Skills the Innovation Workforce Will Need: A Live Session at Disruption 2020

Editor’s note: A version of this summary was provided by getAbstract.

Digital technologies have changed the ways people cooperate and innovate — and created business environments of dynamic change. Businesses must help their workers adapt to the technological advancements that have emerged since the beginning of the 21st century and spawned the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In previous industrial revolutions, new tools increased productivity, but today’s digital tools also affect design, development, collaboration, and innovation.

Today’s workers need to adapt by developing four essential skills:

1. Omniscience. Everything in business connects with everything else, from R&D all the way down to the consumer. Complex business processes today require employees to have a holistic view of the business.
2. Entrepreneurial mindset. Companies that encourage innovation benefit by having employees who help drive their companies forward. For example, one company in Boston developed its own AI software package as part of its research; the firm now sees this as a core part of its business.
3. Bottom-line focus. Communication and collaboration foster employee inclusion. Employees who recognize the impact of their work on profitability feel more motivated to innovate and empowered to contribute to the business’s bottom line.
4. Ethical intelligence. Businesses must use technology responsibly. Companies must have processes that surface ethical considerations, encourage open discussions, and recognize the effect their innovations have in the public realm. Companies must cultivate their workforces to remain competitive.

The coronavirus pandemic amplifies the need to develop workers who can adapt to change. Solving challenges such as helping remote workers use online cooperation tools efficiently or giving students access to online learning tools requires an integrated workforce with entrepreneurial vision.

Responsibility for fostering these core competencies lies both with the individual and the organization. Companies need to create environments where people can develop skills immersively as part of their daily jobs. A business’s organizational structure must also support the four crucial skills. An entrepreneurial mindset, for example, can only thrive within a culture that tolerates failure.

Takeaways from the session:

• Digital technologies have changed the ways people cooperate and innovate – and created business environments of dynamic change.
• Today’s workers need to adapt by developing four essential skills.
• Companies must cultivate their workforces to remain competitive.