342: Diana Wu David: Future Proof Your Life (Not Just Your Career)

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How Do You Reinvent Work In This Age of Acceleration?

Diana Wu David

Diana Wu David is the author of Future Proof: Reinventing Work in the Age of Acceleration, a book about how to adopt more agile mindsets and practices to prepare yourself for success in a fast-changing world, across a 100-year life.

A former Financial Times executive, Diana now works with boards and CEOs to help organizations prepare for the future, boost agility and collaboration, and build a competitive, resilient workforce. Her clients have included AARP, Credit Suisse, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Wharf Hotel Management Group, Expedia, the World Bank, Asia Development Bank, and KPMG.

Diana’s Future Proof Course walks you through different exercises to set you on the path of perpetual upgrading and lifelong learning.

What We Discuss With Diana Wu David In This Episode

The concept of future-proofing your life
The challenges leaders face
How to develop adaptability and resiliency
The future of work
How to get started with future-proofing your life
The power of community and investing in yourself

Transcript Highlights

How to Future Proof Your Life (Not Just Your Career)

Future-proofing is an old word that used to be used in electronics to make sure that your product stays relevant and it doesn’t become obsolete. In the book, it has an additional purpose of creating an inspiring future. A lot of people feel scared, stuck, and unsure about the future. So it’s about thinking where you want to go and what you want to create for your life.

It’s a practice of perpetual reinvention. It’s about using value-based leadership as a base to experiment, reinvent, collaborate with others, and focus. Redefine your own success and rebalance your portfolio of work and other activities so that you can pursue that.

For Diana, her crossroad was that moment when her best friend committed suicide. It was her wake up call that she didn’t have to just keep plodding along and doing what she was supposed to do forever. The most painful seasons oftentimes are the ones that wake us up to do the things we’re called to do.

The Challenges Leaders Face

In the book, Diana talks about technology, globalization, and longevity coming together as big driving forces. This is a real issue because people who have been in the same company for a long time, who are in the same role and had tremendous success are not prepared to retire intellectually and emotionally. They identify with their jobs so much that they can’t even conceive of something that would be different.

Diana wrote the book for individuals so they’d understand they can’t change the pension system for their country. But maybe they can think about different ways to expand their identity in different ways.

The Adaptability Quotient: How to Develop Adaptability and Resiliency

If we don’t adapt, we find ourselves equipped for a world that doesn’t exist anymore.

COVID has really allowed us to exercise our adaptability muscle. You can be the smartest person with IQ or EQ emotional quotient, but unless you can flex, it’s really difficult. The way that you do that is by flexing early before you need to.

Take small steps to talk about what you’re going through because it acknowledges your vulnerability.

The Future of Work

Diana sees the future of work as tours of duty in our workplaces, not these long, linear build-ups. A lot of that hierarchy will be gone and replaced with a horizontal professional network.

We’re going to see a rise in white-collar gig work in fully distributed teams, or maybe a very small core of people working within the company, and then bringing in talent and expertise as and when you need it.

A distributed workforce allows companies to stay nimble and go in whatever direction they need. It also allows the smart ones to have technology-enabled larger workforces than they otherwise would be able to.

The future of remote work: There will be a hybrid because there’s still so much value in face-to-face and coming together to talk things out and just see all the micro-movements that you read in a person that are harder to read into.

How to Get Started with Future-Proofing Your Work and Life

Diana has come up with Future Proof Assessment that covers how much you’ve really thought about the future. The intention is for you to get a place to start. Figure out where the gaps are. Start there. Then think about what’s important to you.

Questions include:

Do you have a vision and do you know your values?
Is there a network of people that you can fall back on when times get tough?
Are there people you can go to when you want to create something big?
What if you want to create a podcast or write a book, do you know of people who can help you fulfill those dreams?

Answering those allows people to realize that they actually hadn’t thought about it or that they actually don’t have it.

You could be spending so much time doing the budget for the next year in your job, and thinking about all of the investment. But what if you looked at yourself as the company? What if you invested in yourself in terms of time and resources, as much as you invest in making this company great?

The Power of a Network

Having your own community will help you find your own clarity. And being able to strengthen that community is power.

As people go to more of a gig community or gig economy, they’re going to need that kind of support. They’re going to need people who know what their value is, who can give them great feedback, and who can really help them achieve and unlock their full potential.

Episode Resources

Connect With Diana Wu David

Website: https://www.dianawudavid.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dianawudavidpage
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianawudavid
Instagram: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dianawudavid

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How Do You Reinvent Work In This Age of Acceleration?