Category: Skills

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Artificial intelligence Skills

Why Skill Erosion is a Real Problem That No one Can Ignore

I kinda think of this post as a sequel to my analysis on “The Hidden Impact of AI on Your Skills”.

Somehow, it’s been a year since I hit publish on that one.

Isn’t it funny how time works? I remember so clearly spending months researching and putting all the pieces together to look deeper into the real impact of AI on skills so far, and now, here I am talking about it like some sort of ancient text.

My reminiscing aside…

The message of that piece was to think deeply about the over-reliance we will easily slip into with AI, and how easy it will be to convince ourselves we’re learning how to do something, when in reality, AI is doing it for us.

A year later, I only see more activity, which has amplified both.

That’s not to say there are not those who are rejecting total delegation to AI and those finding the balance between artificial and human intelligence.

We’ll talk about some of those later.

Consequences

It’s such a serious sounding word, isn’t it?

Like something your parents would say to you.

Our choices can lead to consequences in many forms, that’s the risk we all take, and not to keep sounding like some old stoic, but life is essentially all about risk.

Back in October last year, when I spoke about AI over-reliance and the illusion of expertise, I only covered in small detail what the consequences of those choices could mean.

A year later, it’s clear to me that’s skill erosion.

The Great Erosion of Skills

Do you remember just after the pandemic, when every headline was something like “The Great ‘x’ of blah blah?”

I’m happy to make a contribution to that movement 😂.

Jokes aside, you might be noticing some people’s skill sets are eroding through lack of use, and some aren’t even learning the skills at all. This is being driven by the change in the tasks we now deliver.

As AI gets better and better at completing a wide variety of tasks, it means we (as humans) do less in certain areas.

That is not always a bad thing.

Cognitive offloading of some tasks can amplify our ability to perform better in the workplace. A good example of this is GPS. Before we had GPS in our lives to guide us to destinations, we’d spend hours pouring over gigantic maps with tiny text, trying to figure out the best route.

Now, at the touch of a button, we’re guided without having to activate one brain cell.

There’s another side to this coin, though.

Humans, for the most part, want to take the path of least resistance and favour instant gratification over the challenge (I’m no different here).

The problem is that real learning and thus improved performance are about navigating the challenges. It’s really hard to learn how, what and why if you don’t experience the struggle.

AI doesn’t take this away all on its own, how we use AI does.

In our quest for “more time”, “creative freedom”, “improved efficiency” and every other statement that tech CEOs blurt out about AI, we’ve become obsessed with the automation of everything.

This creates the consequences I’m talking about.

What we lose and what we gain

I always remember an old colleague saying, “You can have it all, you just can’t have it at the same time”.

While it was in relation to something else, I can’t help but think it fits well in this conversation.

I’ve found life to be a series of trade-offs.

If you say yes to one thing, you’re saying no to something else. It sounds like easy math (and it is), but it’s by no means a simple equation.

I’m not the first to consider the impact of AI in this way.

The folks at Gartner have been covering this as they look towards what is putting future workforce’s at risk.

Here’s an excerpt to ponder:

Gartner predicts that by 2028, 40% of employees will be trained and coached by AI when entering new roles, up from less than 5% today.

While this shift promises faster onboarding and adaptive, scalable learning, it also means fewer chances for employees to learn from experienced peers. Junior staff, who once relied on mentorship and hands-on experience, will learn primarily from AI tools, while senior staff increasingly depend on AI to complete complex work.

This shift accelerates the loss of foundational skills and weakens expert mentorship and relationship development across the organization.

Source: Gartner

We have skills eroding through lack of practice and application, and it seems, the quick expiring of skill creation with future generations entering the workforce.

Harold Joche put it nicely when he said, “One key factor in understanding how we learn and develop skills is that experience cannot be automated”.

So, what can be done?

Are we doomed to roam the world skill-less and watch AI-powered tools suck the life out of the world itself? Of course not, there is a way, my fellow human hacker.

Strategies and tactics to prevent skill erosion

So, instead of moaning about the great wave of skill erosion, I’d rather focus on doing something about it.

The good news is there’s a lot we can all do.

If you haven’t already, you can find a ton of my guidance in these articles:

  1. The Hidden impact of AI on your skills
  2. How to stop AI from hijacking your thinking?

Saves me repeating myself like a broken record here.

Plus, the folks at Gartner offer some basic but useful actions for the workforce:

  • Watch for AI mistakes and rising error costs, and keep manual checks in place where AI is used most.
  • Retain your senior staff and encourage peer learning to slow skill loss.
  • Focus on roles at risk and review your talent strategies regularly to keep key skills strong.
  • Pair AI with human oversight and maintain manual checks as a backup for AI.
  • Encourage employees to continue exercising core skills (e.g., analysis, coding, problem-solving) even when AI tools are available — through simulations, rotations and shadowing.
  • Use AI simulations and adaptive training, but make sure people still learn from each other.

My question to you: What would you add?

Final thoughts

There’s much more to ponder on this.

Like with everything in this space, whether it happens or not is down to your individual choices and intentions. So, if you want to craft a career for the long haul, make smarter choices when it comes to your skills.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

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Skills

The Dangers Of Accepting What You See Online

Once upon a time, I enjoyed using social media.

Sounds weird to say nowadays, I know. Yet, when I first started using platforms like LinkedIn nearly 15 years ago, it was both a different time and place.

Platforms felt more conversational-based and not driven by clickbait. The algorithms weren’t so optimised for mass outrage.

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I used to learn tons as a mid-twenty something trying to navigate the odd corporate world in London.

I had a ritual of saving posts to read later and call upon as a sort of personal learning system.

I adopted the same approach in the early days on Instagram.

Specifically trying to take my body from the grasshopper lightweight it was, to some form of decent-sized guy who didn’t look like he could slide through the cracks of doors.

Again, I’d absorb whatever good stuff I could.

Back in 2012, fitness influencer’s weren’t really a thing, so I didn’t have to cut through any noise.

Today, the story couldn’t be farther from this.

I only use LinkedIn these days, and even that is becoming a struggle because I’m met daily with disinformation, misinformation, smart people saying dumb things and a host of selfies desperately being used in the search for attention.

What concerns me most these days is so many people’s inability to ‘read beyond the headlines’.

I see this most often in the last few years with the sharing of the absurd amount of research and reports on AI. Look, I understand the attention game and why people indulge in the shock factor to garner attention.

The problem is that these people and posts are proliferating an epidemic of often incorrect statements, and viewers aren’t nearly being skeptical enough.

They say that AI is killing our critical thinking and analytical judgment, yet we seem to be doing that fine ourselves by not questioning what we see.

A great quote I keep in my notes folder reminds me of the need to both doubt and ask questions: “Don’t believe everything you think or see”.

So, my question is, when did we stop looking beyond the veil? And why don’t we ask questions anymore or do our own research?

I’m not expecting an answer, I’m just throwing it out there.

A few case studies

We see case studies on this almost daily.

They’re probably hundreds at this stage, yet we have two recent ones which I’m sure most of you have seen. It is going to feel like I’m picking on MIT here, but that’s not the intention.

It is how the data produced is being used by 3rd parties and how that impacts the global narrative.

The latest MIT Study, which claims 95% of organisations are getting zero return on Gen AI projects, has been doing the rounds in the last week. Now, while this makes a great clickbait headline and social post, we need to look deeper.

If more people went to the “Research and methodology” sections of reports, they would be surprised.

→ Ignoring this makes smart people say dumb things.

For this particular example, Ethan Mollick posted a great note on how this paper was researched. I’ve provided that section for you to check out below:

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions, yet I don’t feel 52 interviews with a 6-month timeline is a good enough example set to be used as it is, as “the global view” by many people posting across social.

The devil is in the details, as they say.

Our second example, again from MIT (sorry, I do love you really), but back in June, gave rise to more clickbait and social discourse.

This has nothing to do with the research or the researchers themselves. They set out to see how using AI tools affected an individual’s ability to write essays. They conducted this with only 54 people and on this one task.

The main finding was that AI can help in the short term, but if you always use and rely on it, you’ll diminish your ability to write an essay without it.

Cool, sounds like common sense to me.

But that research gave rise to crazy headlines like this:

See how quickly that turned?

Did anyone reading these headlines, both in news apps or social posts, look beyond this? From what I see, no.

This is where the problem exists.

Even the lead researcher on this report called out the same thing and set the facts straight in their own post.

It’s not necessarily new, yet algorithm-based platforms are loving the attention it creates.

Like I said, this problem is not isolated to one report, it’s everywhere across social media and as such, society at large.

Posts with clickbait headlines and mass engagement are proliferating, often misleading and, in some situations, harmful messages.

So, what can you do?

Become a skeptical hippo

Ok, what I’m not saying here is to become some kind of conspiracy theorist.

Instead, I want you to engage that powerful operating system that sits in each of our skulls. When you see headlines like we’ve covered or clickbaity posts, try the following:

1. Go to the primary source

  • Locate the actual report or paper (not just a blog post or tweet about it).
  • Even if you don’t read every detail, scan:
    • Abstract (what the study did and found).
    • Methods (how many people, what was tested, what tools were used).
    • Limitations (almost always at the end).

2. Ask 3 key questions

When you see a claim, pause and ask yourself:

  • Who was studied? (demographics, sample size, context).
  • What exactly was measured? (recall, ownership, not general intelligence).
  • How broad are the claims? (exploratory finding vs universal truth).

If the headline claims more than the study actually measured, that’s a red flag.

3. Notice the language

  • Headlines often use absolutes (“ChatGPT destroys learning!”).
  • Scientific reports usually use tentative language (“suggests,” “indicates,” “preliminary”). Spotting this mismatch helps you resist being pulled into the hype.

4. Slow down your consumption

  • Disinformation spreads because social media rewards speed + emotion.
  • Slow thinking (literally taking a minute to check the source or read the abstract) interrupts that cycle and gives you space to process critically.

TL;DR: Read beyond the headlines, ask the questions and embrace those skeptical hippo eyes.

📝 Final thoughts

While this might partly sound like human raging against the machine, I hope my sentiments of ‘do your own research’ and ‘be more skeptical to reach your own conclusions’, come through.

I don’t believe we need to worry about AI killing our critical thinking and analytical judgment, if we’re doing that fine all by ourselves.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

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Skills

Why Digital Intelligence Is The Critical Missing Skill in The L&D Toolbox

The term “L&D” is a weird one.

Although we have a whole industry named this, it means different things to different people.

No one person is an ‘L&D’ person, because L&D is not just one thing. It’s this huge universe of skills, tasks and roles. It’s messy, like most industries. You can have many different types of careers in our industry.

That’s what makes it so unique.

You can be an ‘L&D’ person but your thing is only leadership, or instructional design, or tech – you see where I’m going with this.

Despite the beauty of this diversity, I believe we have a core set of skills that’ll benefit each of us, no matter the role. I roll these up every year into my 7 skills every L&D pro needs.

There’s one skill that hasn’t had enough attention but is more critical than ever for us all.

Digital Intelligence.

Essentially, it is the art of being savvy, aware, and adaptable to new, current and emerging digital technologies.

To thrive and survive in the modern workplace, we need to do better here.

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Digital Intelligence = an essential Human Skill

We’re biological beings living in an increasingly digital world.

I don’t believe anyone can refute that.

I’d say we live and work in a 70/30 split between digital and physical/human spaces. I sense it will increase more in the former’s column than the latter.

I’ve always been a tech nerd (I guess that’s obvs). Writing my first bit of code at 12, and then building my first PC at 13, opened my eyes to the power of being a tech-infused builder.

I’ve been in love since that day.

But I could never have predicted we’d be where we are today.

Despite my passion for all things tech, and focusing on ‘tech for good’ here, I always found myself an outcast in the wider L&D space. Only a small part of the industry seems to have any clue about utilising modern-day technologies, let alone understanding them.

What I discovered in my first few years of L&D life was that very thing gave me my advantage.

I’m only here writing these words, building products and working with companies because of my curiosity about digital technologies.

Now, things are very different.

I’ve spent too much of my career watching people shy away from tech. We just cannot do that anymore. I hate to sound like one of those morons on social media that says “Do this or be left behind”. But I’m going to make an exception here.

If you don’t invest in your Digital Intelligence you will be left behind.

I know, it sounds so serious, but I can’t overstate this enough.

And, this skill isn’t exclusive to our industry. It’s a must for every human.

Defining Digital Intelligence

I can’t be somewhat controversial and not explain my reasons.

So, let’s keep this simple.

Digital intelligence is about being savvy, aware, and adaptable with new, current and emerging digital technologies.

You don’t need to be an expert. But you do need to be aware (note the difference).

I can say with 100% confidence that my ability to adopt and adapt to new technologies has given me an edge over many of my peers. What they see as dark magic is just another sandbox for me to play in. And that only happens when you invest in yourself.

To be a high-performing modern L&D pro, you need to be digitally intelligent.

As learning and performance continues to be devoured by tech, it pays to be fluent in the language of technology.

Why is that? Because the role of L&D is evolving.

You’re no longer just an instructional designer or a trainer.

You’re a learning architect.

Today, building a cohesive learning tech stack—aka the architecture of different technology solutions—is a core skill for L&D professionals. You don’t need to be a full-blown tech guru, but you must have a baseline understanding.

This gives you credibility and the ability to be a better business partner.

And no, keeping up with tech isn’t just a nice-to-have skill, anymore.

I’m so hot on DI that I included it in my 7 skills modern L&D teams need, 5 rare skills of high-performing L&D pros and a core skill in building modern L&D teams.

So, you could say, I’m obsessed.

The 5 Components of Digital Intelligence

These aren’t set in stone, fyi.

We’ll have sub-categories across these, no doubt.

👩‍💻 Technical Proficiency

Understand the basics of the platforms you use daily. I’m talking about foundational knowledge – what tools exist, how they work, and how they integrate.

🤔 Digital Literacy

It’s never just about ‘how to use’ tools, it’s about understanding the why behind them. If you don’t know what problem you’re solving, and why x tool could help, then no tech is going to help you.

🔒 Data Protection

It terrifies me how little the average person knows about protecting their personal data. Most people are bleeding data without realising it. Don’t be one of them. Especially in this fast-moving AI era. We all let social media companies take so much, let’s not repeat those mistakes.

🫶 Ethical Awareness

I know when you drop the word ‘ethical’ it all sounds so serious. In reality, it’s more about common sense and being a good human. Every tech advancement comes at a price. Understand the ethical implications of what you do online. Copyright laws, algorithmic biases, data privacy—this stuff matters.

🏃‍♂️ Agility & Experimentation

New tools and platforms emerge daily. Move fast, but don’t break things. (Yes, I’m looking at you, early adopters who don’t read the fine print.) Don’t obsess over everything though. Pick smart and go deep on what matters.

The principles of Digital Intelligence for L&D

Ok, I know what you’re thinking…

What’s it about and how do you craft it?

I like your style.

To keep up, you’ll need:

  • A solid grasp of technology: Not necessarily as an expert, but definitely as an informed user.
  • An understanding of how different platforms interact: Because compatibility matters.
  • Knowledge of what functionalities they offer: So you can leverage the right tools.

Keeping pace with technology helps you adapt, filter what’s valuable, and drive high-performing learning functions.

Or, as the wise Bruce Lee said “Absorb what is useful, discard what is not, and add what is uniquely your own”

How to improve your Digital Intelligence

1/ Experiment

Try new tools, even if you don’t need them right now.

It’s the best way to stay ahead.

It’s one thing to read or watch me talk about tools, it’s another to see if they can be used practically in your work. I can never give you that answer, but experimentation can.

This isn’t just reserved for new tools.

You’ll be using lots of tools daily that contain many features but you only use/know of 1 or 2. So, dig a little deeper, see what’s on offer and if it can help you. Often this approach is where I find some of my most valued features to date.

2/ Stay connected

Blogs, social media and newsletters (like this one) can keep you in the loop of the latest, greatest and most useful stuff you need to know. If you stay informed, you stay sharp. I’m sure Rocky would have said something like that.

Outside of here, these are my go-to sources to keep in the loop:

  • TechCrunch
  • The Verge (tech blog, not the band, for you Brits)
  • Google Labs
  • YouTube: No one in particular, the algo does the work for me.
  • Newsletters: I read ones from BCG, McKinsey and Microsoft. For learning tech specifically, I’d recommend Emerge, as they keep track of the big tech moves in our space.

I’m not the only one hot on this 😮

Although I’ve been hot on this for over a decade, it’s only now more research houses are pushing the same agenda.

Of course, this has been spurred on by our new best friend in AI.

It’s hard to take advantage of that if you can barely work your email app. I’ve said a lot during the last few years that it’s funny seeing a huge amount of L&D people position themselves as AI strategists when those same people can’t get around their organisation’s collaboration platforms.

Yes, the kids would call that “Shots fired!”

Anyway, in the World Economic Forums 2025 Future of Jobs Report, Digital Intelligence or “Technological Literacy”, as they call it, is a top 3 priority skill by 2030.

I’d say it’s the top 3 today.

Bottom line: Get smart with tech to go far.

Final Thoughts

While L&D is a bundle of skills, they mean little without the foundations in place.

Digital Intelligence is part of that.

If you want to thrive and survive in L&D, and beyond. Get on the tech train! Make it your partner, not a problem. There is no such thing as ‘not being a tech person’, everyone is, just at different levels of maturity.

I say this because I care about giving you an honest take on the skills that matter for now and your future.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

Categories
Skills

5 Rare Skills No One Talks About To Become a Successful L&D Pro

Attracted by the juicy title?

I spent a long time on that one (with a copious amount of tea).

To be a high-performing learning strategist/valued strategic partner and future L&D leader, you need to craft skills that aren’t of the traditional L&D mould.

Your technical skills can only take you so far.

Your most human skills and abilities are what give you the edge.

The world’s most in-demand skills

I’m going to set the scene with some external data before I drop my list.

According to a bunch of people with way more budget for research and probably with more intelligence than I, these are the core skills of 2025:

Source: WEF Future of Jobs Report 2025

My first thought, as always, with these types of data viz’s is they’re too broad.

These are like the heads of the skill families, kinda like how the Mafia works. They’re are many layers and connections underneath each. Some of these are more vital than others.

This is what we want to find.

From the same report, these are the speculated skills needed for 2030:

5 years people

Again, very ambiguous.

I kinda feel like they pressed shuffle and threw a couple more tech-focused ones in for good measure.

If you want to get even nerdier, we have this one.

Which I have many feelings about, and not generally good ones. The box in the bottom left gives me all those emotions.

Source: WEF Future of Jobs Report

If not obvious, I’m talking about the “Out of focus skills” section.

It firmly feels like the rejects corner, but for me, it has quite a few surprise entries.

These caught my eye:

  • Reading, writing and mathematics
  • Teaching and mentoring

In the report, these skills are earmarked as less essential and will see a decreased investment.

This is MADNESS.

Look, I get AI is amazing, but to say these skills are less essential is the only thing that blows my mind right now. I’m sure all the AI and Tech bros will disagree, yet, to read, write, and crunch numbers is a pivotal form of critical and creative thinking, and analytical judgement.

The biggest sin we can make is to outsource our thinking to AI and let our thinking be shaped by AI too.

Sadly, a growing body of research points to an increasing over-reliance on AI tools.

I’ve covered some of this in detail in another article: What Is AI Doing To Your Skills?

But what does this mean?

So that’s the global view of the skills situation (I broke down the top 7 insights in more detail from the WEF report too).

There’s loads more reports out there from every consulting firm you can think of that parrot the same information.

But what does this mean practically for you, me and the people you serve through L&D as we find our way alongside our digitally intelligent buddies?

Here’s my take based on zero money to fund my research but a bag of first-hand experience working with a variety of global companies, building my own company at the same time, and analysing far too many reports than time should allow me.

You could say, this is where I’m placing my bets.

The 5 skills to build your human edge

Before we crack on, a quick explainer.

I’m going to give a L&D angle to these skills, but they’re vital for any human reading these words (I know you’re reading this too, AI).

1. Writing

Writing is a super-powered skill.

You do it every day. From emails to text messages – you’re a writer.

Hogwart’s very own headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, once said “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.”

Good writing is good thinking.

→ Clear thinking is clear writing.

Words can make people millions of dollars, change cultures and win hearts. Pretty damn powerful. Don’t make the mistake of outsourcing this to AI.

AI can help you but never outsource your thinking to it.

To think is to write, to write is to think.

This is not just a L&D thing. It’s great for life in general. As L&D pros, we spend a lot of time trying to win hearts and minds. Writing is a gateway to do this.

Plus, you’ll get really good at writing persuasive emails!

The best writing stays with you

I’m sure you’ve read a set of words that stay with you.

Perhaps, they’ve even changed you.

For me, some came in a Monday morning email from a former CEO of a company I worked with.

It started blandly, as per usual.

I slid my eyes through the usual dribble of sales, results and how stock market analysts were happy about something.

Then something caught my eye.

This CEO used a short paragraph to share their career experience.

One which has stuck with me for over a decade:

“True happiness beats in your chest. Work out what you like to do best and try to do more of that. Don’t torture yourself pondering the purpose of life. It’s here, it’s now & it won’t last forever, so enjoy it.”

I think about that paragraph every week.

I’ve repeated it hundreds of times, and written it maybe thousands more.

Perhaps that fictional wizard is right.

→ Always work on your writing.

🤘 Resources for you:

2. Marketing

Marketing is not just an industry.

It’s something we each do, every day, in many ways. You market your skills to a potential employer, you market ideas to business leaders and you even use marketing techniques to convince your crush to go on a date with you.

It’s one of those things (like everything on this list) which is woven into the fabric of living.

I’m not the best experience designer, coach or facilitator.

But I’m a damn good marketer.

This and writing give me an edge in my career. I’ve been able to get results and climb that annoying corporate ladder to senior roles because I understand how to wield these skills for performance.

I guarantee it will do the same for you.

🤘 Resources for you:

3. Sales (aka positioning products for success)

This might be the one that takes you off guard the most.

Selling and L&D, WTF!

Like it’s close sibling in marketing. The art of selling is something you do a lot more than you know.

It’s incredibly useful because we’re in the business of influencing people to make change.

From courses to events, we are trying to sell tickets to those shows.

Sales is about great communication. It’s not inherently evil, yet people have used its power in nefarious ways. That’s not what I’m talking about.

TThat’s not what I’m talking about.

Sales, at its core, is the process of persuading or influencing a potential buyer to exchange their money for a product or service.

It was also recently put to me as a combo of storytelling and expert positioning, and I kinda like that framing too.

For those of us navigating the intricacies of L&D, think of sales as the art of matchmaking performance with your people. We connect the dots between a need (often one the buyer wasn’t fully aware they had) and a solution (your product or service) that can fulfil it.

Don’t think of selling as only about transactions.

It’s about understanding, communication, and building relationships.

In our world, sales can also be viewed as an educational journey.

Where the salesperson (you) guides the customer through a learning process. You help them understand their own needs, the value of the solution offered, and how it can enhance their life.

At its heart it’s the ability to listen, educate, and inspire.

🤘Resources for you:

4. Storytelling

I never truly understood storytelling’s power until the second decade of my career.

I thought it was one of those woo-woo things people say.

→ I was wrong.

I’m a big believer that good stories entertain people, but great stories change people.

We’ve been telling each other stories since the dawn of time.

It’s not a radical new concept which can be turned into a flashy tool or methodology by an education provider (although I’m sure they’d try!).

If you’re like me, you love nothing more than a good old story to inspire you to do something great, or, in some cases, put you into the sleep we so crave.

We connect through stories.

I spend countless hours watching, reading and listening to some of the best and worst at it (that’s conference life for ya). It helps shape my own style.

Connection through telling stories

I had my ‘aha’ moment with storytelling about 8 years ago on a work trip to South India.

I’d been sent by the powers that be by my employer at the time to launch a new learning platform for 15,000 colleagues. I like to imagine a Bat signal was raised to call for me. 

In reality, I was handed an Emirates plane ticket and bundled into a car at 5 am to the airport.

It wasn’t until the high of my first business class experience had worn off that I started to realise I might be in for more than I bargained for.

I was to spend the next 2 weeks meeting, greeting and persuading people who had never met me to use this ‘awesome’ learning tool. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the thought of “Why should they?”

To them, I was another crony sent by HQ to do its bidding.

They thou must use this tool, and make thou use this tool you shall! Yes, I speak in my head in a Shakespearean tone sometimes.

The point is, I had no business telling these people anything.

I had no credibility or trust built. My bargaining chip was ‘HQ sent me’. It’s certainly not a card to make you popular. I had to change my approach.

It was time to shift into this storytelling thing.

A counter-intuitive approach

Instead of telling people, “You’ve got to do this because HQ says so”. I did the opposite.

I spent 2 weeks telling a story. Each day I wrote a chapter with those around me. We talked about the power of tech for learning, how each colleague can transform their skills with this opportunity and what it means for them.

I didn’t talk about the company at all.

We created a working group in the office to own the tool. I wanted everyone to collaborate and write the story with me. This was one way of doing that.

You want to know the result now, right?

Fret not, it’s great news.

That approach led to the most successful launch I had in my time with that company.

Storytelling works, kids.

🤘Resources for you:

5. Digital Intelligence

We’re all humans living in a digital world.

At least it feels more like that right now, and this is a must-have skill for every human.

I’ve spent too much of my career watching people shy away from tech. You can’t do that anymore. I hate to sound like one of those morons on social media that says “Do this or be left behind”. But I’m going to make an exception here.

If you don’t invest in your digital intelligence, you will be left behind.

Defining Digital Intelligence

Let’s keep this simple.

It’s about being savvy, aware and adaptable with new digital technologies.

You don’t need to be an expert but you must be aware of what’s available. Be curious, always.

I’m 100% confident that my ability to adopt and adapt to new technologies has given me the edge over many of my peers. What is dark magic to them is like playing in a sandbox for me. This only happens when you invest in yourself.

As the world continues to be eaten up by tech, you would be wise to become fluent in the language of technology to become a valued strategic business partner.

🤘 Resources for you:

Final Thoughts

Ok, let’s park this skills party bus.

The world still belongs to those who can think clearly, connect deeply and adapt quickly.

So be the chess player, not the pawn.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

Categories
Skills

How To Unlock Your Connective Skills For A Better Career

Skills are better together.

But, are you connecting the right ones?

As part of my ongoing skills anthology, it makes sense to unpack the real value of our skills. I mean, we spend so much time talking, investing and building them, we should get clear on the value they bring, right?

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To help us on this journey, a very tasty and long (they’re always long!) research paper from 2023 called “What is the Price of a Skill? The Value of Complementarity”.

It investigates the economic value of skills in the context of complementarity, which refers to how well a skill can be combined with other skills, ideally of high value to benefit each of us.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to regurgitate everything it says.

Instead, I’ve distilled what I feel are the best insights for you to know, explore and apply in your work.

At a glance, this research tells us

  • The value of a skill is relative and depends on the skill background of the worker

  • An analysis of 962 skills found that most skills have the highest value when used in combination with skills of a different type.

  • The report also examines the value of Artificial Intelligence (AI) skills, which are found to be particularly valuable, increasing worker wages by 21% on average due to their strong complementarities and rising demand in recent years.

How can you calculate the value of a skill?

💵 The million-dollar question.

As always, the answer is incredibly contextual. Let me unpack that with the guidance of the report.

The authors propose a method that attaches a market value to skills based on market demand and supply as well as their complementarity with other skills.

That means straightforward and logical. I like it!

Let’s move beyond the surface and get a bit nerdier with this. The report echoed one word continuously, “complimentary”. The authors defined this through 3 aspects:

  1. Number of Complements. The number of adjacent skills should be positively related to a skill’s value.

  2. Diversity of Complements. The diversity of adjacent skills should be positively related to a skill’s value.

  3. Value of Complements. The value of the adjacent skills should be positively related to a skill’s value.

Key Takeaway:

The value of a skill is higher if it can be combined with a diverse set of other skills of high value.

In sum: A network of the right skills is vastly more valuable than one skill alone or a mixture of competing skills.

The one skill to rule them all

Of course, this skill doesn’t exist.

But, unsurprisingly, AI is making a strong case for the future.

As if the word of the year couldn’t boost its appeal even further, the report authors found:

We show that skills needed to construct and maintain AI, which is widely considered to be a major breakthrough technology, have significantly higher skill values than the other skills in our dataset—With a premium of 21 %, AI skills are far more valuable than the average skill in our sample (4 %). AI skills have an above average number of complements of large diversity, since AI technologies enter more and more domains for knowledge work. Furthermore, we track the development of skill values over time and find that AI skills, such as Deep Learning and Python have been gaining in value significantly in recent years. Our model allows us to ascribe these changes to an increase in demand relative to supply.

AI is here to stay, and we can’t (and shouldn’t) ignore it.

How you can use these insights

Firstly, let’s cover what you can take away as an individual investing in their skills for the future.

  1. Identify your complementary skills
  2. Focus on AI Skills (delegation and collaboration)
  3. Understand Skill Value
  4. Utilise skill stacking and develop T-shaped skills (see the section below on ‘tools’)
  5. Always look to reskill and upskill

How to identify your complementary L&D skills

This is something I’ve covered in detail before.

My 2023 article on the 7 skills L&D teams need to succeed will help you explore this in detail.

Yet, everything should be contextual for you. My article explores what I see as the baseline for a modern L&D pro.

Your role will no doubt have nuances that I cannot know or directly account for.

I’d recommend you check out the ‘tools’ section below to explore both the concept of skills stacking and T-shaped skills. These will both help you identify what could be some of the most valuable skills to complement and build a high-value skill network.

How to use these insights to inform your 24/25 L&D strategy

Ok. Let’s turn you into the smartest L&D pro in the room in the coming year’s strategy session.

Here’s 4 actions you can take based on this research:

1/ Develop the concept of a complementary skills network

Your workforce won’t organically think of skill development in this way.

We’ve been taught about skills and hear tons about skills-based organisations. But very little on how to structure our own skills network.

→ This can be a simple educational piece through an article or email series.

Use what we’ve discussed so far to educate people on not only the acquisition of the right skills. Teach them how a network of complementary or connective skills is a worthwhile long-term strategy for future-proofing a career.

2/ Highlight complementarity in L&D programs

It’s no good educating teams on the power of complementary skills and your solutions/resources/programs not aligning with this.

Make it clear how your solutions link to other skills. Showcase which of these works best with other things you’ve built. If you make it so simple to build a complementary skill network, people’s behaviours will change.

3/ Promote AI Skill development

No shock or horror here.

Given the increasing value of AI skills, prioritising the development of AI skills among teams is a no-brainer. Especially given their strong complementarities and rising demand, which the research suggests leads to an average increase in worker wages by 21%.

You can get my step-by-step guide to crafting an AI skill-building strategy for your organisation here and access my zero-cost library of AI for L&D insights on the website.

4/ Communicate the value of skills

Building on the first point.

Your people probably aren’t going to get this concept the first time around. Like any change in patterns of thinking, you have to say the same thing a hundred different ways, a hundred different times.

One way to guarantee this hits home is by leveraging financial outcomes.

The better your skills, the more money you can command. Think of skills as the currency we each grow across the career marketplace. Companies pay top dollar for the best on the market.

⚒️ Connective skill-building tools

  1. T-Shaped Skills: An incredibly popular methodology, and one I still find much use in sharing. Get full details on what, why and how to apply in your work here.

  2. Skill stacking: A model not too dissimilar to others I’m sharing here but one less formal than what you expect for the corpo world. Learn more.

  3. The power of combining skills: A helpful set of insights to approach the skill algorithm.

  4. A collection of modern skill-building strategies: Everything from Ikigai to the 3 E’s skills framework.

📊 Useful Charts

The value of AI skills

The most profitable skills tend to have a higher exposure to AI.

Combine and grow for value

The main idea is that combining skills from different areas is more beneficial, as illustrated in Figure A. Similarly, Figure B demonstrates that having a range of skills within the same field also adds value.

Final thoughts

  • The value of a skill is strongly determined by its complementarity, meaning how well it can be combined with other skills

  • The value of a skill is relative and depends on an employee’s skill background

  • AI collaboration and delegation skills are the most in demand today

  • Design L&D solutions that enable intelligent connective skill-building

Get more from the skills anthology:

  1. The 5 skills that matter for the future of work and how to build them
  2. How to close the skills gap
  3. A deep dive into workplace skills technology

Before you go… 👋

If you like my writing and think “Hey, I’d like to hear more of what this guy has to say” then you’re in luck.

You can join me every Tuesday morning for more tools, templates and insights for the modern L&D pro in my weekly newsletter.

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