Long Life Learning, Preparing For Jobs That Don't Even Exist Yet, by Michelle R. Weise, Wiley 2021

Just when you think we're are breathing easier, coming to the end of a long pandemic disruption, uncertain how we will "come back," especially in the work world, Michelle R. Weise, an visionary education executive,  tells us there will be more - more change, different jobs, new movements in the workplace.  And it's not just about public education changing its methodology or intentions.  Weise tells us that we must look at life long learning across varied economic and age phases.

But what manufacturing people can most take from this valuable book is Weise's perspective on the future of work and the steps needed to reinforce career-focused learning and training in ways that allow us to move back and forth and in and out of work, learning, life, work, learning, life.  Because what we have learned from this nearly two-year pandemic experience is the need for flexibility and staying power amidst the dislocation and trauma.  Further, we've seen the essential necessity of great technology to connect us - vimeo, Zoom, direct connects - all with higher capacity and speeds, as well as tuned up cyber-security to enable the new functionality.  With the pandemic came new learning about work life and skills, and that's where Weise's visionary work opens up new vistas.

Weise admits that the task of developing lifelong learning for all age groups will continue to be challenging.  She tells the story of how Walmart approached this challenge  for its  one million employees.  The company decided to make training "bite size," relevant, and integrated into the workday, not another task that would be loaded on top of employees' other responsibilities.  The answer Walmart came up with, Walmart Academies, was designed to train 6000-8000 associates per week, leveraged heavily on virtual.  The Walmart solution included a mix of in-person live training with vlrtual three to five minute modules delivered on headsets.  Interestingly, this took two months to develop and test, and proved to be a quick approach to offering new learning methods.  Walmart placed these training modules in 5000 retail stores, and each Walmart Academy store offered 3000 square feet of classroom space.  It cost $2.7 billion to develop this Academy program with the result that training time for associates in all stores  was shortened.  Helping associates make changes in the way they work as a result became easier and quicker, in some cases as short as one week, compared with months before.  

"Its time to build," says Weise, as she looks forward to a workworld that is not dangerous or boring and mind-numbing.  Her examples of companies that are pioneering the application of AI and technology to make that happen includes Amazon with its Mechanical Turk, a concept of 500,000 "Turkers" who work on human intelligence tasks. - cleaning up data and extending AI applications to make technology useful for workers, often addressing tasks that could be taken care of in seconds or minutes without worker interventions.    The expectation places technology as a more useful, quieter place where workers can focus on their most important tasks.  It's a transition that has begun, slower than we might have projected, but pioneered by our leading retail groups.  Amazon, for example, with more than 100,000 robots powering their warehouse fulfillment centers, is still reliant on its 600,000 warehouse workers.   Amazon still relies on these human workers because, says Weise, robotics'  design is still working on how to best grip and adjust hand positions!  "There is at present no cost-effective robotic facsimile for these human pickers," says MIT economist David Autor. "The job's steep requirements for flexibility, object recognition, physical dexterity and fine motor coordination are too formidable."  We are not, says Weise, there yet, but she urges us, like Walmart, to rethink how we prepare and enable workers to take advantage of technology "assists."  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com