are simply thrown into the deep end and expected to figure it out. They will, but at what cost, in terms of mistakes, delays, or stepping on others' toes?

Shortening their ramp-up to productivity by providing access to knowledge before they join your team and in the critical first few weeks will differentiate your organization from others.

Throw Out the HR Rule Book

Rules are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of the wise.

—Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, FRAeS, DL, World War II fighter pilot, Royal Air Force

Ask any HR professional what she thinks of the policies and procedures in her organization and most will acknowledge that many of them are dumb and difficult to enforce. These rules have unfortunately resulted in a reputation of human resources being a jobs-worth function trying to justify its existence.

There are many legal requirements designed to protect the employee from the unscrupulous employer, and, in some cases, protect the employer from an unscrupulous employee. We're not suggesting that these be ignored or thrown out; however, we would make a heartfelt plea for them to be simplified! The complexity of some of the legislation is time-consuming, for employee and employer alike, let alone the HR professional who acts as translator, mediator, and enforcer.

What we can't get our heads around is why so many of those rules and mind-sets regarding employees are still anchored in the end of the nineteenth century, designed for an illiterate workforce transitioning from the fields to the factories.

Rules appear as a result of the transgressions of a few and end up controlling the many. They certainly don't reflect an educated workforce or the needs of the future-proof workplace. Many rules actually limit learning, initiative, and creative thinking.

Do we really need a dress code that bans “spaghetti straps”? Women can wear skirts, but men can't wear shorts? Interesting. We assume kilts are okay?

Providing proof that a relative has died before you can attend a funeral and trying to place a finite time on grief (two days for a parent, one for a grandparent) is not only inappropriate, it's disrespectful. And do we really need a note from a doctor to prove we're sick? Let's clog up waiting rooms even more for minor ailments—while sharing the bugs.

Let's end policies that penalize people for being late but don't acknowledge the hours worked at the end of the day, in the evening, or during the weekend.

“Managing out” the bottom 10 percent of your workforce (remember this one?) only works if you can guarantee that the 10 percent you hire to replace them are better. And this flawed mind-set doesn't even take into to account the time required to learn the new role or the impact on others while they fill in for colleagues who were euphemistically let go.

And what's with spending hours debating nine-box positioning, when the only people who like a nine box are those in the top right-hand box? Everyone else is just annoyed with you (and their colleague) that they are not in the top right-hand box.

In a recent conversation with Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder of Bersin by Deloitte, he highlighted a recent study of managers and employees regarding performance reviews. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study reports that 90 percent of the managers hated performance reviews and didn't see the business value. Employees had exactly the same opinion. He validated what we already knew; it's time to let the sun set on performance reviews as we know them, and the sun rise on a more effective conversation.

Performance Management Becomes the Performance Moment

In the twenty-first-century workplace performance management experiences a workplace makeover. Instead of a focus on goals and annual feedback mechanisms, teams and individuals are aligning around purpose, culture, and values. Gone is the annual review, a once-a-year conversation if you are lucky, in favor of real-time feedback that empowers and engages each person in the moment and treats them for what they are: adults.

Companies like Kelly Services, Dell, IBM, and even GE are doing away with the traditional twentieth-century approach. In a recent article, one Deloitte manager was quoted as saying, “Performance reviews were an annual investment of 1.8 million hours across our business that didn't meet our needs anymore.”

The individual focus of performance management and rewards is at odds with the team-based approach that is required going forward. In the fast-paced world of the twenty-first century, 12-month goals seem ludicrous, especially when manager and employee changes are happening regularly, let alone changing priorities and projects. Organizations are struggling to predict what their market and business will look like three to five years out, and annual cycles are becoming less defined. The planning horizons are coming closer, rolling 12-month cycles are the norm, and agile practices are needed.

It's time to think, and plan in dog years rather than calendar years. Short-term goals and milestones ensure meaningful feedback and progress in bursts while aligning to the overarching purpose and culture.

Rewrite the Training Policies

Most companies only provide training for a select few and exclude contractors or part-time workers. With a growing number of freelancers and contract employees this policy seems ridiculous. The implication is that part of your workforce gets to see the secret song sheet by which you operate, and everyone else has to hum along as best they can. Progressive organizations, like Deloitte, aren't just opening up their learning opportunities to their employees (whatever flavor they are), they're also opening programs to their customers and communities. Now there's a twenty-first-century idea!

Hours, months, and years are spent in the annual performance review cycle where managers are asked to grade their team and then told to lower their grades to meet an arbitrary curve or expectation from the C-suite. It feels more like junior high school than a workplace where responsible adults attend.

Thank goodness more enlightened companies are throwing out these preposterous time-sucking people processes and replacing them with adult-centric daily conversations. It's time we consigned some of our approaches to the history books where they belong.

Treat your employees for who they are—adults. Provide them with challenging goals and resources to achieve them. Then set them free to deliver the results. Where expectations are not being met, have the courage to provide the tough feedback, and give them an opportunity to step up. If they choose not to—or can't—you can decide to part ways. Either way it is a much more respectful and effective partnership.

We All Want to Learn

In our work with thousands of leaders across the globe, we can vouch for the fact that only a very small percentage of people are seeking to get by with the minimum of effort. Most employees want to do a good job, enjoy their work, build great relationships, and feel like they're connected to something bigger than themselves.

We dare you to take action.

If you can provide a future-proof workplace that engages curiosity, there will be no stopping you. We know where we'd choose to go to work!

Future-Proof Your Company

• Take a hard look at your employee handbook—your people processes and policies. What can you throw out to unlock the shackles that are constraining your employees?
• How are you identifying learning agility in your current or future employees?
• How are you investing in your workforce and becoming an employer of choice?
• Are you a better version of yourself than you were yesterday? That's learning—for you and your team.
• Prepare for needing both legacy skills and future skills. Create a future-skills profile, and determine how the gaps will be filled. Will you build (develop) existing employees or buy (hire) new employees with those skills?

Future-Proof Your Career

• Seize the new opportunities when presented. What's the worst that happens when you try something new?
• Keep a learning journal. Reflect on what's working and what's not. What happened, and why do you think it happened that way? What's the aha, and what are you committed to doing as a result? If you write it down, you practice double-loop learning.
• Develop your mentoring skills by asking questions and not being quick to answer.