Last Thursday, I attended the 138th APTS Networking and Training Workshop.
Our first speaker was Dickson Tang (of Ideaschap), who spoke on Creativity and its importance in the future of work.
Though we are, inevitably, marching towards a future of automation and artificial intelligence, there are things that machines and computers cannot do well. As good as they are at analysis and logic, they cannot solve creatively.
In that, we have our advantage over them. To that end, Dickson shared 3 things that will be important in an automated future:
An INDIVIDUAL MINDSET that is creative and, instead of saying, “Cannot!” asks “Why not?”
A team INFRASTRUCTURE that is held together by making and learning from mistakes and strives to become well-versed in multiple disciplines.
A bank of IDEAS derived from figuring out how we can add to, subtract from, multiply by or divide up our current thoughts and methods.
He encouraged us to take time to ponder over these points and apply them to what we are already currently doing.
After a short break, we had our second speaker – Vivek Iyyani who spoke about Motivating Millennials at the Workplace.
He shared the identity and motivations of the Millennials and, true to the Millenials’ embrace of technology, he made use of an audience-interactive online service that allowed us to immediately post our thoughts on the presentation screen.
He reminded us that, though the Millennials are often portrayed negatively, they are a product of previous generations and they still look to their elders for wisdom and feedback.
In order to lead Millennials, he emphasises that the previous generations have to appeal to their values and take the time to understand and mentor them. It is in the interests of superiors in the workplace (especially bosses) to make the work environment conducive to the Millennials using his 10F Model. I'll just mention a couple of them briefly:
FUN – to appeal to and cultivate their passions
FLEXIBILITY – to aid in work-life integration
FORTUNE – in benefits, not necessarily money
As a Millennial myself, I would certainly be more attracted to a workplace that has these things in place.
Once again, thank you, Dickson and Vivek for sharing your expertise and for making it such a fruitful evening.
