Welcome to the second week of our class
on shaping the future of work.
We got off to a great start last week
with lots of good discussions on the future of work,
on your hopes, your aspirations.
A lot of discussion about the future of technology
and how it's going to affect work and some of the worries
that many of you have about this.
So we'll continue these discussions
we'll go into more depth on technology
and work down the way in about the fourth week of class.
But to give you a preview, I posted a new note
on the discussion board about a big new MIT project
on the future of the technology in textiles, of all industries.
We are about to start a big project
to see if we can put some of the ideas of this course
to work in practice, where we shape the future of the textile
and fabric industry with high technology
jobs, hopefully, good quality jobs,
with new training programs.
So take a look at that post.
See if you have thoughts on how we can shape the future of work
in that particular sector.
But this week, we'll do three things.
First, the videos that are posted for this week
will give you a bit of a history of how the social contract
played out and worked well in the United States and, in fact,
in some other countries around the world in the past.
We do this not to try to repeat history but to spring forward
on the basis of a good understanding of where we've
come from and what we need to do to build
a new social contract--
a good foundation for building a new social contract
in the future.
Second, this week we're going to introduce
some new regional discussion facilitators.
Our MBAs from the class I'm teaching here on campus
are from all over the world.
From China, from South Asia, from Africa,
from northern Europe, from Brazil.
They will host discussions about how
the issues we're talking about play out
in your regions of the world, and we
ask those of you who are from those areas
to join that conversation.
We'll even have some new experts from Australia.
Some colleagues of mine in the universities over there
who study and work on these issues.
So I think we'll have a full body discussion about how
the changing nature of work is playing out
in different parts of our planet.
To get things started on your personal career process,
this week, there's an assignment that
will take you step by step through a process
of identifying the kinds of issues
that you're interested in, you have some aptitude
toward, and then the kind of educational levels
that are available to get access to the jobs in fields
of interest to you.
So get started by going to the assignment page,
start that process.
It'll carry through over the next several weeks,
and it's accompanied by several videos
around the role of education, it's
changing role in lifelong learning,
and a special video by our colleague, Lee Dyer, who
talks about the skills and competencies needed
for the jobs of the future.
So that's what we'll do this week.
But before we finish here, let's take
a look at what you told us last week about your goals
and your aspirations for work.
Here's the results of the poll that you
filled in about your top priority
for your work and your career.
Notice that the top item comes out
to be having a good work life balance,
followed very closely by having a big impact
on problems that are important to you and to society.
And then in third place but not too far behind
is the desire to have a good living from your work
experiences.
These are the same top three items that your colleagues
last year indicated were their top priorities,
although this year, the work life balance
became a little bit higher in the ranking.
So it's very clear that you want many things out
of your jobs and your careers.
Unlike your parents, as many of you
told us who focused over here on earning a good living
and having a stable job, you want
to be able to both have a big impact on work.
You want to have a good work life balance
so you can have a good opportunity
to raise your children and be a good spouse at home
or a partner at home and also earn a good living.
So let's focus on how we do that.
Let me give you a couple of examples
of the rich way in which you embodied
these rankings in the range of comments in the exercise
around comparing your goals with those of your parents.
This one, I think, captures the essence
of what the poll told us.
As one of you said, "I dream of a well-balanced work family
environment, where I can develop my skills
put them to service for my community,
and as well get a wage that allows
me to have a decent life so that I
can provide for my family and my offspring."
Or this one, "My dream is to change
the world by contributing something meaningful to it.
While maintaining a balanced lifestyle,
I consider myself a global citizen."
This is something that a number of you mentioned.
That you wanted to work and live in a culturally diverse yet
an integrated workplace and lifestyle,
and that you want to push your children to be curious
about their world and to push the limits of what
they can do as they grow up.
Here's another one that says, particularly
about young millennials and their interest
in working with the digital revolution.
"My dream is to be part of the digital revolution driven
by millennials working at innovative companies,"
and "to make the world a better place to live and work."
That theme comes through again.
And then finally, "I want to earn a living wage
and not have to miss my children growing up."
This is the world of work that you aspire to.
This is the world of work that we
have to create moving forward.
So let's get on with the task.
This week, we'll focus on your responsibilities
to make sure that you are prepared to have
the right educational levels to achieve
your goals and your aspirations, and then we'll
also look at what made the world of work
more effective in sometimes in the past in our countries
so that we can spring forward to think
about how we build a new foundation
for the future of work.