A Skills Map for the 2020s
Mapping the human skills that outcompete AI.
At Polynize we use our game to develop talent within global student communities with a focus on skills in human creativity, communication and collaboration (the 3Cs). These are the skills that go beyond processing of information and pattern-matching / pattern-applying and will be important as talent moves into a post-AI world.
It is difficult to categorize and measure these skills which are often derisively called “soft skills” or lumped under a vague category of “creativity” or “innovation”. Various attempts have been made in the past (see references). We draw on these efforts but also use our unique empirical work to present our mapping of skills below.
[This Polynize Skills Map forms the basis of our Polynize Talent Matrix which uses these skills to identify talent “personas” within Polynize. We present this in the next article.]
Layer 1 Skills
There are six fundamental skills that we have found are critical to effective creativity, communication and collaboration. Training to a high level in all of these L1 skills makes a well-rounded, effective innovator. These are spontaneity, surprise, simplicity, combination, evolution and universality.
Spontaneity—quickly create ideas without internal blocking and filtering. This is important as a generative mechanism at the very root of creativity.
Surprise — create ideas that are non-obvious even to an expert in the domain, opening new adjacents in possibility space
Combination — combine two ideas into one, new, coherent idea, an important mechanism creating a “tree” of ideas
Evolution — transform an idea into a new idea that is qualitatively new, a non-procedural leap that moves into a new adjacent possibility
Simplicity — express ideas clearly and concisely, critical for effective, time-bound communication and collaboration
Universality — express ideas so that they are understandable outside of your social context e.g. other cultures — critical for social collaboration
Layer 2 Skills
Around the six L1 skills, we have identified eighteen L2 skills. Training in these skills is necessary to increase performance in L1 skills, and Polynize Training modules exercise these skills in isolation or in combination with each other.
Analogy — create an alternative copy of an idea in a different domain that makes the original idea more understandable
Juxtaposition— hold two disparate ideas in mind at the same time
Extrapolation— extend an idea into an adjacent domain
Neologism— conceive and name a new concept to make an idea easier to understand
Impossibility — conceive ideas that are beyond the boundary of what is practically possible
Summarizing —condense an idea into a short form while retaining the salient features of the idea
Improvement— incrementally vary an idea to make it a little better
Empathy — create ideas with an understanding of the state of mind of other people
Reframe— effectively re-express an idea using a different context
Practicality —create ideas that are implementable in the real world
Elaboration — add more detail to an idea to make it more understandable
Narrative— tell a story to illustrate an idea
Authenticity— create ideas based on personal experience
Relevance —create ideas which solve a given challenge in the domain
Vision— generate ideas which are compatible with a macro view of time and location
Provocation —generate debate through ideas
Coherence — create and express ideas that are integrated and not piecemeal
Passion— use emotional appeal in the creation and expression of ideas
Talent Personas
Every person has different levels in each of these skills, and the overall pattern of skill levels is unique to each individual. Taking inspiration from gaming, we develop talent personas which “characterize” a particular archetype with a canonical distribution of skill levels.
More on that in the next article, but as a teaser below is the skill mapping for a talent persona of The Joker, a persona who relies on humour.
Personas are an important cognitive shortcut as well as a key element of gamification. We find it much easier to identify with personas than to identify ourselves as having skills or talents as attributes. This means we can analyze and train at the level of skills or talents, but use personas for easy identification and comparison of personality types (The Joker), estimating progress (e.g. Joker Level 1), credentialing, game boosts, team formation and much more.
[Much more to come on talent and personas.]
Outcompeting AI
We make the case in a previous article that only by developing these creativity, communication and collaboration skills can we continue to outcompete and thrive in the post-AI world of the 2020s and 2030s.
The Skills Mapping is the basis for this training and development through the Polynize game platform. It is a dynamic model that will evolve over time. It is unique in that it is not just for academic research or for testing. We use this to create technology-driven user experiences that coherently synthesize gaming + education + innovation to train these skills and develop talent in global communities.
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References:
1) Blooms Taxonomy — https://www.teachthought.com/critical-thinking/blooms-taxonomy-verbs-2/
2) Guildford Creativity Test — https://study.com/academy/lesson/using-guilfords-test-of-divergent-thinking-in-the-workplace.html
3) Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrance_Tests_of_Creative_Thinking
4) The Systems Model of Creativity -https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-017-9085-7
https://www.arpjournal.com/asarpwp/the-systems-model-of-creativity-analyzing-the-distribution-of-power-in-the-studio/
5) The Eureka Effect — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_effect#:~:text=The%20eureka%20effect%20(also%20known,previously%20incomprehensible%20problem%20or%20concept.
6) Nonobviousness — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventive_step_and_non-obviousness
7) Taxonomy of Creative Design — http://www.senseandsensation.com/2012/03/taxonomy-of-creative-design.html
