The Third Wave
Why develop these talents in this fundamentally changed world
Introduction
First came the First Wave (i.e. Agriculture), Second Wave (i.e. industries in the countryside) was second to arrive.
Now we are in midst of a tsunami called the third wave, undercurrents of which run deep and fundamentally change the way we work.
“Anyone can destroy, but it is hard to rebuild. Thus, thou shall not destroy until thou can rebuild.”
Now let’s look at ruins of exploded errors of industrial civilization, so that no fragments of truth remain lying hidden among them.
INDUSTRIAL ECONOMY GAVE US…
STANDARDIZATION, CONCENTRATION, PUNCTUALITY, NUCLEAR FAMILY, DAILY COMMUTE, SCHOOL SYSTEM, “9-TO-5””, SPECIALIZATION, SALARY, APPRAISAL, BOSS, “EXPERTS” AND “JOB”; things that were not a very common in agricultural economy.
There was no Standardization as people worked on independent fields.
There was no Concentration of production as one farm or village community being cut-off from other parts of the world by lack of transport, had to self sustain.
Punctuality wasn’t a big issue because unlike a conveyor belt, where if one person is not on time, the production stops, your uncle can milk the cow while you are a little late.
Nuclear family was nowhere to be found as farms had requirement of as many hands as possible unlike industrial world with less space and factory work; and Because you lived on the farm, no Daily commute for you. (Most people never traveled to even 15 miles from the place they were born.)
Schools were not common. Industrialization needed punctual workers who can work by sound of a bell, better start training from childhood, from factory, to school. Children were taught to tell time by clock from an early age as omnipresent need of Synchronization was prevailing.
Concentration of production was to achieve economies of scale. Unlike villages where, whatever was produced was consumed immediately, work was done in shifts to keep machines busy. Economy got people working like machines, dancing like machines, to the tune of clickety clack of buzzing and wheezing engines and tools.
All of this has changed.
Behold the rise of the Third Wave.
Welcome to the knowledge economy.
- Work from home.
- Negligible transport ( because internet !)
- Education not limited to schools.
- Fiber Optics, “Business at the speed of light”.
Libraries were used to create Google.
Google killed Library.
Horse carriage was to carry humanity, until we created cars.
Cars killed carriages.
Mass production was built to create a world where humans can give instruct machines to do the work.
We have created the world.
Welcome to the Knowledge Economy.
All we have now, on our To-Do list, is to improve human potential.
From Standardisation to Customization: Customer has options, hence people need to develop talent of looking at customer needs and accept diversity.
From Concentration to Decentralization: which follows form demand for customization, hence developing talent so that employees can take charge and be their own boss.
From Synchronization to deadlines: because pieces of work (read: digital instructions ) can be brought together with ease, but still within a timeframe. Thus rather than waking up and working at certain time, “deliver by EOD (End of the Day) has become a phrase.
From schools to internships and digital education: because we don’t need pure obedience or compliance, but an ability or talent to learn, unlearn and relearn.
From Experts to Competent communicators: because of increasingly complex world we need people who know other person’s expertise to collaborate and talent developed to synthesize.
From Job loyalty to Outsource-hire and ”get-an-intern”: because repetitive work can be outsourced, learning about the market, development of managerial knowledge is the most important thing to be done inhouse.
Develop these talents or the organisation comes tumbling down like a house of cards. These talents are essential because of the structure of the knowledge economy being different from industrial one.
Talent to read this was also a requirement of knowledge economy.
Develop these talents or Parish.
Ignore the subtle, at your own peril.
