The discussion’s idea was based on the main points of the paper previously published in the journal, which has caused a wide resonance: “Generic and Specific Skills as Components of Human Capital: New Challenges for Education Theory and Practice”. Its impact continues to grow, as reflected by the growing number of citations indexed in international databases. E.g. according to Scopus, the paper is one of the top three most cited papers ever published in the Foresight and STI Governance.
Despite the formal reliance on the human capital theory, educational systems around the world do not take into account the latest research findings in this area, which creates a challenge for them: growing investments in education (human capital development) do not lead to a corresponding increase in economic productivity. The human potential created by education is being capitalised increasingly inadequately: economic growth, both globally and in individual countries, is slowing down. To overcome the newly emerged “performance limit”, educational systems need to absorb new ideas about the human capital components which are required for development in the new context.
The event participants discussed cutting-edge approaches proposed by the complex adaptive systems (CAS) science to reduce complexity and uncertainty, holistically understand systems and their context, and increase flexibility, adaptability, and resilience.
Dr Yaroslav Kuzminov, Academic Supervisor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and one of the authors of the abovementioned paper, spoke about the further development of the human capital trends which have been just emerging in time when the paper was published. They go well beyond geopolitical tensions, into the realm of hyper-complexity and uncertainty created by the numerous driving forces of the present-day context. The new challenges greatly increase the risks of undercapitalising human potential, i.e. insufficiently utilising individuals’ abilities. This can only be countered by developing new systemic education programmes, which currently lag very far behind the actual pallette of values and preferences emerging around the individual. Thus the collective, project, and creative work skills are levelled. A possible way to correct the situation is to strengthen the awareness of, and develop additional education opportunities along with fundamental ones. Obviously, schools alone will not be able to accomplish this. The overall problem is that huge and continuous information pressure on the student leads to the proliferation of “clip thinking” and increased maturity threshold. The fundamental problem with school and university education is undereducation. As a result, it ‘produces’ deprived people, unable to achieve social or economic success. Applied artificial intelligence (AI) models can help address the undereducation problem. If it’s successfully dealt with the help of these tools, we can expect a notable boost in human intellectual capital. Another problem is the desire to make education overly ‘applied’. In this case, basic disciplines which help people calculate and find patterns, contribute to the development of logical and critical thinking, the ability to act in a situation of uncertainty recede into the background. Thus a truly wide range of skills can only be acquired by comprehensively developed individuals. And here a new fork arises, which so far has attracted very little attention. More and more disciplines previously considered to be priority ones are being pushed into the category of subjects which can only be studied formally. But at the same time, a new chance to implement the idea of a harmoniously developed personality appears in the emerging context. Such an individual would possess a set of competencies, both in their main specialisation area and in related ones. They will be able to understand contexts beyond the scope of their direct employment. Expanding the general vision, and understanding of the processes taking place around them based on specific knowledge has value, even if this knowledge is not instrumental in nature. The emerging challenges are worthy of an effort to find specific, effective solutions, which could mitigate the consequences of socio-economic disasters in different countries.
Dr J. Deny, Associate Professor at the Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education (India), presented the Open Entrepreneurship Orientation Training Programme based on integrated university development strategies, which involves an appropriate approach to designing graduates’ educational and career paths. These strategies facilitate the emergence of close international networks of graduates, and the development of their entrepreneurial competencies. They are designed by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development Centre (IEDC) of the Kalasalingam University. The IEDC was established jointly by the National Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to promote innovation and entrepreneurship among faculty and students. Thus an advanced infrastructure facility was created, to facilitate the design and development of innovative products by the academic community in partnership with the business one.
Dr Alexander Sokolov, Director of the HSE Foresight Centre and Deputy Director of the HSE ISSEK, spoke about identifying competencies ICT professionals would need using the iFora system as an example. This is particularly relevant because most people are inclined to think linearly, while real-life processes tend to develop nonlinearly. Various tools are applied to deal with nonlinearity, including Foresight which allows to prioritise investments in technology development, and forecast future demand for competencies. Foresight is a complex chain of iterative actions ultimately merging into scenarios and strategies. Processes are becoming increasingly complex, more and more new models are required, which are constantly improved and elaborated. Therefore, a holistic, systemic thinking is needed to embrace cause-and-effect relationships and isolate valuable information from gigabytes of chaotic data. iFora allows to calibrate a tool, adjust it for a specific industry, task, or problem, analyse trends, technologies, markets, forecasts, regulatory frameworks, and much more. One can take a close look at a network map of clusters showing how one aspect relates to others with an emphasis on specific relationships, and see what larger nodes are made of. It becomes possible to identify promising industries, technologies, key competency areas, companies, and R&D fields. The speaker presented the results of scanning human capital studies: over 1,000 trends in this area were discovered in total, of which 48 most relevant ones were analysed in depth. Key topics related to human capital have been identified: resource management, interdisciplinary communication, and public relations skills turned out to be in particular demand, along with some others.
Dr Lin Woon Leong, Associate Professor at Taylor's University (Malaysia), specialises in studying synergies between AI and human potential in sustainable development projects implemented in various fields. He spoke about the role of AI in improving human cognitive and analytical abilities, its contribution to making better-informed, more accurate and effective decisions. The synergistic integration of AI and human potential is seen as the key to meeting complex, interconnected sustainability-related challenges. By taking a collaborative, ethical approach to adopting AI, innovative pathways can be discovered, which will facilitate progress towards a more sustainable and equitable future for all. There are examples of AI successfully complementing human expertise in areas such as environmental monitoring, resource management, and disaster response. The cultural aspects, ethical and social implications of AI integration have not been ignored either. The focus is on human-centric approach to AI development, when ethical considerations and human values guide technological progress. Examples of AI applications in renewable energy, smart agriculture, and circular economy models were presented, illustrating the ability of AI-based technologies to create systemic changes shaping the future of AI-human collaboration.
Dr Pavel Sorokin, Leading Researcher at the HSE Institute of Education, is developing a very relevant creative initiative action (agency) concept, adapting various complex social systems to the changing reality, and driven by both new culture trends, and innovative technological solutions. Agency can be defined as individual action which proactively influences the social structure, transforming it in ways largely undetermined by it. The agency approach is particularly important for the development of entrepreneurship. Today, we must simultaneously improve businesses’ short-term productivity and strategic long-term sustainability. This requires relying on agency’s potential combined with advanced technologies. However, technology as such, even in combination with workers’ advanced formal qualifications, will not guarantee success (the so-called “productivity paradox”). Technology can not only take on routine tasks, but also significantly change the appearance and vector of business development. However, the full potential of such mechanisms can only be implemented by people who transform the systems they control in line with the complex adaptive systems principle. The latest research in the field of agency was presented, conducted by the National Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Centre jointly with foreign scientists, and their main findings. Agency requires specific experience, skills, and motivation which do not “automatically” emerge in the scope of traditional formal education, corporate training, or self-education systems. Agency abilities can develop on a smaller scale in dynamic business environments, with a high diversity of structural activity contexts, mobility channels cutting across formal and informal communities, and high competition combined with uncertainty. Efficient holistic systems monitoring agency activities (not to mention their development) have not yet been created either in Russia or elsewhere in the world. One of the problems with assessing and strengthening agency potential is that different forms of agency are required in different contexts: in small groups or large teams, formal or informal environments, within one department or across several at the same time, with different reliance on advanced technologies, relationships with varying degrees of democracy, etc. The speaker concluded by describing possible approaches to developing applied agency solutions for present-day corporations.
Dr Marcus Anthony, Associate Professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology (China) and the author of the “integral intelligence” concept, described mechanisms for better understanding the growing complexity and interconnections in a digital society based on a holistic set of cognitive functions and technologies. Ideas and research were presented which push the boundaries of today’s paradigm-limited thinking. Mental stability, and holistic perception of reality help to meet the challenges posed by the technologisation of the digital society, and go beyond determinism. The integral intelligence matrix comprises cognitive abilities, rational/linguistic, visual/spatial/symbolic, intuitive/kinesthetic intelligences, and the neurophysiological "body-brain” information system. Integral intelligence arises as a result of the close connection between the brain, the body, and the environment, blending personal and collective intelligence. Whole range of human cognitive abilities, including mental, somatic, digital, and intuitive, are applied to overcome the problems and adapt to a new reality. Integral intelligence can help find new ways to deal with complex cumulative problems, becoming a part of the solution to the “collapse of understanding” issue in the digital society, facilitate the creation of smarter organisations whose members would interact in line with the “distributed intelligence” principle, shaping a future full of deeper meanings.
Dr Mithileysh Sathiyanarayanan (MIT Square, UK) presented a unique three-stage product development model based on sustainable development principles: RIPE-RISE-RIDE. It was designed to help researchers and product developers manage the highly complex innovation process, to improve its efficiency.
The organisation represented by the speaker supports a number of research centres, helping them turn ideas into prototypes. The speaker described the presented model’s components in terms of universality and integrity. The actual programme is a kind of test of the ability to work at the highest level of a complex integrated organisation. The paradox of this (and similar) programmes is that despite the simplicity and transparency of their design, very few teams are able to master them. Due to the need to stay extremely focused on the many stages’ nuances, in addition to the ability to focus one’s attention and will for long periods of time, other meta-capabilities are required too.
The programme covers as many as 16 technology types (educational, financial, green, etc.). Working with them requires human capital with appropriate abilities (economic, legal, engineering, monitoring compliance with standards skills, etc.). A remarkable feature is that AI is not applied in all programme blocks, since it is still not capable of generating the “magic” of human interaction that produces “the right” outstanding result.
When the model is implemented, complex multidirectional processes, ideas, moods, and emotions must be simultaneously taken into account and blended, to create new functions. In the course of these practices new abilities are developed, particularly valuable and demanded today. Alternative scenarios are explored, and backup strategies developed, following which helps mitigate the negative effects of numerous difficult situations. The integral intelligence concept mentioned by M. Anthony is applicable here, since not all teams, projects, and companies by far can constantly apply such a structured systemic approach. Even if they follow it at first, after a certain period of time everything is let to “run itself”. It’s precisely a powerful product development and launch platform like this which can prevent slipping into inertia and project failure, concluded Dr M. Sathiyanarayanan.
The event was organized in the framework of a research grant funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (grant ID: 075-15-2022-325).
July 4, 2024