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Which Came First

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Common philosophical question to ponder and depending on your scientific perspective you may say egg or chicken, but this post is not to ponder where our chickens came from. Instead, I want to look at the egg in our land of workforce development.
 
If you think about an egg, the white area is large and surrounds the core, the yoke.  People are much like eggs. They have hard skills and soft skills.  These hard skills and soft skills are what cause people to get and keep jobs.
 
In our land of workforce development, we teach people how to get jobs. We also provide hard skill training, but what happens after the people leave our nest. Do they retain jobs? If you are a seasoned professional, you probably have examples in your head of those who cannot keep a job. You also have memories of people that found their dream job and are still happily employed.
The difference is the where the hard and soft skills are.
 
Using the egg analogy, one may assume that soft skills are in the core because they travel from one situation to another. Work ethic, communication, ability to follow directions, personal attention, and getting along with others are just some of the base line things you need in any job. One theory may put these skills in your core and the hard skills surround it, but just like the ever changing world where roles are reversed, I believe so are the makeup of people.
 
This world is changing so fast. Technology changes faster than people can change. The rules of the world as a result have changed. Social customs are evolving. In the land of constant change, mobile lifestyle, and the blur between work and personal, it is nearly impossible for any person to stay completely current. The only way for people to compensate is with their soft skills.  The flexible soft skill keeps the world of work moving. It is the difference between us and robots. Our soft skills are what we send out into the world about ourselves. They surround us like an aura. This is why I believe soft skills are like egg whites.
 
We can always learn a new skill. Like riding a bicycle, those skills are buried deep inside of ourselves. They are in our core. Once learned, we can go back and retrieve that information. This is why it is so hard to unlearn something. Rather than unlearning, we learn something new to add to it, making our inner yolk bigger.
 
 
This debate can go either way. I am sure there are many people in reader land that will disagree with my perspective on the egg debate. I would love to hear your comments. Feel free to post below.
~Karen Cirincione
Twitter: @kcirincione

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