A metaskill is a master skill that teaches you other skills. It’s the skill of being skilled. It’s where knowledge meets dreams, to unveil new original ideas and possibilities.
Marty Neumeier, brand expert and Co-Founder of Level C, states that “today’s widespread unemployment is not a jobs crisis. It’s a talent crisis.” Marty told us that in a world constantly evolving towards AI, metaskills pave the way for new relevant knowledge and expertise to be developed. In this article, inspired by episode 3 of The Brand Education Podcast, we unpack Marty’s ‘Metaskills’ book further to understand how universities can best prepare their students for twenty-first century success.
Marty positions one of the most important metaskills as being inherently human – our imagination:
“Imagination lets us invent new business models, create different brands, and reframe a growing number of problems as opportunities”, Marty states. “Once we learn the “trick” of dreaming – of disassociating our thoughts from the linear and the logical – we can become wellsprings of originality.”
But, as we discussed with Marty, dreaming and imagination are not the metaskills that are taught in the classroom. Rather, at universities, students come out with a specialised degree and great knowledge of a particular subject, but the skills they have learnt and practised may be redundant in five, or ten years time when that field has been taken over by technology.
As priorities shift and the world continues to innovate, metaskills need to be given a greater platform to breathe in higher education – both in terms of teaching methods and building a higher education brand. Without imagination, Marty explains that there is no originality, and “originality is the key to building sustainable businesses and brands.” So, let’s utilise metaskills to pave the way for more original teaching, ideas, and brands in higher education.
“In the context of higher education, the metaskill of dreaming that unlocks unparalleled imagination should be granted more attention.”
The fundamental metaskills
In an age where technological advancements are constantly taking place, metaskills that are distinctly human are more important than ever. We need to make sure our skills cannot be replaced with intelligent machines, and that our specialisms are built to be future proof. Marty told us that the metaskills he thinks need to be given the most attention are feeling, seeing, dreaming, making, and learning:
“Feeling is about empathy, emotion, and intuition – it’s a toolbox. Seeing goes with feeling, and it’s about critical and systems thinking, as well as ethics – it’s a more rational and logical way of seeing the world. So, when you balance feeling and seeing, you have something pretty powerful because you can look at a challenge from two angles.”
“Learning is the opposable thumb of creativity because if you keep learning, there’s no stopping you.”
Marty continues, “dreaming can be thought of as applied imagination. There’s no class that is called ‘Imagination 101’, but there should be.” In the context of higher education, then, the metaskill of dreaming that unlocks unparalleled imagination should be granted more attention. If universities want to best equip their students for an evolving job market, then the skills they teach should have the ability to be translated into different industries, and open up the doors for greater innovation.
“In a growing world of automation, now is the time for individuals to evolve as humans and harness metaskills that technology cannot do…yet.”
Metaskills within the context of higher education
Whilst Marty’s fundamental five metaskills are not taught in the literal sense at universities, they still should be granted significant room to be practised. Institutions would never adapt to trying to teach students how to feel, for example, because this is such a personal skill that sometimes takes an individual’s whole life to perfect and harness. However, educators could teach students through a collaborative, project-based style that allows every student to contribute to something. The emotion of feeling would then come into play, as every individual feels as though they are part of something positive and able to solve a particular problem. This is surely more effective than traditional forms of assessment, such as essays, where students are taught to individually submit a piece of work – a silo mentality that is not representative of the real working world.
But, such changes in teaching, learning, and assessment will not happen overnight, particularly when higher education institutions have refined their current methods over several, if not more, years. The concept of teaching and learning metaskills may still even be a foreign concept for some who are supposed to be teaching the next generation of imaginations, innovators, and leaders.
Marty comments, “there’s a lot of smart people working at universities and they all have things to protect. There are some experiments taking place when it comes to new ways of teaching concerning feelings, seeing, dreaming, making, and learning, and so these areas of knowledge are becoming clearer to people. This will help us to avoid repeating the past. Students get really excited about these collaborative themes that can then be transferred to the real world.”
Unlocking original brands with metaskills
Marty told us that he first started exploring the applications of metaskills in relation to brand because no one really understood what brand meant. “Everyone thinks of a brand as advertising, or a corporate identity, and something really shallow. But brand goes so much deeper than this and is more akin to corporate strategy than it is to communications. Brand goes right to the heart of an organisation.”
“It’s much easier to tame a wild idea than to reanimate a dead one.”
In terms of building higher education brands, then, metaskills can be thought of as a way to differentiate and future proof creative work that stands the test of time. In one article by Marty, he states that, “if you don’t manage your brand with strategy and skill, your brand can easily turn against you. A brand is what customers say it is.” And this is what we’ve seen time and time again in the higher education landscape. In order to safeguard reputation, brand needs to run deep throughout the organisation and be constantly prioritising the students, faculty and staff. All it takes is for one negative perception of the brand to spiral, either internally or externally, and the university’s reputation will be tarnished.
With this new understanding of brand that utilises metaskills, professional services teams have the opportunity to build something fresh and innovative. “You have to be swimming upstream all the time back to originality”, explains Marty, “if you don’t know how to be original or use your imagination, then you’re not going to come up with very good ideas.”
After all, whilst you may overreach the possibilities of metaskills, “it’s much easier to tame a wild idea than to reanimate a dead one.” Senior leadership teams at universities must therefore not only promote teaching students with metaskills in mind, but also practise what they preach. If individuals are unable to shape a differentiated, relevant, higher education brand that attracts the best talent, then they are just going to end up doing the work that a machine will gladly take over. In a growing world of automation, now is the time for individuals to evolve as humans and harness metaskills that technology cannot do…yet.
If you’re interested in hearing more about metaskills and the importance of Marty’s work for the higher education sector, our Podcast episode can be streamed on Spotify and Apple now.
