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Everyone needs access to upskilling to thrive in our digital economy

A conversation with Chike Aguh, senior principal of The McChrystal Group, senior advisor to Digital US
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As we talk about how we bring the tens of millions of unemployed Americans back into the workforce, there is a lot of discussion around upskilling and the importance of every jobseeker having strong tech and digital skills. There is a big divide between the need and the reality, and the lack of access to broadband is making that divide even wider.

A third of all American workers, and half of all Black and Latino workers, already have limited or no digital skills, according to Digital US, a nonprofit working to ensure that everyone has the technology skills and digital resilience to thrive in work and life. Without broadband access, people will be left behind in our changing economy and workforce.

“For folks to be ready for the jobs of the future they need technology and the most critical one is the internet. It is as vital as water, electricity, and really has risen to the level of a human right,” Chike Aguh, a senior advisor to Digital US and a senior principal of The McChrystal Group, tells me in this episode of the Work in Progress podcast.

18 million Americans do not have broadband access, and you may be surprised to learn that the majority of those people live in urban areas, not rural areas. Aguh makes the strong case that this lack of access puts these jobseekers at a disadvantage in the hiring process.

“When was the last time someone submitted a paper job application? So literally the most vital things that are critical to living your life, and creating a better life for you and your family, go through the internet. That’s why it has to be available for everyone.”

Access to broadband is part of the bigger Digital US mission, which is to ensure there are programs in place that can help everyone get the skills they need in our digital economy.

“Very simply, every job and every task is a technology job or a technology task. We need to make sure that for all these new technologies that are coming out that workers have the digital skills—the ability to use those tools—but even more important, they need the digital resilience to learn new skills as those technologies change over time,” says Aguh, whose role at The McCrystal Group is to help organizations understand the future of work and how to adapt to it.

Aguh has spent much of his career examining how technology is changing the workforce and the need to create equal access to the internet to ensure everyone has the digital skills to take part in the transformation. He is definitely someone you want to listen to! You can listen to the full episode here, or download and listen wherever you get your podcasts.

Episode 140: Chike Aguh, Senior Principal, The McCrystal Group, and Senior Advisor, Digital US
Host: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch, Melissa Panzer, and Ramona Schindelheim
Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0.

You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.