There are better ways to approach your Re-skilling.

The Global Outlook

The outlook for the global economy is changing. The better we become at automation, the more the relationship between capital and labour changes, and if you live in the “developed” world, there are more and more questions about sustaining a viable middle class to fuel the growth that drives these economies.

The question of natural resources and the sustainability of them have been around and actively debated since the 1970s, yet it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to determine a new system that makes our planets resources less finite, while ensuring our need for constant growth can be met in other ways.

This is week 2 of my personal development week series.

Last week, we discussed the ways to value your time, and to get more from it: you can check out that article here.

This week we are going to talk about why this is important, and what are the critical ways to spend it in 2021.

Achieving Future Rentability

To prepare for a world where labour is less important, you need to be an owner of one of the other factors of “production” — or let’s call it — rentability.

Natural resources. Land that can be used for commercial purposes or land that is a source of an important reserve of water.

Capital. In the form of cash or increasingly in this market cash equivalents and technology — assets

Entrepreneurial drive — the aptitude and drive to innovate and create new forms of value.

For some the immediate challenge on the above will be — but what if I don’t have any capital? And therein lies the challenge — and the gap you must understand and decide how you fill.

Other ways to look at capital

Sustainability asks that we look at capital in six different forms.

Financial Capital — the one described in the more traditional definition above related to cash and cash equivalents.

Manufactured Capital — Structural capital exiting in our built environment, the hardware.

Human Capital — The staff, your teams, who know and actively build the culture and value of your organisation.

Intellectual Capital — The capacity within your firm to innovate or retain some market advantage, including software.

Natural Capital — The natural resources on which your business (and other actors in it) relies

Reputational and Social Capital — The firms relationships with the society and communities within which it operates.

Preparing your Rentability for the future.

Plan — 1–3–5–10 years in advance.

The first skill you need is get clear on what it is you want. The answer to the challenge of future rentability is highly subjective. You may want to be an advocate and activist for human rights, without a high level of self-interest.

Or you may be interested in ensuring your family has a future, looking out for your piece of the world. To support either of those goals, you will need some basic level of financing to address physical needs, and additional level of financing for furthering your other courses of action.

Learn to get other people

Learning how to read the intentions, desires, fears, and needs of others, is a fundamental part of our modern life. The better you are at learning and acting appropriately in accordance with what you’ve learned, will help you achieve more of your goals, no matter what they are. This is Emotional Intelligence, and Persuasion, negotiation and influence. The art to this is to know how to present a case where everyone wins.

Learn how to learn.

The greatest and most urgent skill you need to have secured is learning agility. Becoming a depth at learning, unlearning and relearning, sets you up to acquire new skills rapidly, and augment your old skills and experience with new knowledge.

Map to your situation

These skills are the foundations. If you are in employed work, there are a few additional keys you will need to master, which you can find in my previous article here https://medium.com/courageous-careers/12-skills-we-need-to-build-and-grow-2033d48c8b22?source=friends_link&sk=ae4aa039a40f3d1247d0a71f5ae6aabf

A More Sustainable Capitalism

To drive a more sustainable form of capitalism, learning the principles of designing and driving a circular economy will be a key change for many product based businesses. For service based businesses, this sector will see rapid transformation, and automation as well, so it will be key to continuously innovate to meet changing consumer needs.

To find out more about these topics, follow me here, or comment to get in touch!