The Right Way To Learn Skills You Need To Thrive

Non Obvious Mega Trends

Every two years the World Economic Forum (WEF) conducts research to determine the skills you need to succeed. As a busy, professional woman, do you have a plan in place to learn the skills you need to thrive? This is an important question for you to think about. When I combine the skills you need to learn based on WEF's outlook for 2020 and 2022, there's a list of 14 new skills you must learn.

The number of career skills to learn may sound like a lot. But it doesn't have to be that way. There's a right way to learn the skills you need to thrive. The secret is to learn sets of skills together.

List of Skills to Learn in 2020 to 2022

1. Complex Problem Solving
2. Critical Thinking and Analysis
3. Creativity, Innovation, Ideation, Originality, and Initiative
4. People Management
5. Coordinating with Others
6. Emotional Intelligence
7. Judgment, Reasoning, Analytical Thinking, and Decision Making
8. Service Orientation
9. Negotiation
10. Cognitive Flexibility
11. Active Learning and Learning Strategies
12. Technology Design and Programming
13. Leadership and Social Influence
14. Systems Analysis and Evaluation 

Most of the skills above are soft skills. And they’re the types of skills that become more valuable over time. So, it’s worth investing your time to learn them, if you haven’t done so already. How many of them are new skills to learn? Which of these 14 skills do you already have some knowledge of? And how many of them have you already mastered. You can’t go wrong learning these skills. That’s if you’re strategic about how you learn them.

A while back, I read that if you want to master a subject, you need to read five of the best books on the topic. In another post, I’ll teach you an efficient way to get the most out of reading five of the best books on a subject.

Grouping Skills to Learn: Right Way To Learn The Skills You Need To Thrive

Based on where you’re at in your career, how do you want to learn the skills? How would you group skills together based on your needs right now? Based on what I’ve noticed having read several books on the topic, is that problem-solving, creativity, critical thinking, and decision-making are related skills. With this in mind, you may want to learn them together. In fact, there are books that cover the four skills, but it’s up to you. You know what your needs are right now.

Non Obvious Mega TrendsThinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn a DisciplineThe Fourth Industrial Revolution

Grouping Skills to Learn

Group 1

1. Problem-Solving
2. Critical Thinking
3. Creativity
4. Decision-Making
5. Cognitive Flexibility

Group 2

1. People Management
2. Coordinating with Others
3. Emotional Intelligence
4. Service Orientation
5. Negotiation
6. Leadership and Social Influence

Group 3

1. Active Learning and Learning Strategies
2. Technology Design and Programming
3. Systems Analysis and Evaluation

In Group 3, you’ll notice that there are only three skills. That’s because skill 2 and 3 will not be that easy to learn. The books to learn them are usually textbooks and harder to read. Though I need to refresh those two skills, I learned them when I studied computer science in college and university.

One of things that helped me to learn complex problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and judgment and decision making is that I took what I learned from the books I read to create the workbook, Problem Solving, Critical Thinking, Creativity & Decision-Making Action Guide. Applying the skills helped me to learn them. When someone does the exercises in the workbook, he or she will learn the four skills because they are using their own problems to work through.

The groups are suggestions only. You can create your own groups. Or you can make the groups smaller. My suggestions are meant to get the process started for you.

Insider Knowledge: What You Need to Know About Learning Skills Needed for Future Jobs

• Think of each of the 14 skills as a subject that you have to master.
• Every subject has core or primary or foundational ideas; secondary knowledge; and peripheral ideas that tie the learning of the subject together. 
• If you can understand the primary ideas of a subject, then you can think of them as a system.
• The core ideas are key to every system of knowledge. They are key to learning any subject. 
• To master each of the 14 skills, you have to learn what the core ideas are for each.
• Learn how to read books for their core ideas. Master those foundational ideas.
• Look for interconnections between what you’re learning and what you already know about the subject. Relate the content in the book to a real situation at work.
• Seek to understand the key concepts in the book. For instance, if you want to master negotiation, ask “What are the foundational ideas in negotiation?” Once you have adequately answered that question, you can expand on the answers.
• Everything you know is connected to every other thing you learn. The 14 skills are connected to each other. Find the connections, then tie the new learning together.
• Relate core ideas in one discipline to core ideas in another discipline. This could translate into relating the core ideas you learn in negotiation, to the core ideas in people management.

In the book, Learn Like Einstein by Peter Hollins, he writes, you remember:

“5% when you hear a lecture.

10% when you read.

20% from audio visual processing.

30% from demonstrating.

50% from group discussions.

75% from practice by doing.

90% from teaching others.”

Think about a project you can work on or a class you can teach to apply the skills as you learn them. This is key to successfully learning the skills. I am using the workbook I created to teach others what I learned about the four skills. It took me about four months to create the workbook. It’s not something that I rushed through.

How to Read Books to Learn Skills the Right Way

8 Elements of Thought When Reading to Master any Skill

1. What’s the author’s purpose for writing the book?
2. Author’s point of view on the issue?
3. Assumptions the author is making?
4. Implications of her reasoning?
5. Information does she use to reason through the issue?
6. Inferences and conclusions?
7. Most basic concepts?
8. Question the author is trying to answer in the book?

The Thinker's Guide for Students on How to Study & Learn a Discipline suggests that the eight elements of thoughts are critical to your understanding of any book.

Next Steps & Musings: The Right Way To Learn The Skills You Need To Thrive

How do you read books? When you read a book, do you view it as a standalone? I’m not talking about book series. Do you ever think of the book you’re reading as part of a chain? 

Well, if you read any book on learning how to learn, one of the instructions, is to always tie new information to what you already know. And that’s very good advice.

The act of connecting old and new information helps you to remember more of what you learn. What I’m talking about is connecting the dots. You can only connect the dots when you look backwards. For instance, in the book, Non-Obvious by Rohit Bhargava, he presents the Haystack Method, which he designed to help people synthesize information. The end result is that the technique allows you to see what others might miss.

The right way to learn the skills you need to thrive in 2020 and 2022 is to find natural ways to group and learn skills. You also need a process to synthesize what you’re learning. And finally, you have to apply the newly learned information to the real world.

Actions to Take: The Right Way To Learn The Skills You Need To Thrive

1. Group the skills you plan to learn together.
2. Buy or borrow the books from the library.
3. Or You Can Join the Performance Accelerator Plan. You'll get a process to learn the skills.

How Avil Can Help You!

I invite you to Join the Performance Accelerator Plan that walks you through the process and more. You’ll be reading books to build skills and develop intercultural awareness.  Get more reading and learning tips here. And I also invite you to join Read a Book, Solve a Problem Facebook Group. I’m building a tribe of people who want to use the knowledge gained from books to tackle some of the world’s biggest problems.

In December 2020, I published two books on Amazon. I would greatly appreciate your support if you bought my two short e-books Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon and Performance Accelerator Plan: Guide to Learning and Mastering Key Skills for the Future.

Read 30 Books in 30 Days Like Francis Bacon is not about speed reading. It’s about approaching every book differently and reading only the sections that align with your purpose.

The Performance Accelerator Plan book is a stripped-down version of the paid reading challenge of the same name. Obviously, you won’t get all the resources that come with the program that I sell on my website. But if you are a self-directed learner, it will help you tremendously.

Note: There are several Amazon affiliate links on this page. That means if you click on Amazon and buy something the organization will pay me a small commission.