Natalia Hatalska, a futurologist and founder of infuture.institute in Poland, emphasizes the importance of developing certain competencies in today’s world. According to her, emotional resilience and independent, critical thinking are key.
These answers may not be entirely sufficient. Emotional resilience is valuable, but it assumes that the original path is still the right one. It is not.
A person may lose their job due to AI replacing their profession. A company may disappear because its market has changed. A war may alter where one can live or work. In such cases, emotional resilience may not be enough.
The Concept of Megaruption
The International Monetary Fund’s World Uncertainty Index shows that uncertainty has become a persistent condition, rather than a temporary spike. This is known as megaruption, where multiple disruptions overlap and amplify each other.
Under these conditions, returning to the previous path can be the worst possible response. One may recover emotionally, only to continue in the wrong direction.
Learnability and Reinvention
Critical thinking is not a standalone future skill. It’s part of something more demanding: learnability. Learnability is the ability to recognize that what you know may no longer be enough and to adopt new technologies and ideas.
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Learnability alone is not enough. One can understand that the world has changed and still do nothing. This is why reinvention is also essential. Reinvention is the ability to turn learning into a different path, changing what you do and how you create value.
This applies to everyone, not just chief executives. The employee whose role is being automated, the parent wondering what to teach a child, and the professional whose qualifications are aging all need learnability and reinvention.
They often prepare people to endure shocks and return to normal. However, normal is refusing to return. The two competencies they need are learnability and reinvention: the capacity to understand that the path has changed and the courage to choose another one.
The Future of Work
The future will not punish them for failing to bounce back. It will punish them for bouncing back to a world that no longer exists.
In this context, reinvention is not a one-time event, but a continuous process. It requires changing what you do, how you create value, and sometimes, how you see yourself.