a different type of knowledge
The other day, I came across an idea that resonated deeply with me. It was in one of the concluding chapters of Chris Anderson’s book on TED Talks. The chapter is about the “talk renaissance” that we are experiencing, and about how learning from different domains of knowledge helps us develop our understanding of the world and allows us to connect ideas in new ways.
In the chapter, Anderson makes an interesting observation. It is about how, as a result of advances in technology, machine learning and AI, the type of knowledge that we humans require is very different from what the Industrial Age asked of us. He talks about how specialist knowledge will increasingly be replaced, supported or improved by computers. But interestingly, he claims, that as the demand on us humans for repetitive tasks decreases and specialist knowledge becomes more easily accessible, the need for understanding is ever increasing.
This immediately piqued my interest. I’ve always been curious about what skillsets the future will demand from us and how we will need to reinvent ourselves and our organisations for the challenges that lie ahead. Anderson speaks about three domains of knowledge that are likely to increase in importance.
Firstly, he suggests that it is likely that there will be an increased demand for more system-level strategic thinking. The understanding of how individual ideas connect together in the bigger picture. Second, there will be an increased demand for human creativity. It reminded me of Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk on creativity in education, in which he claims that “…creativity now is as important in education as literacy.” The third observation is that we need to develop a much deeper understanding of our own humanity.
The purpose of business is to create value; we do so by solving problems. What is changing is the nature of the problems. We’ll need a different skillset to deal with those. When hands are replaced by machines, business becomes less about the quality and efficiency of production and more about how we manage the complexity of relationships in an ever-changing network.
Experimenting with these ideas in a risk-free space is a useful first step. In a simulated world, we can translate theoretical discussions into practical exercises that allow individuals to engage with complex problems. Simulations allow us to simplify things as we strip away the noise of the real world. We turn big picture thinking into something that is intuitive and easy to grasp. We get to experiment and test new business model ideas, new value drivers and new ways of working. We are able to appreciate the value of creativity and how new ideas can help our organisations evolve and contribute. We are confronted with scenarios and unexpected events that allow us to challenge existing beliefs, uncover biases and reveal flawed assumptions.
In the future, we’ll increasingly need to deal with complex problems – problems that are unpredictable in nature. We need to understand how systems work, how they are likely to behave and how relationships govern their behaviour. A simulation is like a practice arena in which we can start to develop some of the capabilities and mindsets needed to deal with the complex challenges of the future.