Hi, my name is Catherine Avart, and I am a member of Cohort 10 in the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute.
With the goal of reimagining collaboration, I got to read the book Work Disrupted. Work Disrupted is written by Jeff Schwartz and discusses the accelerated future of work with respect to opportunity, resilience, and growth.
In the very beginning of this book the author clarifies what he means by a disruption. “When we think of a disruption, we generally think of a disturbance that interrupts. In business theory, a disruptive innovation is one that creates a new market, shaking up the existing market, and displacing it. Disruptive innovation is a powerful way to think about innovation-driven growth”. This offers a different insight into the title. We can take this concept and think about all the growth that is to come, rather than what we are leaving behind. The pandemic has forced us as a society to grow quicker than we thought possible, moving to remote work for nearly a year, with hybrid work becoming the new normal. Jeff Schwartz offers some tips and tricks to help prepare for this future of work that we are entering.
There are three sections in the final part of this book, each offering seven mindset shifts for different groups of people. They are the individuals, the business leaders, and lastly the citizens and communities. Each of the mindset shifts are accompanied by some action items to help the reader begin to implement these shifts into their daily lives.
Taking a deeper look at the individual, here are some mindsets I am trying to implement in my daily life. The first shift takes a look at growth versus fixed mindsets and how to develop or work on having a growth mindset. One of the action items is, quote “To cultivate a growth mindset, keep learning. Take on new challenges and if you can, new experiences”. Luckily for me, being a junior in college, I am learning something new every day. I feel that I do need to work on not having a fixed mindset, so when I am learning, I will embrace the setbacks and move forward, learning from them and knowing that this is natural on the path to growth.
Another shift focuses on being a team player rather than a solo player. This mindset became evident during the pandemic and remote work. It has become increasingly clear that good work comes from a diverse group of people with different ideas. Connection and contribution are necessary for this good work to occur. Some action items for this shift are to quote “build connections with colleagues”, both socially and professionally, and “develop your personal capabilities to effectively lead, participate, and support the teams you’re part of.” Social media like LinkedIn and Twitter are a great way to connect with people. I am working on expanding my connections and putting myself out there, both professionally and socially. The Leadership Institute is helping me grow my skills as a leader and a team player. I will continue to work on these as it is clear that are important for a successful future.
One last shift that I will discuss is the fifth shift: “Nurture Capabilities to Be an Explorer by Leveraging your Curiosity and Love of Learning.” As we grow as a society, so does our technology. So how do we compete? The key is not to compete but rather work with this technology, but also to foster emotional and social capabilities that machines do not have. There is a difference between skills and capabilities. “Skills are very context specific...What we’re talking about are capabilities that are helpful in any environment, that are context independent.” One capability that is talked about a lot is curiosity, which often gets crushed due to monotony or repetition. Some action items for this mindset shift include: “Develop and invest in your own enduring human capabilities as your foundation: curiosity, imagination, creativity, empathy, problem solving, teaming, and social intelligence”. The goal is to then use these capabilities to help better your skillset. I would like to work on my problem-solving capabilities as well as my imagination for seeing what is not right in front of me. The world is evolving, and I would like to evolve with it, so I must make myself competitive for this new future of work.
My name is Catherine Avart and I am from Oakton, Virginia, right outside Washington, D.C. I am majoring in Mechanical Engineering with the hopes of working towards eco-friendly living and sustainable technologies.
I was not certain about engineering until my senior year in high school when I was taking calculus and loved it. I was so intrigued by the problem solving and the new material that I decided to look at engineering and what that would mean for my future. Coming to Miami, I instantly knew that I would find what I was passionate about and allow myself to dive deeper into my studies. I was drawn to the Lockheed Martin Leadership Institute for many reasons, the main one being their call for preparing students for the real world. The soft skills that Lockheed focuses on are not taught in a standard classroom and will help prepare me for the future. With a timeline on the issue of climate change, I knew that I wanted to graduate as a strong individual who was ready to contribute in any way.