Finally. Robotic beings rule the world.

I think the world of work is set to change in drastic ways, and that we should be preparing our people, our systems and our governance for the shift.

The Conchords were right. Robotic beings are set to rule the world. Well, at least the World of Boring Meaningless Work that No Human Gets Excited About.

I’ve watched The West Wing. I know how compelling “saving jobs” is as a campaign lolly - saving anything makes someone sound heroic. But c’mon. We really have to move beyond ‘jobs for jobs sake’. If our politicians were being responsible, they would help reset our expectations about what our working lives will consist of in the future, and build that into their rhetoric; “purposeful work for all!” Let’s get the robots to clean the loos.

Unexpectedly at 35, after 7 years of tertiary level education and only 11 years in the workforce, I am onto my second career. I can’t even really tell you what it is that I do. Sometimes I call myself a social innovator, or a network coordinator, social businesswoman, facilitator, blogger, cultural creative. I serve as chair on one board and currently as acting-chair on another as well as playing in a band. My career counselor didn’t prepare me for this career path.

As you can imagine, I shudder at the “So, what do you do?” question. The truthful (but annoying) answer is “I am doing what brings me alive”.  I then tend to reel off a list of examples of the sorts of activities and projects that I have done to give this some context. Some of these things make money, some a lot, and some none at all.

My husband is the same; mental health nurse, artist, animator, musician. This is our portfolio of work, each aspect part of a prism expressing our unique qualities and abilities to contribute to our world;  enriching the community, contributing to shaping culture, and paying for a roof over our head.

Why has this turned out this way? Why did I ditch my design career, put my design company into hibernation? For one thing, I am a woman in the prime of her life, with a career that was escalating in terms of both opportunity and responsibility. But with 5 years of childbearing ahead of me (if I am lucky) - I had to make a choice. More career, or a family. I wasn’t going to be able to run a design company and have babies. Not without seriously compromising both. So I dared to dreamed a little. I dreamed of flexible working hours. I dreamed of projects that are started and finished in one day.  

So as of recently, I am now working as a facilitator. Drawing on my understanding of how to harness the creative process, I can go to groups with a few processes up my sleeves, and facilitate surprising and valuable outcomes for businesses/individuals/organisations. This is a new way of working which is leveraging off all my past experiences to date; I get to experience the creative process again and again - solving complex problems and animating people. Its a dream job.

Significantly - roles like this are springing up all over the place. My friends and colleagues call themselves things like: ‘collaborator’, ‘human rights advocate’, ‘environmental investigator, ‘ideas man’, ‘co-designer’, ‘yogi’, ‘changemaker’. And yes, many of these roles are paid positions. People often made these jobs up. They proved the value of their skills and experience, and were contracted to provide them.

Clowns are even gainfully employed in corporate team building in 2010. People are cottoning on that the world of work can work for them. But this isn’t a career path that vocational training or university prepares us for. I did enjoy training to be a designer - and the skills that I learned on the job were invaluable for preparing me for the rainbow job description I have now. But the critical moment was when I asked the deeper question. “What brings me alive?” and how can my skills be shaped into a job that met that end. That’s when I veered off the career path, and wandered into a dense jungle of extraordinary work experiences. I’ve gone bush. And I’m not coming back.

Of course, my head is in the clouds. This will not be the reality that everyone will get to experience. Not until we all have the same level of education and are not discriminated on the basis of our skin colour. We are a ways off this yet. However everyone, no matter where they are, no matter what they currently do, can ask “what brings me alive?” and start doing something tomorrow that matches their answer in an unpaid capacity (at very least). They can build up a portfolio of work. Taking a day off a week to do what it is you love might be unthinkable. But it signals a new direction, and this gives power to that new path. Think of it as ‘research and development’ investment into your own purposeful career. Blaze a trail. Let the robots clean up after you.