Social Technologies One of Drivers of Workplace Skills Shift

My previous post addressed the role of social media architect.  The Future Work Skills 2020 report identifies five drivers that will change the workplace: extreme longevity, computational world, rise of smart machines and systems, new media ecology, globally connected world and superstructed organization.  The latter represents "social technologies drive new forms of production and value creation".

The graphic shows how these drivers are inter-twined with each other for a particular skill.  For those involved in social media, even four of these drivers are making it a challenge to process all that is available: computational world, new media ecology, globally connected world and superstructed organization.  The color coded skills (circles) show what drivers are driving the demand for skills.

Photo Credit: IFTF Future Work Skills 2020

I use several teaching approaches to help embody some of these future (actually now) skills in my undergraduate social media classroom: comparative case exam and a data-intensive social media management strategy final project.  These help in several skills: social intelligence, new media literacy, and cognitive load management - probably others as well.  The course is co-taught by a marketing instructor and myself (information systems) so trans-disciplinarity is embedded as well.

The report is thought provoking especially in regards to the classroom experience.  Thanks to my colleague Imad ElHajj for pointing it out.