Opinion: What is the new currency in Knowledge Economy?

Scarce Resource:

Which is the most scarce resource in today’s World? Is it water? Oil? A 2012 Mckinsey study found out that an average knowledge worker spends more than 60% of the workweek engaged in electronic communication and internet searching.

Before revealing the answer, let us travel back to the Vedic Age. How did the Sages create or envision the great Vedas? Did they do all these in busy environment. The answer is No. The sages used to confine themselves in solitude and perform intense meditation and thus were born the great Vedas.

Coming to the recent times, let us take the example of Carl Jung. He published the book ‘Psychological Types’ challenging the ideas of the legendary Sigmund Freud. A lesser known fact is that Jung created this masterpiece confining himself at Bollingen Tower, a vacation home in absolute solitude.

Now, connecting the dots, the answer to the question ‘What is the new currency in the Knowledge Economy?’ is ‘Deep Work’

Stay Deep, Stay Relevant:

Now what is ‘Deep Work’? Carl Newport in his famous bestseller ‘Deep Work’ gives the following definition.

“The professional activities performed in a state of distraction free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit”

Why is it important for knowledge workers to master the art of deep work?

There are 2 compelling reasons for it.

Firstly, in today’s knowledge economy, staying relevant is the key. To achieve this, one must master the art of quickly learning complicated things. Secondly, producing absolute best stuff in his or her field is the need of the hour.

Both these pursuits require intense concentration in a distraction free environment which in turn translates to deep work. Now, let us explore the world of knowledge workers to know why deep work is the most ignored skill among them.

The World of Knowledge Work:

Deep work is the most essential but the most ignored skill among the knowledge workers. There are 3 main reasons for this phenomenon.

Reason 1:

In a knowledge working environment, it is very difficult to measure objectively a worker’s contribution towards the firm’s output. An opaque region resistant to easy measurement sets in, called the ‘metric black hole’. This undermines the credibility and importance of deep work.

Reason 2:

Knowledge workers are imbibed with the culture of connectivity where they are expected to read and respond to e-mails quickly even when they are not important. This culture is antithesis to deep work. Also, it is very difficult to come out since it is very easy to adopt and adapt this culture. In the absence of this culture, knowledge workers have to be more organised to focus on deep work.

Reason 3:

A very interesting fact is that many knowledge workers turn back towards an industrial indicator of productivity (doing a lots of stuff in a visible manner) to showcase their output.This in-turn leads to the vicious cycle of shallow work such as quickly sending and responding to unnecessary e-mails, organizing unimportant meetings etc.,

Are we ready for ‘Deep Work’?

Now that we know deep work is indispensable in knowledge economy, the question arises, ‘Is it easy to embrace it?’. The answer is ‘Yes’ but it requires a considerable amount of practice and dedication. It is like developing an extra muscle by going to gym. Unless we realize this fact and embrace ‘Deep Work’, we are going to face the tale of skewed shortage of skilled workforce.

Note:

References:

Cal Newport. (2016) Deep Work. 1st. Great Britain: Grand Central Publishing