The Financial Times has had two thought provoking articles this week. The first was an entry in an MBA student's journal (they have a regular series written by MBA students in world class programs). In it, William McKenzie, formerly of the US Air Force, identified some skills that he would not have noticed had he not studied for his MBA. To paraphrase his article, I would say these skills include:
- Networking
- Interacting with others on a wide variety of topics to create better understanding
- Journaling as a form of reflective learning
- Collaboration
- Problem solving in a dynamic environment
- Being open to change and comfortable in taking risks with the best data at hand
In today's digital business section, editor Peter Whitehead points to the opinion that many business leaders have that Business is changing because of the Web 2.0. Another article indicates that Web 2.0 are best suited to small and medium sized companies because of cost as long as the technology is "simple" (I think the term "user-friendly" is more suitable as simple is not necessarily simpler for the user to use).
This has me thinking about what "soft skills" (those that may be difficult to identify) will be needed for workplace literacy. Communication skills (listening and reading feedback especially) should be included. So should the ability to "read" a situation that is unknown and ambiguous be a skill workers need. Once the situation has been "read" the ability to generate and test out various options and scenarios is important. Also, the skill of being able to interact with others, understand their perspective (perspective taking), and build a common understanding (meaning making) is a vital skill that I think is being lost. A contributer to the FT article noted "the Web 2.0 generation may be shocked to learn that everyone's opinion is not equally valid on every subject." It may be generational, but a good worker needs to understand the political structure of the workplace. This can be especially difficult as many are no longer in the same location, nor is there "personal" interaction within or outside of work tasks in many companies (especially global companies). This is just the beginning of the list of "soft skills". What else might I be missing?
There was an interesting article in the Financial Times Digital Business special section. The British Government has outlined the learning goals for children in the Practice Guidance for the Early Years Foundation Stage. These include showing an interest in ICT at 22-36 months (2-3 years old) and operating ICT equipment at 40-60 months (4-5 year olds). As pointed out in the article, we are finding an increasing need for imagination and developing a creativity for the use of IT and development of social skills that technology helps to augment. If we are taking away "play" in these critical years, will we now need to include creativity, imagination, and social interaction as key skills needed to be developed for work literacy?
