Success in the 21st century may2017-mbcc

5/20/2017 www.Above orBeyondJM.com 1
Leahcim Semaj. PhD

Click Below For Audio Track
https://soundcloud.com/leahcim-semaj-
573430449/success-in-the-21st-century

Skills, Competencies And Attitudes Needed For Success
In The World of Work Today.
May 16, 2017

Leahcim Semaj, Ph.D.
Chief Ideator & Resultant
The JobBank/ Above or Beyond
5/20/2017 4
Keep In Touch!
www.Above orBeyondJM.com

Today’s Flight Plan
 Exploring the dynamics of youth unemployment: Challenges and
Solutions
 Jamaica's Youth Unemployment level
 The reasons for this high unemployment rate among young people
 What young people are doing right, what they are doing wrong
 Are Tertiary institutions like MBCC responding to the reality?
 What are we not taking into consideration?

‘Pathways to Prosperity’
 One of the major reasons for Jamaica continuing to be poor is
because
 we have not succeeded in unlocking the entrepreneurial
productive capabilities of the majority of our people.
 To a large extent our socialization mantra for the majority of our
people has been and still is –
 "Go to school, study hard, pass your exams
then go beg a job".

Many Jamaicans from the Majority Class
 who have started business have done so
unwillingly, as a second option,
 many times because they were fired.
 Many of these reluctant business persons do not
aspire for their children to come into the business to
expand it
 or to start on of one of their own.

Many Jamaicans from the Majority Class
 They often do not even socialize the children
into the workings of the business.
 They continue to preach the same mantra to
their children.
 "Go to school, study hard, pass
your exams then go beg a job".

The only difference is that
 they now wish that the children make it into the
professional class.
 (Ideally something ending in 'er').
 This has not been the situation for the ethnic
minorities who have run businesses
 and have socialized their children to continue to do just that.

The Other Jamaica
 Many years ago I had a very important conversation with
the patriarch of one of Jamaica's business families.
 I was directing a project to align the cultures of the
hospitality resorts over which he presided.
 I wanted to understand what were some of the critical
forces driving the family business.
 He told me a story about his children, who on
completing High School being desirous of going to
college,
 even though it was understood that they would be coming
into the family business.
 This was not a concern because he had gone to college.

The Other Jamaica
 The 'problem' arose when upon completing the degree, they
wanted to go on to Graduate School.
 One child wanted to study finance while another wanted to
study marketing.
 His biggest concern however, was for the one who was
talking of 'becoming' an accountant.
 He wondered where he had failed.
 This drove him to arrange a meeting between the
'misguided' offspring and the grandfather who carefully
explained to the grandson;
 "You do not become an accountant, you hire an accountant."

The Business Class
 How many of Jamaica's ethnic minority
business families have had similar
conversations with their children over the
decades?
 They have been socializing their children
to own the means of production.

The Majority Class
 What proportion of the Black majority
has heard any such admonition?
 We have serious work to do if we are to
release the creative, entrepreneurial and
productive capacity
 of the mass of our people.

Rex Nettleford
 in his inimitable way,
 long ago reminded us that the
foundation of the Jamaican
economy was created by the
bottom third of the class (room),
 those with less academic
achievements, that left school
and went out and created
businesses.
 They then hired the top third of the
class to run those businesses.

The accumulated result of this experience
 is that up until today the majority of Black
Jamaicans' main aspiration is to get a job in
one of the industries run by the ethnic
minorities
 or to get a "safe and secure" job in the
Government service.
 This process has not significantly changed.
 Many Jamaicans of the Black Majority cohort
still hold these aspirations.

We are now in The New Work Order.
 It is no longer muscle of the masses toiling in the
cane field and factories that drive the economy.
 It is now brain power driving intellectually based
enterprises that powers knowledge based
economies.
 The requirement today is for the top third of the
class to go out and create the jobs for the rest of
the class,
 if Jamaica is to be able to evolve into new economies that runs
the world.

Post Colonial and Post Independence Jamaica
 had a different dynamics than we do today.
 The realities of the global, regional and especially
the national economy
 Job growth has been disproportion to
population growth.

READING THE TRANSFORMATION
1970 - Future Shock - Alvin Toffler
The coming post-industrial
1980 - The Third Wave - Alvin Tofler
The New Work Order approaches
1991 - The Work of Nations- Robert Reich The
New Work Order is here
1995 - The End of Work- Jeremy Rifkin
The Coming Work Order

“The End of Work”
 In the book "The End of Work" Jeremy Rifkin predicted from
as far back as 1995 that
 many of the low skilled and low paying jobs would shift to China
once they became part of the WTO.
 "Mr. Chin" will work for $1 per day and a bowl of rice,
 Jamaicans will not

What Got
You Here
Wont Get You There
Unless You Find A New Gear
The Bad News

225/20/2017 225/20/2017 22
“We have all that we need
to create what we want
because all the resources
we need are in our minds”
Theodore Roosevelt

6 Paths to Prosperity in Jamaica
The Best & The
Brightest
• The best way to get a job today
The Tried & The
Proven
• No more retirement
The Fittest & The
Fastest
• Our natural resource
The Dangerous &
Desperate
• Productive or Destructive
Health & Wellness
• Leading force globally
The Resurrection
of Ganganomics
• Our green gold

The Entrepreneur
The Employee
The Dependent
Transformation of the Work World

The Jamaican Hybrids
 Roasting
 run business on
someone else's costs
 Hustling
 seasonal opportunities
 Owning a job
 one person operation
27www.Above orBeyondJM.com5/20/2017

What’s Your Choice?
Small Business
Operator?
Entrepreneur?
Entrepreneurship, Competitiveness and Development
Dr. Sandra Palmer, Ms. Mardene Carr and Dr. Leahcim Semaj
www.Academia.edu (2014)

Entrepreneurs
 Wealth Creation/Financial Freedom in ~ 5 years
 Focus on growth, expansion and innovation
 Works on the business *Takes more risks
 Strategist *Business is an asset to develop, shape, sell
 Thrilling ride *Investors/Financiers
 Willing to risk it all *Wants to change the word
 Leave a legacy *Trouble-shooter
 Visionary *Embracing the urge to create
 New business model *Mindset to roam freely

Small Business Operators
 Wealth creation could take a lifetime
 Repetitive tasks *Works in the business
 Focus on stability, improving the bottom-line steadily
 Day to day manager and worker
 Sentimental about business *Survival
 Slow, steady climb *Personal funds
 Not looking to go public
 No goal to be on the cover of Forbes or Fortune
 Wants to make a comfortable living
 Mitigating risks *Minimising mistakes

The 7 Other Reasons
Why Businesses Fail in Jamaica

Why Businesses Fail in Jamaica
 1. Post slavery laws forbidding Black people from doing business
 Mothers and Wives
 2. Your DT Degree
 What did your parents do?
 3. Poor Understanding of what people want and who is willing to pay for what
 4. Limited knowledge of how money works
 5. Forgetting how Human Capital and Social Capital built rural Jamaica
 6. Ignorance of the work of Adam Smith - 4 Capitals
 7. Lack of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)

1. Post slavery laws forbidding Black
people from doing business

2. Your DT Degree
What did your parents do?

3. Poor understanding of what people want
and are willing to pay for

4. Limited knowledge of how
money really works

5. Forgetting how Human Capital and
Social Capital built rural Jamaica
Human
Capital
Social
Capital

6. Ignorance of the work of Adam Smith - 4 Capitals
 The 4 types of Capital
 1) useful machines, instruments of the trade
 2) buildings as the means of procuring
revenue
 3) improvements of land
 4) human capital
5/20/2017 38

Global Economic Transformation
The Industrial
Revolution
1830 - 1840
The Abolition
of Slavery
1834 -1838
5/20/2017 39www.Above orBeyondJM.com

Global Economic Transformation
Slavery
 The Slave Trade Act was
an Act of Parliament of
the United Kingdom passed
on 25 March 1807
 The Abolition of Slavery
 1834 -1838
The Industrial
Revolution
 The period of time
covered by the Industrial
Revolution varies with
different historians.
 A common view is that it
was not fully felt until
 1830s to 1840s

Who are you going to believe?


Who are you going to believe?
It takes cash
to care
• Edward Seaga
Labour was the first price,
the original purchase
money that was paid for all
things. It was not by gold or
by silver, but by labour, that
all wealth of the world was
originally purchased.
Adam Smith

7. Lack of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
 In any year Business Format Franchises report a success rate
of 95%
 in contrast to the 50% failure rate of new independently owned
businesses
 Where 80% of all businesses fail in the first 5 years,
 75% of all Business Format Franchises succeed!

5/20/2017 www.Above
orBeyondJM.com
44
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Reading The Future

In the future,
 "everything that can be routinized,
codified, and dissected will
eventually be done by machines.
 Social and emotional intelligence is
what humans are uniquely good at
 at least for the next decade or two."

UNEMPLOYMENT!
Growing Global Challenge
Mismatch Between Skill Sets and Jobs
Now powered by technology
Fueled by information and knowledge
Shift from industrial to a knowledge economy

The Youth Challenge
 Global youth unemployment (ILO)
 2013 – 12.6%
 2018 – 12.8%
 Jamaica – 16%
 Spain, Greece & South Africa – 50%

Teens Investing in Their Future
 Over the last 20 years, there has been a dramatic
change in how US teens prioritize their lives,
 employment no longer plays as important a role
 explains John A. Challenger, the CEO of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.
 Some young persons are weighing the options and
conclude that
 sports, clubs and summer school are more likely to pay better
dividends over the long run, compared to a minimum wage job
in fast food.
 Keturah Hetrick - Source: Challenger, Gray & Christmas
 THE IMPLICATION FOR JAMAICA?

The Skill Set For The Future

Social intelligence:
 Trust
 Collaboration
 Teamwork

Agile Thinking:
 Today uncertainty rules the market,
 changes are abrupt
 yesterday’s market conditions are different to today’s.
 Creative thinking,
 the ability to innovate,
 deal with complexity, ambiguity, and paradoxes
 prepare for more than one scenario
 critical for future success.

Human-machine Collaboration
And Co-dependence:
 Digital and technology skills are not only nice
to have, they are a necessity.
 workplace automation and human-machine
dependence
 a workplace where human-machine
collaboration and co-dependence is the norm.

Cross-cultural skills:
 Cross-cultural understanding and communication
 global operating skills such as
 the ability to manage diverse employees
 understanding international markets
 ability to work in multiple overseas locations
 foreign language skills
 cultural sensitivity
 will be increasingly in demand over the next 5 to 10 years.

The Innovative, Entrepreneurial Mindset:
 The ability to innovate
 “self-starter”
 “risk-taker”
 “visionary”
 someone who “spots opportunity”
 You don't need to own a business to be an
entrepreneur,
 but you do need the entrepreneurial mindset to be successful
in business.”

Leadership skills:
 Businesses today operate in two time frames,
 the immediate and the very long term,
 the ability to manage contradictions will be critical.
 This requires finding new ways of working together.
 Major barrier to engagement is trust
 must be central to the thinking of future leaders.

The Unspoken Rules Of The
Workplace No One Tells You
ANISA PURBASARI HORTON
https://www.fastcompany.com/40419679/new-graduates-these-are-the-new-
unspoken-rules-of-the-workplace-you-need-to-know

Graduation is an exciting (and scary) time;
 you’re leaving a world where you know all the rules and entering into a world
where what’s expected of you often isn’t so clear cut.
 The rules that truly matter in the workplace are often not written anywhere–
they’re simply things that those who have been in it for a while consider to be
obvious.
 Many learn these unspoken rules through trial and error, and some do it by
observing others’ mistakes.
 But if you’re a recent graduate, there’s no reason why you can’t get a head
start on day one of your entry-level job.

RULE NO. 1: YOU ARE THERE TO DO YOUR JOB
 Your desire to go “above and beyond” can sometimes result in being
spread too thin and compromising the work that you were hired to do in
the first place.
 You might be good at everything, but when you’re hired for the job, you
have to focus on the task at hand.
 First thing: Meet the expectations of your primary responsibilities.
 Sometimes as a young employee, you have to hold back.

RULE NO. 2: IT’S UP TO YOU TO FIGURE THINGS OUT
 When you’re in college, you’re given a syllabus of readings,
assignments, and exam dates.
 You know exactly what you are supposed to do by which date,
 and you have a person who tells you what you need to learn, and who
points you in the right direction when you’re completely lost.
 This is not the case in the workplace.
 “Learning doesn’t happen like it does in the classroom, “Nobody is
going to sit down and teach you.”

RULE NO. 3: FEEDBACK WILL NOT COME AUTOMATICALLY
 school is structured in a way where immediate feedback is
built into the grading system.
 But in the workplace, You’re not getting graded on every
single task that you do.
 In many cases, it’s up to you to ask for feedback, but it’s
also important that you pick the right circumstances and
ask the right questions.

RULE NO. 4: ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
 As a junior employee, it’s highly likely that you’ll be tasked
with administrative duties at some point, which might seem
mundane but also equally easy to mess up.
 At times, the cost of these mistakes might be small, but
there will be times where not paying attention to detail can
hurt the company, and perhaps even put your job in
jeopardy.

RULE NO. 5: UNDERSTANDING HOW YOU FIT IN THE
BIGGER PICTURE GOES A LONG WAY
 “When you come in as a new person, you’re very focused and you become
specialized in what you do, and because you’re learning it for the first time, it’s
hard to see a bigger picture.”
 Understanding how your role fits into the bigger picture will also help you find
more meaning in your work, because you know why what you do matters, even if
it seems like a very tiny slice of the pie.
 Given the amount of time you’ll spend at work in your lifetime, a happy work life is
a crucial ingredient to a happy life.

RULE NO. 6: COMPANIES ARE NOT OBLIGED TO
CONSIDER YOUR NEEDS AND INTERESTS
 This one is perhaps the hardest to swallow, but other than what
they’re required to do by law and what’s stated on your employment
agreement, in most instances, companies don’t owe you anything.
 As an employee, your job is to bring value to the company, and at
times, that might mean putting their needs ahead of yours.

RULE NO. 7: NO ONE WILL CARE ABOUT
YOUR CAREER AS MUCH AS YOU
 At the end of the day, organizations exist to make money or serve a specific
mission,
 not to think about how they can best serve an employee’s career.
 Sometimes, that could mean figuring out how you want to grow, and designing that
framework yourself if there is none in your job or your company.
 It’s very rare that you’ll have someone looking over your shoulder every day to
check on your career progress.
 it’s about really understanding your role, what that entails, and whether they
align with your priorities in life.

2 Billion Jobs to Disappear
by 2030
by Thomas Frey
5/20/2017 67 www.Above orBeyondJM.com
http://www.wfs.org/content/2-billion-jobs-disappear-2030

2 Billion Jobs Disappearing
 roughly 50% of all
the jobs on the
planet  doom and
gloom
outlook?

This is a wakeup call
 To Governments & Unions
 letting the world know
 how quickly things are about to change,
 letting academia know
 that much of the battle ahead will be
taking place at their doorstep

The Results
 Learn new
skills
every
5 years
 Change
career
every
10 years

The Best & The
Brightest
• The best way to get a job today
The Tried & The
Proven
• No more retirement
The Fittest & The
Fastest
• Our natural resource
The Dangerous &
Desperate
• Productive or Destructive
Health & Wellness
• Leading force globally
The Resurrection
of Ganganomics
• Our green gold

They are in the best position today!
Path 1. The Best And The Brightest

Today
 Youth unemployment is rising and
jobs have become scarce for those
leaving school
 They can save themselves
 (and the rest of us),
 if they choose to accept the
challenge.

What do they bring to the table?
 They are the most tech savvy and demanding generation
ever on this planet
 Technology is in their DNA.
 The internet is their life.
 They will use it for everything
 They will be a transient workforce.
 They will 'follow the work' and live where the work is based.

Gleaner Study on Migration (Jan 12, 2014)
Education levels of those who would migrate
 Less than high school …..28%
 High School/HEART …….. 37%
 College, University, Graduate School
……………………………. 43%

What do they bring to the table?
 They are the most tech savvy and demanding
generation ever on this planet
 Technology is in their DNA.
 The internet is their life.
 They will use it for everything
 They will be a transient workforce.
 They will 'follow the work' and live where the
work is based.

What do you bring to the table?
 For them the virtual world is real –
 Friends, Fans, Followers and Contacts
 Geography and distance are
 no hindrance,
 Everything is here and now - just a click away.
 Gil Scott Heron
 told us that The revolution would not be televised
 But now we have
 Facebook, Twitter and BB!

What do They bring to the table?
 They are more self-directed
 They process information at lightning speed.
 They are smarter than any other generation
 (how wise? Time will tell?)

What do you bring to the table?
 They will give new meaning to the term Social
workers:
 Raised in an educational culture of working in
teams
 and being highly socially connected through
 computers, cell phones, text messaging,
instant messaging, social networking,
 blogs, multi-player gaming, etc.,

What do They bring to the table?
 This Generation are extremely social
workers.
 The first generation to begin to build
relationships virtually
 and are now bringing a culture of
constantly working together

It is now time to
Get Disruptive!
Innovation Starts With Disruptive
Hypotheses
 (Luke Williams)

A disruptive hypothesis
 is an intentionally unreasonable statement that gets
your thinking flowing in a different direction.
 …are designed to upset your comfortable equilibrium
and bring about an accelerated change in your own
thinking.

A disruptive hypothesis
 The ability to ask, “What if?”
 is an essential part of every
thinking person’s skill set

With a disruptive hypothesis,
 You don’t make a reasonable prediction
 Such as…
 if I charge the battery, the phone will work.
 Instead,
 you make an unreasonable provocation
 What if a cell phone didn’t need a battery
at all?
 You education to date has been predictive
 You were socialized to
 “see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?

It is now time to get provocative,
 time to dream things as they never
were and ask…
 ‘What if?’

What should They Want to Disrupt?
 Our pathological politics?
 Our anemic economic model?
 Our CRIMINAL justice system?
 Our sick Health care?
 Our Education system which has failed
the majority?

…. Take your pick
 Once you have a situation to
focus on, describe it in one
sentence:
 “How can I disrupt the present
reality by delivering an
unexpected solution?”

Disruptive Thinking
Facilitates Foresight
 The Single Most Critical Skill for the
21st Century
 Foresight is...
 The Secret Ingredient of Success
 Critical to achievement in all areas of your life.

Foresight is…
 the key to survival in a world of disruptive innovation.
 enables you to see opportunities,
 avoid threats, and chart the fastest path to your goals.
 People who lack foresight
 are likely to find themselves unemployed
 when jobs are unexpectedly lost
 to new technologies,
 competition from overseas,
 or shifts in consumer tastes.

It is imperative that….
 they disrupt the status quo that is
now stifling our country
 and become the Leaders,
 not just Observers of these global
trends.

What is Your Dharma?
5/20/2017 www.Above
orBeyondJM.com
92

5/20/2017 www.Above
orBeyondJM.com
93
 To Raise the (spiritually) dead
 Heal the (Mentally and Physically) sick
 Teach those who did not learn
 Remind those who have forgotten.
 So that they may become
 Wiser, Healthier, Wealthier and Happier
 in Body, Mind and Spirit

5/20/2017 www.Above 94
Develop Job Creation Skills
 What is Your (Dharma) Passion?
 What Desire can you fulfill
 Or Problems you can solve?
 Who is willing to Pay?
 What can you deliver?
a product - a skill - a service?
 Go out and find customers

www.Above orBeyondJM.com 95
Develop Job Creation Skills
 What needs exist?
 Who is willing to Pay?
 What can you deliver?
a product - a skill - a service?
 Go out and find customers
5/20/2017

You Are The Best and The
Brightest
– You are in the best position today!

We will begin with this Pathway
Path 1. The Best And The Brightest

- Jamaican Proverb
- Theodore Roethke
Dr. Leahcim Semaj
ABOVEorBEYONDJM.COM

Dr. Leahcim Semaj
ABOVEorBEYONDJM.COM

Leahcim Semaj, Ph.D.
Chief Ideator & Resultant
The JobBank/ Above or Beyond
5/20/2017 102
Keep In Touch!
www.Above orBeyondJM.com

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