#ATD2018 Keynote: Marcus Buckingham

This post actually addresses two important topics. This began the third day of the conference for the Association of Talent Development. Tara Deakin, 2018 ATD Board of Directors Chair, began the presentation. She then introduced the keynote speaker, Marcus Buckingham. 

Tara Deakin – Reskilling for AI and Robotics

Tara Deakin began by highlighting the 75th anniversary of ATD. She noted that in 1943 a group of people got together to discuss how to transform work. This was in part because men were sent to fight the war and women were being used in the workplace. There was a necessity for reskilling. She noted that we are now in another age where we’re going to have to do the same. Artificial intelligence and robotics will require us to continuously reskill labor, which is causing anxiety in many people.

Artificial intelligence will continue to grow and by 2030 artificial intelligence and automation will impact hundreds of millions of jobs. People will have to change jobs in order to continue working. It is essential for educators to learn about artificial intelligence, its impact, and how to use it in support of education.

Deakin stressed we all need to be knowledge workers, frontline problem solvers, and lifelong learners. Skills we need to develop skills including learning agility so that we can learn across our lifetime; career dexterity so that we can easily switch careers; and digital and data fluency so we can help maintain automated systems.

She predicts that our labor force will have a lot more freelancers working for companies. Companies will be using more virtual assistants for short-term projects rather than hiring full-time employees.

Deakin works for a bank and they are using artificial intelligence to help match work for the right workers. Additionally, they are using AI as a robocoach to help identify areas where training is needed and also helping to provide that training.

One of the books that she recommended was Human + Machine: Reimagining Work in the Age of AI. It’s a book I will certainly be reading. Deakin noted we will have to train, explain, and maintain artificial intelligence in future.

She asked two questions

What is a disruptive technology affecting you?

How will you use artificial intelligence?

In order to get through this change, we will have to embrace change and upgrade our skills. She noted that the Association for Talent Development is updating their ATD competency model to address these new skills—artificial intelligence and automation.

Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham came out and thoroughly entertain the crowd with his presentation skills. The first question he asked was, “Did we have an earthquake?” Apparently, we had an earthquake and I slept through it.

Buckingham was promoting his new book, Nine Lies About Work. This is another book that I will pick up and read. His presentation for the day focused on the research that he had completed for the book.

Basically, he and his team looked at how people work. They used a free-thinking study approach to look at things as they are in the workplace. The big emphasis was to study what was working rather than what was not working. Buckingham said this is often in contrast to how we normally do studies. He provided an example of looking at leadership by studying exit interviews. Instead, they studied what good leaders were doing.

He stressed the importance of doing after-action reviews to see what works. He emphasized studying what is exceptional.

An example that he uses comes from his book Nine Lies About Work. Lie number 6 focused on the lie that people can reliably rate each other. Buckingham pointed out that people are not good raters of other people. Sixty-two percent of the rating pattern found in performance reviews is a reflection of the rater not necessarily of the person being rated. A 360 evaluation is bad data added to bad data which doesn’t necessarily make good data. He discussed this further in a Harvard Business Review article called “Reinventing Performance Reviews“.

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” ~ Mark Twain

Nine Lies About Work

• People care what company they work for
• Best plans win
• Best companies cascade goals
• Well-rounded people are better
• People crave feedback
• People can reliably rate each other
• People have potential
• We should seek work-life balance
• Leadership is a thing

Buckingham then went into the main topic of his presentation. He focused on chapter four of his book, “well-rounded people are better”.

He noted that we tend to focus on weak areas rather than on strengths. He then went on to highlight different individuals who are known for their strengths and have been successful— Warren Buffett, Richard Branson, Beyonce, Adele, and others. No one would tell them that they needed to work on weak areas.

He talked about a specific soccer player named Lionel Messi. Messi at a very young age was a soccer prodigy. He was brought into the farmhouse in order to develop his soccer skills. After a very short time, the trainers realized that it would be a waste of time for him to develop into a “well-rounded” soccer player by having him strengthen the skill with his right foot. Instead, they emphasized to him to develop his left foot and to become extremely dangerous on the soccer field. They then encouraged him to focus on his strength. Buckingham then asked the question:

What is your left foot?

So as I was thinking about what Buckingham said, it made me ask why do we consider students unsuccessful if say they are not adept at math but they are gifted writers. Why do we hold them back from going on to a writing program or a master’s degree in writing because they had a low GPA due to math? Schools will not accept somebody because their GPA is poor because they were unsuccessful in the area where they’re not gifted. Why do we do that?

We need to leverage strengths versus trying to fix weaknesses. When you get hired for a company, you get hired based on the strengths you’re going to bring the company not the weaknesses you have. If you’re a CEO and you are not good at bookkeeping, you hire somebody who is good at bookkeeping. I look at my own little business. I realize I’m not good at graphic design. I hire someone to do the graphics for me.

Buckingham pointed out if you want your child to learn more, focus on what they learn best. We hamper learning when we stress about weaknesses. We need to let each individual realize their own need to develop in different areas. Talent development means we need to develop their talents—the things that they’re good at.

Help people find their left foot and help them develop it intelligently.

Red Thread

Buckingham pointed out that people are happy when they’re successful. The key to success is to love what you do. Many people who are successful are more productive, resilient, generous, and collaborative because they love what they do. This is because they were able to make the job that they love.

What you love doing is a red thread. In order to achieve success, you need to get at least 20% of these red threads. Weaknesses any activity that weakens you. What you love, strengthens you. You need to go out and find your red threads.

Technique + discipline – love = burnout.

Buckingham left us with this last quote

“The power of human nature is that each human’s nature is unique.” ~Marcus Buckingham

Additional Reading

• Book Review: The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
• Book Review: The Seventh Sense

Photo by Franck V. on Unsplash

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