Recently, I spoke at a university dinner in which I explained why it's vital that higher ed teach "soft power" skills. That's for two reasons:
1) No matter how you define it, success depends on the skillful use of soft power. Healthy family relationships, for example, require listening to learn, not to win. Same with building creative, innovative teams at work.
Increasingly, employers don't care whether you graduated from a "brand" school. (In fact, that could be reason for suspicion.) Instead, employers care whether you bring needed skills to the table *right now*. Hence reason two for teaching how to exercise "soft power":
2) In the A.I. economy, people will pay a premium to work with individuals who value building trust through relationships. Last week, the co-authors of a New York Times essay put it this way:
"Today the knowledge economy is giving way to a relationship economy..."
"Communication is already the most in-demand skill across jobs on LinkedIn today. Even experts in A.I. are observing that the skills we need to work well with A.I. systems, such as prompting, are similar to the skills we need to communicate and reason effectively with other people..." That includes "building interpersonal relationships, negotiating between parties and guiding and motivating teams."
"We believe there will be engineers in the future, but they will most likely spend less time coding and more time on tasks like collaboration and communication. We also believe that there will be new categories of jobs that emerge as a result of A.I.’s capabilities... and that those jobs will probably be anchored increasingly around people skills."
This is why, most days, I get out of bed pumped with purpose. I see a rich opportunity here for higher ed to reimagine the liberal arts -- from what detractors would've called frills to what they actually can be: skills.
#higheredleadership #skillsforlife #studentsuccess #liberalarts #ai #BeMoralCourage
Allison Gerrard Kathryn Enke Marc Westenburg Elizabeth Cantwell
Ready to shake up the status quo of higher ed? At Moral Courage, we're helping to rewrite the rules of what college and university are for. According to more and more employers, prestigious credentials are out; practical skills are in.
Like the team-building skill set of communicating effectively across divides. It empowers students to hear others and be heard in turn. That has immediate impact – in every area of life.
You hear us? Then join us ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e-4VPb_i
#HigherEd #BeMoralCourage #EmotionalIntelligence #EthicalLeadership #StudentLife #CampusLife
Irshad Manji Allison Gerrard
Enabling Seamless Connections: Empowering Companies to Leverage Cutting-Edge Technology Solutions
2moAs a partner of Oxford, I'd have to say this video is right on the mark. Very happy to have had and continue to have the pleasure of working along side some of the best people in the industry.