Stretch How to Future-Proof Yourself for Tomorrow's Workplace

You know you can do more with your career. And the future is going to demand more of you.

The problem is you are so busy keeping up with the day-to-day that you can't prepare for tomorrow. Stretch: How to Future Proof Yourself for Tomorrow's Workplace gives you the confidence and knowledge you need to achieve your goals in an ever-changing world. Karie Willyerd and Barbara Mistick?established experts and the collective winners of dozens of awards in the field of personal development and learning?offer evidence-based guidance on obtaining the skills you will need to thrive in tomorrow's workplace. Built on solid, global research and dozens of personal interviews with people who have achieved new and inspiring goals, Stretch offers advice, valuable insights, anecdotes, and recommendations to make achieving your goals practical and within reach.

If you are like other professionals, your biggest worry is becoming obsolete at work. Shifting technologies, fierce competition among corporations, and recruitment occurring on a global level would give anyone concern. To remain relevant in spite of change, you need to know how to:

• Learn in any situation
• Open your thinking to a world beyond where you are now
• Connect to the people who can help you make your future happen
• Seek experiences that will prepare you for tomorrow
• Stay motivated through the ups and downs of a career so you can bounce forward

Stretch: How to Future Proof Yourself for Tomorrow's Workplace offers five practices to help you start, enhance, and lengthen your career by anticipating the needs of tomorrow's work environment. Don't become obsolete. Instead, stretch to achieve your potential.

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Part 1: Introduction 1

1: The Stretch Imperative 3

Part 2: It's All on You 31

2: Learn on the Fly 33

3: Be Open 61

Part 3: You Need Options 91

4: Build a Diverse Network 93

5: Be Greedy About Experiences 123

Part 4: You Have Dreams 153

6: Bounce Forward 155

Part 5: Charting the Path Forward 183

7: Stretch into Your Future 185

Supplemental Materials 209

Acknowledgments 211

List of Figures and Tables 215

Appendix A: Research Methodology; Key Workplace 2020 Survey Findings 217

Appendix B: Essential Books to Learn More 223

Notes 225

Index 245

KARIE WILLYERD is the Workplace Futurist for SuccessFactors, an SAP company. She is the coauthor of the bestseller, The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop & Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today. Her articles and blogs appear regularly in Harvard Business Review and in the HR and Learning press. She has been a Chief Learning Officer for five Fortune 500 companies.

BARBARA MISTICK is the President of Wilson College. Recently, she made history pioneering the nation's first loan buy-back program for college students. She is a seasoned entrepreneur and was named a Distinguished Service Professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Her public service advocacy on behalf of entrepreneurs has won numerous awards from the US Small Business Administration, Ernst and Young and The Girl Scouts of America. Dr. Mistick was the first woman to serve as president of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. She holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, and received her doctorate in Management from Case Western Reserve University.