I wrote this article in January, 2020 (pre-pandemic, but just barely). What has changed? What’s stayed the same? How do these career development trends hold up?

John

Also, register for Cannexus23 today!

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Career Development Trends

Next week career practitioners and influencers from around the world will descend on Ottawa for Cannexus20, which is Canada’s leading career development conference. Our community will explore trends, theories and best practices for strategists, policymakers, writers, and practitioners who see strong connections between building a career, cultivating economic potential, and building healthy communities that are sustainable for the long term. Here are five career development trends impacting organizations that I’m excited to explore at Cannexus20.

Climate change

Why this trend matters

According to science – like, all science – climate change is the existential threat of our time. This trend is incredibly relevant to career development because of how much uncertainty it is throwing towards humanity and how we imagine our careers. Extreme weather, increased migration, economic insecurity, loss of land, and the heightened conflict generated by these probably outcomes of climate change will certainly impact human and economic systems, which means that the world of work will undoubtedly transform. Some folks are making climate change their career calling and parents everywhere should be work with kids to put climate solutions in their hands by helping them to imagine the careers that will do just that. Career development is a practice that can help folks positively embrace this uncertainty.

What your organization can do

According to one of Cannexus20’s keynote speakers, Tristram Hooley, organizations can prepare themselves for the impacts of climate change by questioning what is normal: “Supporting reflection on the assumptions about career that are driving climate change and thinking about alternative ways to live your life that may be counter-cultural, but are also less environmentally destructive.” This approach will also help communities of colleagues build critical thinking and innovation capabilities, too.

Globalization

Why this trend matters

Globalization is possibly the most disruptive force for peoples’ careers. No matter your role, your skills, your organization, or your political views, how and where you work is being affected by how people and things move around the world – check out my piece about shipping containers for a unique perspective on this. Understanding this trend is “a work in progress” (just like your career!), as it’s evaluated by how data flows through the digital economy in addition to the movement of physical goods or people.

What your organization can do

By investing in bias-mitigation and inter-cultural understanding capabilities organizations can foster diversity and increase productivity, whether it’s with a culturally diverse workforce at a startup or through collaboration across global geographies.

Automation

Why this trend matters

Technology is transforming the nature of work. This doesn’t mean that every job – or even your job – will be taken over by a robot this year, but it’s very likely that aspects of your will be changed or augmented because of artificial intelligence. This McKinsey report investigating the impact of automation highlight show artificial intelligence is re-shaping jobs and the skills required for work:

While we believe there will be enough work to go around (barring extreme scenarios), society will need to grapple with significant workforce transitions and dislocation. Workers will need to acquire new skills and adapt to the increasingly capable machines alongside them in the workplace. They may have to move from declining occupations to growing and, in some cases, new occupations.

Augmenting work with technology has always been a thing (think back to fire, wheels and looms); however, it’s never happened so quickly and at such scale, which is why there is such as skills mismatch in Canada (and nearly everywhere else).

What your organization can do

Organizations can prepare for automation and augmentation by making it part of every day learning. Games, quizzes, hackathons, and change management activities will keep people curious and engaged in what’s changing. In addition to getting more comfortable with the idea of automation, playing with bots and algorithms will help folks acquire new mindsets and skillsets, too.

Personalization

Why this trend matters

One size fits all career development is dead (and it has been for a long time). Everyone wants a customized, one-size-fits-one path to build their career. According to Fast Company’s Bas Kohnke, people enablement is more holistic and empowers employees to “unleash their potential” and achieve goals in their own way through these three core pillars:

• Professional growth: accelerating the speed at which managers and individuals learn and grow
• Clarity and alignment: keeping everyone aligned on strategy, objectives, and process
• Value and impact: building a culture where everyone feels valued and receives recognition

Most folks consume culture and products through omnichannel experiences, so it’s natural that we expect the same kind of experiences from our career practitioners and want to feel uniquely valued as we have these conversations.

What your organization can do

Create awesome content the helps employees understand who they are, what mindset and skillsets need to be built to grow with the enterprise (and in the world), and equip coaches and mentors to help folks make meaning out of what they learn.

The #InfiniteTalent approach

Being able to sustain talent needs that work for organizations and their people requires, I think, an approach that addresses generalism and specialism at the same time.

Generalists possess a variety of holistic and foundational skills, such as empathy, problem solving, digital acumen, data fluency, creativity, and relationship building, that can be developed and adapted to different pieces of work that change and evolve over time. They can do a lot of things well and develop specialties over time, which is important because the demand for most specialists, such as data scientists, far outstrips the supply.

Specialists possess specific, often technical, skills and capabilities that address key needs or challenges. It takes a lot of time and effort to build specialists from within an organization, so this kind of talent needs to be acquired externally.

Taking an #InfiniteTalent approach focuses on critical people needs – mindsets, skills, styles, cultures, abilities – and invests in building highly adaptable and capable generalists, augmenting their work with bots and other technology, and transforming the right ones into specialists at the right time. This allows a talent acquisition team to focus its energy on finding specialists in an increasingly competitive market that is being disrupted by the five career development tends impacting organizations outlined above.