Speakers Inc Magazine, Volume 2

The World of Work:
South Africa 2019 - Change Trends, Farmers,
and 21st Century Skills
B Y R A Y M O N D D E V I L L I E R S
South Africa in 2019 and beyond…..what awaits us as
Accepting that our world won’t be turned upside
local citizens, Africans, and members of the global
down where should we be looking to see the threads
community?
of change, and the currents of transformation that will
In short, more of the same…. just a little different.
make 2028 look as different in our future as 2008
looks in our past? As you enter the new year listen for
The nature of change is that it is incremental and not
words and phrases in conversation and the media like
often something that society experiences as violent
artificial intelligence, automation, bots, robotics,
upheaval. Some individuals impacted by change may
mixed reality, mobile-first, blockchain, and smart
experience it violently and strongly (job loss, death
contracts. At the same time there will be continuing
and illness, etc), but on the whole society shifts slowly.
use of cloud computing, big data, and data analytics.
These are concepts that have been moving through
Bill Gates says that we often overestimate what we will
the word of work for the past 18 months and they get
achieve in 2 years, but we underestimate what will
bundled under the collective label of Digital
happen in 10 years. This statement resonates with
Disruption…. It is fun to chat about these disruptors
most of us because when we think about last year it
and the associated trends, but they are also red
feels very similar to this year, but when we think about
herrings.
2008 it seems like an existence on a whole other
planet.
If EVERYONE is talking about these things why are
they red herrings? Surely they are at the heart of the
As a futurist focusing on the future world of work I
conversations we need to have about our evolving
believe that 2019 will not be a year of major upheaval.
society?
As South Africans we have the national elections
We need to beware of the temptation of allowing the
which everyone hopes will finally shake off the Zuma
technology / disruptive trends tail to wag the social
years, but if we are honest regardless of how the
and business dog. If we focus too much on the
balance of political power shifts things will be largely
technology, digital, and other disruptions we miss the
the same for the man in the street…. and the world of
real focus of change…. namely, people - how they are
work will shift marginally in response to these political
impacted, how they need to respond, and what the
changes. Brexit, Trump - China trade wars…. all pretty
fundamental human value proposition is in a time of
much the same limited impact for us.
technological disruption.
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