On the one hand, we see human life expectancy increasing. On the other, forecasts say machines will displace huge swaths of the global workforce. Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management at London Business School, wants to make sure these two trends don’t result in disaster.
Lynda was a recent guest on NLI’s podcast, Your Brain at Work. Together with NLI Co-Founder and CEO Dr. David Rock, Lynda discussed her research on longevity, learning, and the future of work. One of the main points she made involved a set of questions she believes every employee ought to be asking themselves.
Those two questions are:
- Am I working at a place that will keep me healthy?
- Am I working at a place that will help me learn?
Lynda views these two questions as so vital because they represent aspects of work that can easily go missing, unless leaders actively preserve them.
“We’re moving from a design of life, which is the three-stage life — full-time education, full-time work, full-time retirement — to something that’s much more flexible,” she says. “We call it the multi-stage life. And really, to live that life and to be working into your 70s, you need to be healthy, right the way through your life, but you also need to be constantly learning.”
In other words, those who don’t stay healthy won’t last into their later years. And those who don’t learn won’t adapt to a constantly changing future. In Lynda’s view, employees need to check both boxes in order to thrive in the new world of work.
Want to hear more from Lynda? Check out the entire episode at Simplecast.
[action hash=”ecdd7de9-682b-4ece-b651-65abf5dea52d”]
