HROTodayGlobal

HRO Summit Europe Preview It's the shift from being an isolated competitor, to being an innovative connector. So you need to both stand out with your mastery and skills and yet simultaneously become part of a collection of other masters who together create value. Why? Because otherwise you always will be on your own, isolated and competing with thousands of others with no possibility of the leverage that the crowd brings. The Pursuit of Happiness The third source of capital or resource available to you is your emotional capital. That's the extent to which you are able to understand yourself and be reflective about the choices you make. It's also about your capacity to build emotional resilience and fortitude that will be integral for courageous action taking. Perhaps most importantly, emotional capital is the extent to which you are able to understand and then to make choices that create happiness in your life and allow you to live in harmony with your values and your work. In a sense, the shift that accompanies this source of personal capital is the most complex. It will require you and your friends—and your children if you have them—to think hard about what sort of working life you want. from shallow generalist to serial master, addresses the question of how you can best develop and deploy your intellectual capital over the coming decades. The Nurtured Network The second area of resource or capital valuable to you in your working life is your social capital. That's the sum of all the relationships you have and the extent and depth of your networks. Some of these relationships will be strong and real sources of personal joy, while many others will be weaker but enable you to connect to diverse groups of people. The argument I am making with regard to the future of work is that the depth and breadth of these relationships and networks will become ever more vital, and that they will need to be crafted and nurtured in conscious ways. In a world where isolation is just around the corner, finding and keeping regenerative relationships will be key. But in a world where innovation and creativity are at a premium, diversity of networks will also play a crucial role. Success will come from the balance between the different types of relationships and networks that define your work. This will mean letting go of many of your preconceptions about what it takes to be a winner. Sure, you want to stand out from the crowd, but paradoxically it's the crowd—or at least the wise crowd—which will help you thrive. This is the second shift that will be so crucial to success in the future. Simply opting for a high standard of living will not be enough. What will be more crucial to the development of emotional capital will be the choices you make and the consequences you are prepared to trade off. It seems to me that increasingly the quality of experiences will trump quantity of consumption, and that words like "happiness" and "regeneration" will replace words like "affluence" and "luxury" as the touchstone of future working lives. So the third and final shift builds on sources of emotional capital through shifting from a working life dominated by voracious consumption to one that has impassioned production at the heart. None of this will be straightforward. Much will require a level of focus and energy that frankly few of us have associated with decisions about the way we work. But doing nothing is not an option. The challenge is what to do. Simply expending energy will take you on a path, but what is required in addition are conscious, articulated, and purposeful actions around the three shifts. To be prepared to expend the focus and determination to be a serial master; to use energy and good will to become an innovative connector with a rich network of diverse and interesting people; and finally, to redraft the traditional working deal that has money and consumption at the heart to something more in tune with your emotional needs for experiences and passion. Lynda Gratton, who will keynote November's HRO Summit Europe in Barcelona, is professor of management practice at London Business School. Her latest book is preceding was excerpted. (Collins, 2011), from which the [18] HRO TODAY GLOBAL | SUMMER 2011 The Shift

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