Hi Reader,

Welcome to the 4th edition of the 3-2-1

• (check out previous issues ​here​).

You're getting this because you care about developing people.

I write about transforming ICs -> Impact Contributors.

And today, we're talking about human skills for the future of work.

Let's get into it.

3 Things for Work (in L&D)

The Era of Continuous Reskilling

• A pragmatic roadmap to close the AI skills gap: model executive AI use, bridge the agent awareness divide, and pivot to skills-based growth with stackable credentials.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Effort ≈ 3 min read

What If AI Actually Makes Us More Human?

• AI is reshaping jobs, but MIT researchers analyzed 18,000 US job tasks and found that tasks requiring uniquely human strengths like empathy, judgment, ethics, creativity, and hope are being added while automatable tasks are being removed.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Effort ≈ 5 min read
• I'm discussing these findings with Cameron Hedrick (former CLO of Citibank) on Oct 30th @ 1 pm ET
• 👉 Register here to join us live

Talent Development Academy®

• L&D professionals must lead strategically, but most were never shown how. TDA® fixes that (and sponsors this newsletter).
• A 12-month membership of live coaching, community, and curated frameworks, all triple-accredited (ATD, SHRM, HRCI).
• Best part? Your ATD, SHRM, or HRCI membership is credited toward tuition. Pay only the difference (for a limited time).
• 👉 Apply by October 24th: [Link]

2 Things for Life

Superhuman AI Math Tutor

• We tried this AI math tutor with our 5-year-old son. While it was a bit early for him, it definitely captured his imagination.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Effort ≈ 7-day free trial (no affiliation)

A Letter From a Father to a Son

• A fierce, tender note from poet Ted Hughes to his son, revealing how the child inside shapes our suffering and joy, and why the real payoff is living boldly enough to feel fully alive.
• 🏋️‍♀️ Effort ≈ 7 min read

1 Idea from Me

🏋️‍♀️ Effort ≈ 2 min read

In the last edition, I wrote about the pivotal role of the IC in the future of work. I think it's time we rebranded "IC" from Individual → Impact Contributor.

An Impact Contributor is an IC who consistently moves work from ambiguity to decision to action—without needing formal authority.
​
But this is more than just a rebrand. I'm proposing an entirely new skill set for Impact Contributors, based on a program we've been running with clients for the past 18 months.

In this program, ICs learn to:

• Seek the right problem (not just more information)
• Sense patterns and craft decision-ready insights
• Share recommendations that win buy-in fast

How these skills shift IC → Impact Contributor

• Seek builds context power: fewer false starts, less rework.
• Sense builds insight power: faster Time-to-Insight, clearer priorities.
• Share builds influence power: decisions made sooner, fewer meetings-about-meetings.

Here's how I view each of the skills in more detail:

Power Skill 1 — Perspective Shifting (Seek)

See More to Solve Better

• Promise: Learn to gather diverse perspectives and uncover the deeper “why” behind requests.
• New behavior: ICs systematically gather diverse stakeholder inputs and quickly surface the real problem, reducing rework, uncovering risks early, and aligning teams on a clear decision brief.

Power Skill 2 — Elevated Thinking (Sense)

Turn Noise into a One-Sentence Insight

• Promise: Make sense of messy inputs and extract the single idea that drives action.
• New behavior: ICs turn noise into a single, testable insight, focusing resources on the highest-leverage work, shortening time-to-insight, and improving on-time delivery against OKRs.

Power Skill 3 — Adaptive Communication (Share)

Influence without Authority

• Promise: Communicate so your audience hears it—and acts.
• New behavior: ICs tailor messages to the audience, lead with recommendations, and secure concrete next steps to accelerate approvals, cut meetings-about-meetings, and move initiatives from idea to execution.

The framework you see above acts as a reinforcing flywheel, where each time you communicate, you start the cycle again, gathering new perspectives in the form of feedback.

Ultimately, it positions the Impact Contributor as a future-proof IC.

Now, a question for you:

How does this map to the demands your org has of ICs?

That's it for this week - enjoy your Sunday!

I'll be back in two weeks ✌️

Andrew

P.S. Join me for my next live session on Oct 30th: a conversation with former Citibank CLO, Cameron Hedrick, on the human skills we must develop for the future of work 👉 register here