CHAPTER 5

Conductor

Introduction to Function #3: Conductor

The third function of an agile manager is that of a conductor ensuring collaboration, skill development, and harmony among internal constituents and between the organization and external stakeholders and partners. Fostering collaboration across departments, functional areas, and offices illustrates a critical component of agility. (Principle #7). Managers also need to demonstrate a commitment to ensuring employees receiving the skill development, training, and education required to succeed (Principle #8). Such collaboration and skill development prepares the organization to as the agile manager nurtures relationships with external stakeholders (Principle #9). Previous references to the manager as conductor include Sune Carlson’s 1951 Executive Behavior, Peter Drucker’s 1954 The Practice of Management and Len Sayles’ 1964 Managerial Behavior. Carlson referred to the chief executive as the conductor of an orchestra who was “the puppet in the puppet-show with hundreds of people pulling the strings and forcing him to act in one way or another. Drucker believed “the manager is both composer and conductor.” Sayles observed “the manager is like a symphony orchestra conductor, endeavoring to maintain a melodious performance.”¹

The reference to manager as conductor in this publication offers a more current adaptation of the oft-used analogy. The function of the manager as conductor refers to the skills, habits, and traits of a manager required to conduct the level of collaboration required of an agile organization. Any progress away from antiquity (the usual way of doing things) and to modernity (a new, creative, and agile approach) demands a manager who can direct his behavior, and that of others, in the required direction forward. The function of an agile manager as conductor exceeds the works of Carlson, Drucker, and Sayles. The agile organization demands a manager who carves his own path (not a puppet as per Carlson) provides vision where there is darkness (more than a composer and conductor per Drucker) and maintains focus on relevance, vibrancy, and vitality (and not worrying about a melodious performance as per Sayles). The agile manager as conductor requires a high level of self-awareness, a dedication to continuous personal growth, and a recognition that professional development is linked to personal growth. If one wants to grow as a professional and transform into an agile manager, one needs to grow as a person and help others in the organization do the same. The agile manager as conductor should understand the role of the organization’s human capital during times of high change, volatility, complexity, and ambiguity. When developed properly, an organization’s human capital can leverage agility and collaborate across functional areas, departments, and skill sets to solve business issues, answer critical questions, and address key issues to ensure positive business outcomes.² As PricewaterCoopers noted in its 2020 report 23rd Annual Global CEO Survey: Navigating the Rising Tide of Uncertainty, “when it comes to the most pressing topics confronting CEOs, collaboration between and among organizations, individuals and governments can meaningfully enhance not only their own prospects but the prosperity and vitality of society as a whole.”³

Principle #7: Foster Collaboration

The challenge to foster collaboration is getting more acute as today’s VUCA global marketplace continues to change the fabric of how we live and work.⁴ As world issues such as global warming, pandemics, and geopolitical upheaval intensify, “it’s increasingly apparent that we’ll need coordinated teams to get things done.”⁵ Collaboration has long been a tool in the armamentarium of organizational effectiveness, however, and continues to evolve.⁶ The agile manager looking to foster collaboration needs to understand doing so requires some knowledge about people, roles, technology, workplaces, processes, communication, interactions, negotiations, processes, and a variety of other factors.⁷ An agile organization demonstrating higher levels of collaboration can provide opportunities to maintain and increase a competitive advantage.⁸ For example, research has found companies with a mature innovation process were more likely to have innovation activities integrated or collaborating with their strategy (81 percent vs. 56 percent), corporate development/M&A (48 percent vs. 29 percent), and corporate venture capital (62 percent vs. 30 percent) teams, when compared to other organizations.⁹ As McKinsey noted, “working collaboratively can be a powerful enabler of improved business performance, but successful collaboration rarely emerges out of the blue and should not be taken for granted.”¹⁰

One research project reported nearly 75 percent of cross-functional teams are dysfunctional defined as failing on at least three of the following five criteria: (1) meeting a planned budget; (2) staying on schedule; (3) adhering to specifications; (4) meeting customer expectations; and/or (5) maintaining alignment with the company’s corporate goals.¹¹ A lack of collaboration is often the hallmark of such dysfunction and results in unclear governance, a lack of accountability, and an organizational failure to prioritize and implement strategic imperatives.¹² So why is fostering collaboration so difficult? One problem is managers fail to create the necessary alliances required to resolve the internal conflicts and resource debates often found in collaboration initiatives.¹³ Another issue is leaders think about collaboration as a value to cultivate but not a skill to teach. This narrow approach has included superficial or heavy-handed policies such as open offices to naming collaboration an official corporate goal.¹⁴ While many of these approaches yield progress, research has shown truly robust collaboration requires other sophisticated and agile measures.¹⁵

In their pursuit of collaboration, the nonagile manager focuses on logistics and processes, incentives and outcomes. In today’s volatile world, achieving and sustaining growth is a critical priority so focusing on outcomes makes perfect sense. Such an approach, however, fails to consider the implications related to collaboration on a human capital level. In its simplest form, collaboration involves people working together. Understanding, predicting, and supporting how employees might react when any measure of agility is implemented remains critical for the agile manager. Asking people to engage in the common hallmarks of collaboration: break down walls, divulge information, sacrifice autonomy, share resources, and possibly even cede responsibilities could send unintended messages and derail important collaborative efforts.¹⁶

Moreover, employees, board members, and even clients could feel vulnerable, threatened, or even irrelevant.¹⁷ Proceed with caution; but do indeed proceed. The agile manager as a conductor who fosters collaboration needs to increase their self-awareness in order to engage in the highest level of empathy required to ensure people continue to feel as valuable members of the organization during times of collaboration initiatives. As David Aycan, Managing Director, IDEO Products, concluded, “if their work does not seem important, employees will detach mentally and emotionally. When leaders design work environments with their teams’ needs in mind, they are more likely to be engaged and willing to adopt new, better behaviors.”¹⁸ Moreover, the integration of automated systems, robotics, and artificial intelligence into an organization’s collaboration efforts will push the agile manager’s skills to new levels. As the Institute for the Future reported, “we will be entering into a new kind of partnership with machines that will build on our mutual strengths, resulting in a new level of human–machine collaboration and codependence.”¹⁹

To foster effective collaboration, the agile manager can look to a theme repeated throughout history and most recently detailed in a 1953 article by British scholar Isaiah Berlin regarding “The Hedgehog and the Fox.” Attributed to the Ancient Greek poet Archilochus who postulated “a fox knows many things, but a hedgehog one important thing”) and echoed in Adagia by Erasmus in 1500. Berlin divided writers and thinkers into two categories: hedgehogs, who view the world through the lens of a single defining idea (examples include Plato, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Marcel Proust), and foxes, who draw on a wide variety of experiences and for whom the world cannot be boiled down to a single idea (examples include Aristotle, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, and James Joyce). When applied to organizational behavior, culture, and operations hedgehogs are employees who have deep experience in one narrow field or experts in a specific subject matter.

Foxes, however, have jumped from discipline to discipline to learn many things—yet followed no neat trajectory (and are unsure trajectories even exist). Hedgehogs bring deep domain expertise and the increasing complexity of our workplaces has placed an understandable premium on their concentrated mastery. Conversely, the natural habitat of foxes is innovation, which depends on the ability to mix preexisting and often widely divergent elements into a new creative combination. The research suggests that hedgehogs are common while foxes are a rare sight but in high demand. As Boston Globe writer David Dabscheck observed, “the resulting scarcity of foxlike thinking has led to a predictable gap between the professed desire for innovation and results.”²⁰ As the agile manager fosters collaboration, they would serve themselves and their organization well by increasing their self-awareness in order to be more fox like.

Scott Kirsner, CEO and Co-Founder of Innovation Leader, commented on the imperative of collaboration and noted “teams need to find ways to collaborate with other parts of the organization because there are always internal conflicts and resource debates you’ll need to work through.”²¹ For the agile manager operating in a volatile world, confliction resolution will be an inevitable component of any collaboration efforts. So too is the need to educate, train, and reskill employees. The function of the agile manager as conductor involves collaboration (Principle #7) and training (Principle #8). New technology will continue to alter how people work, what they do, and where they do it. Organizations will need a commitment to agility and adapt to the new means of work or risk irrelevance. And employees will need to engage in lifelong learning in order to maintain the relevant skills required of work in a volatile world. “Blue-collar jobs will be replaced by ‘new collar’ jobs that require a combination of digital, technical, and soft skills.”²² Finding people with the right combination of skills persists as an underlying concern for many organizations. In one survey, 41 percent of respondents had trouble recruiting talent with high-demand skillsets as the biggest obstacle their organizations face.²³

Principle #8: Commit to Development

Ensuring a commitment to employee development through proper skill development, training, and education (Principle #8) is another component of the conductor function of the agile manager. While providing the leadership to help departments collaborate (Principle #7) providing the required learning opportunities for employees to do their jobs, or perhaps a new one, requires the agile manager to remain ever vigilant on human capital trends. Recognizing the disruptive political, regulatory, and technological forces impacting the financial services industries, Pricewater-Coopers (PwC) published The Power to Perform: Human Capital 2020 and Beyond in 2020 and noted the need for new skills, an agile mindset, and creative ways of attracting, motivating, and organizing employees. Addressing these three critical issues, according to the report, can help organizations ensure they have the human capital needed to succeed.²⁴ IBM’s 2019 report The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap suggests120 million workers worldwide will need to be retrained as a result of artificial intelligence, automation, and other disruptive technologies.²⁵ McKinsey’s research suggests approximately 3 percent of the global workforce, approximately 90 million workers, will need to change occupational categories by 2030.²⁶ The reports from PwC, IBM, and McKinsey, as well as a host of others, ranked agility as a top soft skill and discuss the need for managers to maintain a vigilance toward employee development through proper skill development, training, and education.²⁷ Much of the focus of employee training today centers around leaders from businesses, organizations, and government offices around the world racing to figure out how to balance employee training between hard skills and soft skills required for their organization to achieve and sustain growth.

Hard skills are teachable and measurable abilities often learned in classrooms and may require a college degree. For some employment positions, a graduate degree is required. Common hard skills employers look for today are artificial intelligence, automation, bilingual or multilingual, database management, network security, data analytics, SEO/SEM marketing, and computer programming. Soft skills, on the other hand, are more difficult to measure, are seldom learned in classrooms, and certainly do not require a college degree. While there are many employment positions that require little to no hard skills, almost every job requires the employee to have some level of proficiency regarding soft skills. Frequently cited soft skills mentioned by employers are self-awareness, empathy, integrity, dependability, communication, teamwork, agility, problem-solving, open-mindedness, and adaptability to name a few. In her book The Hard Truth about Soft Skills, Peggy Klaus defined the difference “While hard skills refer to the technical ability and the factual knowledge needed to do the job, soft skills allow you to more effectively use your technical abilities and knowledge. Soft skills encompass personal, social, communication, and self-management behaviors.”²⁸

The agile manager in a volatile world needs to understand hard skills are not harder to learn; nor are soft skills less important because softness is interpreted as a weakness when juxtaposed to hard. Perhaps an easy reference point is the application of objective and subjective. Hard skills generally require one to pass an objective test. For example, a manager either knows how to create a pivot table in Excel and analyze the data accordingly or they lack the ability to do so. Objective tests measure in either or. Soft skills, however, require a much more subjective assessment measure and are far more difficult to quantify like hard skills. For example, IBM’s 2019 report found willingness to be flexible, agile, and adaptable to change went from number three to number one on the list of behavioral skills identified as the most critical for members of the workforce today by executives.²⁹ Reaching any degree of consensus on defining agility would be difficult even for the most collaborative of teams. Assessing agility as a soft skill would prove even more problematic. Guided self-awareness exercises through reflection, role-playing, and dialogue are common learning modalities used to help people increase their soft skills.

The agile manager should understand a volatile world upends business practices and demands they go through continuous evolution. Technological innovations such as automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) will drive this evolutionary process creating a future of work requiring a high degree of proficiency with soft skills. As Ken Taylor wrote in Training Industry “even with this transformation, soft skills like creativity, agile thinking, communication and collaboration will stay in high demand.” ³⁰ Agile managers understand the research and realize the employees who endure the evolutionary changes to the business practices of the organization maintain a commitment to improve their soft skills.³¹ Such dedication to enhancing soft skills requires persistent effort over an extended period of time, an increase in self-awareness, and a willingness to be vulnerable because invariably constructive criticism of one’s behavior needs to be included in training. Rest assured though, developing soft skills pays tremendous dividends across positions, levels, and industries.

Research conducted with Fortune 500 CEOs by the Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Melon Foundation, found that 75 percent of long-term job success depends on people skills, while only 25 percent on technical knowledge.³² Klaus echoed similar sentiment in her book The Hard Truth about Soft Skills and wrote “75 percent of long-term job success depends on people skills, while only 25 percent on technical knowledge.”³³ One example of this emphasis on soft skills as a leading indicator of long-term job success comes from the Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC). In a survey of MBA graduates, the GMAC reported individuals strong in analytical aptitude, quantitative expertise, and information-gathering ability but weak in the critical areas of great value to employers: strategic thinking, written and oral communication, leadership, and adaptability.³⁴ Looking out across various positions, levels, and industries, Klaus observed “what strikes me most about their stories of missed opportunities and derailed careers is this: The source of their anxiety and frustration invariably stems from a shortcoming in their soft skills repertoire—the nontechnical traits and behaviors needed for successful career navigation.”³⁵

This eighth principle of committing to employee development is a prudent strategy for the agile manager. Viewing professional development as an integral part of the employee experience can help with employee recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. While 78 percent of employers report providing training or development opportunities to help employees learn new skills but many professionals disagree.³⁶ Agile managers ensure such a disconnect is far removed from their organization. In one research report, 86 percent of respondents said they would change jobs if it meant more opportunities for professional development.³⁷ Moreover, LinkedIn’s 2018 Workplace Learning Report found that 94 percent of employees would stay with a company longer if it invested in their career.³⁸ Two years later, in its Global Talent Trends 2020 report, LinkedIn reiterated the connection between professional development opportunities and employee recruitment, retention, and satisfaction. “As we enter the 2020s, empathy will reshape the way employers hire and retain talent,” said Mark Lobosco, vice president of talent solutions at LinkedIn. A company’s purpose, once solely shareholder value, now includes investing in employees. “Companies are becoming more empathetic,” Lobosco wrote, “not only to attract candidates, but also to retain their workforce amid increasing expectations of what employers owe to their people.”³⁹

Today’s VUCA global marketplace presents new challenges to humanity daily. The agile manager will need to leverage compassion as an effective tool in arsenal. Doing so will constantly remind them of the simple fact that managers manage people. Support people in their journey. Help them along their path. And remind them of the opportunities to grow both professionally and personally. Since professional development is linked to personal growth, each manager has the opportunity to support “people through their crises and challenges and help them grow toward becoming their best selves throughout that journey.”⁴⁰ Today’s dynamic, hypercompetitive, and ever changing global marketplace demands a management style that encourages an agile work environment fostering autonomous decision making, work product iteration, experimentation, peer-to-peer coaching, and flexible team structures. As IBM noted in its report The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap “cultures and organizational competencies need to shift to reflect these new ways of working and facilitate the training and conditioning of a workforce with new skills.”⁴¹ Such collaboration and skill development prepares the organization to as the agile manager nurtures relationships with external stakeholders (Principle #9).

Principle #9: Nurture Relationships

The final principle of the agile manager as conductor function involves nurturing relationships with external stakeholders (Principle #9). Customers, partner organizations, and industry related associations are three of the most common types of external stakeholders. Today’s VUCA global marketplace has created what Alia Crocker and her colleagues defined as “a business environment in which agile collaboration is more critical than ever.”⁴² Agile collaboration offers the manager in a volatile world the opportunity to expand their mental model beyond the traditional and frequent notion of networking. Many managers, business owners, and executives will proclaim the benefits of networking. For example, Adam Small, CEO of the Strategic Business Network, emphasized the importance of networking by describing it as the “single most powerful tactic to accelerate and sustain success for any individual or organization.”⁴³ To help their organization reach the level of agility required to achieve and sustain growth in a volatile world, however, managers need to understand the relationship between collaborating and networking.

Nurturing relationships through collaboration requires an interactive, purposeful, and balanced approach between organizations. Networking, on the other hand, occurs at the individual level and requires one to remain open minded, identify common interests with others, and maintain an understanding of a diverse group of people. While networking may indeed be “a powerful tactic to accelerate success” at the individual level, the nurturing of relationships with external stakeholders and organizations is a powerful tactic at the organizational level. Networking itself creates individual relationships—people knowing other people. Creating, maintaining, and expanding a network creates the broad and varied foundation required to collaborate. By itself networking seldom create values or collaboration. For example, a LinkedIn profile of over 1,200 connections may illustrate networking prowess but what value has any of those individual level networks generated? Engagement with others for a positive-sum outcome, however, demonstrates the nurturing relationships with external stakeholders so required of the agile manager. As Jim Clifton and Sangeeta Badal wrote in Born to Build, “research indicates successful builders rely on their social networks, cocreate with their customers, and build alliances with their suppliers and investors to reduce uncertainty.”⁴⁴

In its 2017 report Purposeful Collaboration: The Essential Components of Collaborative Cultures, the Institute for Corporate Productivity (ICP) concluded: “High performing organizations are 2.5 times more likely to encourage interaction with external stakeholders such as clients, suppliers, regulatory bodies, or professional associations.”⁴⁵ Highlighting the value of nurturing relationships in a volatile world, the ICP recommended senior managers to “require employees who are well-connected internally to work on external connections, or suggest that those who are well-connected externally mentor junior employees in networking to ensure boundary spanning.”⁴⁶ Such a realization has existed for decades due to the efforts of J. Richard Hackman, a pioneer in the field of organizational behavior. For Hackman, successful collaboration required five essential characteristics that enhanced the likelihood of success: a stable team, a clear and engaging direction, an enabling team structure, a supportive organizational context, and the availability of competent coaching.⁴⁷

To help agile managers create, build, and enhance nurturing and collaborative relationships with external stakeholders and organizations, this principle provides a questionnaire for each team member to complete. Comparing answers between managers and team member can provide some much-needed light on the symmetry, or asymmetry, present within the organization. Identify the gap analysis between the manager and employees as it relates to nurturing relationships with external stakeholders serves as a valuable tool for the organization looking to sustain growth in a volatile world.

In a volatile world, agile managers “need to be continually on the lookout for new market developments and competitive threats, identifying essential experts and nimbly forming and disbanding teams to help tackle those issues quickly.” ⁵⁴ By steadily nurturing agile collaboration, senior management can better utilize the necessary depth of expertise of key collaborators within the organization.⁵⁵ Rearranging employees and leveraging their human capital to help the organization achieve a higher level of agility, however, requires the manager to constantly view her employees as humans first and workers second. Managing the human capital assigned as collaborative team players can help organizations increase its agility. Although agile collaboration requires a continual reassessment of complex problems, it is possible for firms to combine and recombine essential expertise from across points in the network to address VUCA issues. Doing so embodies the spirit of the fourth function of an agile manager—that of a humanist—who emphasizes the value and agency of human beings, individually and collectively. The human capital needs of today demand managers spend considerable time observing the strengths of each employee (Principle #10). An appreciation of the unique qualities of each person will help the agile manager better understand how to build productive teams (Principle #11). Demonstrating compassion, kindness, and empathy are often understated in the role of management but remain a critical tenet of the agile manager (Principle #12).

Questions

Principle #7: Foster Collaboration

Principle #8: Commit to Development

Principle #9: Nurturing Relationships

¹ Mintzberg, H. 2016. “The Maestro Myth of Managing.” April 28, 2016. https://mintzberg.org/blog/conductor

² Llopis, G. 2018. “HR Departments must Urgently Become Human Capital Departments.” Forbes, January 8, 2018. https://forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2018/01/08/hr-departments-must-urgently-become-human-capital-departments/#11b9bcd421a6

³ PwC. “23rd Annual Global CEO Survey: Navigating the Rising Tide of Uncertainty.” 2020 edition, https://pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2020/reports/pwc-23rd-global-ceo-survey.pdf

⁴ McKinsey & Company. 2016. “Making Collaboration Across Functions a Reality.” March 2016, https://mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/making-collaboration-across-functions-a-reality

⁵ Puybaraud, M., and K. Kristensen. 2020. “Collaboration 2020: Hype or Competitive Advantage.” Johnson Controls, www.profacility.be/piclib/biblio/PDF_00000543UK.pdf

⁶ Puybaraud, M., and K. Kristensen. 2020. “Collaboration 2020: Hype or Competitive Advantage.” Johnson Controls, www.profacility.be/piclib/biblio/PDF_00000543UK.pdf

⁷ Puybaraud, M., and K. Kristensen. 2020. “Collaboration 2020: Hype or Competitive Advantage.” Johnson Controls, www.profacility.be/piclib/biblio/PDF_00000543UK.pdf

⁸ “How to Foster More Effective Team Collaboration and Communications.” Mitel blog, February 9, 2018. https://mitel.com/blog/how-to-foster-more-effective-team-collaboration-and-communications

⁹ KPMG. “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2020.” https://info.kpmg.us/content/dam/info/en/innovation-enterprise-solutions/pdf/2019/benchmarking-innovation-impact-2020.pdf

¹⁰ Puybaraud, M., and K. Kristensen. 2020. “Collaboration 2020: Hype or Competitive Advantage.” Johnson Controls, www.profacility.be/piclib/biblio/PDF_00000543UK.pdf

¹¹ Tabrizi, B. 2015. “75% of Cross-Functional Teams are Dysfunctional.” Harvard Business Review, June 23, 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/06/75-of-cross-functional-teams-are-dysfunctional

¹² Tabrizi, B. 2015. “75% of Cross-Functional Teams are Dysfunctional.” Harvard Business Review, June 23, 2015. https://hbr.org/2015/06/75-of-cross-functional-teams-are-dysfunctional

¹³ KPMG. “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2020.” https://info.kpmg.us/content/dam/info/en/innovation-enterprise-solutions/pdf/2019/benchmarking-innovation-impact-2020.pdf

¹⁴ Gino, F. 2019. “Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration.” Harvard Business Review, November-December 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration

¹⁵ Gino, F. 2019. “Cracking the Code of Sustained Collaboration.” Harvard Business Review, November-December 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/11/cracking-the-code-of-sustained-collaboration

¹⁶ Kwan, L.B. 2019. “The Collaboration Blind Spot.” Harvard Business Review, March–April 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-collaboration-blind-spot

¹⁷ Kwan, L.B. 2019. “The Collaboration Blind Spot.” Harvard Business Review, March–April 2019. https://hbr.org/2019/03/the-collaboration-blind-spot

¹⁸ Aycan, D. 2019. “Innovation Thrives Under These 5 Evidence-Backed Conditions.” Innovation Leader, November 2019. https://d22yapd4ylp3wi.cloudfront.net/Uploads/w/x/w/pointersnovember2019_11_20_2019_198008.pdf

¹⁹ Institute for the Future, Future Work Skills 2020, www.iftf.org/uploads/media/SR-1382A_UPRI_future_work_skills_sm.pdf

²⁰ Dabscheck, D. 2014. “Silicon Valley Needs More Foxes.” Boston Globe, September 21, 2014. https://bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/09/20/for-innovation-silicon-valley-needs-more-foxes/VhYrFOY43orE2VmSDQ5sNI/story.html

²¹ KPMG. “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2020.” https://info.kpmg.us/content/dam/info/en/innovation-enterprise-solutions/pdf/2019/benchmarking-innovation-impact-2020.pdf

²² PwC, 23rd Annual Global CEO Survey: Navigating the Rising Tide of Uncertainty, 2020 edition, https://pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2020/reports/pwc-23rd-global-ceo-survey.pdf

²³ KPMG. “Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2020.” https://info.kpmg.us/content/dam/info/en/innovation-enterprise-solutions/pdf/2019/benchmarking-innovation-impact-2020.pdf

²⁴ PwC. “The Power to Perform: Human Capital 2020 and Beyond.” https://pwchk.com/en/financial-services/fs-human-capital-2020.pdf

²⁵ IBM. 2019. “The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap.” https://ibm.com/downloads/cas/EPYMNBJA

²⁶ Manyika, J., and K. Sneader. 2018. “AI, Automation, and the Future of Work: Ten Things to Solve For.” McKinsey Global Institute, June 2018. https://mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/ai-automation-and-the-future-of-work-ten-things-to-solve-for

²⁷ “Agility is Today’s Key Soft Skill for Success.” Canadian Immigrant, July 9, 2018. https://canadianimmigrant.ca/careers-and-education/softskills/agility-is-todays-key-soft-skill-for-success

²⁸ Klaus, P. 2008. The Hard Truth about Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Soone. Harper Business. https://amazon.com/Hard-Truth-About-Soft-Skills/dp/0061284149

²⁹ IBM. “The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap,” 2019. https://ibm.com/downloads/cas/EPYMNBJA

³⁰ Taylor, K. 2019. “Trends 2020: the Broadening Role of L&D.” Training Industry, November/December 2019. https://trainingindustry.com/magazine/nov-dec-2019/trends-2020-the-broadening-role-of-ld/

³¹ Liu, J. 2020. “The 3 Most Important Skills Workers Need to Learn in 2020, According to Business Leaders.” Make It, March 3, 2020. https://cnbc.com/2020/03/03/linkedin-report-3-most-important-skills-workers-need-to-learn-in-2020.html

³² American Management Association. “The Hard Truth about Soft Skills.” January 24, 2019. https://amanet.org/articles/the-hard-truth-about-soft-skills/

³³ Klaus, P. 2008. The Hard Truth about Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner. Harper Business. https://amazon.com/Hard-Truth-About-Soft-Skills/dp/0061284149

³⁴ American Management Association, “The Hard Truth About Soft Skills.” January 24, 2019. https://amanet.org/articles/the-hard-truth-about-soft-skills/

³⁵ Klaus, P. 2008. The Hard Truth about Soft Skills: Workplace Lessons Smart People Wish They’d Learned Sooner. Harper Business. https://amazon.com/Hard-Truth-About-Soft-Skills/dp/0061284149

³⁶ Fleischman, E. 2019. “Why Employers Need to Invest in Professional Development in 2019.” Forbes, May 9, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/yctxvbll

³⁷ Fleischman, E. 2019. “Why Employers Need to Invest in Professional Development in 2019.” Forbes, May 9, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/yctxvbll

³⁸ Fleischman, E. 2019. “Why Employers Need to Invest in Professional Development in 2019.” Forbes, May 9, 2019. https://tinyurl.com/yctxvbll

³⁹ Maurer, R. 2020. “These 3 Talent Trends for 2020 Focus on Empathy.” LinkedIn, January 31, 2020. https://shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/pages/shrm-talent-trends-2020-empathy-employee-experience.aspx

⁴⁰ Hassell, D. 2020. “The Real Key to Talent Development is Authentic Caring.” Human Resources Today, February 13, 2020. https://tinyurl.com/twxckmb

⁴¹ IBM. “The Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap.” 2019. https://ibm.com/downloads/cas/EPYMNBJA

⁴² Crocker, A., R. Cross, and H.K. Gardner. 2018. “How to Make Sure Agile Teams Can Work Together.” Harvard Business Review, May 15, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/05/how-to-make-sure-agile-teams-can-work-together

⁴³ O’Shea, T. 2014. “How to Network within the Pharmacy World.” Pharmacy Times, November 24, 2014. https://pharmacytimes.com/contributor/timothy-o-shea/2014/11/how-to-network-within-the-pharmacy-world

⁴⁴ Clifton, J., and S. Badal. 2018. Born to Build: How to Build a Thriving Startup, A Winning Team, New Customers and Your Best Life Imaginable. Gallup. https://amazon.com/dp/159562127X/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_hist_1

⁴⁵ The Institute for Corporate Productivity. 2017. Purposeful Collaboration: The Essential Components of Collaborative Cultures. file:///C:/Users/micha/OneDrive/Desktop/Purposeful_Collaboration_i4cp_2017(1).pdf

⁴⁶ The Institute for Corporate Productivity. 2017. Purposeful Collaboration: The Essential Components of Collaborative Cultures. file:///C:/Users/micha/OneDrive/Desktop/Purposeful_Collaboration_i4cp_2017(1).pdf

⁴⁷ Hackman, J.R. 2002. Leading Teams: Setting the Stage for Great Performances. Harvard Business School. https://amazon.com/Leading-Teams-Setting-Stage-Performances/dp/1578513332#reader_1578513332

⁴⁸ The Institute for Corporate Productivity. 2017. Purposeful Collaboration: The Essential Components of Collaborative Cultures. file:///C:/Users/micha/OneDrive/Desktop/Purposeful_Collaboration_i4cp_2017(1).pdf

⁴⁹ Blankson, A. 2019. “Why Collaboration is the Currency of the Future.” Forbes, August 15, 2019. https://forbes.com/sites/amyblankson/2019/08/15/why-collaboration-is-the-currency-of-the-future/#908854945e8d

⁵⁰ Haas, M., and M. Mortensen. 2016 “The Secrets of Great Teamwork.” Harvard Business Review, June 2016. https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork

⁵¹ Blankson, A. 2019. “Why Collaboration is the Currency of the Future.” Forbes, August 15, 2019. https://forbes.com/sites/amyblankson/2019/08/15/why-collaboration-is-the-currency-of-the-future/#908854945e8d

⁵² Auerbach, J. 2018. “Why Partnership is the Business Trend to Watch.” World Economic Forum, January 16, 2018. https://weforum.org/agenda/2018/01/why-partnership-is-the-business-trend-to-watch/

⁵³ “ADP Research Institute Sets International Benchmark for Employee Engagement with its 19-Country Global Study of Engagement,” June 14, 2019. www.mediacenter.adp.com/news-releases/news-release-details/adp-research-institute-sets-international-benchmark-employee

⁵⁴ Crocker, A., R. Cross, and H.K. Gardner. 2018. “How to Make Sure Agile Teams can Work Together.” Harvard Business Review, May 15, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/05/how-to-make-sure-agile-teams-can-work-together

⁵⁵ Crocker, A., R. Cross, and H.K. Gardner. 2018. “How to Make Sure Agile Teams can Work Together.” Harvard Business Review, May 15, 2018. https://hbr.org/2018/05/how-to-make-sure-agile-teams-can-work-together