From Toxic Corporate Ladders to Launching Awesome Collaborative Networks
The shift toward emotionally intelligent workforces
Soft skills are in.
That's the conclusion of the WEF:
Analytical thinking, creative thinking, resilience, flexibility, agility, curiosity, learning, empathy, active listening, leadership, and social influence, are the stars of the future, the human skills to dance with the future of AI.
Makes you wonder what the hell organizations have been doing to their people if these skills are just now at the forefront of their strategy at this moment.
I would think that, for many executives who combat-trained in the Machiavellian close-quarter battle skills of corporate snakes and ladders, soft skills would be the butt of a joke.
It's a bit like the fantasy picture of how science works: we have these remarkable experts beavering away at putting another brick in the foundation of knowledge, step by step, reaching out across new frontiers and collectively working for the common good; when new ideas are discovered, back to the drawing boards and labs go the white coats, sagely working to re-evaluate and rebuild our knowledge of the expert fields of biology, physics, and the like.
Not a chance.
The single biggest feature of human change is the absolute hatred colleagues have for each other, and the outright unethical things they will do to stop people beating them at their own game.
Negative emotions are the cause of bad teamwork and failure.
Just go and watch the Oppenheimer film; it is a tragic story on many levels, but the one feature that permeates the entire scientific and military venture is ego. To be clear, I am not arguing the ethics of the bombing, that's a whole other thing… no, here I mean the hatred, jealousy, bitterness, that fester into scheming, sly, devious, perfidious, behavior. Our best minds… well, they are not the best people, that's for sure.
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn mapped out similar human traits across all its paradigm shifts in the development of physics. It took the catholic church until 1992 to offer a formal apology for imprisoning Galileo for his discoveries.
What happens is that the old school Barons have to be kicked out of the seats, so to speak. Turfed out for a new generation of people trained in Emotional Intelligence; meaning people who are not predominately selfish and have a level of self-awareness that allows them to control their negative emotions, while, at the same time, fostering positive emotions. This is like having a root and branch change at your premier division football club, new blood and new techniques to master a new gameplay and execute a new game plan.
To really grow, and build, teams of people who can work horizontally, without stabbing each other in the back, you will need full-test simulations; leadership and teamwork simulations that really make you face yourselves in the mirror, with challenges that produce failure until you can work as a team.
Here you will certainly see the caliber of the people who are ready to be part of your team.
Video game culture recognizes the need to defeat toxic teamwork and trolls who undermine the efforts of teams to win and enjoy themselves. Building communities that can learn and create are the métier of great video game franchises. Many YouTube streamers have to manage and deal with antisocial behavior effectively and quickly.
Hierarchical business structures are notorious for hiding and maintaining toxic cultures. They are not know for unselfishness and emotional intelligence; far from it. Karl Albrecht, a famous business consultant, has coined a law of organizational psychology:
“Intelligent people, when assembled into an organization, will tend toward collective stupidity.”
This is a fact; and it's one which is impervious to sensible discussion by business leaders.
So excuse me if I hold my breath for a moment while I see soft skills up there as a desirable skill for the future workforce of 2027.
Leaders are really going to have to change their game to achieve this. It is doable, but then I would put creative leadership up there as the key feature of this paradigm chase. Have no doubt that, strategically, this is a change that organizations will fight tooth and nail to prevent… maybe not directly… of course not.
I would argue that these organizations that adopt real, authentic, leadership and creative workforces will enjoy the fruits of real success. Dumb hierarchies are always outmaneuvered by great game play and game plans, that's also history.
Let's just hope it doesn't take the 400 years that the catholic church did with its science issue.
DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a human.