This is Harold Jarche. When I want to know more about the changing nature of work and what we have to do to get ready for it, I call him. Many of his ideas are in my new book - You Don't need a Job
We are told all the time by politicians is that we can all get jobs again, if only we got the training. We are so captured by the hope of a job that we believe this too. But what is really going on is that the world of paid work has changed. It's no longer about them it is about US! And what we have to do to do well in this new reality is to learn how to take charge of ourselves.
In short we need as Euan Semple suggests in his new book -Organizations Don't Tweet - People do - to Grow Up and become a real adult.
This is no easy thing. For we have have lived in the Matrix so long that we don't even know that we are in it.
To help us understand this shift better, I called Harold last week, in his home (Sackville New Brunswick, Canada) and asked him if he could explain what he means by the "change in work". Here is an image of that will be valuable (A “built-upon” image by Joachim Stroh) and here is a summary of what he talks about.
- The Change in Work - It's not just factory workers but even Doctors that are going to be automated or outsourced. So how will you make a living? Only truly creative work will pay.
- So what is Creative Work? - It is not just design etc but will include making valuable things and even growing food - and new sites such as Etsy enable you to find a market
- The Industrial World Deskilled work - It all became assembly - Anything like this can be automated and will be
- The jobs cannot come back
- Training works well when you want to learn how to drive a car - you can train to be a carpenter but making the shift to be creative or to stand for themseleves - you cannot train for that
What is the new?
- So what helps you be this new person?
- Apprenticing - complex things cannot be learned except by shared experience
- The crafts communities have never lost this - learn the rules and then learn how to break them - look at studios - very little teaching - mainly doing
- Then you have to get connected to your community
- All sorts of studios will emerge that will help you where clusters of people who know aggregate
- The Knowledge Artisans have to take charge of themselves
What about advice for you?
- Learn REAL skills - not just how to make it in an organization
- Learn how to have a network - in the job world we don't have them - many of us don't know anything about this if we have had a job - so start now
- This must be diverse and be about your interests
- Put yourself OUT THERE
- You are as good as your network
- Think of yourself as a Freelancer for Life - and so always nuture your network no matter what - avoid getting lulled into a sense of false security
His advice to his kids
- Find the sweet spot (Dave Pollard) Find out your passion, what you are good at and what people will pay you for
- You have to have all three
Here is the podcast - just click and it will play
Harold Jarche on 2012-10-19 at 07.59
