Heather McGowan on learning, adapting & identity in the future of work

Heather McGowan is the most thoughtful writer and speaker I follow on the future of work. She is able to connect the dots between work, culture, society and identity in a way that has captured the attention of many individuals, companies and universities around the world.

Heather’s career is also a perfect example of the type of path and work that was not possible in the past. Reflecting on her path she admits “this field just sort of emerged.” As her career has shifted more towards speaking, she has been able to design her life around learning. Through her talks, she is able to get feedback and combined with her own curiosity, it helps her focus on what to learn next.

In the working world, she focuses on how we can think about learning and work in a more holistic way and traces many challenges back to education. She cites research from Gallup showing that: “while 74% of surveyed fifth-graders are engaged with school, just 32% of surveyed 11th-graders are engaged.” Perhaps some of that disengagement is because people aren’t too excited about their job prospects. She worries that organizations in the short-term are still too focused on productivity, which depersonalizes the experience of work. As work increasingly becomes specialized - she calls it “atomization” - she fears that we will increasingly only focused on “explicit knowledge” instead of the deeper tacit knowledge that makes us special.

Find out more about Heather's work here or follow her on Linkedin.

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