How to React to the Illusion of Career Stability - Robin Borough

In more than 30 years acting as a corporate counselor and advisor to technology professionals, executives, CEOs, CFOs and COOs, Robin Borough has developed a world-class reputation as a career strategist, helping individuals identify and build on their strengths while developing and nurturing a leadership mentality. 

Part of that mentality includes reinvention. Each of us have a unique opportunity that 
previous generations didn’t - the freedom to reinvent yourself (professionally) several times over the course of a single career. 

It starts with having a learning mindset. And a willingness to take risks. 

Reinvention isn’t easy, despite the technological advancements of the past 50 years. At it’s core its still a leap of faith. Though if the recent covid-19 pandemic has illuminated anything, it’s the illusion of career stability in a globally-integrated economy. Though also the importance of supplementing your knowledge with adaptable skill-sets that stress the importance of human-centric competencies such as empathy, leading through persuasion, and emotional intelligence. 

Join Robin & I as we discuss the importance of embracing lifelong learning and why it’s the secret to success in our knowledge-based economy.

 

Robin Borough

Robin is a sought-after speaker at industry events and conferences and she also loves speaking to corporate Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) and Business Resource Groups (BRGs), where she feels she can offer the most positive impact in an intimate and highly actionable setting. Robin uses her corporate experience, personal passion and engaging personality to inspire people to “do something great, be something great and take control of their own futures.”

LinkedIn
Website

Thinking Inside the Box

Constraints drive innovation. Each week we’ll tackle the most complex issues related to work & culture.

LinkedIn
Instagram
Twitter
Website
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Stitcher
Pocket Cast

Matt Burns

Matt Burns is an award-winning executive, social entrepreneur and speaker. He believes in the power of community, simplicity & technology.

LinkedIn
Twitter

Transcript

[00:00:00] Matt: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to thinking inside the box podcast. I'm Matt burns. In light of recent events, we are transforming our podcast strategy in three ways. First, by accelerating the release of podcast episodes that we believe will be of greatest service. That starts with our Carrie gypsy interview, which was released on March 17th [00:00:20] and will continue indefinitely.

Second, we are scaling our podcast production schedule and aiming to release two to three podcasts each week going forward. We are also actively sourcing experts to share their experiences, wisdom, and practical advice on topics that have suddenly become very relevant to all of us. The far reaching [00:00:40] implications of the coven 19 pandemic are still not fully understood.

Here's what we do know. The near overnight transition of our global workforce has several impacts, including but not limited to talent acquisition, operational continuity, internal communications, employee engagement and leadership at all levels. [00:01:00] It's offending individuals, teams, and entire organizations indiscriminately often hurting those who are most vulnerable disproportionately as the days and weeks unfold.

The immediate logistics and infrastructure issues that we are now faced with will largely be resolved. Laptops will have been ordered, an issued [00:01:20] VPN counts will been created and instant messaging and video conferencing services will replace the current in-person conversations that happen in most corporate offices today.

Though future challenges will require our attention, including, but not limited to, the implications of prolonged social distancing restrictions around travel and the flow of goods and services [00:01:40] and broader economic and societal changes that we put in place as we all adopt a new normal. It's definitely not business as usual.

And we want to connect you with the information that you need to make informed evidence based decisions in the interest of your organization and as people. The best place to find that will [00:02:00] be@bentohr.com or on my personal LinkedIn account. Finally, myself and the entire bento HR team, we'll make ourselves available to our community like never before.

Including the introduction of frequent barrier free opportunities to connect, share knowledge [00:02:20] and support. One. Another. Additional information will be shared on this in the coming days, and again, you can find the latest@bentohr.com or on my personal LinkedIn account. These are trying times, that is no doubt, but know that we are here to support you as you support others.

Until then, it's important to be [00:02:40] kind to ourselves and to one another. We're all in this together and let's be safe, and now we'll return to regular podcast programming. But in terms of hours and minutes, there certainly is a bigger investment when you're an entrepreneur. It's

SYP guest 01: [00:02:56] definitely true. It's it's, but it is working on things that [00:03:00] you enjoy more.

My colleague and I judge this stress by, did we like that stress or not? And it's different, right? So the minutes and hours take on more of a passion. Hopefully, but there's still comes a lot of drudgery of things you just have to do because there is nobody else to do it. Yeah, like taxes. [00:03:20] Got to do

Matt: [00:03:20] it. You got to do it.

Did mine yesterday. Getting on ties.

Hey everyone. It's Matt here for another episode [00:03:40] of. Thinking inside the box, the show where each week we'll tackle the most complex issues related to work and culture. If you're interested in checking out our other content, you can find us at bento, hr.com on iTunes, Google play, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.

By searching, thinking inside the box. [00:04:00] This week we're chatting with Robin borough, cofounder of Arista hire and Arista learn. Robin is an experienced entrepreneur, board member, recruiter and learning expert. And today we're going to discuss learning in the context of technology and the future of work.

Robin, welcome to the podcast.

SYP guest 01: [00:04:18] Wow. Thank you. Matt. Thank you [00:04:20] so much for spending some time with me today. I am such a fan. I'm in the mat, uh, president. I'm the president of the mat fan club. Actually, whoever's there, I'm going to have to elbow them out.

Matt: [00:04:33] I will let the, I'll let them know. I think it might be you and my mother right now.

SYP guest 01: [00:04:38] Every time I speak [00:04:40] with you, I. I, you know, if I sent out since, just go firing. Cause you're so smart. So it's really a pleasure to be here.

Matt: [00:04:48] Well, uh, I hate to break it to you, Robyn, but today we're going to focus mostly on you and I'm equally as excited to talk to you because our last conversation about learning was really informative for me.

It's an area of the [00:05:00] HR profession that I'm still very much a neophyte in. Uh, I'm looking forward to digging into your thoughts around learning in the context of technology and the future of work.

SYP guest 01: [00:05:08] Great. I'm excited to, to this one of my favorite topics.

Matt: [00:05:12] Yeah. But before we get there, let's talk a bit about you.

Um, you have an incredibly cool origin story, and I'd love to hear more about that. Oh,

SYP guest 01: [00:05:19] thank [00:05:20] you. Well, my career is fusion, so it's a career fusion. Well, what's, what's neat and has been enjoyable is I've always been doing things where my skills are able to be highlighted. So the Sage career advice I got from my mom and dad upon growing [00:05:40] up where my mom set and I'm, I'm a little bit, I'm a little bit more senior, so my mom would say.

Honey. If you can take, then you'll always have a job. So this was my career advice. And then my dad would say, Rob, if you know how to sell, you'll always have a job. And I laughed today, Matt, [00:06:00] because throughout my career, I've used my mom and dad's advice. We can get really fancy about the accolades and accomplishments we've had.

But I'm a time, again, I come back to the fact that I know how to type and I know how to sell, but through my career. I have always been in a recruiting and a [00:06:20] training function, running small businesses and usually serving huge global organizations. So I've been able to wear both hats of, when you run a small company, you do everything, you know, you create the business plan, you hire the talent, you train people, you solve problems, you put out fires.

[00:06:40] And then you produce financials at the end of the month and make sure that all your stakeholders are happy. And then in a, in serving the largest of large organizations around the world, that is much different. As you know from your background of just dealing with politics and hierarchy and process. I tried to say it a little [00:07:00] bit more Canadian process.

So I've had the best of both worlds and it's always been along the lines of running small organizations in a recruiting, in a training capacity with really good typing and sales skills.

Matt: [00:07:18] I'm hoping more sales now than [00:07:20] typing. I have concerns in the future business plan. It's

SYP guest 01: [00:07:22] true so much more. I can talk into my phone so much faster than I can tie it, and I try to answer all my emails on my iPad because it does such a good job of transcribing for me.

So

Matt: [00:07:35] indeed. Excellent. And I think you're, you're absolutely right. I mean, I can tell you from personal [00:07:40] experience, I spent most of my career in those large organizations that you mentioned, and I got really a lot of experience in terms of. Managing those politics and moving forward a, a project or an initiative, um, and having to align with stakeholders and the skill sets in that are very different than when you're launching your own business.

Because you [00:08:00] know, oftentimes you are selling as the same time as you're producing and trying to strike the right balance between those two activities can be a challenge at times.

SYP guest 01: [00:08:08] So true. So true. A lot of long nights, early mornings and late nights.

Matt: [00:08:14] Yeah. They don't do a great job telling you about that.

I know that entrepreneurship has kind of taken on a bit of a romanticism of late, [00:08:20] I can, again, speaking personal experience, the hours I put in now as an entrepreneur are at least 30% more than when I was in a corporate role. It's different kind of work and I, I can tell you that I enjoy the work more because it's for my own business and it's for a purpose that I personally and connect to, but in terms of hours and minutes, there certainly is a bigger investment when you're an entrepreneur.

[00:08:40] SYP guest 01: [00:08:40] It's definitely true. It's, it's, but it is working on things that you enjoy more. And my colleague and I judge this stress by, did we like that stress or not? And it's different. Right? But it's, it's, so the minutes and hours take on more of a passion. Hopefully, but there still comes a lot of drudgery of things you just have to do because there is nobody [00:09:00] else to do it.

Matt: [00:09:00] Like taxes.

SYP guest 01: [00:09:02] Yeah, like taxes. Gotta do it.

Matt: [00:09:04] Gotta do it. Did mine yesterday. Get me on time. All right, Robin. Well, let's talk a bit about technology and learning. It's an area that I am spending a lot more time in of late. Um, you know, as a, as a corporate employee, I can tell you that a lot of stakeholders I would have worked with learning [00:09:20] was kind of a double edged sword.

So on one hand there was an expectation that learning was going to be the panacea for all the company's problems. Like, nah, there's a problem. But then through some more training, and that's all of a sudden going to solve the problem. And inversely, you'd have people who believed, well, training's a big giant waste of money.

People sit in a classroom all day long and they don't retain anything. It's just [00:09:40] a giant vacation. And I think over the course of time with technology, we've been able to. Completely transform learning models. We've been able to completely transform the delivery and the engagement of the learners themselves.

So technology to me is, is really entering into a space that is ripe for innovation. Tell us a bit about how [00:10:00] you believe technology and learning blend together.

SYP guest 01: [00:10:02] I will. Thank you for that. I, you know, I want to kind of hand back a little bit and give some context to the learner and how the organization relates to the learner, because I've always had to deal with both.

And as, as a recruiting head hunting. [00:10:20] Um, expert, you know, placing thousands of people. Um, and again, you know, huge companies like Kaiser and Verizon and Walmart and Technicolor and Disney and Sony, and the list goes on and on to companies that don't even exist. That's how we fell into training is because we always [00:10:40] needed to train the next thing.

We needed to train in.net and Java way back in the day. You know, mainframe skills, COBOL, RPG. I'm really dating myself now, but as it's progressed now are teaching people in such a different capacities. So the organization is always thinking about how [00:11:00] to develop their training and organize it and distribute it and test it to make sure they're getting an ROI out of it.

But I, I always start with the learner, which, because I find that people are learners by trade, right? By being a human, you're a learner. But I find [00:11:20] that maybe only 10% of employees really apply their self in the way that they need to. And I say this because we would run way back in the day. Usergroups huge user groups for, you know, mid range mainframe cloud technologies.

And I would [00:11:40] tell all of my, my consultants come to the user group because you need these new skills. You got to get these new skills. If you want to make a lot of money and you want to be viable and employable, please come and get these new skills. And I find that it's still the same struggle even today, no matter who the learner [00:12:00] is.

But it's a little more complicated because now we have five generations that we're trying to upskill reskill and so when we're putting together, you know, our future plan for training, I just would admonish companies to really engage in the different levels of learners and the modalities and to [00:12:20] meet the learner where they are so that it doesn't feel like such a chore of, you know, really meet them naturally.

How do people learn. What makes people curious and always drive your training programs toward those very basic elements will things as far as where we're going in [00:12:40] technology and reading the world economic report and so many other good research papers out there. When we look at between now and the year 2022 or 2025.

There are four drivers. And so this is important for companies to know. If they haven't said it, [00:13:00] expressly is happening all around them. So the number, the four drivers are definitely ubiquitous. Internet, high speed, mobile internet, and that continues to grow. Just wait till side G really gets here, Matt.

It's going to be crazy. I remember I'm going just going to chase a rabbit for a [00:13:20] second. I remember, Oh gosh, 15 years ago I was sitting at the staples center in Los Angeles and I was approached probably at like Oracle world. And, uh, the CEO of Oracle and the CEO of Compaq at the time, which doesn't even exist anymore.

We're talking [00:13:40] about the internet, and they said, you know, applications that we haven't even thought of haven't even been developed yet. This is a whiteboard. It's all going to be great. And new businesses are just going to happen and we're there again when five G really hits and high speed [00:14:00] mobility, really heads in ways that we can't even fathom.

Now it's gonna spark all kinds of new innovation. The second driver is artificial intelligence, which we're talking a lot about, have been talking about it for about. Three decades now, but we're really breaking ground now. And then the third [00:14:20] driver is widespread adoption of data analytics. I could talk to you about that, but I'll, I'll hold that thought.

And also cloud technology. So because of mobility, AI, big data and cloud that is driving huge transformation. [00:14:40] Innovation and huge skill gaps across the globe. Actually, I'll stop there cause I know I just said a lot,

Matt: [00:14:47] but a lot of good stuff though, and I, I want to tie into so many of those points because I think like you, I'm so excited about the explosion of 5g in a global context.

I think it's an open up so many [00:15:00] doors and in places that maybe traditionally haven't been centers of innovation will now become centers of innovation. And as the world gets closer together with technology, gives us an opportunity to really leverage those best practices if they're in Africa or South America or Western Europe or even North America.

Um, we're going to have an opportunity to collaborate and share [00:15:20] thinking and ideas and innovations in a way we never have before. And that for me is really exciting because I think we've been largely leveraging a couple of pockets on this planet for innovation. We're going to be able to open up so many doors now with five G.

SYP guest 01: [00:15:32] That's true. It's exciting. Really, really exciting to be just within minutes of, you know, [00:15:40] thinkers across the globe who have great ideas that can be part of your team. It's becoming more accessible every single day. I think the learners are going to win. I think the learners, the people that are hungry to learn, curious, constantly working on their skill portfolio, they'll [00:16:00] be the winners.

And I think that the leaders of companies are the ones that are also the learners, right? As an HR professional, I would press in to, to all leadership it leadership, HR, financial. To not get so bogged down in the day to day of running the company that they are. [00:16:20] They always have a personal learning path so that they can also lead innovation conversations at their companies, but I think in the future, the learner is going to win.

Actually, the world economic forum talks about that. That learning and the skill of learning is something that people need to learn. [00:16:40] They need to learn to be better learners.

Matt: [00:16:42] I agree. I think that for me it's really exciting because I grew up and all day myself down. My very first job in human resources.

I remember, I remember it like it was yesterday. It wasn't yesterday, was Matt, can you go over and put all this stack of paper into the filing cabinet into the appropriate file [00:17:00] folders. that was my first job in HR, so it was very administrative. the company was great, people were great. Uh, and the job eventually did evolve from putting paper into filing cabinets, but largely it was a support function.

And I still see evidence of that and a lot of organizations today where we're viewing human resources as just that, a [00:17:20] personnel department or a potentially a compliance function. I actually think that technology is going to give us the means. The automation of all that manual, repetitive administration that doesn't add value isn't best performed by humans anyway.

And free us to perform the work that is going to ready our workforce for the changes that you're talking about. [00:17:40] And I think while the learning piece is super exciting and as a, as a lifelong learner myself, I love the idea of being able to learn new skills. And I always have two development plans in tandem, my professional development plan and my personal development plan, and I'm always working both very deliberately.

Um, for me that's exciting cause it's playing to my strengths and things that I just enjoy doing. [00:18:00] But there are a lot of people out there that have grown up in a world where learning is done in blocks of time. You go to school from certain ages and then when you graduate, whether it's high school or university or college or a trade school or some sort of Academy, then your quote unquote done.

And you get to rely on that knowledge for the next 30 or 40 [00:18:20] years of your life. And then you retire and then you eventually leave this planet. So. That is changing and it's, we're now at a place where you're going to need to learn throughout your entire life just to keep pace, let alone stay ahead of the curve, to keep pace of what's happening.

And we're gonna have to teach people that that is shifting. And I think in the context of [00:18:40] organizations, human resources are going to have to get a lot better about managing. Employees, not so much as resources, but as performers. Um, and performing a knowledge based economy where things like mindfulness and empathy and creativity and innovation and teamwork take on greater importance when all that manual administration just goes away.

[00:19:00] SYP guest 01: [00:19:00] It's so true. As I'm just thinking about what you were saying, it reminds me of a learning life cycle that we've created that could be helpful, right? So rather than just saying, Oh, we should all be learners, but I, we developed a learning life cycle that is really helped us and helped our managers [00:19:20] kind of know where they are in the learning journey and also helps them hire.

And also manage their staff and it rhymes. So I'm going to give this to you verbally and hopefully I'll paint a good visual picture. So it's called the learning life cycle, and it's developed after working with, you know, hundreds of thousands of people for 30 years as learners. [00:19:40] So the first base is yearn, right?

You need to have a yearning. You see that something's broken like you, you have to two, you have two yearnings for your professional development and your personal. So you have a strong yearning. So always improving. So the learning life cycle starts with yearn. I see something that's broken. [00:20:00] I want to fix something and I see a gap.

Now, what's interesting about yearn is that only 10% of people get to yearn. The other 90% of people think that somebody else is going to do it or they don't see it. So that's interesting in and of itself, because you can't start anything [00:20:20] unless there's a yearning. The next stage is learning, right? So in the beginning of your learning phase, whenever you take on a new project, it's always exciting, right?

Oh my gosh, it's, you know, I'm going to get that degree or that promotion, or I'm going to have that skill. I'm going to know how to speak Spanish or play the guitar or be a better athlete. Zoe's beginning. It's [00:20:40] exciting in the learn phase because you see yourself as done. Okay. It's always exciting. I, wow.

You feel you get that burst of accomplishment. Now that was the second phase. I went from yearn, something's broken. I want to fix it to learn, or I'm super excited. Then I get to turn and the turn phase is, [00:21:00] Oh, this is harder than I thought. And you know, it's, I'm not learning it as fast or my schedule is busier than I thought.

I'm not as good as I was. Uh, so there's always a turn, but we call it like the learning and leadership life cycle because of true leader, a true learner. At that turn [00:21:20] point, we'll have fortitude. They'll dig their heels in and they will make the turn. Other people will just shelve it. So you'll see a lot of projects that are started in incompleted, right?

So you always have a turning point. When you make it through the turn, you get to the next phase, which is. Earn, yay. You did it. So you know you've accomplished [00:21:40] it, you achieved it. You get the reward, the certificate, the accolades of visibility. Maybe the promotion and learning is cumulative. So fame and fortune come and go, but learning is cumulative, so your skills stay with you and grow.

The last stage, which you did hit on also. In your description before Matt, [00:22:00] you just didn't instinctively was the burn phase. So some people just get so happy from that earn phase that they want to stay there forever. They don't want to come out and then keep learning. Again, learning is dynamic, so the stages where yearn, learn, turn, earn.

[00:22:20] And burn and burn is sort of this catalytic converter of get, you know, it's like the, the beginning sand in an oyster. What's the little itchy thing that's getting, gets you over to yearn to start that process again?

Matt: [00:22:36] Hey everyone, it's Matt here. I hope you're enjoying the show. [00:22:40] Before we continue though, I want to give a quick shout out to our sponsor, Lina AI.

The future of work is today and faced with pressure to reduce costs while simultaneously enhancing their employee experiences. Coca-Cola beverages, Vietnam, turn to Lena, AI for their technology solution. [00:23:00] And like a lot of organizations who have a Cola was inundated with employee queries. Everything from leave status requests, policy and payroll queries, and they want a technological solution that was not only scalable, but also provided a unique employee experience.

So they deployed Lena AI's proprietary chat bot [00:23:20] and integrated it with their workplace by Facebook module and saw immediate results. Now, full disclosure, I do sit on Lena AI's advisory board, but that's because I am passionate about innovation and technology within the HR profession. I believe we need better tools in order to have success and to contribute more to our organizations.

[00:23:40] And because of sit on the board, we have received an exclusive discount by using the code bento 25 at purchase, you'll receive 25% off of your transaction with Lena AI. So for more information, please log on to Lena. Dot. AI and use the code bento 25 [00:24:00] to receive 25% off your purchase. And now back to our show.

Yeah,

SYP guest 01: [00:24:07] so that was a lot, but did, was I able to paint a little bit of a picture and it rhymes.

Matt: [00:24:12] I feel like that needs to be some sort of like napkin or t-shirt or like,

SYP guest 01: [00:24:16] yeah, I do have it. I do have it. I should make a tea [00:24:20] out of it, but yeah, we do have a, you know, a picture. With the different phases, but it's just kind of fun because you can see where people are, right?

When you're interviewing people, you have, you know, years and years of experience teaching, you know, hundreds of people to interview, right? [00:24:40] So just at the very basic level, when you're interviewing people for any role, if they don't have yearn, and if they're not a good learner, don't hire them. Right?

That's like very, very basic. So you're checking for urine. If your project is off kilter you, you are going to have all kinds of yearning [00:25:00] problems, yearning to improve, and also people getting passive because it's not going well. So urine is really important. But yeah, you're learn, turn or burn. Burn. There you go.

Matt: [00:25:14] I love that. And I can recognize myself in every one of those phases at various [00:25:20] parts of my life. And I know that for me, and I wouldn't recommend this for everybody because I certainly don't think it's a one size fits all approach. I'm a very experiential learner. Um, and the inertia to get me from that burn phase back to the urine phase oftentimes requires me to create the conditions in [00:25:40] my broader life too.

Facilitate that learning and my, you know, my entry into entrepreneurship is absolutely evidence of that. I was in a corporate role in a company that I enjoyed working with, with people that I enjoyed coming to work and working for and with side by side. Um, I had a great [00:26:00] team. We had a lot of success, but I knew that as the world evolved, that the skills that I had mastered were going to be declining in currency.

And that I would have to learn new skills to continue to be relevant and to stretch myself and push myself and ultimately play to the strengths that I thought I had. They just been buried under 20 years of kind of corporate speak and, [00:26:20] and kind of falling into line and, and adhering to one way of thinking.

But to achieve that, I knew I wasn't gonna be able to do it at the pace that I w. Felt was possible or that I wanted to, uh, if I just stayed and did a course on the side. So I wanted to make a complete transformation of my life to facilitate learning and push myself. But I knew in doing that [00:26:40] that they were going to be phases of that journey that I just went, what have you done?

Like, why did you choose this path? Like, it's just like, it's just

great. In that turn, I knew the turn was going to be there. I knew it was going to be . Steep turn because again, when you've had success doing something for so long and [00:27:00] you've been rewarded for that success, both monetarily and with credibility and with status and with all sorts of great things that you've spent, it's, it's so easy to want to just hoard the benefits of that.

But I'm getting, I think we're getting into a place in society and, and brought more broadly in business that you don't get to do that anymore. I mean, if the moment you stop learning, you're, you're losing [00:27:20] pace and we don't have the runways we used to have. You're going to have to continue to reinvent yourself.

As not only a professional, but also as a person, I believe. And I think that's something that I wanted to go through that experience, um, myself. Um, so that as society goes through that more broadly, that I can help people make that same transition. And I think technology [00:27:40] is a, is a way of bridging the gap from where we used to do to where we have to go.

Um, so I'm so glad to hear people like yourself are, are addressing that problem more systemically. Cause I think that is the answer to that problem.

SYP guest 01: [00:27:51] I really liked the description. I think Matt, experiential learning. I think we all are. Okay. I think we all [00:28:00] are. And I like the fact that you, you actually are in the top 10% I already knew that about you cause you could see it like in the urine, you see it, you saw the future and you created an environment to put yourself there to make sure that you were ready.

That's not natural. Most people don't do that. And [00:28:20] that's where we're, you know, we come into play because we try to help goose that out of people and nudge that. Right? What happens when people don't have that inclination? Um, we have a little talk that we do called the future of work versus the now have you.

And, uh, we speak a lot at ERG, employee resource [00:28:40] groups and BRGs I'm sure you're very familiar with those, right? so, yeah, we speak and w, you know, the topic is about that. I'm so passionate. Remember I said in the beginning of the conversation, taking into consideration of the learner. I'm so. Worried [00:29:00] that people, you know, are just going to be warm and cozy in their jobs and not push theirself.

And I don't want them to fall off a cliff. I want them to be continual learners. So we have this little talk, we do the future of work versus the now the view, and we got to press into where, you know, where are we going to be in the year [00:29:20] 2025 and 2030. What are your skills today? What are you going to need to do so that your head so that you're ready and also having a good time?

I mean, we're all, this is so interesting. I just read a book on the future of capitalism and, um, he's a really, really good book. I highly recommend it. And in the [00:29:40] notes, I'll give you the name of the author. But, so he said, you know, way back in the day when, when we were coming along in the industrial revolution.

Yeah, our families would be huge. Right. We don't, you know, farming family had huge, huge families. And today as actually statistically, the more that women are educated, [00:30:00] the birth rate is going down and it, those two things are correlated. So now birth rates going down globally, but what's happening is longevity is increasing.

So we don't have these very horizontal families anymore. We have very vertical families where you're getting five [00:30:20] generations and maybe even more in the future, pouring in to their kids, their grandkids, their great grandkids. And the reason I kind of see that is to your point, people do need to keep thinking about how they'll evolve their skills.

We, we are living longer, right? So [00:30:40] we have these opportunities to. To recreate ourself in our profession three or four or 10 times in a lifetime. We never had that opportunity before. Our parents never had that opportunity. Very exciting time and technology is going to be a huge piece of it. You just have to want to learn.

Matt: [00:30:57] You just have to want to learn and you [00:31:00] have to be willing to understand that. When you leave behind a certain part of yourself that that in and of itself is freeing and liberating. And that can feel scary. And I understand that. I mean, I have friends who have chosen career paths to mitigate their risk and a lot of ways [00:31:20] to, uh, realize a life that.

Was designed for them. And I think that as we continue to have conversations around their futures, increasingly I'm seeing people who are in their late thirties and early forties who are coming to a place where they're saying. I don't know that I made the right decision and I'm starting to come. I'm starting to wake up to this reality of this world and [00:31:40] worried about can I sustain my current trajectory for the next 20 years of my career?

And my encouragement to them is to start now trying to supplement your knowledge and horizontally with different skill sets. And focus less so on the technical skills that are going to provide short [00:32:00] term benefit, but focus more on the skills around you so that you have the resilience and you have the ability to build a platform for learning.

Whether that's mindfulness training, whether that is. Learning new languages, whether that is using technology is integrating more in your life. Be strategic about the limited time that you have, because if you have [00:32:20] a full time job and a family, uh, and you're, as you pointed out, working with multiple generations, maybe you have parents at home, you know, various things of that nature.

It's hard to find time in your schedule to even just time for yourself, let alone time for learning. But you need to find that space. And I think we've gotten to a point now where. We're hitting almost a [00:32:40] wall as a society. And we're seeing, you know, whether it's the, the, the growth of mental illness around the planet, whether we're seeing the income inequality, the correlation between those two things.

I don't have the studies on it. Um, and I certainly don't purport to be an expert on those areas, but there seems to be an inflection that's happening globally right now. [00:33:00] And I think that, you know, if I was somebody who is looking at their own. Future, the ability to have learning agility, the, the ability to be able to build a platform in and of yourself to be resilient and agile is just absolutely essential in a world that is undoubtedly gonna continue to change and change faster in the future.

SYP guest 01: [00:33:19] That is so [00:33:20] true. It's so true. You frame that, so, wow, Matt,

Matt: [00:33:23] so. In terms of your future, Robin, I don't want to take a hard right turn here now, but you know, I always enjoy our conversations. We always go in a bunch of different directions, and for those who wonder kind of what happens behind the scenes, I can promise you that we literally hopped on this call and we didn't have a script.

There really wasn't an [00:33:40] agenda. We just said, let's just talk and see where it ends up. And as I expected, we ended up somewhere. Super interesting and absolutely. Please do include the details around that book. I'd love to read about the new age of capitalism. I would add one more piece to the definition that you gave, which is.

Uh, and this is, by the way, I am full of bias on this all because of my biases up front. The future. The future of capitalism for [00:34:00] me also involves businesses and organizations that deliver purpose into society. Because I think traditionally organizations and incorporations in particular have drained from society, whether it is environmental, whether it is resources, whether it is people's time and energy and, and their health.

I think we're getting to a place now where organizations are expected to deliver net [00:34:20] positive benefit. And I'm excited for the next. You kind of generation, if you will, of entrepreneurs that is, has that mindset and is building business with the view of not just stopping the, the, the bleed of taking, but actually looking to inject purpose back in the society.

Whether it is innovations in technology to improve the environment or whether it's causes [00:34:40] around . Entrepreneurship that are focused more on a charitable giving. There just seems to be a lot more heart and purpose with the next generation of entrepreneurs, which just gives me so much more optimism. So I would include that in the definition of entre of capitalism going forward, a greater sense of purpose and organizations.

I

SYP guest 01: [00:34:57] don't mean to interrupt. Go ahead, please. [00:35:00] You could have read the book. Okay. Because all right. He breaks it into three categories and I'll leave it. There's the future of capitalism. It's based on business, community, and family. Grouped it, and so you just did one third of his whole book and you're [00:35:20] instinctively, I'm very proud of you.

Matt: [00:35:23] I need to read the book now. Apparently

SYP guest 01: [00:35:26] he should. I interviewed you for his forward business. Huge piece of the future health of capitalism.

Matt: [00:35:32] Huge. Huge, and I think, you know, as we go forward, it's just, you know, I think there's two ways to look at any [00:35:40] opportunity, Robin, and I love the fact that in this entire conversation we've talked about some pretty meaty, controversial issues.

We've talked about the future of work. We've talked about upskilling and reskilling. We've talked about people having to go through multiple transitions in their life and not once have you used the word problem. You've always used the word opportunity, and that's exactly how I view it as well, which is, there's [00:36:00] two ways to look at anything.

You could take the negative slant on things, and you can be the person who is reacting to circumstances or you can get ahead of the change. You need to be the person who's influencing the result. And I would encourage people to look at things in that manner because it's. Infinitely more empowering when you feel you're on the right side of the change and you have the power within [00:36:20] yourself to make that shift.

And on that note, Robin, I'll leave it to you for any final comments.

SYP guest 01: [00:36:24] Well, I just want to say thanks. I always love talking to you, so I hope we can do this again.

Matt: [00:36:29] We will absolutely do this again. Uh, and probably after I read that book, because I'm going to get into that. Right out right away here.

SYP guest 01: [00:36:35] It's a really, really good book.

And, um, I would also, I [00:36:40] just want to encourage, if you are a learner, people can, I don't know if people know this, but in our company, a risk to learn. We have the two companies are risk to hire. And Arista learned. Arista means excellent in great. And with Arista learn, what we've done is we've put together certification [00:37:00] classes that you need in your career, so negotiate world-class negotiation or advanced problem solving.

PMP, cybersecurity, big data cloud, ITIL, and we've done something very, very unique. Matt, we got them accredited credit. I know it's [00:37:20] usually an industry cert stands on its own, right, but we went on another level. And we have college credit attributed to them so that if you're working for a company that has tuition assistance, benefits, or tuition reimbursement, or you even have, if you served in the military and you have access to [00:37:40] the GI bill post nine 11 you can take all of our classes, all of them to your heart's content.

On our e-learning campus and with our global instructors and faculty, and it's all taken care of by your tuition. So we fit 99.9% of the tuition programs out there [00:38:00] because of the college credit. It's something that we would have been working on for the last two and a half years as far as getting the credit, and we're so excited about it.

So I just wanted to throw that out there. If we've sparked. Uh, ideas of learners from your listeners. And they want to actually take you up on [00:38:20] that. You know, the offer to look at different ways to recreate theirselves or look at new future roles and capabilities that they want to grow. They could probably take our classes and not even have to pay for it because their tuition benefits would take care of

Matt: [00:38:34] it.

Why am I not surprised? You're thinking three steps ahead, Robyn.

[00:38:40] SYP guest 01: [00:38:40] It's always about the learner,

Matt: [00:38:42] always. You're solving multiple problems simultaneously and providing an incredible service and value to the broader society, and I just want to congratulate you for that. That sounds

SYP guest 01: [00:38:54] outstanding. Thank you.

Yeah, we're, we're really excited about it and we're really excited about our [00:39:00] future catalog. So we have a full leadership. Uh, it's an it leadership catalog right now. Everything you need to be a phenomenal leader and everything. It's so practical because of the years of projects that we've done with, with the world's hottest organizations, small and [00:39:20] huge.

Um, but we're excited about our future catalog as well. We know how to create training. We know how the learner learns. And so for me, that said, it's an a huge, you know, Greenfield of opportunity. So another thing is people want to reach out. They, you know, if you have ideas [00:39:40] that you want of classes that we don't have, let us know or things you want to learn, we'll investigate that with you as far as new, cool things that we could put together.

We're very good at putting together experiential learning. So I'm going to stop there, man. I can talk to you all day.

Matt: [00:39:58] I know. And now I have an [00:40:00] agenda forming for our next meeting cause I have some ideas for you that I think would be fantastic. So sadly though, our time today has come to an end. Robin, thank you so much for joining us.

SYP guest 01: [00:40:10] Thank you and much left to you and I look forward to speaking with you soon. Thank you.

Matt: [00:40:15] You absolutely will and thank you to our listeners for this week. For those who are listening, if you [00:40:20] enjoyed the show, please do like comment and share. It helps spread the value of our message further and faster. I want to again thank Robin borough at Arista hire and Arista learn for joining us this week and if you're interested in checking out our other content, you can find us at bento, hr.com.

On iTunes, Google play, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts by searching, [00:40:40] thinking inside the box until next week. Bye for now.

[00:41:00] At bento HR, we enable your HR strategy with custom HR technology, procurement implementations and integrations. Deliberate your team from administration, enhance their productivity and experience to position them at the center of your organization's transformation, where they belong with experience. As an HR executive myself, I [00:41:20] have a real appreciation of the challenges facing today's HR leaders.

The world is changing. Your industry is being disrupted. Your organization is transforming and all the while you're trying to do more with less, you're being asked to simultaneously model fiscal restraint. While the expectations of your departments are [00:41:40] only increasing at bento HR, we can support you at every stage of your transformation from architecting the strategy to developing and selling the business case.

Internally, we support procurement. Implementations and ongoing sustainment. And we tie it all together with a deep knowledge of the [00:42:00] HR profession and over six decades of combined experiences from our founding team who has worked in or supported large HR organizations across multiple industries, including but not limited to, financial services, technology, retail, transportation, and healthcare.

[00:42:20] Check out bento HR today to build your very own bento box, which doubles as your business case for transformation. Leveraging recent research into the upside of digital automation inside organizations, and with your help in answering a few simple questions related to your organization, our bento builder will provide a directional business case [00:42:40] for change.

So log on to www.bentohr.com and build your bento box today.