Life is becoming ever more unpredictable. COVID-19 has catapulted us into uneasiness, and many of us are dealing with emotions we haven't felt before while we are simultaneously dealing with new work situations we may never have considered for ourselves. Perhaps one silver lining of living through this unease is that it may drive us to think deeply about the future of work and how we can best prepare for the unknown.
While study after study has been telling us that our current skills may not be enough for the future, I believe that feeling empathy can help us prepare. Consider just a handful of the unexpected trials many of us have been experiencing in this age of COVID-19: quickly pivoting business plans to generate diverse revenue streams; developing new digital products; repurposing production lines; using virtual communication to work, meet and network; communicating distressing news to staff; and supporting colleagues facing fear or anxiety.
Both hard STEM skills (like coding) and soft skills (like empathy) have had more of a workout in our workforce over the last few months than they likely ever have to date. I believe this is a wake-up call. Let's look at how these two skills in particular — coding and empathy — may be just the ones we need to nurture as the foundational skills of our future workforce and how closely they are entwined.
Computers don't understand our language, so coders translate human instructions into programming languages computers can understand and carry out. Coding is what makes it possible for us to create websites and apps; it enables complex computer software that runs invisibly in the background to facilitate many of our everyday tasks — like reading this article on your device, using a key fob to enter your building or videoconferencing with your colleagues. It is also what has enabled industries as diverse as automotive and textiles to pivot their manufacturing lines to produce ventilators and masks in the fight against COVID-19. Almost every machine or device we use today relies on coding, and in a world that is increasingly run by technology, it's more pervasive already than many of us are aware. Coding is, quite simply, everywhere these days. In my opinion as a software developer, coding isn't just the future of work; it's the future of the world we live in.
From a future of work perspective, coding is considered by many to be the essential hard skill to teach today's students. In fact, a common mantra I've heard among tech experts is that students need to learn code for their future or they will fall behind. With up to 800 million workers predicted to be replaced by AI-powered robots and automation by 2030, coding — writing instructions for the robots and programs — is one area that is certain to be in demand.
So from this hard-skill perspective, learning to code may help you future-proof your career. But learning to code is about more than developing technical skills, cultivating computational proficiencies and figuring out how to write lines of code. Learning to code gives you the opportunity to be creative and innovative, to collaborate, to identify problems and develop digital solutions and to have some control over outcomes. Coding involves continual debugging and remixing, which can help you understand that failure is essential to learning and help you develop soft skills like perseverance, communication, teamwork and — you guessed it — empathy.
Empathy is the action of understanding, being aware of and being sensitive to the feelings of others. It is a valuable entrepreneurial skill as it enables people to identify problems others may be facing and, from there, develop solutions. Empathy is what has driven businesses to care enough to pivot to help combat COVID-19.
We may not know the exact nature of the jobs that will be available to us in the future, but because of this uncertainty, we know they will likely rely heavily on problem-solving, thus making empathy a sought-after skill. I've hosted training sessions and panel discussions on the importance of empathy for leaders. In fact, many employers already consider empathy to be a top in-demand skill — it's often considered more essential than technical skills. Why? Computers, of course, can take on many of today's and tomorrow's technical jobs, but people who are empathetic, who care and who can put themselves in others' shoes, are the ones who will be programming the robots, computers and machines. Empathy is one skill that cannot be replaced by technology, making it a critical, retainable and useable skill for the future.
Traditionally, many of us learned empathy by seeing how our parents and other adult role models relate to each other, respect each other, care for each other and resolve conflicts together. Here is where coding and empathy entwine in our technical world: Coding can teach us empathy, too. Identifying others' problems, creatively developing solutions, designing the user interface and creating the user experience are the skills of coding that enable us to see, understand and feel the world from others' perspectives.
Learn To Code, And You Can Learn Empathy
Coding and empathy have had a recent workout. The future of work has been brought into the present as we've had to quickly adapt our workplaces and workforces to the uncertainty created by COVID-19. We've now had a glimpse of what lies ahead, and our experience is proving how critical these foundational skills will probably be. Now is the time to future-proof yourself. Learn to code, and you can learn empathy as a driver for a better future.