Build these 4Cs Among Your Employees

It is estimated that about 60% of today’s workforce will face challenges that don’t exist yet. And progress just doesn’t let up; we live in constant movement!

So how can we prepare our employees if we don’t know what future challenges they’ll face? Simple: strengthening their individual key skills and developing a flexible attitude towards change.

This is where the 4 Cs of learning come in. The 4 Cs are competencies that experts have defined as essential in the 21st century and very important for the workforce. Read on to learn about these skills.

The First C: Critical Thinking

Critical Thinking is the ability to analyze the available information relating to a topic. To do this, we use our reasoning to question the data and facts and form our own opinions. Critical Thinking develops when we question even the simplest things and come up with answers themselves. Give your team members freedom to do this to cultivate critical thinking.

The Second C: Creativity

Coming up with new ideas, finding original solutions to problems, designing and producing in digital or physical formats, etc. Very much needed in the workplace, and there are thousands of ways to use and strengthen creativity. For one, make resources and content available; it will help team members to learn and experiment with content from different perspectives.

The Third C: Collaboration

We’ll never get tired of saying it: when we work as a team, everything’s better. Working in a team has many benefits: it helps workers improve their social skills and relationships, enriches their ideas, and boosts their motivation, as they feel they are an important part of the group, working towards a common objective. Make collaboration your first choice in the workplace!

The Fourth C: Communication

As well as critically reviewing the information they receive (C1), generating new ideas in a creative way (C2), and collaborating with others (C3), team members should also be able to communicate their ideas clearly (C4!). Cultivate interest among team members to write, speak or present information in the right ways.

As a result of these four skills, you’ll also be fostering other abilities and behaviors among your workforce. And who knows? In a few years’ time, there will probably be a whole set of new skills to meet the needs of the future with these four skills simply being the foundation.