BLOG: Super-Skill Me: The Thriver’s Guide to the Next Industrial RevolutionThe “Super-Skill Me” blog is an ongoing interactive exchange between Tom Furnival, director of training services for Marshall Institute, and plant professionals like you. Topics focus on the skills and technologies necessary to succeed in the new world of smart manufacturing – a world that values adaptability and digital savvy more than ever before. Email Tom with your thoughts and questions at [email protected]. Here is an excerpt from Tom's recent post, “Adapt-your-ability - Part I: The adaptability mindset”
The legendary basketball player and coach John Wooden is credited with saying, “Adaptability is being able to adjust to any situation at any given time.” Piggy-backing on Wooden’s idea, I would like to introduce the term “adaptability mindset,” which I consider to be the willingness and readiness to adjust to any situation at any time. The adaptability mindset is a winning mindset, a thriver’s mindset.
Human adaptability is well-documented through the ages. We have adapted to live successfully in searing hot and brutally cold climates. We have learned how to domesticate animals for labor, protection, and companionship. We have become the masters of our environments with advances in agriculture, housing, and civil infrastructure. We have stabilized our societies through democracy and capitalism. In response to external change, we adapted to survive, and in response to human-driven change, we have, I believe, unquestionably thrived. The result of human innovation and adaptation has been greater prosperity.
The first Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) transformed England from a largely agricultural society into an industrial society. The invention of machinery, steam power, and new production processes increased productivity far beyond what was achieved using manpower and hand tools. The textile, metallurgy, mining, agriculture, transportation, chemical, and glass-making industries saw advances in technology that led to increased production output and improved quality. Although Industry 1.0 didn’t improve lives overnight, as the decades passed, arduous human labor decreased, wages grew, and living conditions improved.
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