Peter Drucker coined the phrase "knowledge workers" in 1959 to describe the shift in workforce trends and the increasing value of those who accumulate expertise within a given domain. The term has served us well for half a century, but it will become increasingly obsolete in the years ahead.
We are in the early stages of the decline of knowledge workers -- because knowledge is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. We see this in our personal lives already: "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?" used to be a slam dunk for most educated adults. Give a sharp 5th grader an iPhone or an Android and that same adult has no chance.
Expertise was and, in many places, still is highly valued. Drafting a legal brief, closing the financial books, or writing a market research report are all important tasks that provide thousands or even millions of well-paying jobs. Yet within each of these professions and many others, there are really two different sets of activities. The first is the ability to gather and synthesize knowledge into coherent and useful observations. The second is translating those observations into insights that can deliver impact -- win a trial, improve the economics of a business, take market share from competitors.
While the aspirations of most professions are concentrated on driving outcomes, much of the actual work, particularly by entry- and mid-level workers, is on creating and synthesizing knowledge. And here is where the challenge will be greatest. Knowledge workers are coming under siege, and this trend will accelerate as computers enhance their abilities to analyze vast amounts of data, process language, make real-time judgments and integrate different data sources. It will not happen overnight and it will move at different paces in different areas, but we are at the beginning of a trend that will accelerate in the years to come.
This change will have a profound impact on many professions and in turn will place new challenges on educators and employers. If what we need are insight workers more than knowledge workers, then we need to develop talent of all ages differently -- with more emphasis on problem-solving, more emphasis on collaboration, more skills in translating information and ideas into impact. Many educators and employers are already identifying these needs, but most are probably not recognizing how fast these new requirements will be upon us.
Last month, an IBM computer beat the top two Jeopardy! champions of all time in a practice match. As this technology expands and approaches ubiquity, how will the average knowledge worker compete?