Way Forward

A future where people have ample development opportunities.

A future that offers meaningful work to all.

A future where leaders and organizations support reskilling in a human-centered, sustainable, and scalable manner.

We need to co-create the future we want, and this is your opportunity to influence it.

A sustainable business needs a sustainable reskilling strategy that is continuously evolving based on feedback and evolving business needs. This warrants a new way of thinking and will require leaders, organizations, and agencies to build close alliances to make it happen.

We can create a future that addresses the concerns of different stakeholders, but it requires a collective effort to support this adaptive challenge. We must be in it together to ensure no one is left behind.

This is your moment to establish the cornerstones that will future proof your strategy for reskilling. A strategy where building self, organizational, and industry awareness will put people at the center of the approach – helping align the interest and pave a path forward for active learning. Where leaders and organizations play a critical role in providing opportunities to apply skills, creating a psychologically safe environment, a strategy that is built on data/insights and technology will provide the agility and the possibility to change based on the factors of the evolving environment.

For practically implementing the reskilling strategy, start with comprehensive planning and build a deep understanding of your stakeholders. Having a business case addressing the business, financial, and people imperatives is critical to get the required investment and sponsorship. The key focus must be on identifying the emerging and declining skills. Prioritizing skills to develop at a business or an organizational level can be agreed upon. With clarity on the future skills, the work on skill development can start. A programmatic approach that addresses the organizational needs and a flexible approach that focuses on the individual needs can co-exist – you need to assess how you can provide the balance and infrastructure to support it. The work goes further into ensuring that we redeploy the skills, where there is a business demand. Ongoing measurements of adoption and effectiveness will provide you with insights on what's working and what is not, and help you find areas that require attention.

I hope this book has given you enough insights and inspiration for you to build your own version of the skills advantage. The examples, research, frameworks, and resources are for you to use and implement. You need to look at your context and decide what will work for you and what areas need immediate attention. With all the building blocks available, you will have to build your own version of the Lego set.

To support you in building a reskilling strategy, I have created a playbook that will provide you with a structure and resources to plan your work. You can download this now at: www.anishlalchandani/playbook.com

You are now all set to plan the way forward.