Chapter 18 Chapter 6 How to avoid the impact of planarization (2)

Cultivating versatile workers, discovering generalists and workers who are willing to be trained as generalists "will become the new catchphrase of vocational training."A Gartner research report pointed out that expert workers usually have high-level skills in a narrow field, and their abilities can only be discovered by those who know the goods. Outside of their good fields, they immediately become useless. The land of martial arts.Jack-of-all-trades workers can order everything but are not proficient in anything. Although they can quickly change according to needs, it is difficult for them to win the trust of workers and customers.In contrast, generalists are proficient in everything and can continuously learn new skills, build good relationships with others, and take on new work tasks.Generalists are good at not only adapting but also constantly learning and growing. TechRepublic.com quotes Joe, Director of Siemens Business Services Training.In Santana’s words: “Facing a flat world, smaller budgets, and fewer workers, business managers need to bring out the best in their workers.

Instead of treating workers as specialized tools, let them become Swiss army knives.Those 'Swiss Army Knives' are all-rounders. "Let's face it, it's very unlikely that my kids will work for the same company for 25 years as I do. They have to make themselves more adaptable, like a Swiss army knife.Jean, former US President Clinton's economic adviser.Sperling is the author of "Progressives for Growth" and has done a good job on this issue.He told me that today's workers compete for jobs very much like Olympic athletes compete for medals, only a little differently.

"The workers are like people who are training for the Olympics but don't know what they're going to compete in," he said. "He has to be ready for any challenge," Spelling said. If that's true, then Marcia, the corporate designer I met at EDS headquarters.Lockrey should be an Olympic gold medalist.She told me how she changed course and entered the ranks of the emerging middle class. “Sometimes I feel like I stumbled into the middle class more by accident than by design,” the highly adaptable 48-year-old told me of her EDS glory days course. “It all started in 1978. I thought I was going to be an accountant, so I came to the University of North Texas, but then I lost faith in that life, so, I dropped out. I took night classes , learned typing and shorthand, and got a job at the EDS word processing center.” At the time, personal computers were pre-popular, so Lockrey was just working on a crude word processor, printing out sales reports.After a few years, however, everyone had a PC on their desk, and sales reps could print out their sales reports themselves.The work of word processing centers came to an end.

"After that, I moved to mainframe systems and did desktop publishing," she said, "which was a little more specialized, including formatting text on a computer and preparing documents for layout. But soon, with increasingly advanced computer software, Individuals can complete the operation alone. So, this work is also reimbursed." Since then, Lockrey has briefly helped colleagues at EDS learn how to do desktop programming on their own. "I'm enabling people to format their own documents by automating the formatting process," she said.She later worked at EDS's call center and help desk. “I was only there for a year because, when I was working on the help desk, I realized that if I knew more about networking, I would be better at the help desk,”

“So one day, I took off my headphones and asked Sam Billings, who was working in the systems management center, ‘How do I understand what you do, can you teach me?’” she recalls. ' He agreed.So he asked me to observe his work process, and he took a manual from under his desk and said, 'You should know these things first. 'When he's troubleshooting, he'll show me a network diagram,' Let's imagine a situation where you get a bunch of calls from a customer and his system has this symptom.what does this mean?You have to have a lot of relevant knowledge to be able to guide clients. ’” Rockley gradually realized that she needed to package and improve herself so that she could increase her ability to compete with others.

“There are a lot of people who are tech-savvy, so how do I differentiate myself and get a job?” she asked. "I concluded that I had to keep learning because there was so much new stuff coming out. That's when I realized that I am 'Marcia & Company'. It's my responsibility to keep myself up to date and learn all kinds of new things, and that's just action I also thought I needed some certificates.” At the time, EDS was using Novell Netware as its primary network operating system. Lockrey began self-studying the course and was certified at the operating level of the system.On weekends, she would come to the company to watch the engineers tinker with the new server.

"They were very willing to help me, I guess, because they thought I was very curious, so I got 'a manager stopped me one day and said: some hands-on experience,'" she recalls.'The SysAdmin Center It's growing fast,' he said, and he had five openings, let me pick one. I picked Windows NT, the Microsoft network operating system, and I became one of the first few NT server technicians in System Management Center. 1. Later, with my participation, the company established a team of technicians... Then, I started to learn from some system designers. I went off to school to take networking courses and eventually became an engineer.Along the way, she also wrote a book, The Beginner's Guide."All of that got me started in EDS," said Lockrey.I need to prove that I can not only be a technician with my eyes on the monitor, I want to prove that I can compete with the heavyweights and I can have a place in their turf.Because if you want to be the best employee, you have to publish articles, apply for patents and participate in important projects around the world. "Today, Marcia Lockley is number two on the technical staff at EDS—the Corporate Architect.

Lockrey, a single mother, said her son is a Navy reservist who recently returned from Iraq. "I talked to him a lot, but I don't know if he listened to it," she said, as every mother cares about her son, she warned her son: "A solid technical foundation and knowledge of mathematics and natural science can put you Get in the door, but it doesn't guarantee you staying in forever or great success. Ability in a certain field is just the basic requirement for entry. What will really keep your position is to form a broader perspective. As the world flattens, so do companies, and you must be able to spot new dynamics from a company, customer, and market perspective.You can't just stare at the monitor and slog away. "

Looking back at the road he has traveled, Lockrey said that those previous jobs have been submerged by the tide of history: "Those jobs have either been automated to some extent or have been transferred to Indians. . I can Surviving this trend has been a matter of determination. I love learning, and there’s a lot to learn here.” But Rockley knows that even corporate designers aren’t safe. "I'm never just adapting, I'm being proactive," she said. "Sam told me a long time ago, 'Be an expert in three fields at the same time, but also know that these three fields will be constantly changing.' So, I try to divide these three fields like this: One is my What I am proficient in now, one is closely related to the current field, and the other is what I want to get involved in next."

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Marcia still doesn't have her BA - she's always busy with her career. "Right now, I'm taking a geography course," she says with a smile. "I don't study enough and haven't graduated. If only the time I spent on money and technology could be added to geography." Environmental protection When the three billion people in China, India and the former Soviet Union came to compete with us on the world stage in a short time, each of them wanted a house, a car, a microwave and a refrigerator.If we don't learn how to do more with less energy while creating less pollution, our environment will face a catastrophe and our children will not be able to continue to survive on this planet.So, many of the stickers labeled "sustainable"

And "reuse" label jobs, such as renewable energy and environmental sustainable development systems will appear in large numbers.This will be the biggest industry of the 21st century. Like Carlotta.Perez pointed out: "The more China, India and other developing countries or the former Soviet Union move towards industrialization, the more serious the environmental problems are, and the wider the market needs to be protected, adjusted and occupied." The further development of these big countries will create demand for environmental protection industries, and increasingly stringent global environmental protection regulations will also promote the emergence of these industries. steve.Jur Wetson is a venture capitalist and innovator who has recently focused his efforts on investing in cleantech.He said he hoped for a "biotech renaissance."It's an emerging field in which college students move from aspirations to become doctors to focus on using biotechnology to solve our looming energy crisis and environmental problems.Again, in this field, there will be many jobs. Personalized Ann and I used season tickets with friends to come to Baltimore to watch the Orioles baseball game. Anyone who goes to a game at Camden Yards knows that there is a lemonade man there. He always masterfully performs his lemonade tricks.Before handing you your drink, he does a cheerful dance move with his hands raised high.I love watching him perform.All he sells is water with sugar and lemon, nothing more simple than that.However, I noticed that after the games, he always made a lot of money, plus tips—more money than any other stall owner.Why?Because he added something new to lemonade, making it a unique product.I can get lemonade from a lot of vendors, and I can drink Coca-Cola or plain water, and he knows that.But I and others often spend $3.50 (plus tip) on his products because his water quenches my thirst and his shows put me in a good mood.Something unique about him gave me a unique feeling. Now the lemonade man in Baltimore has the ability to insulate himself from flattening.His work is so local that he can't be replaced by someone in India because he can deliver lemonade to my face and I don't want to lose the opportunity to see him perform.However, I would say that by personalizing his product, he has taken himself to the next level, a new middle-class job with higher wages.Sometimes personalization comes purely from passion; sometimes personalization comes purely from entertainment; sometimes personalization comes from a flash of inspiration.But no matter what, a job must be upgraded to an emerging middle-class job.There was an elderly African-American woman who made coffee at the Caribou Coffee Shop next to my office on K Street in Washington.Every time I'm there, she goes out of her way to provide me with the best possible service and care - not fake and contrived like the Ritz Carlton staff, but genuinely genuine, So that's what drew me here.One day, the coffee shop asked her to be the manager—maybe she never thought about it. Interestingly, Princeton economist Alan.In his dissertation on offshoring, Brand argues that because so many of the new middle-class jobs require a personal touch, it will lead to a renaissance of the human-to-human communication skills that once accompanies the industrial age and the Internet. Development has shrunk somewhat. Brand writes that this renaissance of the skill has had the same impact on people as Charlie.What Chaplin showed in the film was the exact opposite.Humans are social animals and cannot do without communication.In the past few decades, it seems that the development of modern economic life has reduced the natural contact of people in the course of work.Over the next few decades, as personalized services make a comeback, previous trends are likely to reverse—potentially leading to fewer barriers and greater satisfaction at work. Indigenizing large industries is undoubtedly important for creating middle-class jobs.In reality, however, small and medium-sized industries provide the majority of total employment.When these small and medium-sized industries are in a state of growth and employ a large number of workers, the economy is full of vitality, otherwise, the economy is in a state of recession. So, if there is going to be an emerging middle class, then small and medium industries will play an important role.Exciting changes in the flat world, such as the emergence of new things such as business websites, have brought more vitality to small industries, allowing them to innovate and compete on a global scale with less cost. IBM strategist Joel.Cowley calls this situation "glocalization."He pointed out: "There will be a large number of industries waiting for these small and medium-sized enterprises to develop, and they will learn how to tailor global resources to serve the local area." Successful companies in this regard will understand the increasing globalization and make use of it. All tools meet local needs. This will create many jobs.Glocalization will create a new class of freelancers who, using a satellite dish, a DSL line, a BlackBerry system, a PC, or some new software, can edit or edit movies or work in eBay was tricked into being an entrepreneur.Sports bar owners will learn to use multiple satellite reception systems to support multiple flat-screen TVs to simultaneously broadcast 12 NFL games for their patrons on Sunday afternoons, plus golf championships in Europe, basketball in China and soccer in Australia.Café owners want to extend the time their customers spend in the store by offering free wireless Internet access.The small scale entrepreneur needs to realize that he can run his own custom book labeling business utilizing the global network facility of the Amazon Web Store.He can find a Chinese company through the Internet to make these bookmarks.In this way, overnight, he became an importer of bookmarks, which he then resells to online bookstores, all online.The owner of an uninterruptible power supply store can overnight become a participant in a global supply chain for other businesses.The local auto repair shop suddenly discovered that it could get BMW hubcaps and Mercedes windshields cheaper than Rochester from a supplier in Romania. Finally, people from all walks of life need to realize the power of "models" - and I don't mean Cindy.Crawford, instead, refers to the use of computer simulations and image analysis.You can bring all the data together and model it so you can see what the complex combination of factors is going to do.As a real estate agent who builds models, you can show potential buyers a floor plan of a house or apartment and have them move the walls as they wish to choose the best effect.As an engineer who builds models, you can do the same for bridges and roads.So those landscape architects, financial planners, furniture designers, real estate brokers, etc., once they master these skills and put them to work to meet the needs of clients, they will find that they have the ability to avoid flat. ability to absorb impact. These are only rough classifications, and emerging jobs will continue to emerge.Moreover, there are no hard and fast boundaries between strategies.Therefore, people often use these methods together.So, let me introduce you to one last example - my childhood buddy, Bill.Greer (Bill Greer).I think he's a good combination of those strategies, and he's been very competitive in his job. bill.Greer, 50, lives the life of a freelance artist.From the 1970s to 2000, he worked in graphic design for 26 years. During this period, his mode of working for clients has hardly changed. “My clients, like The New York Times, want the finished product straight away,” Bill explained to me.So, if he makes an illustration for a newspaper or magazine, or designs a logo for a product, he has to do it all himself—make the drawing, paint it, mount it on cardboard, cover it with tissue and pack it up , and finally give it to the postman or use FedEx to send it.He calls this "the art of packaging."In the industry, people call this kind of work "camera obscura" because the desired visual image of the subject is first photographed, then the image is imaged on four different layers of color film—also called color separation, and finally published. . "You have to finish all the procedures, because the author puts a lot of effort into the work, so it is very precious," Bill said, "It is a real work of art, and sometimes people are even willing to hang them Admire it on your own wall. In fact, The New York Times has long wanted to make an art exhibition of all the illustrations from its ever-published publications.” "But in recent years, that has changed," Bill told me.Designing art has become easier as publishers and advertising agencies have gone digital, relying on the latest design software such as Quark, Photoshop, and Illustrator (the Holy Trinity, as graphic design artists call it). Everyone can learn to use these software in art school.In fact, graphic design has become so easy that this artistic endeavor has evolved into vanilla ice cream production.Anyone can do it, and there is no difference in anyone's product. "From a design perspective," he said, "these technologies give everyone the same tools, so everyone can draw lines with the software, and because of that, the work is not as valuable as it used to be. You used to It takes the naked eye to see if certain graphics are balanced, if the font is chosen correctly, but now, everyone can do that in a split second.” So Greer climbed up the production chain on the skills ladder.Because publishers required all final products to be in digital form so they could be uploaded over the web, there was no need for "packaged art" anymore.So Greer turned himself into a creative consultant.Creativity is exactly what clients want, including McDonald's and Unilever.Instead of pen and ink, he now draws sketches with a pencil, scans them into a computer, colors them with a mouse, and emails samples to his clients. Finally, the client goes to someone who can use computer software to do all the other work. "I didn't get to this point consciously," Greer said. "I had to find a job, and it couldn't be done by everyone, young artists, even with computers, or I wouldn't be able to make money. money. So, when people ask me if I can give them an idea, I take the job.A client will give me a concept, and they just want me to create a sketch that expresses their meaning, not a finished piece of art. I'm still using the basics of drawing, but just conveying a fleeting idea to others.Even though it is just a sketch, customers are still willing to pay a higher price for it.I actually took on another role because of this ability—an art consultant rather than a computer-armed so-called artist, of which there are many.I am now a person who lives on creativity, and my ability dwarfs those so-called artists.My clients pay big bucks just for concepts, and it's a great deal.The so-called artists processed my sketches with computer programs, not in the same way as I was used to, but not bad. "Then, another thing happened. Technological advances transformed the low-end part of Greer's old job into standardized production, while also opening up a whole new market in the high-end part: One day, a regular client in Greer's magazine found He asked if it would be possible to do "caricature morphing." "Caricature morphing" is a technique in a cartoon comic strip by which one character is transformed into another—Martha. Stewart morphs into Kao Turney Love, Drew Barrymore transforms into Drew Carey, Mariah Carey transforms into Jim Kelly, Shel transforms into Brittnev Spears. When he came into contact with these for the first time, he didn't know where to start. So Greer logged on to Amazon.com to download and buy some professional software. After a few days of experimentation, he made his first cartoon deformation work. Since then, he Developing this skill into his own specialty, more and more clients are in demand, including the men's magazine "Maxim", the middle-aged women's fashion magazine "More", and the children's magazine "Nickelodeon". In other words, someone invented a new flavor of sauce to top vanilla ice cream, and Greer jumped at the opportunity right away.This is exactly what is happening in the global economy every hour of the day. "I have a good background in technology, so I was able to get into this very quickly," Greer said. Where - from Santa Barbara to Minneapolis or my apartment in NYC. Sometimes the client gives me a theme, other times I give it a free hand. In the past, manga transformation was an out-and-out high-end technical product, which you could only see on TV. Now, people have designed related software, and ordinary people can also make it by themselves. I have designed many shapes for magazines to use , and these works are just a series of image files in JPEG format... "Manga Transformation" is a very good job market, and many magazines are in demand.I even get emails from kids who think I'm a star and adore me. "Greer never knew what "manga morphing" was until the technology developed enough to create a new professional field of "manga morphing". The changes in the market and the pressure of the corresponding work made him eager to master new skills ’” I wish I had been conscious of going down this path. "He admitted, 'It's not like that, I just happen to be able to do this job, I'm just lucky to have an opportunity.I know many artists who leave their professional field.One ex-illustrator turned packaging designer, and another has moved on to something other than graphic design entirely.I know a designer who is one of the best and has turned into a landscape architect.Although, she is still engaged in design work, but has no longer deal with the media.People need to be able to change themselves, but I still feel a little nervous about my future. "I reinterpreted Greer's story to him using some terms from my book. He started out producing ice cream with chocolate sauce (traditional illustrator) and then transitioned to a vanilla ice cream The producer of the product (an illustrator armed with a computer), after a technical upgrade, started to produce ice cream with a special chocolate sauce (design consultant), and finally, under the guidance of the professional market demand, he began to produce completely unique products. Different products - Cherry Ice Cream (as a "manga metamorphosis" artist). After hearing my compliment, Greer mused for a moment and said, "All I do is compete and I'm still me." As he got up to go, he told me he To meet a friend and work with him on juggling.Outside of work, they have juggled together for years, sometimes on street corners, sometimes at private parties.Greer, who has good hand-eye coordination, said: "Even juggling has gradually been transformed from a stunt to a mass game. It used to be that if you could juggle five balls at the same time, it was pretty amazing. Now, juggling five balls at the same time A ball is just the basic requirement. My partner and I often perform together. When I first met him, he could juggle seven balls at the same time, and now 14-year-old kids can juggle seven balls at the same time, no problem at all.Now people can buy books like Juggling for Dummies, and a training kit.They can teach you to juggle, and eventually the tide raises all boats and raises the bar.