Future of Work, Skills & Learning
Heather McGowan
Future-of-Work Strategic Consultant & Speaker
Through her think-tank Work to Learn , future-of-work strategist Heather E. McGowan helps leaders prepare their people, organizations and business models for our VUCA world and the Fourth Industrial Revolution - notable for the rapid advancement of technology tools into the domain of human knowledge work. In this world of concurrent accelerating disruptive cycles, humans must continuously learn and adapt as traditional jobs frameworks rapidly become obsolete.
McGowan believes the global pandemic has accelerated our progress towards the future of work and is ushering in the Human Capital Era. She predicts that investing in human potential during this era will deliver the greatest opportunity for return on investment.
Ranked by BIG SPEAK among the top 10 Female Speakers of 2021, Heather is in high demand as a virtual and keynote speaker and thought leader on the future of work and the future of learning. Her illuminating graphic frameworks and powerful metaphors, backed by deep research help audiences from start-ups to government, universities to Fortune 500 companies anticipate the urgency and pathways for change. In 2017, LinkedIn ranked her as its number one global voice for education.
Heather’s academic work has included roles at Rhode Island School of Design, Becker College, and Jefferson University, where she was the strategic architect of the first undergraduate college focused exclusively on innovation. In 2019 Heather was appointed as a faculty member of the Swinburne University Centre For the New Workforce in Melbourne, Australia.
McGowan’s latest book on the future of work, published in 2020: The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work reached number three in business management books on Amazon and was named one of the best business books of 2021 by Soundview.
She is also the co-editor and author of the book Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate and her thought leadership pieces appear in Forbes where she is a regular contributor.
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Through her think-tank Work to Learn , future-of-work strategist Heather E. McGowan helps leaders prepare their people, organizations and business models for our VUCA world and the Fourth Industrial Revolution - notable for the rapid advancement of technology tools into the domain of human knowledge work. In this world of concurrent accelerating disruptive cycles, humans must continuously learn and adapt as traditional jobs frameworks rapidly become obsolete.
McGowan believes the global pandemic has accelerated our progress towards the future of work and is ushering in the Human Capital Era. She predicts that investing in human potential during this era will deliver the greatest opportunity for return on investment.
Ranked by BIG SPEAK among the top 10 Female Speakers of 2021, Heather is in high demand as a virtual and keynote speaker and thought leader on the future of work and the future of learning. Her illuminating graphic frameworks and powerful metaphors, backed by deep research help audiences from start-ups to government, universities to Fortune 500 companies anticipate the urgency and pathways for change. In 2017, LinkedIn ranked her as its number one global voice for education.
Heather’s academic work has included roles at Rhode Island School of Design, Becker College, and Jefferson University, where she was the strategic architect of the first undergraduate college focused exclusively on innovation. In 2019 Heather was appointed as a faculty member of the Swinburne University Centre For the New Workforce in Melbourne, Australia.
McGowan’s latest book on the future of work, published in 2020: The Adaptation Advantage: Let Go, Learn Fast, and Thrive in the Future of Work reached number three in business management books on Amazon and was named one of the best business books of 2021 by Soundview.
She is also the co-editor and author of the book Disrupt Together: How Teams Consistently Innovate and her thought leadership pieces appear in Forbes where she is a regular contributor.
