Category: Irregular ideas

Small steps let you steer in the right direction more easily, and correct your course if you head in the wrong direction. They are easier to stop and to step back from if they are wrong. They carry less complexity and fewer dependencies. They are easier to get into a rhythm with and to stay motivated.

More and more we are seeing ways of working heading towards smaller and smaller pieces of work. Gee Paw Hill, an early adopter of Extreme Programming and Agile software development, talks about Many More Much Smaller Steps as the route to creating lasting change. James Clear writes in Atomic Habits about the compounding effects of hundreds of small decisions or habits that accumulate over time to produce remarkable results. Lots of people recognise the benefits of small steps in all kinds of contexts.

How might we use the idea of working in smaller and smaller increments? Ask ourselves; what’s the smallest version of this thing I’m doing? Rather than writing a document before getting any other eyes on it, write the outline and share that for feedback. Smaller? Express the purpose of the document in a sentence or two and send it in a chat message for feedback.

Liquid employment is the future of work. The remote/hybrid/office debate is nothing more than groundwork for what is to come. Liquid employment sees people shifting roles, jobs and companies as and when their skills are needed, and at a faster pace than ever.

It’s not hard to see which way the trends are going in employment. Two generations ago there was the expectation of a job for life. Nowadays, the average person has twelve jobs over their working life, and 25 – 34 year old’s only stay in the same job for 2.8 years. Over the next few decades that trend will continue with more people moving into liquid employment. Workers will adopt liquid working because of the freedom and flexibility it offers. Companies will adopt liquid working because it’ll enable them to have the right team at the right time.

How might we use the idea of liquid employment? Diversify skill sets, build a portfolio career and encourage others to do the same. Why rely on one employer to provide all your income when there are a multitude of ways to make money? Don’t ask kids what they want to be when they grow up, ask them what jobs they’re going to create for themselves.

More and more things in life and work demand digital skills. Shopping, applying for jobs, searching for information, finding your way anywhere, managing emails and chat messages, watching TV. Everyone needs digital skills to participate in modern life.

And yet digital skills are not growing at the rate they need to. The number of young people in the UK taking IT subjects at GCSE has fallen by 40% since 2015. Globally, and more so in least developed countries, women are disproportionately disadvantaged with men being 52% more likely to be online than women. Inequality affects life skills as much as it affects everything else.

How might we use the idea of digital skills as life skills? Learn more, teach others. From reminding relatives not to click on links in text messages to volunteering to share your digital skills with a charity or small business, to encouraging your employer to set up a digital volunteering programme, anything and everything we do to improve the digital skills of others improves their life skills and opportunities.