Project Coach has always promoted the development of soft skills. But, we relabeled them supercognitives, because we thought the term soft skills devalued what they actually
represent; those social and emotional capabilities that fosters self-awareness,
self-regulation, and interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, hard skills connote, higher-level
instrumental capabilities that are associated with such things as executive function, cognitive processing,
and more of what schools seem to value and assess with regard to academic
performance. Yet, we at Project Coach believe that supercognivities deserve more than tangential recognition, as they
not only require the integration of many higher level processes, but are also critical
for acquiring so many of the hard skills that
receive greater status.
Take communications as one example. Effective communications are
key to the relationships that we form with others such as teachers, coaches,
mentors, peers, and family members. These relationships often determine the
sorts of information to which we have access, the direction and feedback that
we receive about knowledge and skills that we wish to acquire, and the social
connections that provide fulfillment in our daily lives. Effective communications not only requires processing
and assessing various sorts of information, but then thinking critically about
it, and determining whether some sort of response is necessary. If so, one
needs to determine what to convey, when to do so, the audience, appropriate language,
affect to embed, and body language to deploy. In our view, to label such an
attribute as communications, which requires such complexity of thought and
action as soft seems to diminish its
import in the mix of things that youth must know, be able to do, and value.
Now, in a provocative new book Humans
are Underrated, Geoff Colvin, contends that the types of knowledge and
skills that underlie supercognitives are
not simply a means to and end, but ends in themselves. According to Colvin, it
is anybody’s guess about how best to prepare youth for future jobs, as
technology continues to replace many of the tasks previously performed by
people. Just a few years ago computers supported what people in various high
level occupations did with regard to problem-solving, judging, valuing, and
managing, but Colvin asserts that computer intelligence is now increasingly
able to perform many of these sorts of tasks without human colleagues, and the
trend is for computers to get even better at doing so. Whether it’s driving a
car, grading essays, doing legal research, or making a medical diagnosis,
Colvin contends that what we once conceived of as brain tasks are becoming automated, and that humans are not able to,
or will not be able to, perform many such tasks as well or as cheaply as
computers. On the other hand, his central theme is that humans will always
insist that certain jobs be done by other human beings, even if computers are
capable of doing those jobs. Colvin makes the point that humans are social
animals and the need for social interaction is a survival mechanism derived
over thousands of years, and social interaction is not going away anytime soon.
This is not to say that technology will become less important in the future, but
that our newest challenge will be how to interact with it to make our lives
better.
If humans will increasingly be replaced by computers in many of
the higher and lower end traditional occupations, then what will be left for us
to do? The answer that he provides is that we should be looking at those things
that we … will simply insist be performed
by other humans, regardless of what computers can do. Citing various
research studies related to what employers are increasingly prioritizing in
hiring employees, Colvin lists relationship
building, teaming, co-creativity,
brainstorming, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to manage diverse
employees. While he acknowledges that studies do not provide clear guidance
on the actual tasks that workers are/will do in various industries and
professions, his essential finding is that capacity for engaging in productive
personal interaction is critical. On
the other hand, jobs characterized as highly cognitive, requiring advanced
levels of education, have been stagnant or showing a decline in demand. Colvin
acknowledges that this deskilling
phenomenon does seem a bit bizarre, given our deep-seated belief in the
relationship between education – higher order cognitive capacity – employment,
and income, but such an account is consistent with education and employment
patterns of the last 15 years.
Overall, Colvin is not really saying that highly educated people
will be scorned in the coming economy, but what they possess in the way of
interpersonal skills may be more important than what they possess with regard
to knowledge or technical skill. An example that he gives about lawyers helps
clarify his major arguments. Much of their work is being taken over by
computers, and the average lawyer may be facing a bleak future. Yet, lawyers
who will thrive are those who are able to negotiate the non-technical aspects
of law by dealing with clients whose emotions may get in the way of acting in
their own best interests. As he conveys The
key to differentiation lies entirely in the most deeply human realms of social
interaction: understanding an irrational client, forming the emotional bonds
needed to persuade that client to act rationally, rendering the sensing,
feeling judgments that clients insist on getting from a human being. These are things that computers cannot do,
and will be essential to the work force of the future.
Other examples that he provides include physicians becoming
increasingly dependent on computers for diagnosing illness or on robots for
enacting various surgical procedures. Yet, those physicians who are more
communicative and empathetic to their patients get better patient compliance to
treatments, better outcomes, and fewer malpractice suits. Similarly, software
companies with employees who can interact with their customers more effectively
to determine what they really want, need, and feel have an edge in producing
better products. Even at call centers, American Express learned that dumping
standard scripts, and allowing employees to interact with customers in a more
personable way resulted in more positive company-customer interactions, less
employee attrition, and an increased bottom line. Not surprisingly, waiters who
are better able to empathize with their diners earn nearly 20 percent more in
tips, and debt collectors with better social skills recover twice as much debt
than peers who are less empathetic. The military also has glommed on to this
theme, and has been convinced that although combat has been increasingly
automated, being able to understand the thoughts and feelings of one’s
colleagues and enemies is critical. In fact even though pilots who operate out
of sophisticated cockpits and may never even see their adversaries, have
learned how critical it is to a mission’s success for trainees to understand
the tactics, thoughts and feelings of those targeted on their computer
displays. These are just a few of the
examples that Colvin writes about to convince readers that, as his title
conveys, human qualities in an increasingly computerized world are underrated,
and undervalued.
The gist of this is that while computers, with enhanced artificial
intelligence, will be able to do many of the higher and lower end tasks now
done by workers across the spectrum, those who are better able to communicate
more effectively, and promote more positive social interactions and
relationships will become the most valued people in society. In essence, those
who will thrive in the future will be relationship
workers who are less likely to be replaced by a computer than the knowledge workers of the twentieth
century.
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