Human 9000: Navigating the Future of Work with Attunement, Resilience and Creativity

McKinsey Global Institute’s report, “Jobs Lost, Jobs Gained: Workforce Transitions in a Time of Automation,” predicts that the world of work will be radically transformed by 2030. Working alongside tireless technology, the demand for more “human” skills—social and emotional skills, as well as other higher-level cognitive skills—particularly critical thinking, creativity, and complex information processing—will dramatically increase. Meanwhile, levels of chronic stress will continue to rise, resulting in an even more massive epidemic of occupational burnout than the World Health Organization has identified today. Where will humans fit in tomorrow’s workplace? And how can leaders help them to thrive? The solution exists before our eyes, found within the very science-fiction narratives that inspired (and were in turn, inspired by) disruptive technology: be more human. To succeed in the face of uncertainty, Hamza Khan argues that we must lean into uniquely human qualities that are difficult, if not impossible, to automate. Anything that can be automated, will be automated. What is left becomes even more disproportionately valuable.