We are facing a huge, worldwide misalignment between the existing skills base and the demands of the global economy, resulting from a fundamental mismatch between the nature of the competences owned by the workforce and those required by their prospective employers. Closing this gap will require self-driven, agile lifelong learning as a response to the fast changing requirements of the business environment triggered by fast-paced technological innovation.

2. VOLATILE
UNCERTAIN
COMPLEX
AMBIGUOUS

3.  Global ageing
 (Speed of) technological innovation
 Knowledge economy
 Global rebalancing of strategic assets
 Population
 Water and energy
 Personal wealth and consumer spending
 Social and economical rise of women
 Value shift
 Individual empowerment
 Work-life balance
 Social responsibility
 Indulgence over restraint
 Value creation models
 Peer-to-peer business models
 Sharing economy
 Organizational architectures
 Management paradigms
 Nature of work
 Jobs
 Career patterns
 Work-life integration
(or amalgamation?)
 Growing inequality

5. 63%
40% 40%
24%
.de .cn.br .us
30-50% of the working age
population is inactive, unemployed
or working part-time…
…yet large shares of employers say
they can’t fill positions
Source: McKinsey Global Institute (June 2015). A Labour Market That Works:
Connecting Talent With Opportunity in the Digital Age

6. The average “half-life” of a skill
contracted approximately five times
in the course of a few decades.
½
½
15 years
3 years
1975
2015

7. Nikolai Kondratiev
1892-1938

8. % who agree that youth are adequately
prepared for the workforce
Less than half of employers
and young people believe
graduates are adequately
prepared…
…in sharp contrast
to what educational
providers believe.
42%
employers
45%
youth
72%
providers
A third or more of employers believe new hires do not
measure up in terms of skills, while educational providers
rate students more highly
Source: McKinsey Center for Government
(December 2012). Education to
employment: Designing a system that
works (online infographic)

9. Teamwork
Spoken communications
Hand-on training in skill
Written communications
Problem solving
Selected skills, in order of
importance to employers Share who rate youth as competent (%)
Employers Providers
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Source: McKinsey Center for Government (December 2012). Education
to employment: Designing a system that works (online infographic)

11. (a) We´re using the
wrong method
(b) It’s not easy!

12.  What were you expected
to achieve?
 How much did you do?
 What gaps were there?
 What will you have
to achieve?
 How much can you do now?
 Where will the gaps be?

14. ─ Ney, our infantry has been performing disappointingly
against the Brits along that ridge. I want you to kick their
butts and send them up there again to beat the hell off
those bloody redcoats once and for all!
─ But Sire, the Prussian cavalry are coming in on our right!
Shouldn’t we send the infantry to make a stand against
them before they outflank us?!
─ No, no, no. Let’s deal with the performance gaps first.
Move the infantry back up that slope, I told you! And
send the Old Guard on their heels. I bet that will improve
their attacking skills!

16. SKILLS
BASE
Advanced
statistics
CORE
CAPABILITY
Big Data
Analytics
COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
Superior predictive
modelling
BUY
or
DEVELOP
YearYear-1Year-2
Execution challenges (Year+n):
just-in-time skill acquisition, ‘pull’ better than ‘push’

18. Individual
actors
Collaborative
groups
Levelof
interdepence
COLLABORATION MODE
 Improvisational work
 Highly reliant on deep expertise
across functions
 Dependent on fluid deployment
of flexible teams
INTEGRATION MODE
 Systematic, repeatable work
 Reliant on formal processes,
methodologies or standards
 Dependent on tight integration
across functional boundaries
Routine Interpretation /
judgement
Complexity of work
EXPERT MODE
 Judgement oriented work
 Highly reliant on individual
expertise and experience
 Dependent on star performance
TRANSACTION MODE
 Routine work
 Reliant on formal rules,
procedures and training
 Dependent on low-discretion
workforce or information
Automation and A.I. are
taking over all tasks but
the most complex and
interdependent ones.
The remit of humans will
be reduced to a narrower
but more demanding
skillset.
Source: Davenport, T. (2005). Thinking for a Living: How
to get better performance and results from knowlegde
workers. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press

20. Business & Technical
 Fast and continuous change
 Require permanent forecasting
 Just-in-time
Interpersonal
 Work is becoming
increasingly project-
and team-oriented
 Virtual teams, remote
interaction
 Intercultural context
Outer personal
 Iniciative, positive
outlook, ambition,
information processing…
Inner personal
 Self-knowledge, self-
criticism, learning,
decision making, risk
taking, emotional
resilience…
Adapted from Cardona P. and García-Lombardía, P.
(2005). Como desarrollar las competencias de liderazgo.
Pamplona: EUNSA
These two take
a much longer time
and far more effort
to develop…

21. “For every job, though, the No. 1 thing we look
for is general cognitive ability, and it’s not I.Q.
It’s learning ability. It’s the ability to process on
the fly. It’s the ability to pull together disparate
bits of information.”
− Laszlo Bock, Senior VP of People
Operations, Google

22. “Ultimately, our ability to
continuously learn and adapt
will determine the extent to
which we thrive in today’s
turbulent times.”
− Center for Creative
Leadership
Source: CCL and Columbia University (2012).
Learning About Learning Agility: A White Paper
Innovating Defending
Performing
Reflecting
Risking
4 ENABLERS 1 DERAILER

23. (IRRELEVANT)
“CREATIVE
DESTRUCTION”
OF SURPLUS:
retrain / rotate / outplace
BUY
RETAIN & DEPLOY
TRACK & ATTRACT
DEVELOP
Own
resources
scarce
abundant
Declining GrowingImportance for
business strategy
immediate medium to long term

24. “The company helps transform
the employee’s career and the
employee helps transform the
company”

25. INDIVIDUAL
INTERESTS
“I’d like to work
and gain experience
on business analytics,
because I believe this
will be a valuable skill
in the future.”
COMPANY
INTERESTS
“We have an issue
with changing customer
behaviour patterns. We
need to understand
them better.”
TOUR
OF DUTY
Study the issue
and recommend
the solution.

26. Type of tour
(rotational, transformational,
foundational)
Measurable
outcome
for company
1
4
Mission objective
Measurable
outcome
for employee
2
5
Tour duration
Next steps
3
6
Source: Masie Alliance. The Alliance:
transforming careeres at LinekdIn

27. Source: Wharton Folly:
A Playground of Lifelong Learning

28. 28

30. Permission is
not yours
to give or withhold
Employees
don’t need
your permission
to switch companies