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I was honored to be asked for the second consecutive year to speak at The National Association of African Americans in Human Resources (NAAAHR) Conference held this week in Chicago. I was asked to speak on workforce 2020 issues.  As I updated some earlier work I had done on the topic, I realized that the issues are rapidly becoming more interconnected and more complex.  And I also recognize that the issues are in many ways paradoxical.

Paradox 1: Rapidly advancing technology simplifies our work and at the same time makes it more complex. All of the technology tools from those that manage projects to those that manage our careers increase productivity, and creativity. However, the complexity comes in because you have so many different choices and ways to interconnect the learning curve can be mind-boggling.

Paradox 2: Social scientists claim that social media networking will make issues of race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, etc, non-issues because there will be less face-to-face contact. The belief is that this will level the playing field. The paradox is that there is more opportunity to express prejudice and exclusion anonymously. We already see this playing out in cyberspace.  The issues of intolerance of difference are ever more present with new venues in which to express them.

Paradox 3: We have high unemployment rates around the world, especially among our youth. However, there are millions of jobs that are going unfilled because of a skills shortage in emerging technical fields. The skills gap issue is especially prominent among youth of color.

Paradox 4: By 2020, 39 percent of the workforce in the US will be comprised of Latinos, African Americans, Asians and other minorities. The paradox is that more that half of these workers will not have the skills for the jobs.

Paradox 5: Women make up half of the world’s population and 70 percent of those who live in poverty. Leading economists say that until we level the economic playing field for women, the world economy will continue to be sub-optimized.

Paradox 6: While we are emphasizing the need for technical skills, there is an equally critical need for those with emotional intelligence.  The need for people who have a high level of self-awareness, can self manage and can lead with empathy, and compassion will be just as important as the technical skills.  It is not an either or proposition, rather a “both and”.   The two concepts are not mutually exclusive.

Paradox 7: We must operate globally and locally at the same time.   We might call this “glocal” thinking.  It will be necessary for workers to understand world issues as we work globally around the sun while at the same time attending to the concerns of our local communities.

Paradox 8: We will be younger and older in the workforce.  In the next ten years there will be 5 generations working side by side.  Millennials (born between 1980 and 2000) will outnumber baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) in the workplace.  Gen Z (born after 2000) will join the workforce.  However, boomers and traditionalists (born before 1946) will be working longer than any of us thought because of economic necessity and longer life spans.  The generations have had very different life influences and therefore their attitudes and motivations about work are very different.

The Inclusion Solution is to begin to recognize the collision of ideas and trends that are seemingly paradoxical but must be tackled simultaneously.  We must become systems thinkers, able to see the interconnections and complex relationships that are shaping the new world order.