Strategic Reading Challenge at a Glance: Get Key Skills to Succeed

Do you know what the 10 key skills needed for future jobs are? If not, read the post, and find out how to get them!

Do You Have a Game Plan to Learn the 10 Key Skills Needed for Future Jobs?

The World Economic Forum reports that there are 10 skills needed for future jobs: Complex problem solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity, People Management, Coordinating with Others, Emotional Intelligence, Judgement and Decision Making, Service Orientation, Negotiation, and Cognitive Flexibility. If the survey results are accurate, and you do need to learn the 10 key skills, what is your game plan?

I’ve been making a name for myself, creating and hosting a reading challenge. Last year, I hosted and participated in the Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge. I completed the reading challenge in December 2016. However, there are participants, who are slowly working their way through it.

To give you some context, I created the Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge because I was concerned about the level of violence in the world today, as well as the increasing number of jobs being lost to automation.

I believe that if people were more globally aware, we wouldn’t have most of the violence we have today. And if more people were proactive about their careers, they would be less vulnerable to automation, since they would constantly be going through professional evolution.

When I positioned the Read the World Strategic Challenge, I made a tactical error. I focused on the read the world aspect, even though most of the books in the challenge were geared toward teaching you how to become more marketable and valuable in the workplace. Let’s be honest for a minute, most people do not care about the level of violence in the world, because it’s in someone else’s backyard. It’s not their pain.

“In a real sense all life is inter-related. All men are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be, and you can never be what you ought to be until I am what I ought to be…This is the inter-related structure of reality.”  Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail].

What I should have done differently, is to position the reading challenge, as a way for business professionals to get the skills they need to succeed in an increasingly global workplace. See the subtle difference?

When I read the World Economic Forum about the 10 key skills needed to thrive in the near future, I updated the Read the World Extreme Challenge, and renamed it the Strategic Reading Challenge. To learn the 10 skills in less time, you need to develop the art of reading strategically.

Here is the Read the World Extreme Reading Challenge v 2.0 – Strategic Reading Challenge – at a glance, so you can plan which books you are.

UPDATE: First Published January 2017

Strategic Reading Challenge at a Glance

Month One: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Africa & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in an African country.
2. Read a book that teaches you how to problem solve.
3. Read a book that teaches you how to think critically.
4. Read a book that teaches you how to become more creative.
5. Read a book that teaches you how to make better decisions.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

 The MacGyver Secret: Connect to Your Inner MacGyver and Solve Anything A technique for producing ideas: A simple five step formula for producing ideas Problem Solving 101: A Simple Book for Smart People Adapt: Why Success Always Starts with Failure

Month Two: Strategic Reading Challenge Read Antarctica & More

1. Read a book set in Antarctica.
2. Read a book that teaches you strategies to manage people.
3. Read a book that helps you to become better at collaborating with others.
4. Read a book on emotional intelligence.
5. Read a book that teaches you strategies to excel at serving others.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Three: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Asia & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in Asia.
2. Read a book that teaches you negotiation techniques.
3. Read a book that teaches you cognitive flexibility.
4. Read a book that teaches you how to be a better presenter.
5. Read a book to improve your written communication skills.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Four: Strategic Reading Challenge Australia/Oceania & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in Australia/Oceania.
2. Read a book about happiness.
3. Read a book about how to learn.
4. Read a book about psychology. This will help you to better understand people.
5. Read a book that blends disciplines.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Five: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Europe & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in a European country.
2. Read a book to help you master social media.
3. Read a book written over a century ago, then read a retelling of the book. This counts as two books for the month.
4. Read a collection of comics.
5. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Six: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read North America & More

1. Read two books written by authors born in North America and the Caribbean. This counts as two books for the month.
2. Read a book about ideas.
3. Read a book about your favorite hobby to become better at it.
4. Read a children’s book that you didn’t read as a child.
5. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Seven: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read South America & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in South America.
2. Read a collection of essays.
3. Read a book that was adapted to film. Watch the film, then compare and contrast it with the book.
4. Read a book that has less than 100 pages.
5. Read a graphic novel that’s a retelling of a classic book.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Eight: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Women

1. Read an autobiography/biography of a woman written by a woman.
2. Read a science fiction written by a woman.
3. Read a murder mystery written by a woman.
4. Read a classic written by a woman.
5. Read a book that deals with a serious topic that’s written by a woman.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month Nine: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Men

1. Read an autobiography/biography of a man written by a man.
2. Read a science fiction book written by a man.
3. Read a murder mystery written by a man.
4. Read a classic written by a man.
5. Read a book that deals with a serious topic that’s written by a man.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month 10: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read the US, Caribbean, Canada & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in the United States.
2. Read a book written by an author, born in the Caribbean.
3. Read a book written by an author, born in Canada.
4. Read a book about your industry/niche to develop skills as well as to understand how the industry works.
5. Read a book about someone’s journey – inner or outer.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month 11: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read India, China, Japan & More

1. Read a book written by an author, born in India.
2. Read a book written by an author, born in China.
3. Read a book about Japanese philosophy.
4. Read a book of poetry.
5. Read a book about science.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Month 12: Strategic Reading Challenge – Read Europe, Africa & More

1. Read a book written by an author from Europe.
2. Read a book written by an author from Africa.
3. Read a book about a religion.
4. Read a book about philosophy.
5. Read a book purely for entertainment.
6. Each week, read a technology article from a well-respected journal/magazine.

Where Do You Go Next? How Do You Plan to Learn the 10 Key Skills

How to Read a Book 

After looking at the monthly requirements of the Strategic Reading Challenge, I know that you may be feeling overwhelmed because of the amount of work that you think it involves. But you don’t have to feel overwhelmed. I’ve been preparing you for this moment, by writing about selective reading.

You don’t have to read 100 percent of each book, except for the fiction. You simply have to become more competent at selective reading. Think about the last five books that you read, looking back, was it necessary to read every word in each book. Authors repeat information, and sometimes they add extra information to prove a point, do you have to read all of that?

Save this post and use it as a guide to learn the key skills to thrive in 2020. Just to let you know, I’ve been busy reading books to craft book summaries that will help you to learn the 10 key skills in less time. Some of these book summaries will be ready for sale in a couple of months. How do you plan to learn the 10 key skills? I'm asking because you may have another method that will work best for you!

Have you read?

Selective Reading: What Books to Read and Which Sections to Read

Read Faster, Learn More, Use These Reading Strategies

What Are the Best Skills to Learn for Career Success? How Can You Get Them?

Professional Skills List: How You Can Get the Top Skills for 2020

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