Meaningful Work and Happiness in the Age of Smart Technology & Radical Change
Success in the Smart Technology Age will require all organizations, businesses, and workers to be Highly Adaptive Learners—learning, unlearning and relearning at the speed of technological change. This book will help you become a Highly Adaptive Learner, thereby reducing your chances of being automated out of a job.
Who should read this book?
The Smart Technology Age will be an age of constant change that will require you to continually adapt and continuously learn new skills to have good jobs. That's not all. The other big technology challenge for all of us is preventing technology from hacking our emotions—influencing how we feel, how we behave, and how we define ourselves.
I wrote this book for every person 18 years old or older who wants to:
- Have meaningful work and live a happy life
- Be successful and respected as a unique human being
- Not be left behind or overwhelmed by the pace of continual technological, economic, and social change in an era of radical change, social divisiveness, and climate change
- Not be automated out of a job by artificial intelligence or smart robots within the coming decades
Factory Workers
You will live in the most disruptive domestic time since the Great Depression. What got you here won’t get you there in this new era of constant change and upheaval.
Service Workers
Technology is going to become more “human” because it will be able to do many tasks that we humans are now paid to do.
Professionals
All of us will need to continually update our skills and/or learn new skills. Thinking, learning, and emotional skills will be very important.
Every Human Being
Regardless of your occupation, you will need to become an Adaptive Learner in order to have work.
Why is This Important?
- The Smart Technology Age will be an age of constant change that will require you to continually adapt and continuously update and learn new skills to have good jobs.
- Technology will automate blue- and white-collar jobs. In many cases, technology is going to take over doing the work that many of us do now.
- Having the same job working for the same employer for five years or more will be history for most people. The best scientists predict that the average person will have five completely different jobs in the coming decades.
- The best research from Oxford University predicts that between 25-47% of the U.S. workforce will be automated by the end of this decade. Millions of jobs will be automated.
This is a How-To Book
This is a learn-by-doing book. It is a create-your-new-story book. You must learn how to be an “Adaptive Learner.” An Adaptive Learner excels at learning—unlearning and relearning.
- To be a good Adaptive Learner, you need to bring your Best Self to your world everyday. Becoming your Best Self requires you to Take Ownership of You.
- Take Ownership of You means that you must take ownership of your Ego, Mind, Body, Emotions, Words, and Behaviors so you can learn how to be a good critical and innovative thinker, a good reflective listener, and a good collaborator. That will enable you to become a good Adaptive Learner which will help you stay relevant work wise as technology advances.
- Own Your Work Journey gives you the Tools and Practices that will help you do that. In essence, you need to bring your Best Self to the world each day and this book teaches you how to become your Best Self. You biggest competition going forward will be you not others.
Tools and Practices
Over 25 tools and practices teach you how to become your “Best Self.” You can return to these time and time again on your journey.
Workshops
Short, digestible chapters and workshops that help you make meaning of the content.
What will you learn?
Through readings and workshops you will learn how to become your Best Self—that will enable you to become an Adaptive Learner in order to adapt to the pace of continuous technological change.
Quiet Your Ego
Quiet Your Mind
Quiet Your Body
Manage Your Negative Emotions and Generate Positive Emotions
Own Your Words and Behaviors
Be a Reflective Listener
Manage How You Think
Build Trusting Relationships with Others
Take Ownership of You
Be Your Best Self
Own Your Work Journey
Become an Adaptive Learner
Meaningful Work and Happiness
So what’s in the book?
Ch.1: The Who—The Why—The How
Ch.2: What’s the Big Challenge
Ch.3: Quiet Your Ego
Ch.4: Quiet Your Ego Practices
Ch.4: Become a New Smart Person
Ch.6: Quiet Your Mind and Your Body
Ch.7: Manage Your Emotions
Ch.8: Own Your Words and Behavior
Ch.9: Reflective Listening
Ch.10: Manage How You Think
Ch.11: The Power of Otherness
Ch.12: Make It Happen!
What Did the Book Reviewers Say?
This will quickly become the most important book for every employee looking to stay valuable in an increasingly automated world! Own Your Work Journey is a powerful guide to honing critical soft skills and learning to stay ahead.
Ed Hess has earned the right to be called a master teacher, leader, and coach. His past books have built a foundation of wisdom, practical advice, and empirically grounded prescriptions for leadership success and life-skills development. Ed’s latest book, Own Your Work Journey, is an accumulation of his wisdom over the last several decades. If I were going to trust someone to provide useful guidance and proven advice for guiding one’s career and personal life in this era of ubiquitous technology, ambiguity, uncertainty, and rapid change, I would select Ed. Don’t pass this one by.
Today’s world is one where change is the norm and complexity is constantly accumulating. It can be overwhelming at any level. Ed Hess shares a proven array of tools and practices that can help you thrive at work and live that “best life” we all seek.
This book will be your best friend. It challenges you to be courageous and “Take Ownership of You” so that you can bean Adaptive Life-long Learner able to navigate the continuous waves of change driven by smart technology. Ed Hess gives you the tools and practices that will help you thrive on your Journey to Best Self. As a social scientist and a person who regularly uses what Ed recommends in my own life, I know this stuff works. This short book is powerful. Buy it! Use it!
A compelling case for the power of emotional intelligence. “To learn, unlearn, and relearn at the speed of change,” you must be willing to slow down; learn to challenge what you believe you already know; and be willing to engage yourself and others with reflective listening, humility, and compassion. This workbook provides a roadmap to becoming a vital contributor to the work force in this Age of Smart Technology and teaches you to bring your “Best Self” to every human interaction.
In this amazing guide to survival in the era of exponentially advancing technologies, Ed Hess outlines the basics of human re-invention: how we need to transform ourselves and cope with change. I can’t believe how much he has packed into so few pages! This book will help you live happier and healthier lives.
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