ARE YOU RELEVANT TO THE FUTURE OR RELEGATED TO THE PAST?

The foregoing provocative question comes from Dilip Mukerjea as he pens the 'Perspectives for the New Millennium' page of his wonderful book, 'Surfing the Intellect: Building Intellectual Capital for a Knowledge Economy'.

He writes further:

"The world is changing economically, culturally, socially, politically, technologically, environmentally, & competitively.

Every individual must change in step with these world changes. So must corporations and the human capital within them.

Unless you are prepared for all these scenarios, you are prepared for none of them. Ask yourself:

Are you busy preparing for a set of careers that will soon be obsolete?

We need creativity and innovation to live in a world where multiple realities have become a norm. Yet, each set of multiple realities pose a challenge, because no two people occupy the same slice of consciousness about anything. We just do not occupy the same knowledge space, often seeking refuge in our private sanctuaries of specialisation.

Skills in creativity equip us with the capacity to succeed in the future.

If we fail, it is because of failure in imagination in the present.

More than ever,you've got to aim for what you can't expect to get. The marketspace of commerce has become a single global bazaar. To be a viable player in the marketspace, we need to develop intellectual capital skills. This means creativity, innovation, leadership, verbal and visual literacy, team play, and humanity towards one another.

Are you in the forefront of innovation, or have you receded into the white noise of your organisation's background?

If it is the latter, consider getting out of the box so as to get inside the solution."

As I reread Dilip's pertinent message, I recall the following recent online report in Fast Company.com, pertaining to Microsoft's School of the Future (established in 2006; first batch of graduates coming out this year).

Just go & take a look at the following outline of the Education Competencies, which serves as the school's curriculum guide ~ I am very very impressed with its wide-ranging purview:

INDIVIDUALISED SKILLS:

• Building Effective Teams

• Compassion

• Customer Focus

• Humor

• Integrity and Trust

• Interpersonal Skill

• Listening

• Managing Relationships

• Managing Vision and Purpose

• Motivating Others

• Negotiating

• Personal Learning and Development

• Valuing Diversity

OPERATING SKILLS:

• Developing Others

• Directing Others

• Managing and Measuring Work

• Managing Through Processes and Systems

• Organizing

• Planning

• Priority Setting

• Time Management

• Timely Decision Making

STRATEGIC SKILLS

• Creativity

• Dealing with Ambiguity

• Decision Quality and Problem Solving

• Functional/Technical Skills

• Intellectual Acumen

• Learning on the Fly

• Strategic Agility and Innovation Management

• Technical Learning

COURAGE:

• Assessing Talent

• Conflict Management

• Managerial Courage

ORGANISATIONAL SKILLS:

• Comfort Around Authority

• Organizational Agility

• Presentation Skills

• Written Communications

RESULTS:

• Action Oriented

• Drive for Results

The foregoing is certainly something very serious for all our Singapore schools/colleges/institutions of learning to ponder.

For more detailed information about the "soft skills", especially the Essential Questions to ask yourself, please proceed to this link.