Digital-readiness: Are you ready for the digital age?
Testing time
Take this simple test to establish whether you are ready for life in the digital age.
For each question, score yourself on a scale of 0 to 10. (0: Not true at all or No to 10: Very True or Yes).
- Do you abhor the notion of work-life balance?
- Is your current role well-defined in terms of job specification?
- To what extent does your role call upon your creativity?
- Do you have more than one channel of income?
- How closely do you work with your manager on a day to day basis?
- Do you put time aside each week to improve yourself professionally?
- Do you put time aside each week to engage on professional networks?
- Have you experienced ‘professional fear’* in the last two weeks?
- Does your reason for working extend beyond the economic?
- Do you find you are often sucked into questionnaires such as this on social media?
* Professional fear is an emotion triggered in your working environment. Sensationally it is characterised by a strong desire to get away quickly coupled with a possible digestive system response.
Now remark your answers to questions 2, 5 and 10 as follows:
Score yourself on a scale of 0 to 10. (0: Very True or Yes to 10: Not true at all or No).
How did you do?
Having done that, tot up your score. If you have scored highly, you are in good shape for the digital age. If you have not scored highly or you are frustrated that you have not been told what defines a high score then you are not yet ready.
The digital age, unlike the industrial age, will not be defined by clear tramlines that enable you to do your work and live your life in a mindless (robotic) fashion. Increasingly you will be faced with ever more:
- Uncertainty.
- Ambiguity.
- Ways of doing things.
- Alerts and notifications.
If you are unable to deliver outcomes based on vague, unreasonable and data-scarce requirements in an environment awash with bleeps, (winged) Sirens and shiny things, you will increasingly find yourself sitting in job interview waiting rooms alongside robots of various shapes and sizes.
It’s time to rethink digital-readiness
Digital-readiness is much more than just being comfortable with living your life via a mobile phone, being au fait with the Fourth Industrial Revolution or driving a driverless car.
