Andre Richier recently suggested some readings that are eye-opening. Andre clearly sees the link between the lack of skills and stress at work, poor (mental) health, diminishing productivity etc.
The book “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism” by Case and Deaton speaks directly to the dramatically increased death rate (including suicides) of less educated Americans who experience despair.
The article “Mental health in the workplace: The coming revolution” by Pfeffer and Williams paints an even broader picture. During the pandemic, the issues have intensified around workplace stress and lack of access to mental health service faced by too many workers, under employed, and unemployed. Some anxiety may be the result of lack of appreciation of workers, and the stigma associated with the label “low-skilled” worker. Depression is not uncommon in high skill professionals too, and the Pfeffer and WIlliams article refers to the brave online commentary by Lenny Mendoca “I faced a challenge one out of every three people in America has: Depression and anxiety.”
There is an urgent need for wide-scale upskilling, but change and the need to upskill generates stress for most people. Nevertheless, upskilling for shared prosperity is the key to economic prosperity for people and their regions. Upskilling which allows people to move to higher value work is especially important in the age of AI, which is creating an ever more abundant supply of labor (AI-based digital workers and co-workers).
Upskilling can be an antidote to Deaths of Despair. First, we must realize that upskilling is not just about learning new technical skills, nor is it always about getting a college degree. Upskilling can happen in many ways.
Upskilling should be based on a strong foundation, including grit and growth mindsets and other positive attitudes, that prepare the way for learning challenging and exciting technical skills. Part of that strong foundation is social and emotional learning at an early age. At every stage of life, additional social and emotional learning skills are needed. At IBM and ISSIP.org, we see this social and emotional learning as the broad part of being a T-shaped professional and adaptive innovator. The broad part of the T-shaped professional is also closely related to empathy. Beyond empathy (understanding the problems of others), compassion-driven innovation (understand + act to solve problems of others) is important.
Upskilling of people from jobs in agriculture to manufacturing and to service has been happening relatively slowly. However, the pandemic has accelerated technology-driven change. The driving force has been accelerating technological and economic change that increases productivity and quality of work systems with digital service (abundant labor). The pandemic has also lead to a reassessment of what work people want to be doing.
More properly valuing all types of work as well as better understanding the changes coming to work and skills is a first important step to overcoming stress and worry. As AI improves service system productivity, what will future service jobs be like? Over the next few decades, we can expect: (1) more people working with co-robots and AI-based digital workers, (2) more gig workers (flex-workers) using digital platforms, both labor and capital platforms, (3) more entrepreneurs with regional support incentives that allow safer risk taking, and accelerating the shift from jobs of today to jobs of the future. Even a failed startup can improve the skills mix of a region, and that is a good thing.
References
Alter S (2021) How Well Do Service Concepts Apply to Digital Services and Service Digitalization? In Proceedings of the 53rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences 2020 Jan 7.URL: http://128.171.57.22/bitstream/10125/63886/1/0118.pdf
Bose P, Mincer J, Kleinman D (2020) Robots May Be the Right Prescription for Struggling Nursing Homes. Karen Eggleston and Yong Suk Lee speak to the Oliver Wyman Forum on how robotics and advancing technologies are helping staff in Japanese nursing homes provide better and safer care to their patients. Stanford FSI Interview. 20200611 URL: https://fsi.stanford.edu/news/robots-may-be-right-prescription-struggling-nursing-homes
Bower B (2020) ‘Deaths of despair’ are rising. It’s time to define despair; Scientists investigate whether despair is distinct from mental disorders. Science News online. 20201102 URL: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/deaths-of-despair-depression-mental-health-covid-19-pandemic
Case A, Deaton A (2020) Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. Princeton University Press; 2020 Mar 17. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Deaths-Despair-Future-Capitalism-Anne/dp/069119078X
Dubner SJ (2021) How to Stop Worrying and Love the Robot Apocalypse. URL: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/freakonomics-radio/id354668519?i=1000520382027
Duckworth A (2016) Grit: The power of passion and perseverance. New York, NY: Scribner; 2016 May 3.
Dweck CS (2008) Mindset: The new psychology of success. Random House Digital, Inc.; 2008.
Dweck C (2015) Carol Dweck Revisits the ‘Growth Mindset’. EdWeek Commentary online.
20150902 URL: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/opinion-carol-dweck-revisits-the-growth-mindset/2015/09
Gada K (2021) Automation is Nothing New; It Has Been Underway for Two Centuries. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gbhb5IElME
Hansen MT (2010) IDEO CEO Tim Brown: T-Shaped Stars: The Backbone of IDEO’s Collaborative Culture. 20100121 URL: https://chiefexecutive.net/ideo-ceo-tim-brown-t-shaped-stars-the-backbone-of-ideoaes-collaborative-culture__trashed/
Ignatius, D (2021) Arvind Krishna, IBM Chairman & CEO, on digital innovations and the future of work (Full Stream 5/6). Washington Post Live. URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qel4ggstaA
Long H (2021) It’s not a ‘labor shortage.’ It’s a great reassessment of work in America. Hiring was much weaker than expected in April. Wall Street thinks it’s a blip, but there could be much deeper rethinking of what jobs are needed and what workers want to do on a daily basis. The Washington Post/Economic Assessment online. 20210507 URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/05/07/jobs-report-labor-shortage-analysis/
Lowery A (2021) Low-Skill Workers Aren’t a Problem to Be Fixed: The label “low-skill” flattens workers to a single attribute, ignoring the capacities they have and devaluing the jobs they do. The Atlantic online 20210414 URL: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-low-skill-worker/618674/
Melis F (2021) Vision. IgniteFuture.Today website. URL: https://ignitefuture.today/eng/info/vision
Mendoca L (2020) I faced a challenge one out of every three people in America has: Depression and anxiety. CalMatters Online: My Turn – Guest Commentary.
20200707 URL: https://calmatters.org/commentary/my-turn/2020/07/i-faced-a-challenge-one-out-of-every-three-people-in-america-has-depression-and-anxiety/
Perkins-Gough D (2013) The significance of grit: A conversation with Angela Lee Duckworth. Educational Leadership. 2013 Sep 1;71(1):14-20. URL: https://www.wwva.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/0BzUD8_mWA_OUVXJFaHhMU0xObjg.pdf
Pfeffer J, Williams L (2020) Mental health in the workplace: The coming revolution. McKinsey Quarterly Online. 20201208 URL: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/healthcare-systems-and-services/our-insights/mental-health-in-the-workplace-the-coming-revolution
Probst L, Scharff C (2017) Upskill: 6 Steps to unlock economic prosperity for all. URL: https://www.amazon.com/Upskill-Laurent-Probst/dp/1912850664/
Reineke N, Yehuda H, Slapak D (2021) Compassion-Driven Innovation. Business Expert Press. URL: https://compassiondriveninnovation.com/
Spohrer J (2020) Online Platform Economy and Gig Workers: A USA Perspective. Slideshare presentation. 20201209 URL: https://www.slideshare.net/spohrer/20201209-jim-spohrer-platform-economy-v3
WEF and PWC (2021) Upskilling for shared prosperity. World Economic Forum, in collaboration with PWC. 20210125 URL: https://www.weforum.org/reports/upskilling-for-shared-prosperity
WEF (2021) Building a Common Language for Skills at Work A Global Taxonomy. World Economic Forum. URL: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Skills_Taxonomy_2021.pdf
Williamson B. Psychodata: disassembling the psychological, economic, and statistical infrastructure of ‘social-emotional learning’. Journal of Education Policy. 2021 Jan 2;36(1):129-54. URL: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ben-Williamson-2/publication/336267336_Psychodata_disassembling_the_psychological_economic_and_statistical_infrastructure_of_%27social-emotional_learning%27/links/5d9af7cba6fdccfd0e7f325f/Psychodata-disassembling-the-psychological-economic-and-statistical-infrastructure-of-social-emotional-learning.pdf
Wladalsky-Berger I (2021) The Urgent Need for Wide-Scale Upskilling. 20210508 URL: https://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2021/05/the-urgent-need-for-wide-scale-upskilling.html?cid=6a00d8341f443c53ef0263e9a32980200b#comment-6a00d8341f443c53ef0263e9a32980200b