‘One of the most important competencies graduates will need is the ability to engage in respectful discourse and debate’

Reflections on the big issues shaping our workforce in the coming year from our WorkingNation Advisory Board

December 10, 2023

We asked our WorkingNation Advisory Board to share their thoughts on the most important issues and challenges facing the workforce and the labor market in 2024.

Bridget Burns, Ed.D. is the founding CEO of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) which helps university leaders accelerate the implementation of scalable solutions to increase the number and diversity of college graduates.

Here are her thoughts on The Future of Work 2024.

“We could talk about all kinds of areas where colleges prepare students for the workforce, but in today’s environment, one of the most important competencies graduates will need to sustain their careers (and our democracy), is the ability to engage in respectful discourse and debate.

“Nearly 90% of employers believe that students exposed to a wide range of viewpoints are better prepared for success in the workforce, according to a report released last month by the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

“This is unlikely to happen if 60% of students are afraid to share their differing perspectives in class. This discomfort with engaging in discourse and debate on topics of controversy is understandable given the reactionary nature of the American public being amplified by the media and social media.

“Unfortunately, the growing polarization in broader society is making it far more challenging for colleges to prepare students to navigate a diversity of thought and perspective in the workforce. Higher education did not create this self-censorship challenge, but it should take up the task of solving it.

“Rather than letting the polarization in society seep into our campuses, we should lean into the challenge of embedding respectful debate into classroom pedagogy across every discipline possible, because being able to discuss important ideas with people who disagree with you is one of the most valuable skills we could equip graduates and future citizens with.

“With the country being increasingly defined by partisan dysfunction, colleges and universities are uniquely positioned to build a workforce filled with future leaders comfortable with navigating a range of viewpoints.

“Working to understand different perspectives is, after all, the cornerstone of debate. Students may learn something they have never before considered, and even if they still disagree, their own argument will be bolstered by this deeper understanding.

“Less high-mindedly, improving students’ mental flexibility and resiliency will serve them well in the workforce. The process has been shown to strengthen students’ critical thinking, communication, and inquiry skills – competencies all highly valued by employers.

“Institutions should consider embedding the tenets of respectful discourse and debate into pedagogy and the broader curriculum, taking some lessons from the Oxford-style debates common among British colleges and universities. Developing students’ ability to comfortably enter into a substantive exchange of ideas should be treated with the same importance and care as any other critical workforce readiness skill.”

Read more from our WorkingNation Advisory Board members on The Future of Work 2024.

‘We need a massive retraining of the workforce, certainly the bottom half of it, to be able to manage AI machines’

‘Over the next three years to five years, every major application, every interaction with systems is going to get rewritten to use AI’

‘How are we communicating to employees the types of skills that they need?’

‘Inexperienced workers have the most to gain in terms of productivity when it comes to leveraging generative AI’

Get the latest from WorkingNation

Our Mission

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.