Life-long learning about climate change is a must
We need to develop skills and knowledge at every step of our climate change journey, says Ron van Bloois.
As associate professor at the Amsterdam School of Real Estate (a post-graduate business school),
I am passionate about neverending personal development, thought leadership, the eagerness of business students and the importance of education.
I believe that we need a life-long learning experience, especially when working in a rapidly changing, complex and multidisciplinary environment, and taking longevity into account.
Let’s focus on the evolving requirements for young professionals and senior decision-makers.
Thinking and acting within silos will not bring future-proof solutions and desired outcomes. Our climate change debate requires more unbiased data, interaction, discussion and reporting of accurate information, as well as forecasting models, for stakeholders to align.
So I am happy with the provocative thinking of my colleague Verena Rock on artificial intelligence, who argues that we need a transformation towards digital business models in our industry. We need more smart, digital kids on the block.
When I’m sharing some observations from the classroom, I see more living lab situations where we need to accept that we don’t know the outcome, we can’t benchmark, we need to create new concepts based on creativity and design approaches with other disciplines, figure out the neologism of the unknown, and create a roadmap by experimenting and with frequent loops for adjustments.
This state of play requires a mix of social and communication skills, open mindsets, collaborative approaches in (international) business communities (mixing startups with corporates) and willingness to share valuable resources like ideas, data and time.
Experimentation and trial and error
In principle, this new playground should also reflect business structures, business models and performance agreements (measuring the right parameters). It should be nudging towards experimentation, trial and error, and innovative collaborations.
On an individual level, real estate professionals of the future will need a high level of adaptability, redesign and mental flexibility. We should develop an ability for self-reflection, keep searching for a shared vision and be prepared to (partly) reinvent our skillset every decade.
On a business level, resilient companies will introduce a recurring cycle of change: re-evaluating their core and secondary business model and having a blend of alpha, beta and gamma people.
Next to mindset, diversity will do the magic.
