A Future Thinker Looks at Mid-Life Career Change, #02: Before looking forward, a quick look back

A look back in history is always the first step to bringing perspective on the present and a valuable tool in seeking clarity about the future. So, before looking ahead to the dynamics rearranging the present and the near future of the next two decades let’s take a look at the history of humanity.

It is generally agreed that the Agricultural Age began around 10,000 years ago. Prior to that man basically lived a nomadic, hunting and gathering life, moving from place to place just to survive. With the advent of agriculture humanity began, literally, to put down roots. This development led to the basic creation of a social culture and the creation of work. This work was very local and was usually passed along to one’s descendants. The work that you did was the same as that of your parents and grandparents. You probably spent your entire life in one location. This meant that people really had no choice as to what they did for a living and where they did it. This general state of affairs lasted for more that 9,500 years.

A little more than 200 years ago, with the invention of the steam engine, the Industrial Age began. This dramatically changed the work place. For the first time large numbers of people left their ancestral farms and towns to move to cities which grew dramatically as economies grew up around the factories. Production replaced land ownership as the foundation of wealth. This meant that for the first time in history large numbers of people worked in new occupations than those of their parents in addition to living in a different place. Hundreds of new job categories were created in a matter of decades. When steam engines and later the internal combustion engine came into being, transportation exploded, and with it the migration of workers to new states, territories and countries. Companies established multiple offices in different geographical locations. Work had been entirely transformed. New forms of wealth creation were developed, and one’s ancestry lessened as a factor in ones ability to make one’s way in the world.

The Information Age supplanted the Industrial Age around 30 years ago. Ushered in by communications satellites, computers, television and the explosive growth in higher education, this new age brought about as much transformation in the workplace as had occurred in the transition from Agricultural to Industrial Age. The numbers of knowledge workers and service workers grew dramatically. Knowledge and information itself became products. The core values of the Industrial Age -- centralization and hierarchies -- gave way to decentralization and flat organizations. White collar workers exceeded the number of blue collar workers and continued to grow while the number of blue collar workers continued to decline.

The Information Age arrived first in developed countries, and this hastened the migration of manufacturing, and manufacturing jobs, to less developed, lower cost countries. This caused dislocations in the work place and millions of workers had to be retrained to work in the new information, knowledge and service industries. Entire new careers were created around new industries. These included the development, installation, support, and programming of wave after wave of new computers and other "high technology." The mechanical gave way to the electronic and technology exploded.

The geopolitical world also changed, which created new occupations around the environment, security, overnight delivery, and tourism to name just a few. All of these new industries needed new laws and regulations which triggered the explosive growth of the legal profession.

Then, ten years ago with the arrival of the Internet to the mainstream public, a new explosive ingredient was added which has and is radically changing the workplace.

So we have now taken a very quick look back. Next week a look at the powerful dynamics that are currently reshaping the world, with a particular eye to how these forces are changing the work place and the market place.

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Noted futurist David Houle blogs at Evolution Shift.