The Deep Human Learning® models, developed by Lifeed in partnership with RES Group, will allow companies to analyse thousands of small data generated by Lifeed training participants, leveraging the talents and skills developed across all their life roles.
How can companies help their people to discover hidden talents? How to make the most of the skills acquired by employees across their various life roles and experiences, especially in the personal dimension? To answer these questions, Lifeed launches its new Deep Human Learning® models, developed in collaboration with RES Group, a key player in the IT and digital marketing sector.
Starting from the reflections collected among participants in Lifeed training paths, the artificial intelligence models will measure and predict key indicators such as self-efficacy, engagement, energy, and work-life balance.
In a world characterized by uncertainty and deeply transformed by the pandemic, Lifeed’s Deep Human Learning® models will equip companies with a new tool to better listen and get to know their people, in order to enhance them in their wholeness and not just simply as professionals. By revealing the competences developed by employees in their personal lives, the models will help companies to transfer those skills to the professional sphere and count on a richer, extended set of competences.
“The artificial intelligence models developed with RES allow us to better read and interpret complex, destructured and meaningful data”, says Chiara Bacilieri, Head of Data at Lifeed. Thanks to Deep Human Learning®, she adds, “artificial intelligence acquires new relevance in the HR sector, helping management teams to know their people more in depth, to uncover the talentd they develop across their various life roles and to enhance them at work, too”.
“Today, companies are increasingly placing human potential at the heart of their processes. Thanks to Natural Language Processing (NLP), the branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the automatic understanding of human language, we can speed up and simplify the way companies get to know and enhance their employees’ talent through the automatic analysis and interpretation of the textual data they produce”, says Federico Bonelli, CEO of RES IT.
“To develop Lifeed’s automated models, we used deep learning algorithms inspired by neural networks, an evolution of traditional machine learning algorithms. In particular, for Deep Human Learning®, we used BERT, one of the latest Google products to run linguistic tasks. The model has been further refined to allow a deeper and more intimate knowledge of human language”.
In the future, historians will refer to the 2020s as the era of the Great Resignation. It’s a term coined by Anthony Klotz, Management Professor at Mays Business School in Texas. It’s a way of defining the increase in the number of people who have resigned in the United States as the pandemic started to draw to a close. There was a 2.4% increase in resignations in March 2021: a record number over the past 20 years of American history. Why? Here’s what the professor had to say:
We know that generally many employees only stay at their jobs because the costs of leaving are higher than the costs of staying, and this ratio has shifted for many workers over the past year. The costs associated with staying have risen, with many workers experiencing burnout — a key contributor to voluntary turnover. At the same time, some costs associated with quitting have decreased. The pandemic has provided many Americans with an opportunity to reduce expenses, pay off debt and save money. Combined, higher employee burnout and enhanced financial security is a recipe for increased resignations.
This explains why people are leaving and why they are ready for a change. But where are they heading? When companies know what people are aiming for, they can work on retaining those who now have more options available. We’ve gone way beyond a vision of human “resources”, where we can acquire and maintain talent to ensure maximum productivity. During the pandemic, a large portion of the workforce started questioning the meaning of their lives – as many crises do – and they wanted to regain control.
At the same time, other factors pushed them into making radical choices. A recent Microsoft report revealed that 40% of people are thinking of resigning by the end of the year. Not everyone will be able to follow through on that, but the bad news is that the most talented amongst them will probably manage to. They are the ones that will cost companies the most. The same Microsoft report highlighted the things that have prompted this shift. They’ve outlined 7 factors that touch everything from the growing need for flexibility to the depression that’s hitting Generation Z after entering the world of work remotely. Three of these factors highlight the amount of work given to employees, managerial responsibility and the ongoing identity revolution.
1) Increased productivity hides an exhausted workforce. The numbers don’t lie. The digital invasion in our workplaces has removed any buffers that were there previously. We now find ourselves managing schedules that don’t allow any down time. We’re spending more than double the amount of time in online meetings, a statistic that’s only continued to rise. Even the length of meetings has increased by 10 minutes, going from 35 to 45 minutes. What’s more, we’re sending around 45% more chat messages each week. We can almost see the physical impact this digital wave has had on us. A greater quantity of work doesn’t necessarily mean better quality: people start to feel trapped and stressed. Our computers have started to feel like conveyor belts, and people have started asking themselves questions. 37% of workers say that their companies are now asking too much of them.
2) Leaders have lost sight of their people and they need to wake up. Anthony Klotz refers to it as “managerial laziness” that stokes the illusion of being able to go back in time, returning to old ways of working. With the temporary ways of working through the pandemic extending over time, the complexity of life has crossed over into business. And it’s not going away any time soon.
This wonderful video shows a dad at his “first day in the office”, accompanied by his little girl that’s reassuring him. You’ll see your friends again, you’ll be okay, don’t cry. Because the dad doesn’t want to go back to the office, and he doesn’t want to let go of his little girl’s hand. The video highlights something that’s rooted in truth: life has collided with work, and we can’t just press the rewind button. Managers and leaders need to make an effort to see this increase in complexity as a destination that changes the rules of the game.
3) Authenticity will drive productivity and wellbeing. The Microsoft report says that 17% of people have cried in front of a colleague over the past year. We’ve let ourselves be seen at home, let others catch a glimpse of the artwork on our walls, of our washing machines, our children, our kitchens and our emotions. And we’ve learned through it: 39% more people feel that they are ready to “bring their whole selves to work” compared to the same time a year ago. On the other hand, 31% of people feel embarrassed about showing their private life while they’re at work.
When the chips are down, do we really want to hide away again? Why then have these transparent relationships with colleagues improved our wellbeing and productivity levels? Why should we want to go back to the way things were? Maybe it’s better to go someplace else instead.
This article was originally written by Riccarda Zezza and published on the Il Sole 24 Ore blog, Alley Oop. To read the original article (in Italian), please click here.
“Let’s no longer think that being a mother or a father may conflict with our working lives. All of these dimensions have a natural synergy that needs to be valued. Companies need them to be able to work well together and bring the type of energy that the world needs to be able to move forward”.
That’s how Riccarda Zezza launched the event “Beyond stereotpyes: the value of life transitions for both people and businesses” organized by TIM and 4Weeks4Inclusion, the biggest cross-corporate event dedicated to inclusion. For the first time, the event has taken place in Italy with over 200 companies taking part in a training marathon that focuses on this very topic.
The recent Lifeed event was held in collaboration with Barilla, featuring Riccarda Zezza, Lifeed CEO, Giulia Lamarca, Content Creator, Psychologist and Change Maker, Valeria Icardi, Customer Team Director & D&I ERG Balance Italy Leader at Barilla and Chiara Bacilieri, Head of Data at Lifeed.
“Changing the paradigm – continued Zezza- isn’t natural and it wouldn’t be possible if there weren’t companies such as Barilla. They’ve made courageous choices to make these changes a reality”.
Barilla is one of the 80 companies that Lifeed is working with to deliver training and self-awareness programs for their employees. These journeys value the dimensions from employees’ personal lives, such as being parents, caregivers or simply going through a transition.
“We’ve found the founding principles of Lifeed journeys incredibly coherent and in line with the approach, putting people at the centre – commented Valeria Icardi, Customer Team Director & D&I ERG Balance Italy Leader at Barilla. “Diversity is key to Barilla’s growth strategy: equality, inclusion and diversity have long been an integral part of our culture, values, ethical code and business model. We consider our people to be our most precious resource.”
The Winparenting program aims to support parents and their managers as they make the transition into parenthood, through initiatives that value people and give them concrete support.
“Lifeed has had a strong impact on cultural change within the company, accompanying people as they go through transformational life phases, such as parenthood. Today, everyone in the company – especially fathers – feel more confident in speaking about their parenting experiences and family needs, without feeling that they are being stigmatized for it”– concluded Icardi.
Following the analysis of over 3,000 reflections from Barilla employees through the Lifeed Winparenting program, we can see a clear picture of their parenting experiences begin to emerge. 56% of people talk about positive energy, joy and motivation. Over the past year, Barilla parents expressed the need to manage uncertainty and have a better work-life balance. They are more effective in caring for others, leading and are more emotionally intelligent too.
“By dynamically reading this data, Barilla can see people for all they really are. They’re taking into consideration a range of softer elements that many companies don’t look at. For example, emotions correlate against wellbeing, allowing them to find the right ways to interact and connect with their people. But that’s not all: the emotions that correlate to their needs change over time. The need to manage uncertainty and fears for the future were strong in 2020, following the start of the pandemic and switch to remote working. But this came down to 59% in 2021. In 2018, the need for work-life balance was one of the things that new parents at Barilla were thinking about most. Over the years, this has decreased, and now it’s no longer an issue 2021”– commented Chiara Bacilieri Head of Data at Lifeed, when presenting key results from the project.
Emotions, needs and life experiences, bring value to people and their companies. Seeing people for all they really are provides an opportunity for developing skills and innovation. One of the most important life transitions is parenthood, an everyday training ground for soft skills.
Caring for ourselves and others, means accepting imperfections and valuing each person’s complexity. It helps to bring the change in cultural paradigm that the world needs right now.
These are just a few of the themes that were explored further at the “Beyond stereotypes: the value of life transitions for people and companies” event, organized as part of 4Weeks4Inclusion. It’s the biggest cross-corporate event dedicated to inclusion and promoted by TIM. Over 200 companies came together for a 4 week marathon that focused on this very topic.
The event organized by Lifeed in collaboration with Barilla featured Riccarda Zezza, CEO at Lifeed, Giulia Lamarca, Content Creator, Psychologist and Change Maker, Valeria Icardi, Customer Team Director & D&I ERG Balance Italy Leader at Barilla and Chiara Bacilieri, Head of Data at Lifeed.
With the aim of creating a new parenting culture within their company, Barilla launched the Winparenting Program to support parents and their managers through this important transition.
By analysing over 3,000 reflections from Barilla employees collected by Lifeed’s Work-Life Observatory through the Winparenting program, we can see a clear picture of the emotions that their people are feeling as they journey through parenting experiences.
Barilla has dynamically analyzed this data to allow them to see people for all they really are, considering a range of soft elements (such as the evolution of needs over time) that’s not always something that companies consider.
The diffusion of hybrid working following the pandemic has increased the distances within organizations. That’s why it’s more important than ever to focus on the contact that people have amongst themselves, and to stimulate inclusion and a sense of belonging through caring behaviors. It can help organizations and teams to face changes more effectively at work. Our experiences over the past few months have only confirmed that: once companies saw the barriers between work and life come down, they learned to see people for all they really are, discovering new needs and vulnerabilities.
The same emerged from a report by the Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management (Lifeed research partner in their 2021/2022 HR Innovation Practice Observatory). Even though 8 out of 10 workers were clear on the objectives they needed to aim for and their role within the organization, people felt less engaged and involved in their working activities. 79% said that they had reached a good work-life balance and 76% felt that their working environment was inclusive. But the distance between people and their organizations continues to widen.
Internal communication and managing the corporate climate are critical processes to consider. Proficiency has been king over the past year, but proactivity has continued to slide. The latter measures the ability to take an active role in introducing positive change to the benefit of the company. When people feel less engaged and involved, they find it difficult to generate ideas that will improve their working activities.
The concept of engagement has been reduced to “vigor”, or rather the psychological condition linked to our energy and desire to work. The initiatives launched by companies to motivate their employees didn’t go far enough in making them feel like they were being noticed. It’s why we need to work on making these new ways of working more sustainable for all. It’s about coming up with new initiatives that stimulate involvement and motivation, creating new caring and attentive ways of leading teams.
As the Politecnico’s report highlights, it’s time for HR departments to find new ways to care for and guide their people. Motivating employees would mean re-aligning people to the business’ vision. It’s possible to invest in people’s wellbeing, without losing sight of business needs. Empathy and listening really help people and contribute to increasing productivity at work.
But how can we develop a caring leadership style? Being a “kind” leader doesn’t mean forgetting about your leadership duties within the company. The opposite is true. Kind leaders are able to recognize what their people need, allowing people to safely express their feelings. They’re able to do the same themselves. Vulnerability is now seen as a strength for leaders. It means that they are closer to their teams, but also is a way of leading by example when people feel afraid to share their own emotions. An empathetic leader that’s ready to listen and include others can truly value the team, transforming their strengths into resources for the business.
As Richard Davidson (founder of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Winsconsin) says, compassion can be trained through practical exercises. When companies practice compassion, their workers are more trusting and willing to collaborate. Davidson says that “people can effectively build their compassion ‘muscles’ and respond to others’ suffering with care and the willingness to help”. When people are going through periods of intense stress, it’s important to care for their psychological and physiological wellbeing.
The first people that need to train this “muscle” are HR directors. They’re called to support their people in feeling more enthusiastic and motivated. We also need to help people feel ready to mix with others, re-establishing that sense of belonging that they may have lost through the emergency. Let’s try to learn through our past experiences. The challenge is to value the changes that remote working has brought to corporate culture and people behavior, moving from presenteeism to being focused on results. And, most importantly, if people have reached them.
When a major event happens in our lives, it rarely makes us happier. According to a piece of research I read a while ago (which I can’t find anymore!), most people would prefer a quiet life to an exciting one. This may sound a bit sad, but it’s the plain truth: changes are upsetting and always involve unexpected circumstances, which translate into exhaustion, adjustments, risks. Yet it is precisely those major events, whether planned or not, that give sense to our lives. Who could argue with that?
Falling in love, having a child, starting a job, falling sick, losing someone, changing jobs: these are the so-called milestones of our lives, those which will eventually shape it and make up our own essence. However, none of them, in their day-to-day normality, will guarantee our happiness. A study on 909 working mothers by psychologist Daniel Kahneman, author of seminal books such as Thinking, Fast and Slow and his latest work Noise, investigated the relation between the satisfaction given by a certain activity and its day-to-day emotional responses. Take, for example, the satisfaction of being a mother and the emotions generated by interacting with one’s children: what is their relation? Over the past few years, several studies have noted how parents often express fewer feelings of happiness than non-parents, which led Harvard professor Dan Gilbert to write:
The only symptom of empty nest syndrome is the inability to stop smiling.
In other words, everyday life puts even our best narratives to the test. Some life dimensions, at the heart of our identity, manifest all their complexity and richness as daily challenges involving tiredness, emotions, and patience. So much so that, if we could only theoretically decide what to do, we might eventually choose to not be than be.
Granted, the list of daily tasks performed by a working mother, described by Kahneman’s study, is impressive. It is easy to sympathise with the tiredness curve of women throughout their days (interesting to note how mothers who are younger than 30 wake up feeling more tired than older ones – a matter of sleepless nights or a habit?). It is also not surprising that social activities involving friendship and fun, such as prayer, TV and exercise, are those returning the most positive emotions… Even cooking or being on the phone come before spending time with children (which, in turn, precedes sitting at one’s desk, cleaning the house and working). What does it all have to do with the meaning of life, and with “major” choices such as becoming a parent?
As professor Paul Bloom says in The Atlantic, major events, with the identity dimensions they create in ourselves, shape the sense of our lives. And yet, this seems to have little if no impact on our happiness. Indeed, happiness expresses itself in the positive emotions generated by daily activities. Happiness is a moment of awareness and can be so unexpected to go unnoticed. However, those moments of happiness should be framed into a much wider context, which allows them to surface but also contains much, much more. This framework is the meaning we give to our own lives.
The sense with which we fill our actions depends on the blueprint we have imagined for our existence: on whether we see it at all, on how clearly we see it, on whether we are able to question it and adjust it to circumstances. This perimeter has no ideal shape: it can be more or less linear, large or irregular, and is constantly changing.
It is the kind of framework that becomes unfitting after a major event, like a pandemic, motherhood or sickness, makes it no longer suitable to the meaning of our life. We ourselves change shape and consequently need to adjust the way we show up and portray ourselves.
Whether having a child, finding love, getting a new job or fulfilling a dream will make us happier is, itself, a spurious issue. The real question to ask ourselves might be whether we are still able to give sense to the events of our lives, no matter it they happen by chance or are induced by us. Our days are made of schedules, activities, tasks, routines and emotions, and sometimes of discoveries, twists and surprises. Meanwhile, our lives surround them with their constantly evolving meaning – and it is upon us, the narrators, to give it to them.
This article was originally written by Riccarda Zezza and published on the Il Sole 24 Ore blog, Alley Oop. To read the original article (in Italian), please click here.
The UN has outlined 17 objectives for sustainable development in their 2030 Agenda. Each country is playing its part, through their national strategies. But for us to arrive at a level of global sustainability, everyone needs to play their part. Companies (particularly HR Directors) play a key role in this.
As John W. Boudreau and Peter M. Ramstad demonstrated in their 2005 study Talentship, talent segmentation, and sustainability: A new HR decision science paradigm for a new strategy definition, published in Human Resource Management, organizations face two main challenges. Attracting (and retaining) talent and ensuring that economic targets are in line with social and environmental changes.
To overcome these two challenges, the first step is to balance what companies promote and display externally with what they do for (and with) their employees. These two aspects must live alongside each other. Aligning internal and external objectives allows things to run properly, preparing for the company’s success.
That’s why the concept of Human sustainability is increasingly important within corporate agendas. It’s the collection of steps that a company takes to train its people, as well as how they enhance their wellbeing, inclusion and engagement. HR departments play a central role in implementing these steps, ensuring consistency between what the company is and what it shows about itself.
And it doesn’t stop there. Companies can develop their ability to see people for all they are, in all their complexity. This in turn generates value. It’s an opportunity to go beyond the concept of work-life balance, instead adopting a vision of work-life synergy. In fact, people’s personal and professional lives don’t go into conflict with each other. We are the same people at home and at work, while we speak with our children, friends, managers and colleagues. We don’t just bring a part of ourselves to our desks, a slice of what we our and a portion of our skills. We don’t stop being mothers, fathers, children, siblings and friends when we close the office door. Quite the opposite: our different life spheres strengthen each other.
That’s why companies can choose to prioritize their people through programs, projects and initiatives. It’s a way of putting into action their Human sustainability projects and establishing a HR blueprint, regarding the concrete impact that human resources has on the future of the company.
But how can companies plan HR processes that respect sustainability principles? It all starts with valuing equity, development and wellbeing within the organization. Sustainability values can be shared across the culture, translating into corporate practices. This reinforces people’s skills, motivation and productivity (which can all be measured through People Analytics activities) that are fundamental for companies to obtain good financial, social and environmental results.
This is a new way of looking at human capital. In fact, when companies leverage all that their people have to offer, rather than limiting their actions to a single role, individuals feel fulfilled at both a professional and a personal level. This has a positive impact on the business too.
Life transitions drive the constant growth and development of our people. That’s why we shouldn’t be afraid of changes over time. Companies can actually benefit from them, maximizing their people’s experiences and talents to enjoy greater motivation, wellbeing, engagement and efficiency levels. These are the elements that contribute to the company’s sustainable growth and the value that they create.
As we begin to return to normality after Covid, people feel the need to share and reflect on their experiences with others. The solitude linked to remote working and the pandemic in general is leaving space for community. The ability to share has been a missing piece of the puzzle over the past couple of years.
That’s why User Generated Content (UGC) is becoming increasingly important: content created on blogs, social posts, reviews, images and videos. This content is often generated freely and spontaneously, contrasting with advertising and sponsored posts.
According to recent research from the Nielsen Consumer Trust Index, 92% of consumers trust UGC compared to traditional advertising. Around 60% of consumers consider it to offer a more credible and authentic take on products and services, allowing them to make a more informed decision.
It’s just one of the reasons that Lifeed has launched the new ‘Social Sharing’ functionality. It allows users to share the things that are on their minds right now, as well as content that they discover throughout their learning journeys.
Within each program journey, users have the option to highlight the parts that interest them most. These sections can then be shared to Facebook or Twitter; or copied to the clipboard so that they can share them on another platform that’s relevant to them.
How long can we live alongside fear? In a little while, we’ll have been living with the pandemic for two years. Our brains will choose to keep some of the assets we’ve gained over the long term, rather than staying in uncertainty. It’s probably already happening, even though people aren’t really talking about it.
The other day I was in Rome, in the bright and beautiful Piazza del Popolo. My mother came to meet me, all masked up. She’s vaccinated, I’m vaccinated. The other people in the square were at least 10 metres away from us. “I don’t even notice it anymore”, she said, “it helps me to feel safer”. The mask helps her to feel safer, because she’s scared. She’s scared of falling ill, of dying. We don’t feel this way every time we cross the road, or feel scared of catching lots of other illnesses that could even be deadlier than Covid. Sooner or later, we all get ill and we all die. But we don’t live with this constant awareness, because to do so would make living too painful. The fear of death would become a fear of living.
We have a choice. If we want, we can stay frozen in time, feeling scared. Lots of people are feeling like that right now, thinking that sooner or later Covid will disappear and take our anxieties away with it. But that just won’t be the case. There are lots of different possible scenarios here, and none of them include Covid disappearing from the scene. It’s more likely that it becomes an epidemic, just like the common flu. The flu that kills a small percentage of those who catch it. Just like we’re already seeing, cases can remain high, but the percentage of seriously ill people and deaths is falling.
“Coronavirus isn’t something that we can avoid forever”, says Sarah Zhang on L’Atlantic, “We need to prepare ourselves for the idea that we might all be exposed to it, in one way or another. Coronavirus will stop being something newsworthy: for our immune system and for society”.
We’re still hearing about our immune system every day and we’re working hard on our own defences. But it seems like we’re waiting for society to “follow” without needing support. The people who still feel scared around us are showing us that it’s not the case yet. People that are scared live in a constant state of stress. It’s subtle, but constant, and can become chronic. They make more conservative choices and seek out other people less. If possible, they close themselves away. They are quicker to become defensive, less likely to help others and struggle with empathy.
Fear isolates us and leads us to think only of ourselves. Living in a state of danger brings our survival instinct to the foreground, and it’s not a generous instinct. Wearing masks outdoors, on a beautiful sunny day, is a right. But it means you’ll compromise your breathing, breathing in stale air that doesn’t comfort us. It means that hiding your face away from the world is normal, as if your face has nothing to say. As if your face didn’t need to be seen and recognized, while connection and feeling welcome are foundational elements in our wellbeing. They are key to our survival. They might seem less important now, but over the long term (and genetically, not just socially) they make our lives worth living.
When my mother told me that she kept her mask on because she was scared, my instinctive response was “we will all die somehow”. It’s a brutal phrase, I know. But I intended it as an invite to live. Over the past couple of years, we’ve chosen to forgo lots of important things to slow down the pandemic. We took working remotely for granted, thinking it was okay not to reach out to each other, not to travel, not to leave our homes. Some people have encouraged the idea that we’ve still been able to carry on with all the necessary things. But the truth it, we’ve done everything worse and we’ve lost a lot of energy along the way. Not just “less life”, but we think less and worse, we’re less creative, we feel less loved and we have less opportunities to love. We’ve made some big sacrifices. It’s important to know (or at least hope) that we can change those patterns when Coronavirus is still amongst us.
There’s another type of infection that’s sweeping across the world right now. It could even last longer than the peak of a pandemic. I’m talking about fear and new habits, the ones that keep us far away from others, that take something away from our everyday lives. We really need a vaccine for this type of illness, that’s infecting lots of people. A vaccine of trust and staying close to other people, a narrative that contextualizes this phase of human history in part of a bigger story. We need generous helpings of courage, openness, deep breaths in the open air that allow us to be ‘seen’ again and see other people. We need to be able to reach out to others and let ourselves be reached.
Maybe physical touch could help virus transmission, even if I’m vaccinated. But mom, you need my hugs to remind you that you’re loved.
This article was originally written by Riccarda Zezza and published on the Il Sole 24 Ore blog, Alley Oop. To read the original article (in Italian), please click here.
More often than ever, we’re talking about getting ready for the future. It’s where everything that’s important seems to happen. It’s that space that we’ve not reached yet, but we’re always planning and equipping ourselves to be ready for it. For example, we hear people say that schools must “prepare young people for the future”. Or that corporate training needs to give employees skills that are “more suitable for the future”.
Maybe it’s happening now, because we’re living in the future of the past. Maybe we don’t feel like we’re prepared enough. So we try to channel our energy into preparing for the next phase, which will be better because we’ll be better prepared. But it’s never the case. When the future becomes the present, we always find ourselves unprepared. So what do we do? We start to look at the future again, hopeful that it will be better because we will have tried harder.
In the meantime, the present slips through our fingers: it flies by without us even noticing. We’re going through life without being aware of it, without paying the present enough attention. We’re convinced that the things we struggle with today are a result of us not having done enough yesterday. But we only live in the present. And when the future finally arrives, and becomes the present…will we be able to recognize it?
It’s a question that came up recently in an Elis workshop, where CEOs or large corporations reflected on their scholastic training. It’s a key institution that helps to design society’s future. Today’s young people will be tomorrow’s adults. When the future arrives, they’ll be the ones to design the present. But what happens when we treat school, which is this generation’s present, as preparation for the future?
Children live in the present. The future doesn’t exist for them, it doesn’t reassure them if we talk about things arriving “tomorrow”. The intensity that they’re looking for and that they feel most engage with concerns today. Are they really so different to the young people that we’re asking to dedicate their present to prepare for the future? How does the concept of investing in life change over time?
I’m always surprised when someone talks to me about their romantic relationship as an investment for the future. I hope that I’m not wasting my time: as though what we “spend” today will benefit us in the future. It’s the idea that the present is serving the future. It’s a bit of a paradox because you can only love someone in the present: it’s impossible to promise that tomorrow will be the same, or that person will love you back in the future.
If we’re always thinking about the future, it has an impact on the way that we live. If we don’t live to maximize our engagement in the moment, we’ll risk sacrificing today’s effectiveness (and maybe happiness) for that of tomorrow. Let’s go back to the school example. How would our perspective change if we prepared young people to live in the present? It’s a complex world right now, a world that’s always changing. It has all the right challenges to train our skills. Skills that will also be useful in tomorrow’s world. If the relationship between school and young people, or the relationship between businesses and their workers, tried to focus on engaging people in the present, what effect would it have?
It would probably be easier to show more of ourselves, to engage, to give and receive more. Less anxiety about tomorrow would help us to make space for all we already are. Maybe that’s a good starting point when building relationships and projects? Maybe we could arrive in the future feeling more familiar and interested in what that moment represents? Or rather our present?
This article was originally written by Riccarda Zezza and published on the Il Sole 24 Ore blog, Alley Oop. To read the original article (in Italian), please click here.
