Are you aware of the emerging reality about the future of work?
What kind of problems would you solve and how will you add value?
There is one thing that is very clear about the future of work. There are troubles ahead.
Technology is making deep inroads into our lives and machines are taking over jobs that are done by humans.
You can see it all around.
The all visible ATM has replaced your bank cashier. The call centers use an automated voice mechanism to walk you through the solution to your problem.
You are already planning your travel online including hotel bookings and tickets, putting the travel agent out of a job.
Google’s Driverless Cars will be hitting the streets of California in the USA soon. The day is not far when you would be hailing a driverless taxi to take you to your destination. What are taxi and cab drivers planning to do?
Nano sized machines will enter our body to cure tumours and do organ transplants. Is the surgeon and doctor going out of the job too?
Several business applications including accounting, sales and a lot of complex analyses are being run with computer software. Where will the accountants, sales people and data entry operators find themselves?
There are many more such examples.
Basically, any task that is routine and repeatable is under threat of a technology takeover.
And all of these are not just routine jobs. The intelligent work also is being taken over. Driverless Cars and Surgery are the examples here.
Artificial Intelligence powered machines and robots will do that job. Interestingly, they don’t even need a day off and work with accuracy.
All this sounds like a big threat to the human existence. What would you be left to do?
It is becoming increasingly important for you and me to be ready to differentiate us in ways that computers and machines cannot. To do things that they cannot.
Let me bring to your notice a framework to understand this better.
The DIKW framework
DIKW stands for Data, Information, Knowledge and Wisdom. This framework belongs to the domain of Knowledge Management.
The diagram above is the simplest way to depict this framework. Let’s understand each of the elements.
Data – This is all raw facts represented through numbers, words, symbols, colours, etc. Standalone, they mean nothing. For example, age of all the people in your organisation. Each one of them is an individual data point.
Information – Data when processed and structured becomes information. Using the above example, once you have all the height data points captured above laid out in age groups with number of people in each of the groups. 20 – 30 years, 30 – 40 years, 40 – 50 years and 50 – 60 years.
Knowledge – When information is applied to a task or decision it becomes knowledge. Taking forward the above example, more than 50% of the people in the organisation are in the 20 to 30 age group. The HR policies have to reflect this nature of the organisation.
Wisdom – Knowledge applied over time develops understanding leading to insights. You may also refer to it as the Grey Hair. It reflects in the understanding of the fundamental principles behind people and things. For example, you use the understanding of behaviour of the particular age group to set vision, to align the people with the vision and to make effective decisions.
See your work through the DIKW frame
Look at it carefully, DIKW pyramid also provides us a useful structure to understand the value chain of work.
As you can see, Data and Information related roles sit at the bottom of the pyramid while Knowledge and Wisdom take the top.
Technology will first take down roles around data and information. In fact, a large number of such roles are already non-existent. Other such roles are also likely to cease to exist in the times to come.
Knowledge is something that resides in the space between your two ears. And you will acquire Wisdom over time. The higher you are in this value chain, more valued you are, which in this case is that of Knowledge and Wisdom.
In any role that you might be in today, you have to push the envelope and make effective use of your Knowledge and Wisdom. They alone give you the edge and enable you to add real value.
The ultimate thing will be that you will use technology along with your insights and intelligence to drive greater value at work, thus make it highly rewarding, financially as well as emotionally.
This chart above establishes the relationship and the value chain very effectively. Remember, you have to work your way to move towards Wisdom.
That is the future of work you have to prepare for. It’s coming soon. Are you ready?
Between you and me: Is your current work role predominantly with Data, Information, Knowledge or Wisdom? Do you feel that future of work in your case is in danger too? Are you ready?
Share you views in the comments or send me an email at hello [at] vipinkhandelwal [dot] com.