About serial mastery and social media

One of my interest areas is the professionalisation process of professionals. How do you become a master, an expert, a thought leader? What are the best ways to learn individually and collectively?

Shift- the future of work is already here

An inspiring book in that context is 'The shift by Linda Gratton'- a must read book if you are interested in the future of work. She is a professor at the London Business School and describes in her book what work and the jobs of the future will look like. The reason for her research and book was the quest of her sons to find a study areas, one wants to be a journalist and the other wants to study medicine. Is that smart? Will that earn that a living in the future? But it is not only an interesting read with the future of your children in mind, but also for yourself.

The new poor

Gratton's story is not sheer positive. She describes a process of globalization in which the 'new poor' and 'talented' can live anywhere. Your birth in the Netherlands, Europe or the US will no longer be a guarantee for a good job, we must increasingly compete with other professionals from around the world (not without reason that the tigers moms in China described by Amy Chua get so much attention). And ofcourse that's already happening. Hence a focus on self-promotion and branding rather than modesty will be normal for professionals. This too is a shift that you can already see happening. If you are self-employed like me, you can still function without a blog using your old networks and offline networking skills. However, increasingly you have an advantage if you know how to brand yourself online and to find your professional voice.

From shallow generalists to serial mastery

The book also talking about the shift from shallow generalist to serial master. A serial master has a deep knowledge and competencies in several domains. So you have to specialize, and you will need and discover a new domain of relevance every few years or so. Interestingly enough, that's like reading about myself, when I started as an irrigation engineer, morphed into an organisational advisor and I'm currently a specialist in the design and facilitation of learning processes. I typically had three-year contracts. This forces you to become a sort of serial master, because after two years if you have to start thinking what you would like to do next.

The new self-directed learning = Learning

I was asked to facilitate two workshops about the 'new learning' for career counselors. Below you can find the presentation in Dutch (in a prezi).

NOLOC presentatie on Prezi

I zoomed in on 'the new learning' (hate the word!) as self-directed learning, which can be nicely linked to the vision of Lynda Gratton: serial masters are professionals who continuously develop themselves driven by their own interests and passions (after all it is not called "serial education"). After this introduction, we did a line-up exercise with the participants who were asked to what extent they consider themselves "new learners". Interesting points in this discussion were:

• There is quite some confusion about the term 'new learning'. Is it primarily about the use of online tools or is it about more than the tools, ie an attitude towards learning in which professionals take matters into your own hands? I think the latter.

• Even when you use the definition of self-directed learning a number of people indicated this is hard for them. How do you determine your own issues, what to focus on? They prefer courses and training programs because they do not know where to start. Apparently it's not easy for anyone to take matters into their own hands and be the steward of your own learning agenda.
  

The second part of the session was about how social media can play a role to support the new learning / self-directed learning in the context of 'serial mastery'. That social media will have a role to play is beyond doubt. So the professionals who are able to handle and use social media conveniently will have an advantage edge.

The role of career counsellors

And so it is therefore the task of career counselors to assist professionals in the process of what Lynda Gratton calls 'sliding and morphing' into new domains. This is the process whereby a professional a new domain to master, and there develops a unique vision and adds value. Through a brainstorming we have distilled the following points of importance for career counselors:

• Help the client to find his own style and finding a domain
• Be a role model and an example in the use of social media as a professional
  
• Know how to use LinkedIn to look for job (networking)
• Make sure you have enough knowledge of various online platforms and relevant audiences
• Help the client articulate his/her professional profile
  
• Challenge clients to learn and develop and take matters into own hands
• Make conscious use of social media and online media as a writing exercise for the client in addition to the known methods of conversations.