Category: Career in the Collaborative Age

Professions are just a type of institution

diploma

“I am an engineer”. “I’m a doctor”. “I’m a teacher”. “I’m a librarian”…

“I have a PhD”. “I have a MBA”…

So many professions defined by a diploma, a degree. Each profession is an institution. You can’t enter it without the right document.

Once established, professions fight for their rights. You need certain qualifications to practice.

Protectionism kicks in. Degrees from other regions, from other countries are not recognized.

Professions are institutions. All those professions, all those degrees have been created during the Industrial Age.

Institutions of the Industrial Age will be significantly changed through the Fourth Revolution.

Professions, as any institution, will resist the Revolution. But they will have to change. They will have to open.

They will change, because a diploma that you get when you are 20 doesn’t say a thing about how useful you will be at 50.

They will open, because people outside established professions start contributing to the world in the area professions thought was their exclusive remit.

The question is not: when will professions open? But rather, whether they will open before being overtaken by the Fourth Revolution.

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When do you start measuring yourself in terms of effectiveness?

Management means efficiency. Doing the things right. With minimum effort, waste. With maximum productivity. With less people. With less thoughts. With more procedures.
Efficiency was the thing of the Industrial Age. Produce more commodities for less. Minimize waste, increase quality.
Efficiency is the thing of the corporation.

Leadership means effectiveness. Doing the right thing. Create. Looking at the world, overcoming the fear, and doing it. Contribute to the world. Because it counts.
Effectiveness is the thing of the Collaborative Age. Maybe a computer programmer will only contribute once five lines of code to an open source software but his contribution will be decisive.

Effectiveness is the thing of the K.E.E.N, nomad between projects.

When do you stop measuring yourself in terms of efficiency? When do you start measuring yourself in terms of effectiveness, how you contribute to the world?

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Career is an obsolete race in scarcity

Career comes from a Latin word meaning ‘competitive race’. It suggests competition, it suggests scarcity, it suggests linearity of the racing track, it suggests winners and loosers.

In the bureaucratic, hierarchical of the Industrial Age is was all about the race to the few coveted top positions. It was all about a linear work life in the same company, going higher or stabilizing at one’s “incompetence level”.

In the Industrial World it is all about the “rat race”. More money, more physical objects, more loans, requires more money, more work. Where is the enjoyment?

Beyond the Fourth Revolution we won’t even be able to understand the concept. It is all about going sideways, following one’s purpose. It is about a world of opportunities, a world of abundance. It is about a personal quest.

It is not any more a race in which only the elusive end result imports. It is all about the journey and enjoy it. The quest is more important than the goal.

When do you step down from the race?

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