The Learning Paradox: Gaining Success and Security in a World of Change

by Jim Harris

After co-authoring The 100 Best Companies to Work for in Canada, I began speaking at conferences on corporate strategies for survival and success. The book was released in 1990 - and was a Canadian national bestseller - but that same year, IBM began laying off people. Since 1990 IBM has laid off 200,000 employees - half its world-wide work force.

People bought The 100 Best because they felt, "if I just get a job with one of these companies, I'll be set for life." But once I realized that not even the best companies could offer job security, I began to ask, "How can individuals create job security amid such a changing market?"

Here's a simple fact: 80 per cent of the technology we will use in our day to day lives in just 10 years hasn't been invented yet! Don't believe this? Well, my six pound computer notebook has more raw computing power than IBM's largest mainframe of only 15 years ago - but notebook computers didn't exist 10 years ago! Netscape didn't exist prior to 1994 - and in November 1998 it was sold for $4.3 billion. The web is radically changing all businesses - and e-commerce is predicted to grow to $3.25 trillion by 2003.

In the past, a secure job came from working for a large, stable organization, preferably a monopoly or market leader in a stable industry. The longer your service (seniority in a union), higher your rank or the more specialized your knowledge or function, the more secure you were.

But today, everything that used to create security now creates insecurity! Large companies have been the largest net job losers in the '90's. Stable companies in stable industries are facing stiff competition from new challengers as a result of digitization, deregulation and globalization. Monopolies are crumbling. Even governments are outsourcing. Old-style unions that resist new practices decrease their members' security. Workers who haven't learned new skills in 25 years are more likely to get a pink slip than a gold watch. And if you have your PhD you likely know a lot about outdated stuff.

Job security today is based on learning, changing and accepting uncertainty. Paradoxically these are what we as adults fear the most! We have moved from a knowledge-based to a learning-based economy. This is the theme of The Learning Paradox.
—Jim Harris

314 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Writer on business and management topics and religion.

Reviews

[John Tallett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not a business kind of guy really and I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book cover to cover despite it being 20 years old

[Romeo Verga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dense book for little useful information. Book is mostly filled with fluff using business situations to contextualize core concepts. Key points in the book can be better understood in specialized books like 7 habits or neurological programming. Not worth mining ideas from this book.