The Future Of The Professions

With a new preface outlining the most recent critical developments, this updated edtion of The Future of the Professions predicts how technology will transform the work of doctors, teachers, architects, lawyers, and many others in the 21st century, and introduces the people and systems that may replace them.

Are some technically competent professionals who work hard and long hours 'true professionals' or are they just cruisers? In this deeply illuminating call to arms, David Maister, the world's premier consultant to professional service firms, vigorously challenges individuals to examine closely the meaning of their work and reach beyond their grasp. The pursuit of the highest standards, Maister argues, is the primary road to commercial success. He presents a visionary reconception of professionalism that encompasses a lifelong dedication to self-improvement, a personal commitment to excellence, and a true spirit of service to clients. Looking first at the individual professional, Maister dares those good corporate citizens who 'do their duty' to discover what they truly love to do. Turning to the institution, Maister focuses on what he calls the 'instability' of professional service firms today, and offers advice on how to invest in skill building. David Maister's message is a recipe for success and for professional satisfaction making TRUE PROFESSIONALISM a worthy successor to his previous writings.

This book predicts the decline of today's professions and introduces the people and systems that will replace them. In an internet-enhanced society, according to Richard Susskind and Daniel Susskind, we will neither need nor want doctors, teachers, accountants, architects, the clergy, consultants, lawyers, and many others, to work as they did in the 20th century. The Future of the Professions explains how increasingly capable technologies - from telepresence to artificial intelligence - will place the 'practical expertise' of the finest specialists at the fingertips of everyone, often at no or low cost and without face-to-face interaction. The authors challenge the 'grand bargain' - the arrangement that grants various monopolies to today's professionals. They argue that our current professions are antiquated, opaque and no longer affordable, and that the expertise of their best is enjoyed only by a few. In their place, they propose five new models for producing and distributing expertise in society. The book raises profound policy issues, not least about employment (they envisage a new generation of 'open-collared workers') and about control over online expertise (they warn of new 'gatekeepers') - in an era when machines become more capable than human beings at most tasks. With a new preface exploring recent critical developments, this updated edition builds on the authors' groundbreaking research into more than a dozen professions. Illustrated with numerous examples from each, this is the first book to assess and question the relevance of the professions in the 21st century.

What Talent Development Professionals Should Know and Do to Be Successful The talent development field is deep and wide, encompassing the efforts that foster learning and employee development to drive organizational performance, productivity, and results. Major societal forces and business changes require talent development professionals across all industries to adopt new approaches and upgrade skills to keep pace and grow. Capabilities for Talent Development presents the new ATD Capability Model, a powerful framework to guide the profession in what practitioners need to know and do to develop themselves, others, and their organizations. ATD’s research shows that the future of work will require talent development professionals to leverage interpersonal skills, along with their professional expertise, to work as a true business partner to achieve organizational goals. As organizations respond to trends in business, science, and technology—such as artificial intelligence and automation, brain-based learning, new ways to enlist skilled talent brought on by the gig economy, and other factors—professionals must develop their knowledge and skills from three domains of practice: Building Personal Capability Developing Professional Capability Impacting Organizational Capability Capabilities for Talent Development offers an in-depth look at the Model and its components, drawing from the research behind it. Inside are application tips for individuals, educators, and organizations, as well as examples and interviews with thought leaders that describe an exciting future ahead for the talent development field. The ATD Capability Model is future-oriented and can help you personalize your development needs. Grow your career as you grow your knowledge and skills in talent development.

Based on the recovery of the three key words: professionalism, professionals, professions, the narration is organised in the form of a voyage of reconnaissance in discovery, which attempts to recompose a puzzle that is today completely dispersed. A professional is a technician with civic values. Practical knowledge and civic-mindedness are its foundations. Part One (primarily aimed at the professional institutions or college environment) With the conviction that "he who loses his origins loses his identity", the first part recalls the history of the professional fact, from Hippocrates to the present day, passing through Cicero, the Middle Ages, the European University of the 19th century, Max Weber, to Richard Sennett, Victoria Camps and Donald Schön. This is followed by a recognition of the professional fact common to all professions, pointing out its seven non-expendable or structuring elements, among which the six public missions of the professions stand out in particular: health, habitability, legal security, education, communication and economic and environmental sustainability, as well as their link with civic ethics, human rights and global challenges. Next, an interval dedicated to Architecture is proposed, in which, together with Fine Arts and Technology, a plus of professionalism oriented towards people's habitability is postulated. Second part (aimed primarily at the municipal environment and schools) In Spain and in Europe today there are forty regulated professions, which only have six missions (health, education, habitability, legal security, communication and economic and environmental sustainability), which are substantiated in a single shared city. In other words: 40 professions, 6 missions, 1 city. The current interdisciplinary and cross-cutting nature of the professions is embodied in specific cities and neighbourhoods. And since cities and professions share missions, the relationship of professions and professionals with the urban fact is analysed in detail: with the urbs, the civitas and the polis. The description of this relationship reveals itself to be strategic and with an enormous potential for articulation and improvement: the public space is a professional space. In this way, the City of Professions appears

Looking for ways to handle the transition to a digital economy Robots, artificial intelligence, and driverless cars are no longer things of the distant future. They are with us today and will become increasingly common in coming years, along with virtual reality and digital personal assistants. As these tools advance deeper into everyday use, they raise the question—how will they transform society, the economy, and politics? If companies need fewer workers due to automation and robotics, what happens to those who once held those jobs and don't have the skills for new jobs? And since many social benefits are delivered through jobs, how are people outside the workforce for a lengthy period of time going to earn a living and get health care and social benefits? Looking past today's headlines, political scientist and cultural observer Darrell M. West argues that society needs to rethink the concept of jobs, reconfigure the social contract, move toward a system of lifetime learning, and develop a new kind of politics that can deal with economic dislocations. With the U.S. governance system in shambles because of political polarization and hyper-partisanship, dealing creatively with the transition to a fully digital economy will vex political leaders and complicate the adoption of remedies that could ease the transition pain. It is imperative that we make major adjustments in how we think about work and the social contract in order to prevent society from spiraling out of control. This book presents a number of proposals to help people deal with the transition from an industrial to a digital economy. We must broaden the concept of employment to include volunteering and parenting and pay greater attention to the opportunities for leisure time. New forms of identity will be possible when the "job" no longer defines people's sense of personal meaning, and they engage in a broader range of activities. Workers will need help throughout their lifetimes to acquire new skills and develop new job capabilities. Political reforms will be necessary to reduce polarization and restore civility so there can be open and healthy debate about where responsibility lies for economic well-being. This book is an important contribution to a discussion about tomorrow—one that needs to take place today.

It has long been recognised that specialised knowledge is at the core of what distinguishes professions from other occupations. The privileged status of professions in most countries, however, together with their claims to autonomy and access to specialised knowledge, is being increasingly challenged both by market pressures and by new instruments of accountability and regulation. Established and emerging professions are increasingly seen as either the solution, or as sources of conservatism and resistance to change in western economies, and recent developments in professional education draw on a competence model which emphasises what newly qualified members of a profession ‘can do’ rather than what ‘they know’. This book applies the disciplines of the sociology of knowledge and epistemology to the question of professional knowledge. What is this knowledge? It goes beyond traditional debates between ‘knowing how’ and ’knowing that’, and ‘theory’ and ‘practice’. The chapters cover a wide range of issues, from discussions of the threats to the knowledge base of established professions including engineers and architects, to the fraught situations faced by occupations whose fragile knowledge base and professional status is increasingly challenged by new forms of control. While recognising that graduates seeking employment as members of a profession need to show their capabilities, the book argues for reversing the trend that blurs or collapses the skill/knowledge distinction. If professions are to have a future then specialised knowledge is going to be more important than ever before. Knowledge, Expertise and the Professions will be key reading for students, researchers and academics in the fields of professional expertise, further education, higher education, the sociology of education, and the sociology of the professions.

Why the United States lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers and how we can remedy the problem. The United States has too many low-quality, low-wage jobs. Every country has its share, but those in the United States are especially poorly paid and often without benefits. Meanwhile, overall productivity increases steadily and new technology has transformed large parts of the economy, enhancing the skills and paychecks of higher paid knowledge workers. What’s wrong with this picture? Why have so many workers benefited so little from decades of growth? The Work of the Future shows that technology is neither the problem nor the solution. We can build better jobs if we create institutions that leverage technological innovation and also support workers though long cycles of technological transformation. Building on findings from the multiyear MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, the book argues that we must foster institutional innovations that complement technological change. Skills programs that emphasize work-based and hybrid learning (in person and online), for example, empower workers to become and remain productive in a continuously evolving workplace. Industries fueled by new technology that augments workers can supply good jobs, and federal investment in R&D can help make these industries worker-friendly. We must act to ensure that the labor market of the future offers benefits, opportunity, and a measure of economic security to all.