Earlier this year in March 2020 when the COVID-19 Pandemic hit us all, something special happened. A global challenge was opened up for branding and marketing professionals around the world by best-selling author and brand hero of mine Marty Neumeier and his business partner Andy Star to help get brand thinking into the board-room.
The METASKILLS Challenge was “designed to help you shape change while change is in motion”. It was based on Marty’s 2012 book “Metaskills: Five Talents for the Future of Work”.
The basic premise of the book is that, as we move from the “Industrial” era into the “Robotic” era (where machines can complete automated tasks and information is readily available to us), we as humans will need to develop new skills in order to meet the challenges of the day if we are to solve the seemingly intractable (wicked) problems of modern life. “It is not that our problems are too difficult, but that our skills are too basic” says the blurb on the back of the Metaskills book cover. The book argues that we need to move from static, linear and step-by-step thinking to more dynamic, creative and holistic thinking.
The challenge was to be based around five modules, each based on Marty’s five “Metaskills”. These are: ‘feeling’, ’seeing’, ‘dreaming’, ‘making’ and ‘learning'.
The competition was to be judged by industry heavyweights:
• Chris Do - CEO, The Futur
• Robert Jones - Strategist, Wolff Olins
• Lulu Raghavan - MD, Landor
• Anaezi Modu - CEO, REBRAND™
• Lisa Peyton - Strategist, Intel
• Dennis Hahn - CSO, Liquid Agency
• Kevin Duncan - Business Consultant
• Andy Starr - Founder, LEVEL C
• Marty Neumeier - Author of METASKILLS
