Future-ready your career
By Scott Beardsley, Dean of the University of Virginia Darden School of Business
The way we work is changing. Our values stay the same.
After two decades of exponential technological growth, work as we know it is changing forever — yet key values endure.
Tomorrow’s workplace will see the proliferation of automation, robots, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Data will go from big to colossal, and video-enabled collaboration will push teams further, faster. The forward thinkers and teachers at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business are unpacking what all of this means for tomorrow’s leaders.
“Technology and other converging forces of change — demographic shifts, the loci of economic growth in the world, and ever-increasing transparency, connectivity, change and uncertainty — are reshaping the organization of the future,” said University of Virginia Darden School of Business Professor Ed Hess, author of the new book Hyper-Learning: How to Adapt to the Speed of Change.
Here are five ways work will be different in the future — and how the Darden School is adapting to serve and prepare leaders for the transformative years ahead.
1. Digital advances demand deeply human skills.
“Digital literacy and advanced analytics are critical for leaders,” said Ashley Williams, CEO and president of Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning, “They must understand the impact of digital on an organization’s different functions and integrate new tools and mental models into decision-making and strategy-setting.”
Yet as the need for digital capabilities rises, so too does the need for deeply human skills and responsible leadership. Skills like problem-solving, decision-making, effective communication, creativity, empathy and relationship-building will grow in importance. “Even if robots inform core decisions, the decisions will still be made and translated across organizations by humans to humans,” said Williams.
2. Purpose-driven companies do the best work.
In this age of disruption, leaders must navigate responsibly the innovation and uncertainty around them. They must lift their communities, protect the environment and embrace sustainable practices. Purpose can help chart the course, and processes, skills and tools can be learned.
Darden Professor Ed Freeman emphasizes that businesses are fundamentally built to provide value to people.
“Behind most successful companies are entrepreneurs chasing a dream to make things better — to add real value to our daily lives,” said Freeman, a pioneer of the Stakeholder Theory and a professor of business ethics, an area in which the Darden School has a long history of leadership.
Stakeholder Theory emphasizes the interdependence of society and business and the need for organizations to create value for all who hold a stake in it — not just the shareholders. Great companies and leaders, as they work to deliver value to their customers, also consider their impact on suppliers, investors, employees and their communities.
Purpose-driven leaders must know their mission and values — why they are doing what they are doing.
3. Diversity and inclusion continue making us stronger.
The social unrest of 2020 brought new attention to long-simmering issues of diversity, equity and inclusion in the U.S. and around the globe, which must be resolved. It is both an opportunity and an issue facing leaders today.
Research shows that heterogeneous workforces yield more innovation and better performance. Yet there is much to be done to advance diversity and equity efforts.[1] “We must think about the ways in which we position people in organizations and the opportunities that they have to be valued for their contributions and to shape the strategy, the core values and the culture of the organization itself,” said Darden Professor Laura Morgan Roberts.
Roberts and several other Darden faculty members introduced a complimentary Coursera course this past fall called “Foundations of Diversity and Inclusion at Work,” which has reached thousands of learners across the globe. The course explains how to change culture, counteract inequity and build the business case for diversity and inclusion.
4. Lifelong learning grows even more crucial.
The internet brought adult learners new online resources for education and training. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated a shift to more flexible online and hybrid learning.
In this digital age, education is the great equalizer, with the power to change people’s lives and catapult them from anywhere to anywhere. “Learning should be lifelong,” advised Sankaran Venkataraman, Darden senior associate dean for faculty and research. “In an era of rapid change, what you know can obsolesce quickly. How you learn is key to effective leadership in the future.”
At Darden, we believe there are many ways to learn, depending on the objective. Online is effective for short bursts of learning, and the School has recently expanded its virtual portfolio of Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning open courses across topics such as leadership, strategy, design thinking, data and analytics, and digital transformation. Darden delivers a variety of open courses in a number of formats: online, in a live virtual design, in-person at UVA Darden in Charlottesville, Virginia, or at UVA Darden DC Metro in Arlington, Virginia — or in a hybrid combination.
For an immersive, transformative education, the Darden MBA — offered in full-time, executive and global executive formats — delivers unmatched preparation for an extraordinary career path. Darden’s signature case method simulates the performance pressures of modern, global business, developing in students the skills employers value most.
5. Reskilling is necessary to adapt.
By 2030, the World Economic Forum calculates that more than 1 billion people will need to reskill as jobs are transformed by the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.[2] The need for productive interactions of knowledge workers with each other and machines continues.[3]
“The global workforce will need regular, episodic instruction for career advancement and organizational relevance,” said Anne Trumbore, executive director of digital initiatives for Darden Executive Education & Lifelong Learning. “You must stay nimble and continually grow, learn and develop.”
In the workplace of tomorrow, leaders will need to adapt to the speed of technological change. They will need to hone their digital and analytical capabilities and navigate the intersection of technology and ethics through responsible leadership. Caring for all stakeholders will deliver greater value to customers and communities, while achieving equitable, inclusive progress will yield innovation and better performance.
Above all, leaders will need to view learning as continuous. By weaving together online and in-person bursts of learning, they will provide competitive advantage for their companies and career relevance for themselves.
Learn more about Darden’s degree and non-degree programs in the Washington, D.C. area and in Charlottesville.
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Sources
1. Roberts, Laura Morgan and Anthony J. Mayo. “Toward a Racially Just Workplace,” Harvard Business Review, 14 November 2019.
2. Zahidi, Saadia. World Economic Forum, “We need a global reskilling revolution – here’s why.” 22 Jan 2020
3. Johnson, Bradford C., Manyika, James M, and Yee, Lareina A., The McKinsey Quarterly, 2005. “The Next Revolution in Interactions: An Introductory Note.”
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