Thomas Friedman: Technology is accelerating faster than our ability to adapt. We can catch up

The New York Times columnist explained that the foundation for adapting to rapid technological change is set, we just have to build on it.
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The future of humanity will depend on our ability to adapt to and work with technology and the way through to this goal is lifelong learning, author Thomas Friedman said at the Resnick Aspen Action Forum earlier this week.

In a video from The Aspen Institute, Friedman described this future through a conversation he had with Google X’s Astro Teller while researching for his new book Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration. Teller drew Friedman a graph which showed the rate of human adaptation versus rate of technological change over time and where we are at our point in history.

Screenshot via The Aspen Institute.

The concepts behind the graph, which WorkingNation detailed in our “Slope of the Curve” animated short, show that our ability to adapt was surpassed by the rate of technological change, which is constantly in a state of acceleration according to Moore’s Law.

RELATED: “The Slope of the Curve” by Marshall Curry

Right now, Teller noted to Friedman, advances in automation and artificial intelligence risk leaving a significant portion of humanity behind, but by “learning faster and governing smarter,” we can attempt to catch up. Friedman said that a quiet revolution is underway across the country as corporations and governments are innovating new ways to train workers and transforming education into a lifelong pursuit of skills and knowledge.

“There is massive innovation going on in this country on the pipeline of education to work. So much so that I almost thought of writing a book just about that. And no-one is telling anybody,” Friedman said.

The groundwork for adaptation, Friedman said, is happening at places like Qualcomm, where “The Internet of Things” tech is connecting all systems and turning janitors into tour-giving “maintenance technologists.” AT&T is assessing the skills of its workforce and providing training opportunities to improve skillsets through nano-degree online courses.

To incentivize this off-hours learning, Friedman said AT&T’s “social contract” with its workforce means it must use the technology and educational support provided or enjoy the severance package on the way out. The digital divide will be no longer be applicable as technology seeps further into the everyday aspects of life, it will be replaced by a “motivational divide” separating whomever is willing to learn from the non-learners, Friedman said.

“That is a social contract that is coming to a neighborhood near you,” Friedman said, “My teacher and friend Heather McGowan points out that the days when you could get a four-year degree or six-year degree and dine out for 35 years on that knowledge? That is so gone in the age of acceleration.”

Friedman asserted that mainstream politics and news coverage downplays the threat of the technological skills gap upon the American workforce, but he added that our best thinkers and companies are already hard at work on overcoming it. “There is so much going on that nothing has to be invented. Whatever you can think of, I will show you somebody has thought of it and is implementing it,” Friedman said. The big takeaway from Friedman’s comments is that while the world may be slow to adjust to the breakneck speed of this latest industrial revolution, technology can allow us to keep pace, for the time being. To get more of Friedman’s reporting about automation, check out this podcast “Navigating the Future of Work,” from Deloitte University Press from July 26. Join the Conversation: Watch the video and tell us about what you think of Friedman’s ideas on adapting to technological change on our Facebook page.

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.