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OPINION
Learning to unlearn
T oday’s workplace has changed more in the last several years than in the preceding quarter-century. Driven by a mix of deliberate business choices and broader industry trends such as AI and automation, the “future of work” is no longer an imaginary time in the future. It’s here. It’s now. In the AEC industry today, the most innovative organizations will not be those with the greatest capacity to learn but those with the greatest capacity to unlearn.
Donnie Gladfelter
Although technology is nothing new to modern workplaces, the rapid evolution of what defines specific technical skills and the rate at which new skills emerge for nearly every role in a company is unique to this moment. These new workforce demands underscore the importance of professional development as organizations respond to change in a way that fuels innovation for long-term success. Bowman’s professional development strategy centers around the simple philosophy of connecting those who know with those who need. Although the latest technical skills are crucial for an employee’s success, so is a growth mindset founded on the principles of continuous learning. Unless paired with business skills to manage their INNOVATION THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT. Embracing this opportunity,
career, technical learning alone can unintentionally diminish an organization’s innovation potential. Often, with a focus on tactical skills alone, the comfort and desirability bias embedded in existing workflows yields the opportunity offered by new and more efficient technologies. THE DISRUPTION OF VOICEMAIL. An example of this was the introduction of voicemail technology to the workplace in the 1970s. With an early name of the technology being the “electronic secretary,” it’s no surprise that many secretaries saw the technology as a threat and feared it would render them obsolete. Focused on the task that consumed the most significant amount of time in a typical workday, many resisted the change by arguing that voicemail was
See DONNIE GLADFELTER, page 8
THE ZWEIG LETTER APRIL 29, 2024, ISSUE 1535
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