THE OTHER GREATS
REINVENTION, RETHINK, RESHUFFLE, RENEGOTIATION A GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT PUBLICATION BY DIPLOMATIC COURIER | SKILLS BABY | WORLD IN 2050
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THE OTHER GREATS REINVENTION, RETHINK, RESHUFFLE, RENEGOTIATION A GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT PUBLICATION BY DIPLOMATIC COURIER | SKILLS BABY | WORLD IN 2050 WASHINGTON, DC | FEBRUARY 2023
PUBLISHER ANA C. ROLD
REPORT AUTHOR WINONA ROYLANCE
REPORT EDITORS KELLY RYAN BAILEY ISABELLA MINUDRI
MANAGING EDITOR SHANE SZARKOWSKI
ART DIRECTOR MARC GARFIELD
MULTIMEDIA MANAGER WHITNEY DEVRIES
PHOTOGRAPHY DANIEL PEREZ
CONTENTS 08 WELCOME NOTE ANA C. ROLD, SUMMIT HOST & FOUNDER
10 WE NEED TO TURN FEELINGS INTO FACTS JIM CLIFTON, CHAIRMAN, GALLUP
12 LEADING CHANGE: THE SIX TRAITS OF AGILE ORGANIZATIONS RICK MAHER, CEO, ADAPTIVE HUMAN CAPITAL
14 THE CHANGING ROLE OF HR
KARAN RHODES, FOUNDER, SHOCKINGLY DIFFERENT LEADERSHIP
16 CREDENTIALING MINDS: WHERE THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET, EDUCATION, AND WORK CONVERGE
MARIO VASILESCU, CEO & CO-FOUNDER, READOCRACY
18 ESD FOR ESG: EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
DR. CAROL O’DONNELL, DIRECTOR, SMITHSONIAN EDUCATION CENTER
20 REENGAGING WORKING MOMS IN THE POST-PANDEMIC WORKPLACE
CHANDRA SANDERS, VICE PRESIDENT, RISE
22 WEB3, BLOCKCHAIN, AND THE FUTURE OF WORK DANTE DISPARTE, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER & HEAD OF GLOBAL POLICY, CIRCLE
24 THE NEW FACE OF EDUCATION
• EMILIANA RODRIGUEZ, CO-FOUNDER, JOY XR • CATHERINE MILLET, SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, ETS • DANIELLE DE LA FUENTE, CEO & FOUNDER, AMAL ALLIANCE • TRACEY BURNS, CHIEF RESEARCH OFFICER, NATIONAL CENTER ON EDUCATION AND THE ECONOMY • MODERATOR: DOMINIC REGESTER, EDUCATION PROGRAM DIRECTOR, SALZBURG GLOBAL SEMINAR
28 NEW PATHWAYS TO WORK AND CAREER
• MICHELLE SMITH, ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE, SKILLS BABY • FERNANDO RODRIGUEZ-VILLA, CEO, ADEPTID • JACKSON SMITH, CTO & CO-FOUNDER, LEARNING ECONOMY FOUNDATION • STEPHANIE MARKEN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, EDUCATION, GALLUP • MODERATOR: MOHAMED YOUNIS, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, GALLUP NEWS
GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 7
WELCOME
Left to right, Kelly Ryan Bailey and Ana C. Rold. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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t was our eighth Global Talent Summit. It would have been our 9th but the pandemic took us completely virtual in 2020 and then we took a break in 2021 to figure ourselves out. We were so grateful that our community gave us some excellent feedback and helped us co-design a new kind of event, one that we think will set the tone for how we do things in the future. So, we designed GTS 2022 much like a theater play, in three acts. In Act One, we organized around a community of learning. Titled “from resignation to reinvention and how to prepare for the next normal” this segment featured a series of “lightning talks” to illustrate new trends in education, work, and the workplace. The talks inform on the issues, how they intersect, and how partners and key experts are rewriting the playbook. In Act Two, our community of practice came together to debate these new learnings. We took the learnings from the first act and applied them in main stage discussions as well as table talks allowing every participant an opportunity to contribute. And in Act Three, we formed together a community of action. After learnings and debate, we took part in workshops to apply our skills and forge partnerships and solve for a future of education 8 | FEBRUARY 2023
and future of work that is inclusive, accessible, and equitable. I often—actually almost always—get this question: why is Diplomatic Courier, a global affairs magazine, talking about jobs? Being based in the United States my answer has always been, having a job and a good life is not just the American Dream—it is a Global Dream. And in my answer, I always quote my go-to for everything since I personally discovered the Gallup World Poll. When people around the world are asked about what is most important to them, what would make their lives better, the answer is: a great job. Not just a job. A great job. Over our years planning this conference, however, we have noticed this wish has turned into anxiety. In the mainstream media, the headlines are alarming. In the political world, rising populism and anti-establishment sentiment in the United States, Europe, Brazil, and around the world, gives a glimpse to how this anxiety can manifest in elections and beyond. With the help of our innovation labs, research, and convenings like the Global Talent Summit, we are studying the megatrends through our think tank the World in 2050. We study five megatrends: 1) exponential technologies radically reshaping the world; 2) the disruption from climate change and energy transition, which has already begun; 3) societal distrust and fragmentation surging; 4) democratic and governance institutions under pressure. Our fifth megatrend asks the question: does the workplace care less about education and more about skills? In a way, Global Talent Summit set out to answer this very question at its inception, and the debate continues on today. This year’s summit’s brain trust, which includes both our speakers and delegates, are endeavoring to answer that question with nuance and thoughtfulness and we are particularly proud to bring our partners, friends, and collaborators together for the first in person Global Talent Summit post-pandemic. The essays compiled in this anthology reflect key takeaways from GTS in October 2022. We hope you find them useful and will reach out to us if you wish to contribute to a future edition. Thank you for being a part of this year’s Global Talent Summit. We look forward to learning and creating together. Ana C. Rold Founder & CEO Washington, DC February 2023 GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 9
WE NEED TO TURN FEELINGS INTO FACTS
Jim Clifton, Chairman of Gallup. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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hile it is a common belief that economics and business are based largely upon facts, Jim Clifton, chairman at Gallup, argues that human nature—especially emotion—plays a much larger role in business outcomes. In fact, while we often assume that people make decisions based upon money, research done by Gallup reveals that 70 percent of decisionmaking is actually driven by emotion. Unfortunately, our current economy and business sector has been focused on the other 30 percent. The question is, then: how can we translate feelings into facts that can be used to measure consumer decision-mak10 | FEBRUARY 2023
ing? And how can we translate the feelings of workers in order to improve business outcomes? Many of the problems we face today may appear to be based on feelings, but what if you could turn those feelings into facts? Gallup research reveals that 70 percent of every decision you make is based on emotions, and therefore codifying emotion and feelings into data could potentially lead to breakthroughs and new methods of conducting business and the economy. Through these breakthroughs, leadership, management and transactions would be transformed to better suit human nature, and society would be changed for the better. In order to turn feelings into facts, it is important we begin measuring emotions and getting more math behind them—because if you can measure them, you can change them.
Managers are the one factor that determines a good or bad organization. There is a measured cycle that leads to positive business outcomes. Through the Gallup Path, which enables leaders and managers to harness the power of the emotional economy, over 20 million employee interviews have been conducted using an algorithm that attempts to explain the role human nature plays in business outcomes. Through this research, Gallup found that in addition to the more widely-known cycle of ‘organic growth leading to profit increase leading to a stock increase’, other aspects such as engaged employees, engaged customers, coaching managers and strengths-to-role were also critical to positive business outcomes. Coaching managers make all the difference. While Gallup has found that 70 percent of the variation between high and low performing teams is determined by who manages the team, all the tasks which managers are traditionally thought to be in charge of—performance management systems, administrative duties and similar tasks—have generally led to very little actual human development. The most effective managers, however, focus less on administrative tasks and more on identifying the strengths of their team members and assigning them roles that highlight those strengths. Known as “coaching managers,” their ability to transform their team’s efficiency could lead to a renaissance of productivity that America so desperately needs.
GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 11
LEADING CHANGE:
THE SIX TRAITS OF AGILE ORGANIZATIONS
Rick Maher, President & CEO, Adaptive Human Capital. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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n order for an organization to be successful, it needs to be agile enough to keep up with constantly evolving trends in the workforce. However, while many organizations would like to hire a workforce that comes completely ready and one hundred percent resilient to the stresses created by an ever-changing work landscape, such a workforce doesn’t exist. Instead, it is much more effective to curate a culture where people are given the tools and support needed to become more resilient. Studies have shown that even the most naturally resilient people in the wrong culture will experience difficulties, and that it is the combination of a person’s environment and their individual traits that leads to a nimbler and more resistant worker—and by extension, workforce—that is capable of responding to change quickly. The question is, then: how can you create a work culture that cultivates resilience in its workforce? And how can this lead to a more successful and agile organization?
There are six key traits of agile organizations. Rick Maher, President and CEO of Adaptive Human Capital, has identified the six key traits that are critical to increasing agility and resilience in organizations: 1. High Organizational Justice, also known as “trust.” If you are treating people outside of your circle differently than those who are in it, or if you are quick to cast blame and slow to accept responsibility, those who work 12 | FEBRUARY 2023
with you will notice and issues surrounding trust will arise. Therefore, trust on every level of an organization is critical in order to create a culture more resilient to uncertainty and change. 2. Positive Communication. Communicate early and often, and make sure to celebrate victories just as often as talking about setbacks. Similarly, it’s important to continuously focus both on what you’ve learned as a company as well as how you’re adjusting for the future. 3. Participatory Management, also known as sharing power. Just like the proverb, “if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with a team,” it’s important to share power throughout a company, all the way from the boardroom to the mailroom. In doing this, you can imagine a future co-created together, for everyone. 4. Social Support. It’s important for people to have a sense of social support in order to feel safe enough to express an opinion, to try new things—and especially to fail. 5. Group Engagement. Humans are social creatures, and we still work and live in tribes. During times of change and uncertainty, individuals engage in social comparison and it’s important to identify those with influence who others trust—aka, your “tribal leaders.” 6. Transformational Leadership. Transformational leaders motivate followers to identify with their vision and sacrifice their self-interest for that of the organization. Transformational leaders not only share power, but also co-create a future state people can believe in.
Culture Code is not just a vision—it’s a purpose. An organization’s “culture code” isn’t just their vision—it’s their purpose, their values, and a map of where the organization and its employees are headed. For an organization to be agile, it’s important that everyone involved in that organization understands and celebrates their organization’s unique culture code. People need a sense of purpose. As Rick Maher argues, this is what phenomena like The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting are all about. People are trying to find a place where they can feel something important, something bigger than themselves—and it’s critical that leaders of an organization help them see it. Culture Code also guides other positive behavior. A Culture Code helps guide the decision-making process by providing people with a clearer and more vibrant portrait of where the organization wants them to go. It also helps connect them to the customer and fosters a sense of community within the organization. GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 13
THE CHANGING ROLE OF HR
Karan Rhodes, Founder, Shockingly Different Leadership. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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n a world of work that is constantly changing, it is crucial that Human Resources (HR) evolves their role in the workplace to keep up with the needs of organizations—and especially their employees. While HR departments and human resource leaders in every organization are accountable for a variety of similar tasks—such as hiring talent, ensuring benefits, cost reduction, and training—it isn’t the tasks alone that are important, but rather the orchestration of tasks where HR can create a meaningful impact. Karen Rhodes, founder of Shockingly Different Leadership, posits that it is important for HR departments to move from a taskoriented mindset to an orchestration-oriented mindset. This will better inform the people side of the business so that HR leaders can provide insight into what types of talent, intervention, and changes need to be made in order to help a company be successful. Indeed, while the world of work may continue to trend away from the traditional ‘one-person-one-role’ model towards a more flexible model where a flow of skills between departments and organizations becomes the new normal, HR’s ability to orchestrate a multitude of tasks will be pivotal in helping workers successfully navigate changes in their workplace. There are seven factors necessary to becoming a successful HR leader. 14 | FEBRUARY 2023
1. Leading with Intellectual Horsepower, which is using your area of expertise to connect the dots and spot trends that others may miss. In terms of human resources, effective HR leaders can use their intellectual horsepower to open new talent pools—such as the ex-incarcerated, veterans, those physically challenged, neurodiverse, and immigrants—in an effort to more proactively tap into hidden talent. 2. Leading with Courageous Agility, aka, the fortitude to take calculated risk. With trends continuing to support the work landscape’s evolution towards more hybrid work and blended workforces, HR leaders need to empower business managers to manage through these complicated dynamics. 3. Leading with Strategic Decision-Making. In order to lead a good strategic decision-making process with their team, HR leaders need to focus on demand-driven benefits. Especially with the advent of remote work, traditional benefits such as free lunches at the office cafeteria no longer suffice. Instead, HR can empower employees by determining what is most meaningful for each employee, such as home office work credits, assisting in paying off student loans and mortgages, and even providing pet insurance. 4. Leading with Entrepreneurship. HR departments can focus more on entrepreneurship by leading the effort to up-level the technology in their departments to better serve their organizations. For example, while it is a challenge to match the company’s workflow with available technology, efforts to move employee onboarding, offboarding and training to the Metaverse and similar platforms are being made to supplement the in-person support of workforces. 5. Leading with a Drive for Results. By leading with a drive for results, chief HR officers can rethink and re-engineer their teams to better support how companies are getting work done, as well as focus on supporting the reskilling and upskilling of their employees. 6. Leading with Executive Presence. With executive presence, which is the ability to deliver clear and convincing presentations in order to enable change and bring others along on the journey, HR leaders can focus specifically on DIEB (Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Belonging) efforts to infuse a culture of inclusion into their organizations. 7. Leading with a Spirit of Stakeholder Savvy. HR leaders need to lead with a spirit of stakeholder savvy and make sure that they understand the perspectives of who they’re talking with as well as recognize how to react in different social and work cultures. They can accomplish this by moving away from simply focusing on someone’s job function and instead move toward supporting employees in their effort to uplevel their skills. GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 15
CREDENTIALING MINDS
WHERE THE FUTURE OF THE INTERNET, EDUCATION, AND WORK CONVERGE
Mario Vasilescu, CEO & Co-Founder, Readocracy. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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hat if you could have a verifiable profile that proved to others the knowledge you’ve gained by consuming content you are passionate about? And what if there was a knowledge marketplace that was driven by this data? Mario Vasilescu, CEO and co-founder of Readocracy, explains that the concept of credentialing minds is key to filling in the gap between labor supply and demand. With the vast majority of people consuming hours of online content each day, people are gaining knowledge and expertise in a variety of formats without any formal way to demonstrate their knowledge gathered through informal channels. By creating a system in which informal learning can be credentialed and verified, however, it may one day be possible to transform the future of the internet into a thriving knowledge marketplace, change the future of education to embrace and acknowledge learning done even when one is casually scrolling, and alter the future of work by highlighting the hidden skills and expertise people possess.
Credentialing minds will change the future of education. The world is sitting on one of the biggest untapped stores of economic value and prosperity—and it’s hiding in plain sight. Studies show that people around the world are spending about seven hours online 16 | FEBRUARY 2023
each day, with most of that time being spent consuming content such as articles, papers, podcasts and videos. In fact, over the course of a person’s lifetime, people will spend as much time-consuming content as they would studying for four college degrees—and unfortunately, there is no formal way to verify any knowledge or expertise gathered through casual online content consumption. Formal education is outdated and costly. At the same time, people are spending over a trillion dollars a year on degrees, memberships and courses to gain formal credentials. However, the formal education system has become outdated in our rapidly changing world, and paying for a degree no longer reflects actual knowledge gained, nor does it account for countless people who can’t afford to fund their education in the first place. There is technology being created to revolutionize the education sector. In order to credential learning done via content consumed online, Readocracy has built technology that can reveal if a person has actually paid attention to a piece of content, as well as how intensely they did so. Using this technology, it is possible to create an intellectual passport that could be used to prove to others the time you’ve invested reading and researching certain content, as well as your contributions. This could potentially enable flexible new ways of assigning credentials to people, validating their trustworthiness in the topics they may engage in conversations about.
Credentialing minds will change the future of the Internet. Both trust and the ability to measure are missing from the Internet. When we are mindless about how we inform ourselves, it is difficult to know who to trust, and misinformation becomes rampant. However, if how a person informs themselves could be measured and made to count, our relationship with the internet could be transformed in a positive way. And if we were made to be more aware of how the Internet affects a person’s mood, biases and hidden patterns of influence, the potential for the quality of content on the Internet to increase would rise exponentially.
Credentialing minds will change the future of talent and work. Until we value our relationship with information, we can’t activate it in our society. While the Internet may have liberated our access to information, we have not yet liberated how we value our relationship with that information. The information we inform ourselves with is ultimately invisible in terms of its social power. By credentialing this informal knowledge, it is possible that we may create a knowledge marketplace driven by data that shows what people are passionate about, thereby allowing our relationship with information to become more open and free-flowing. GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 17
ESD FOR ESG
EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Dr. Carol O’Donnell, Director, Smithsonian Education Center. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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ne of the biggest challenges we face is in preparing students for the workforce of tomorrow—a workforce that has not yet been conceptualized, for jobs that do not yet exist, and for societies that are still unimagined. While education was predictable a mere 40 years ago, with subjects being taught in isolation and with the single-minded intent of pushing students to pass tests, over time the line has begun to blur between disciplines and teaching methods have had to be altered in order to keep pace with a rapidly changing world. Even more concerning, this rapid change in how we educate students is occurring alongside unprecedented global challenges—such as climate change, hunger, poverty and inequality. The question is, then: what if our education systems used real world problems and phenomena as the foundation for creating real action? What would this do to help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)?
Students have to see education as purpose-driven. In today’s schools, students are learning more than ever before. Education is no longer about teaching facts, but rather providing the skills necessary to ensure life on a sustainable planet. In fact, educators today are using transdisciplinary learning to help students address deep scientific questions and tackle broad societal needs, giving their learning a real purpose. Indeed, it is this problem- and phenomena-driven learning that is encouraging students to tackle some of the most important 18 | FEBRUARY 2023
socio-scientific topics of our time, such as innovation, entrepreneurship, climate change, biodiversity loss, energy security and food security.
Teaching STEM alone is not enough—we need ESD. ESD teaches SDGs. If we want to help students live on a more sustainable planet, prepare for the workforce of the future, and lead industries who care about the environment and are willing to tackle societal needs, then we need a framework for learning and working that crosses geographic, economic and generational boundaries—similar to what the UN’s SDGs aim to do. Through ESD, teachers can teach about the SDGs to help students discover and act on the world’s most pressing issues of our time. ESD is Education for Sustainable Development. ESD, which is education that encourages changes in knowledge, skills, values and attitudes for the purpose of enabling a more sustainable and just society for all, was created by UNESCO as a response to the urgent and dramatic challenges the planet faces. Dr. Carol O’Donnell, director of the Smithsonian Education Center, explains how studies done by the Smithsonian demonstrate that teachers who use ESD practices help students learn the skills, perspectives and values necessary to foster more sustainable societies.
Most importantly, we need ESD for ESG. In order to address complex socio-scientific challenges, the public, private and social sectors need to come together. Within the private sector, industries use the SDGs as a framework in terms of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance), which is a collective term for a business’s impact on the environment, society and governance. This means that investors who want to put their money towards companies with SDGconscious solutions would be better able to impact communities directly. Indeed, it is possible that the private sector, in collaboration with the public and social sectors, could help educate the next generation on issues that underlie the SDGs by promoting ESD for ESG, thereby providing youth and the future workforce with new skill sets required to reach a sustainable future. The Smithsonian Science for Global Goals Project was created to educate youth across the globe about the SDGs using ESD. In terms of promoting ESD for ESG, the Global Goals Project works in five areas: identifying a social sector partner in communities who serve youth; providing support to teachers in schools; providing instructional resources that will guide teaching to bring SDGs into the classroom; helping students develop action projects; and studying impact. As this requires partnerships that are bigger than any one sector alone, it is important that the private sector, public sector and social sector come together to create solutions and promote Education for Sustainable Development. GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 19
REENGAGING WORKING MOMS IN THE POSTPANDEMIC WORKPLACE
Chandra Sanders, Vice President, RISE, The Mom Project. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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oms are a force—a workforce. As Chandra Sanders, Vice president of RISE, a non-profit initiative of The Mom Project explains, moms bring a unique skillset to the workplace. As there is no training manual that comes with being a mom, mothers tend to be some of the most innovative, creative, and committed talent that a workplace can find. However, after the COVID-19 pandemic, women ran the risk of unraveling several decades’ worth of workplace equality progress, as studies showed that women were 1.8 times more likely to lose their job due to the pandemic—with women of color two times more likely when compared to other populations. In an effort to curb this trend and help moms and women of color reenter the workforce, The Mom Project, which is a digital talent marketplace that connects world class organizations to highlyskilled, highly-qualified diverse talent, created RISE. And while over one million moms, dads, and allies use the platform to find full time work, contingent work, career navigation support, and upskilling opportunities, there are still many things that need to be done by organizations in order to help moms successfully readjust once they reenter the workplace. There are three ways to successfully reengage moms in the workplace. 20 | FEBRUARY 2023
A report by WorkLabs, the research insights division at The Mom Project, has recently found that having moms in the workplace leads to 40% higher retention, 15% higher productivity, and an overall more positive workplace. However, a similar report by WorkLabs also found that there are three things moms in the workplace need in order to best engage with the workplace: 1. Flexibility. A mother shouldn’t have to sacrifice their career for their family, and vice versa. As we no longer live in a world where we can separate the human experience from the work experience, it is crucial that companies find a way to integrate the two, and the best way to do this is to offer flexibility to working moms. Flexibility can look like offering remote and hybrid work opportunities or flexible schedules and hours, especially when new moms reenter the workforce as they may need to opt into a part-time role or a role with less responsibilities. It is also important that an organization’s culture supports a mom’s need to take care of her children when things like emergencies, appointments and school priorities arise, without being judged or red-flagged. 2. Career Development. Long gone are the days moms did the same job for 40 years or more. Today, moms want to grow and they want their children to see them continue to grow professionally. Therefore, it is important that leaders in an organization have intentional and authentic conversations with working moms to figure out what their goals are in order to help curate a personalized path of development. This could be done in a number of ways, including: 3. Offering learning and development stipends. Moms who have been out of the workforce for a while may not have the relationships and networks in place to help guide them and provide opportunities in their career. It’s important for moms to get out of their normal workplace to connect, build relationships and find mentors—and for organizations to provide these opportunities by offering working moms access to online courses, conferences, workshops, and more. Upskilling and reskilling working moms. It is crucial that moms have access to upskilling and reskilling opportunities—such as competitive skills like cyber security, data analytics, and UX design—at a fasttracked pace in order to better reengage with the workforce. Diversity and Inclusion. Moms want to know that the companies they work for are committed to diversity and inclusion at all levels of an organization—not just the bottom. Therefore, it is essential that organizations elevate their talent acquisition strategy in order to hire more moms. This includes looking at your hiring practices, checking whether your job descriptions are inclusive, looking at transferable skills, and focusing on an individual’s attitude, aptitude, and ability to learn and add value to an organization. GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 21
WEB3, BLOCKCHAIN, AND THE FUTURE OF WORK
Dante Disparte, Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Global Policy, Circle. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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n the past large-scale economic crises such as the Great Depression and the Great Deleveraging of 2008 were catalysts for change and disrupting the economic status quo on a global level. Similarly, the COVID-19 Pandemic—coined by some as “The Great Correction”—has become the spark for new megatrends throughout the economy. While the pandemic may not have fully broken the economic system, it did reveal where our pre-pandemic vulnerabilities were. Most importantly, it highlighted how the totality of societal resilience hinged upon one single factor: access to technology. Indeed, we live in an unprecedented moment where the opportunity to embrace a completely new, open and non-proprietary way of leveraging technology could alter the future of the economy, education and work, but there remain difficult societal questions and vulnerabilities to be answered before new technologies can be leveraged to transform the economic landscape.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed vulnerabilities in our systems of education and work. Your education is only as good as your internet connection. During the pandemic, remote learning became the sole source of education, and students’ education was only as good as their in22 | FEBRUARY 2023
ternet connection, hardware and software. On the flip side, there was a triple burden put on teachers to become tech support, create and maintain a successful hybrid classroom, and attempt to expand the intimacy of a physical classroom setting over the Internet. Perhaps most alarming, the pandemic revealed just how dependent society was on the school system to act as an extension that allowed parents time to be productive members of society and the economy. The pandemic has re-written the future of work. One example is how we now live in a world where an entire workforce has opted for remote work. With this shift in work, what was once an asset —being clustered together in city centers such as New York City or San Francisco—has become a liability, and the decrease in city office space occupancy has affected insurance and investors alike. More importantly, it has shown a mismatch over the long-range financial horizon that could eventually affect other aspects of life such as pensions and retirement, thereby demonstrating a need to recalibrate the system.
Web3 and Blockchain may be able to recalibrate the system. Web3 is challenging the status quo. The first version of the Internet allowed people to read content, while the second version of the Internet allowed people to both read and write content. The third version of the internet takes it one step further and allows people to read, write and also own digitally scarce content. While currently being demonstrated primarily in finance, payments and money, there are future implications for Web3 across a plethora of spaces such as education, credentialing and work. More importantly, much like how the Internet removed friction and liberated learning and information sharing, Web3 will highlight the concepts of trust and scarcity, potentially revealing where the status quo is and where unevolved business models are falling short. The biggest technology on Web3 is the Blockchain. The advent of blockchain is challenging a lot of conventions—especially in industries that depend on trust and verification. In fact, many people have likened Blockchain to a foundational technology second only to the internet due to its ability to express something as a human coordinating function that has otherwise been impossible to address—and could eventually lead to scaling trust and scarcity to the Internet itself. Indeed, with the technology behind public blockchains open-source and generally available to anyone with an internet-connected device, it’s only a matter of time before Blockchain and similar technologies transform industries across the globe.
GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 23
THE NEW FACE OF EDUCATION
The New Face of Education Panel. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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fter the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a significant rethinking around the power, purpose and practice of education. In fact, during the pandemic, ninety percent of the world’s school-aged children weren’t in school, leading many parents and educators to begin a conversation about how to use the time students have in school in a more effective way. Additionally, other global issues such as social justice movements and the climate crisis have brought up conversations around how to recalibrate society, as well as questions around equity and interconnection. Despite the problems created by these global issues, however, there is also a spectacular window of opportunity over the next six to seven years to create a real and profound transformation in education sectors around the world. Unfortunately, goal four of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which deals with education, has been significantly pushed back due to the pandemic. Therefore, in order to see transformations across the education industry, it is important that greater political attention be put on the kinds of reforms that are going to help address the targets set by goal four. 24 | FEBRUARY 2023
In order to change the future of education, we need to look at trends outside of education. Tracey Burns, Chief Research Officer at the National Center on Education and the Economy, explains how we create the possibility for education to transform the world simply by thinking through the ways in which our world is changing, as well as the ways in which education is changing to adapt to this world. In order to better accomplish this, it is important to look at trends outside of education. In the OECD’s Trend Shaping Education report, for example, trends in economic growth and sustainability, living and working, knowledge and power, identity and belonging, as well as the environmental crisis, are discussed in conjunction with what these trends would mean for the future of education. In addition to researching the impact of megatrends on education, it is also important to examine questions around the future of education itself, such as whether or not schools as we know them will exist, what teachers will look like, and whether or not education will still be a public good. Ultimately, it is critical for education stakeholders to continuously reflect, imagine, and be agile and reactive in order to put themselves into a position where they can help teachers, school leaders and communities envision a positive future for education.
We need to “flourish” in education. If you could answer the questions of what your heart desires, what you want for children, and what the purpose of education is with one single word, which word would you choose? Emiliana Rodriguez, co-founder of Joy XR, argues that the word “flourishing” would most aptly fit. According to UNESCO, “flourishing” is defined as both the continual and optimal development of human potential in addition to living well. Indeed, in order to flourish, people need to engage in activities that are meaningful and in line with their personal values, and Emiliana has a couple of insights into how we can help children and adults begin to “flourish.” Flourishing is about relationships. In order to flourish, we need to examine our relationships with ourselves, other people and the environment. Relationships can be transformed if we work on ourselves and develop social and emotional skills such as self-awareness, regulation of emotions, empathy and collaboration. We also flourish when we have healthy and fulfilling relationships with others. Technology helps us flourish. Technology can help us accelerate and democratize access to quality tools that help us flourGLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 25
ish. Virtual reality, for example, creates immersive and socially interactive spaces where students and educators can go in moments of stress. It also provides a space where people can gather and create prototypes together, and where children can literally walk in the shoes of other children. Ultimately, it is important that we continue to embrace technology that is both here and in the future to better develop “flourishing.”
Wellbeing, resilience and social and emotional competencies are at the heart of helping children of the future to thrive. With over 40 million children displaced worldwide and many living in refugee camps, there is an alarming number of children susceptible to human trafficking and other crimes. In order to help children escape these dangers and become healthy, resilient members of society, Danielle De La Fuente founded the Amal Alliance, an organization focused on supporting children through social and emotional learning, early childhood development, psychosocial support and peace education. In fact, the Amal Alliance has found that if you introduce coping mechanisms to children to help them heal and introduce basic elements of education into their lives, these children will grow to be amazing adults that contribute positively to society. One example of a program successfully helping children grow into healthy adults is the Amal Alliance’s Colors of Kindness program. Through this program, the Alliance set out to teach wellbeing, resilience and social and emotional competencies in schools in order to bridge the informal learning and the formal learning environment. With a focus on non-traditional school settings such as refugee camps, shelters and tented schools, Colors of Kindness found extremely promising results and soon expanded to over 14 thousand schools in six months. Ultimately, programs like Colors of Kindness could be used as a roadmap that shows how to include curriculum focused on teaching skills such as communication, empathy and resilience in schools around the world.
We need to rethink, reinvent, reshuffle and renegotiate education. “Rethink” is defined as “to think about again.” In education, we need to rethink changing the conversation from degrees or skills to degrees and skills. We also need to rethink whether it’s best to focus on one aspect of a person, or the whole person —and most importantly, shift the focus to quality education for not just some of us, but all of us.
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“Reinvention” is defined as “to make or redo completely.” In the education assessment sector, educators are trying to employ a different kind of thinking about assessment. In order to co-create the next generation of assessments with students and other stakeholders, there is a need for participatory conversations so that they are not just assessing students but assessing with students. “Reshuffle” is defined as “to reorganize, usually by redistribution of existing elements.” The education assessment sector is reshuffling how they assess students by shifting focus towards understanding how to create more affirming assessments that motivate students and reveal to them their strengths, as well as shifting focus towards making sure no student gets left behind. “Renegotiate” is defined as “to negotiate again.” We not only need to renegotiate what we’re doing and who we’re doing it with, but we also need to renegotiate what “trust” means in today’s society.
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NEW PATHWAYS TO WORK AND CAREER
New Pathways to Work and Career Panel. Photo by Daniel Perez.
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ong gone are the days when workers stayed with the same company for decades in order to receive good pay and great benefits. Today’s job economy has people in the U.S. averaging 12 different jobs over their lifetime, demonstrating a stark shift away from the longevity model of work towards a model where continuous upskilling, reskilling and lifelong learning will be necessary. In order to navigate this new world of work, however, workers may need to traverse non-traditional and non-linear pathways to jobs, and organizations will need to support employees by providing opportunities to upskill and reskill while also exploring new talent pools with transferable skills they may not have considered before. Indeed, with the future of work poised to become more flexible and fluid than ever, being able to navigate and pivot through this constantly changing landscape will be a crucial skill for workers everywhere—and the story they tell themselves about where they’ve been, why they are doing what they do and where they would like to go will become the roadmap that will help them create their own unique career path.
The story we tell ourselves will shape our career path— and credentials can help tell this story. 28 | FEBRUARY 2023
We are all on a pathway in our careers, and we all have a story we tell ourselves about this pathway. Jackson Smith, CTO and co-founder of the Learning Economy Foundation, discusses how his organization works on identifying ways for learners and workers to store their credentials over the course of their lives in a way that gives them sovereignty over those credentials—and more importantly, helps them tell their story in a way that can highlight not just their formal education and work history, but all of the various skills and experiences they’ve gathered along the way. Unfortunately, this is not the model that credentialing is based on right now. Research shows that there is a concentric circle of recognition, with the inner circle dealing with self-recognition, the middle circle dealing with peer recognition, and the outer circle dealing with institution recognition. While the inner circle of self-recognition is arguably the most important, as this is where we gain a sense of fulfillment and an understanding of why we are walking our pathway, the current system is still focused on peer recognition and institution recognition. In order to shift this system towards one that can create a sense of fulfilment it is important that focus be put on credentialing in social communities that have meaning around creating true impact, as well as creating opportunities for micro-scholarships that can pay learners to develop new skills.
Organizations need to help workers pivot. Despite research that shows that the average person in the U.S. will have 12 different jobs over the span of their lifetime, there still remains a gap between individuals who understand they will need to pivot often and organizations that believe workers will stay in the same industry their entire lifetime. Michelle Smith, Entrepreneur in Residence at Skills Baby, discusses how important it is that organizations provide programs and trainings for their workers to help them upskill, reskill and discover their transferrable skills in order to pivot within the organization and across industries. Through her work at Skills Baby and Amazon apprenticeship programs, she mentioned the importance of evangelizing and raising awareness for transferable skills across different industries, as well as building formal upskilling and reskilling programs that create channels for workers who may not traditionally have access to opportunities. Stephanie Marken, Executive Director of Education Research at Gallup, also discussed her work with Amazon in programs focused on upskilling. Research and thousands of interviews conducted on workers with various amounts of credentials GLOBAL TALENT SUMMIT | 29
found that more than half of adults indicated their interest in upskilling or reskilling opportunities, and that those who had access to opportunities were more complimentary about their jobs, satisfaction in life and standard of living. Unfortunately, the research also revealed that most people who were upskilling were already skilled, and that those who would most disproportionately benefit from upskilling and reskilling opportunities were still closed out of those pathways. With demand outpacing the number of available programs even in large companies such as Amazon, the question is, then: how can you scale those opportunities to smaller and medium-sized businesses? And why make a huge investment in your talent just to watch them pivot away from your company? Luckily, research shows that providing workers opportunities to work, learn and grow actually increases retention rates. The next thing is, then, to change the structure around employers so they can be incentivized to provide more upskilling opportunities.
There is unprecedented demand for formal training beyond high school. Despite a perceived lack of trust in higher education, polling shows that students still believe formal education is the surest path to a great job and a great life. Conversely, an increasing number of adults have suggested that they believe formal education is not for them, with only 20 percent believing that most people in the U.S. who want access to high quality affordable education can do so. Despite these conflicting figures, however, polling also revealed that there is an unprecedented demand for formal training beyond high school, as about half of U.S. adults who were not enrolled in formal education indicated they had considered doing so in the past 12 to 18 months, although studies also revealed that only one-third of adults will actually complete a four-year degree or higher. What is it, then, that is creating a gap between those who want to enroll and those who have completed a four-year degree? The biggest indicator is a perception of costliness, leading many people to consider two-year community colleges, associates degrees and credential certification in lieu of a traditional four-year degree.
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