By Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, December 20, 2017

The conventional wisdom about 21st century skills holds that students need to master the STEM subjects--science, technology, engineering and math--and learn to code as well because that’s where the jobs are. It turns out that is a gross simplification of what students need to know and be able to do, and some proof for that comes from a surprising source: Google. It was written by Cathy N. Davidson, founding director of the Futures Initiative and a professor in the doctoral program in English at the Graduate Center, CUNY, and author of the new book, “The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux.”

By Cathy N. Davidson

All across America, students are anxiously finishing their “What I Want To Be …” college application essays, advised to focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) by pundits and parents who insist that’s the only way to become workforce ready. But two recent studies of workplace success contradict the conventional wisdom about “hard skills.” Surprisingly, this research comes from the company most identified with the STEM-only approach: Google.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page, both brilliant computer scientists, founded their company on the conviction that only technologists can understand technology. Google originally set its hiring algorithms to sort for computer science students with top grades from elite science universities.

In 2013, Google decided to test its hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1998. Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last. The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.

Those traits sound more like what one gains as an English or theater major than as a programmer. Could it be that top Google employees were succeeding despite their technical training, not because of it? After bringing in anthropologists and ethnographers to dive even deeper into the data, the company enlarged its previous hiring practices to include humanities majors, artists, and even the MBAs that, initially, Brin and Page viewed with disdain.

Project Aristotle, a study released by Google this past spring, further supports the importance of soft skills even in high-tech environments. Project Aristotle analyzes data on inventive and productive teams. Google takes pride in its A-teams, assembled with top scientists, each with the most specialized knowledge and able to throw down one cutting-edge idea after another. Its data analysis revealed, however, that the company’s most important and productive new ideas come from B-teams comprised of employees who don’t always have to be the smartest people in the room.

Project Aristotle shows that the best teams at Google exhibit a range of soft skills: equality, generosity, curiosity toward the ideas of your teammates, empathy, and emotional intelligence. And topping the list: emotional safety. No bullying. To succeed, each and every team member must feel confident speaking up and making mistakes. They must know they are being heard.

Google’s studies concur with others trying to understand the secret of a great future employee. A recent survey of 260 employers by the nonprofit National Association of Colleges and Employers, which includes both small firms and behemoths like Chevron and IBM, also ranks communication skills in the top three most-sought after qualities by job recruiters. They prize both an ability to communicate with one’s workers and an aptitude for conveying the company’s product and mission outside the organization. Or take billionaire venture capitalist and “Shark Tank” TV personality Mark Cuban: He looks for philosophy majors when he’s investing in sharks most likely to succeed.

STEM skills are vital to the world we live in today, but technology alone, as Steve Jobs famously insisted, is not enough. We desperately need the expertise of those who are educated to the human, cultural, and social as well as the computational.

Use of One Act Plays for Developing Soft Skills

Hari Narayanan MA

M.Phil Scholar, Research Department of English

The American College, Madurai

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to show how One Act Plays can be used for developing Soft Skills.  Soft skills are important for those who aspire to become part of business world.  In Indian Universities, certain undergraduate courses like B.com, BBA, etc., are the most sought often courses of…

Use of One Act Plays for Developing Soft Skills

Hari Narayanan MA

M.Phil Scholar, Research Department of English

The American College, Madurai

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to show how One Act Plays can be used for developing Soft Skills.  Soft skills are important for those who aspire to become part of business world.  In Indian Universities, certain undergraduate courses like B.com, BBA, etc., are the most sought often courses of…

By Marisa Morby, The Muse, May 27, 2015

I’ve worked in HR, customer service, and event planning. I’ve listened as co-workers, customers, and friends consciously and loudly discussed the skills they’d like to develop.

Oh, I need to master Excel. We need Excel training.

I’m never going to understand how our CMS works--I really need to spend more time on it.

I still don’t get content marketing. I need help.

Yes, all of that is important. It’s definitely a good idea to know how to maximize your spreadsheets, use your website, and market your content. But you know what? You can learn--or at least get started--on all of these skills by spending some time on Google on a Sunday afternoon. You know what I almost never hear?

I’m not sure how to talk to Ben. We have to work on this project together, and I’m pretty sure he hates me.

I’m really worried about how my presentation went. I should ask my boss how he thinks it went.

I’m really upset right now--that email pissed me off. How am I going to respond?

These problems require soft skills. Maybe Ben doesn’t like you, but you still have to figure out how to work together. Your presentation might not have gone well, but it’s better to get feedback now, instead of giving two bad presentations in a row. And maybe an email did make you mad, but you’re going to have to answer it at some point.

The problem is that most people don’t spend much time thinking about their soft skills. Regardless of whether it’s a lack of knowledge or a lack of awareness, it’s worth remedying, because you use soft skills every single day--even when you aren’t thinking about them consciously.

Having well-developed soft skills will help you have better conversations, enjoy your work environment, and create a closer relationship with your team.

Soft skills are personality traits and interpersonal skills that directly affect your relationships with other people. They stem from who you are and how you interact with the world around you. Luckily, these skills can be identified, harnessed, and strengthened.

You know those people who seem to know everybody? They know the names of people in other departments, their titles, and maybe even tell you who owns a pet or how long someone has been with the company. They always know the best people to talk to about an issue (even if they don’t know them personally).

Or, perhaps you have a friend who is the go-to person for advice. Everyone (including you!) is comfortable talking to her.

These people have wonderful soft skills. It’s not relevant whether they’re the smartest person in the room: They’re comfortable interacting with others and others feel good interacting with them.

But, it’s not only the presence of soft skills that’s noticeable in your colleagues: You might also be able to name co-workers who lack soft skills. Maybe there’s one woman in your office who nobody wants to talk to. She’s difficult. She makes a federal case out of everything you ask her about. People dismiss her as rude and make a conscious effort to avoid her. The problem isn’t her personality--the problem is her soft skills. She has almost no soft skills and is unable to effectively interact with the people she works with.

I break soft skills down into two main categories: internal and external. Internal soft skills relate directly to how you interact with yourself (think: self-talk). External soft skills relate directly to how you talk to and handle the people around you. And yes, you’ll need both to be successful.

The skills below are the main soft skills I use in my own career and have repeatedly highlighted when coaching co-workers. If you focus on improving these skills, you will have a happier and less stressful work life.

Internal Soft Skills Self-confidence Self-awareness Self-compassion Accepting criticism Critical thinking/problem solving Resilience Perseverance Emotional management Perceptiveness Growth mindset

External Soft Skills Collaborative teamwork Effective communication Interpersonal skills Self-Promotion Managing conflict Adaptability Networking Influence Negotiation Expectation management