Jacob Morgan, Futurist and Best-Selling Author joins The Leadership Podcast to discuss the future of work in the context of leadership and the employee experience. Jacob talks about interviewing 120 CEO’s and 11,000 employees about the future of leadership and what will be required of the leader in 2023. He also shares how he sees the role of AI and technology impacting what is right around the corner, and the one thing he recommends people do now to prepare for the future of work.

Key Takeaways

[4:18] Jacob set forth on a mission to do a one of a kind, in depth interview of 120 CEOs that are currently shaping the world and 11,000 employees to talk about what skills will be relevant in the future. They also are answering questions about talent, automation, and how organizations can do an even better job of addressing these things. All one hour long interviews end up to be about 10-12 pages transcribed, so Jacob will have well over 1,000 pages of high value answers.

[7:55] Jacob is teaming up with LinkedIn to help parse out the information given to him from the 11,000 employees he interviewed. A large part of it is talking about what the future leaders of tomorrow can do today to prepare.

[8:49] Jacob is finding that the answers the CEOs are giving don’t always align with the data you see on various media sites and publications. For people that want to grow into the position of a leader, this will help them understand the trends, embrace the mindset, and acquire the skills they will need to get to the next level.

[11:18] We must continue to balance the human side of work with what technology is capable of.

[15:02] Consuming information is great, but we need to practice what we learn. The learning comes from doing it, not just watching it.

[17:39] Great leaders lead by example and show their empathy and self awareness to their employees, they don’t just talk about it.

[18:17] Jacob’s book, The Employee Experience Advantage, gathered information from  252 companies to find out what employees care about most at work including  employee experience culture, technology and physical space.

[21:42] The goal of Jacob’s Future of Work University is to create courses and programs that are designed for the new world of work that you can’t find elsewhere.  It’s all about teaching you the skill to build organizations where people want to show up to work, and in turn to future proof your career and company.

[34:21] Futurists aren’t psychics, but they are able to study and identify past and present scenarios to predict the future.  

[39:41] Technology can help us make decisions, but we shouldn’t reply completely upon it.

[41:26] In a world of fluctuating attention spans, Jacob finds it necessary to put his message out on different mediums and platforms including podcasts, teaching videos, and social media.

[45:03] Take accountability and take things into your own hands. Don’t wait for someone else or a certain scenario to live for your life.

[47:27] Lift your head up and see what is going on around you.

How to Contact Jacob:

Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Website | Book | Podcast

Quotable Quotes

• “Futurists don’t predict the future, but we are good at coming up with possibilities and scenarios of what the future may bring.”
• “We try to not be surprised of what the future may bring.”
• “When you make decisions purely based on data and algorithms, you may get some incorrect decisions.”
• “It’s not good to rely 100% on technology for decision making, but it can help.”
• “Pay attention to the tangential.”

Additional Mentions:

• Future of Work University
• Future of Leadership
• A Study of Engineering Education
• Coursera
• Ed Schein
• Forget About Authenticity, Says Seth Godin
• How We Teach Digital Skills at PWC
• Master of Science in Foresight – University of Houston