Are you creative or increasingly unemployable?

Being creative was once the preserve of artists, scientists and designers. The rest of us were, to varying degrees, process cogs in the factory machine. Whether that factory has a conveyor belt, or an array of desks, job spec equals cog spec.

Our role was to address the processes, or sub processes, that technology could not address. Some people today have yet to realize that this was a stop-gap solution until the technology had caught up.

Well, the technology has caught up. Soon robots will move from science fiction blockbusters to being our emotionally intelligent coworkers, who soon after will be wishing us luck whilst attending our leaving parties.

Some of us may be lucky enough to get through our career without such an experience. Perhaps we are a truly unique cog and technology, whilst racing to overtake us, will fail to do so before we cross the career finish line. Be aware that the race is on.

We can already see that technology is destroying the need for blue collar workers with the zeal of Amazon rain forest loggers. It is also ‘blue collarizing’ white collar work. There are very few places for workers to turn.

So the question arises as to how we stay in play. Well the answer is to be able to deliver value in ways in which technology cannot (if only for now). Today, our embedded computer (aka brain) is a powerful tool in respect of value delivery. But not if we are simply going to use it to follow procedures.

Our value differentiator is our potential for creativity. Our ability to create value by making synaptic connections between disparate concepts. Connecting seemingly unrelated experiences to customer challenges. For example, how might your fly fishing hobby knowledge be applied to your weekday job as a neurosurgeon?

Young people need to be aware that they must harness the power of their brains if they are to succeed in the modern world. It’s all too easy, yes easy, to jump on the career conveyor belt, and get pulled through the education system and into a ready-made career (think plumber, doctor or lawyer).

A by-product of the digital economy is that ‘off the shelf’ careers are becoming less of an option.

Thus not only do we need our youngsters to develop and apply their creative skills, we need them to apply these skills to their career paths.

Parents have a responsibility here, as does the education system.

We cannot blame technology. It’s a by-product of our evolution; or maybe even an essential strand of our evolution.

It would be a shame if our indifference to this reality spawned a leisure class that comprised a whole generation of people, who through no fault of their own, find themselves not just unemployed but unemployable.