In an AI world, is career development still a thing?
Back in 2020 research from the World Economic Forum suggested that learned skills generally have a “half-life” of about five years, with more technical skills at just two and a half years. In plain terms, that means the skillset of your workforce will be worth half as much in five years as it is today. With the very recent explosion of large learning models like ChatGPT, we suspect that lifespan might have just jumped off a cliff!
Layer on top of that the mega trend coming off the back of the pandemic, of people increasingly looking for work that is more fluid and adaptable and that has more meaning, and you might be starting to question whether ‘career development’ is even a thing any more.
While we believe the idea of a linear career path, with clear milestones and a predictable endpoint, is far less relevant in today's world, humans by their very nature want to feel like we are growing and progressing and adding value. In that sense, development is still very important. It just needs to look different to how it may have looked in the past.
Here are some things to help leaders have more effective and impactful development conversations in the current context;
Get on the same page as to what development actually means. Through our own research, we’ve learned that this word has different meanings for people. Some think promotion, some think formal training, others think of a new role or responsibilities. It may mean some of these things or none. The most important thing is that you and your team member are not speaking at cross purposes but instead arrive at a shared understanding. Our definition is ‘making choices for short and long term progress, based on an individual’s aspirations’
Career development needs to be built on a strong foundation of self knowledge. Spending time helping individuals to know their strengths, transferable skills, what they like and don’t like and their aspirations is a great investment.
Focus on optionality. Helping your people see different possibilities based on their skills, strengths and likes will likely expand their thinking and reduce the pressure for a particular development step to be ‘the right’ one. It is a great way to help your people future proof themselves. We tend to think this approach is for early in career people, but why not continue on throughout our working lives?
Encourage continuous, micro learning. This might be keeping up with the latest thinking or developments via podcasts or blogs. It could be micro credentialing via a MOOC. This will feel less of a time suck and is learning delivered in the moment, at the time it is needed.
It is no longer enough to simply focus on acquiring skills and knowledge. With the rapidly changing landscape of work, part of their development could very well be building personal resilience and adaptability to create the right mindset for continuous change.
Encourage experimentation. If they’re interested in a different role/team/function, how can they ‘try before they buy’? Perhaps shadow someone in that area for a day; volunteer for a project; take a short term secondment or just pick themselves up and sit with that team for a while. It’s amazing how much you learn through proximity.
Signpost development before and after the fact. With so much learning likely to be on the job, it is important to signal the development you expect to see coming out of a future project or assignment, and later discuss what they’ve learned and how their new skills might be transferable. Being in the thick of it, they may not see how their strengths and skills have grown from the challenges they have tackled.
This all might sound like even more work, on top of your crazy, busy jobs. It need not be. Weaving development into your usual one-to-one conversations about work in progress, with a few additional questions like “what have you learned from this?” “how could you apply that learning to other opportunities”, sharing your own ideas, takes little or no additional time. Or you could carve off some existing one-to-one time specifically for development. Over time it will become second nature. Your team members will notice and thank you for it!
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