What skills will matter most for work, business and life in the future? Where should you focus your energy and effort when the world is changing at an extraordinary rate? How can you future proof yourself, your organisation and your kids?
In this ground-breaking book Kieran Flanagan and Dan Gregory have interviewed hundreds of successful business people, educators, futurists, economists and historians to uncover the key skills that will always be critical to success in business and in life.
Where most futurists increase your sense of panic and anxiety with dystopian images of the not-too-distant future characterised by Artificial Intelligence (AI) taking our jobs, algorithms hacking our most private moments and Austrian-accented cyborgs raising our children, Kieran and Dan remind us that we need to look beyond the things changing around us and focus on the things that won’t change within us.
- Identify the skills you have that will always be relevant
- Gain insight from business leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, sport leaders and more
- Learn why each skill matters, and how to make it stronger
- Discover the things that won’t change as we inch toward the future
These 12 FOREVER SKILLS are designed to set you up for whatever the future may throw at you plus help you get more success in your work and life, today.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction: Where might we find certainty in a world of change? xv
1. The Three Spheres of Change 1
Part 1: Creativity Skills 10
2. Insight 17
3. Conversion 35
4. Problem solving 49
5. Agility 63
Part 2: Communication Skills 76
6. Influence 83
7. Team building 101
8. Trust 115
9. Translation 129
Part 3: Control Skills 142
10. Self-control 147
11. Resource management 159
12. Order 173
13. Implementation 185
Conclusion 199
Appendix A: Looking back to look forward 203
Appendix B: Today’s workplace trends 211
Appendix C: Ten years of work and research 217
The authors 225
The podcast 226
Index 227
