PROTAGION
  • Proteges
    • Now What?
    • Career Goals >
      • Promotion
      • New Skills
      • Further Qualifications
      • Moving Countries
      • Switching: Consult/Contract/Startup
      • Transition: Specialism/Profession
      • Managing a Business
      • Portfolio Career
      • Purpose & Meaning
    • Our Services
    • Subscribe
    • Conference 1-5 March
    • CPD
  • Mentors
    • Encore Mentor
    • Featured Subset >
      • Anne - Australia
      • Boniswa - S Africa
      • Bradley - UK
      • Lee - Hong Kong
      • Lusani - S Africa
      • Margaret - S Africa
      • Michael - S Africa
      • Natasha - UK
      • Nikki - UK
      • Sumit - India
      • Trevor - UK
  • Sign Up: Free
  • Login
  • Stories
    • Our Stories / Blog
    • My Journey
    • Our Principles
    • Books

We help professionals achieve their career goals
OUR STORIES
Over 120 career-related articles and counting...
Scroll down to read


Follow @Protagion
SHARE YOUR STORY
FREE SIGN UP

Man and Machine: A Powerhouse Combo

14/3/2020

0 Comments

 
​At Protagion, we recognise the incredible power of analytics and automation, while at the same time believing wholeheartedly in our uniquely human abilities. As we’ve argued before, it is the blend of these powers (man and machine) that creates immense value. In this article we discuss and share a TED talk by an executive from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) on “human plus AI” approaches.
Some of our previous articles which touch on similar themes are:
  • Jobs of the Future where we explore Cognizant’s thoughts on roles that suit as as humans in future, particularly because as consumers we want the human touch: (i) coaching roles where we help others get better at, for example, managing their finances, (ii) caring roles where we improve others’ health and wellness, and (iii) connecting roles where we interface between man and machine or link the physical and virtual, adding human imagination and ingenuity to what machines do well
  • Celebrating our Humanness in which we discuss the psychology underlying our vulnerability and resistance to change, and how to use it to encourage people to explore what could be, instead of clinging to what is; it also references our skills which are uniquely human like empathy, compassion, creativity, strategic thinking, communication and collaboration / teamwork
  • Active Career Management: Embracing New Technologies where we share techniques for staying abreast of the changing technological landscape, recognising the importance of keeping up-to-date and taking inspiration from change
Picture
In fact, Protagion’s business and approach to managing our careers actively is built around the concept of combining human experience, expertise and judgement (from our mentors and coaches) with the benefits offered by technology, algorithms and analytics to offer personalised career suggestions that evolve as professionals grow.

Read more to uncover the ideas of Sylvain Duranton, a business technologist and leader of BCG Gamma, which has deployed over 100 customised AI and analytics solutions for large companies around the world. His team conceptualises, builds, and deploys data science and advanced analytic solutions. Sylvain joined BCG in 1993, and as you will discover, he is a fan of “human plus AI” approaches. He says artificial intelligence is impacting a variety of fields, including businesses’ relationships with their customers, their industrial operations, risk assessment and management (in areas such as healthcare, finance and insurance), and improving the supply chain. However, he warns against “algocracy” (rules-based decisions without human oversight). We conclude the article with a video of his roughly 14-minute talk, given in Mumbai.

Read More
0 Comments

Thinking Ahead: A Longer-Term Perspective

20/1/2020

0 Comments

 
​With the new decade well & truly underway, I’ve been thinking about the future, and wanted to share some helpful techniques with you. These techniques can enable us to extend the range of our thoughts, supporting us to take a longer-term perspective and imagine possible futures. 

The future is itself an idea: we conjure it in our imaginations. We are better than other species at making this imaginative leap, and it is the reason we have civilisations, have landed on the moon, plant trees for future shade, and have built cathedrals across centuries, for posterity. 
Picture
​However, we’re also by nature impulsive and reactive... The short-term vs long-term tension is part of who we are, and balancing it appropriately is important. For example, this tension arises in the healthcare and financial services industries when encouraging people to look after their health. We’d mostly prefer to eat treats and relax on the couch, but doing this consistently is bad for us, so well-designed incentives (such as shared value models in an insurance context) can encourage us to make good choices now (like moderation and exercise) that lead to future health benefits.

This article is inspired by the work of Bina Venkatamaran, a former journalist and policy advisor who teaches at MIT, and Ari Wallach, a futurist. Both of them gave separate TED talks, and we also reference Bina’s book* and Ari’s essay in Wired magazine where he calls for a “visionary yet goal-oriented” framework for long-term strategy that “can help leaders navigate the balance between short-term gain and long-term ruin. A CEO might say: ‘That may be good for the bottom line, but it poses significant risks to our longpath’.”
It’s also about how we choose to measure our success, and the meaning of our lives. In Bina’s words: “Do we measure ourselves by the moment, by what’s happening in this immediate moment, or do we measure ourselves by what we’re doing towards the longer endeavour of both what we’re doing in this life and how we’ll be remembered?”

Read more to explore Bina and Ari’s ideas, examine our preference for immediate gratification and the mistakes we naturally make, consider our unique capacity for mental time travel, contrast prediction and forecasting against judgement and foresight, discover different tools and techniques for thinking ahead, and watch Bina’s TED talk. It’s particularly fitting too that 2020 is synonymous with perfect vision – I hope that these tools will help us all to envisage our ultimate aims more clearly.

Read More
0 Comments

Portfolio Careers: Cultivating Multiple Income Streams

20/3/2019

0 Comments

 
This Protagion post focuses on a TEDx talk given by Dorie Clark at an event titled “Professions of the Future” in Switzerland in September 2017. The talk explores portfolio careers, a topic we briefly touched on in a previous Halloween-themed post about slashers: people who do different concurrent jobs.
Dorie herself has “consciously and deliberately worked to cultivate multiple income streams”. The New York Times describes her as an “expert at self-reinvention”, and her roles include:
  • teaching at business schools
  • author of books like Stand Out*, Entrepreneurial You*, and Reinventing You*
  • blogger, including for Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Entrepreneur and Time Magazine
  • speaker, including a number of TEDx talks
  • executive coach
  • marketing strategy consultant
She’s also directed an environmental documentary film, and was a producer for a multiple-Grammy-winning jazz album.
Through that process [of building a portfolio career], it’s done a lot of things: it’s brought in more revenue for me, it’s mitigated my risk, it’s introduced me to new people and new experiences, it’s helped me develop new skills. And it’s my hope for you, whether you work for yourself, or if you have a day job that you love and want to keep, that if you cultivate a portfolio career, that it could do the same for you.”
DORIE CLARK
​Her talks often use personal stories of people she’s interviewed to illustrate her suggestions, which makes them relatable and easier to remember. Read more to view the video, some takeaways, and additional insights from Dorie.

Read More
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Bradley Shearer
    ​Founder of Protagion
    My Personal Journey
    I'd love to hear your stories

    Categories

    All
    Active Career Management
    Branching Out
    Connection
    Consulting
    Contracting
    Future Of Work
    Inspiration
    Leadership
    Learning
    Mentoring
    Non Executive Directors (NEDs)
    Personal Journeys
    Professions
    Psychology
    Real Life Examples
    Role Options
    Routes To The Top

    Tweets by protagion

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    RSS Feed

"NOW WHAT?" - a common question our visitors ask... WE CAN HELP!


Follow @Protagion
Home / Proteges
> ​Services
> Subscribe
> CPD
​

​Mentors

Our Stories / Blog

Sign Up to use our System
​
​
Privacy Policy​
PROTAGION currently offers services in English across a range of countries.
Please email us if you have any questions.
Picture

​© 2017-2021 PROTAGION LIMITED (10721032) is a company registered in England and Wales.
Registered Address: Kemp House, 160 City Road, London, United Kingdom, EC1V 2NX
Photos used under Creative Commons from Pjposullivan1, paul.horsefield, flazingo_photos
  • Proteges
    • Now What?
    • Career Goals >
      • Promotion
      • New Skills
      • Further Qualifications
      • Moving Countries
      • Switching: Consult/Contract/Startup
      • Transition: Specialism/Profession
      • Managing a Business
      • Portfolio Career
      • Purpose & Meaning
    • Our Services
    • Subscribe
    • Conference 1-5 March
    • CPD
  • Mentors
    • Encore Mentor
    • Featured Subset >
      • Anne - Australia
      • Boniswa - S Africa
      • Bradley - UK
      • Lee - Hong Kong
      • Lusani - S Africa
      • Margaret - S Africa
      • Michael - S Africa
      • Natasha - UK
      • Nikki - UK
      • Sumit - India
      • Trevor - UK
  • Sign Up: Free
  • Login
  • Stories
    • Our Stories / Blog
    • My Journey
    • Our Principles
    • Books