"For my parents, the typical career trajectory was like a steamship's. For my generation, the course was more like a sailboat's.
But today's graduates need to be more like whitewater kayakers, quickly analyzing and responding to an ever-changing flow, knowing and trusting themselves so they won't panic.
They're on their own on that river. But before they push off from shore we must help them more."
John Seely Brown nailed it.
In 📚 Tomorrowmind, Gabriella Rosen Kellerman and Martin Seligman call this our new reality: the Whitewater World of Work.
Here's what's changed: Skills that used to stay relevant for 15 years now become outdated in as little as 18 months thanks to AI.
Your team isn't imagining the anxiety—the pace of change really is overwhelming.
The Reality Check Nobody Talks About
Humans didn't evolve for the level of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity we experience constantly now.
The idea that your coding language, marketing approach, or even HR knowledge could be fundamentally different in 18 months? That's not natural to us.
So if your team feels anxious about staying relevant, that's completely normal. Don't dismiss it as "resistance to change."
But as HR, finance, and business leaders, we can't just normalize the struggle—we need to equip people for the rapids.
The PRISM Framework: Building Whitewater Skills
Kellerman and Seligman's research identifies five core capabilities that help people thrive in rapid change environments: PRISM (Prospection, Resilience, Innovation, Social Connection, and Mattering).
🔮 Prospection (Future-Thinking)
Imagining and planning for the future so that you feel ready to face whatever comes your way.
What this looks like:
- Create quarterly "skills forecasting" sessions where teams discuss what capabilities they'll need in 12-18 months
- Subscribe to 2-3 industry newsletters and discuss trends in team meetings
- Ask in 1:1s: "What skills do you want to be known for in two years?"
Template conversation starter: "Based on what we're seeing in our industry, what new capabilities should we be building as a team? What would you want to learn if you had 2 hours/week to dedicate to it?"
💪 Resilience
Building the internal capacity to grow stronger through adversity, by cultivating self-regulation, optimism, and self-efficacy.
Practical implementation: When rolling out new AI tools, focus on building people's belief in their ability to learn and master them, rather than just training on the tools themselves.
Start with small enough tasks that your team can succeed, then tackle increasingly larger tasks with confidence. As a wise dog trainer once told me: "Your dog is learning whatever he is doing most often in response to the command you're giving him." In other words, if we're constantly failing at tasks beyond our skillset, failure is becoming our default mode. And that's no fun for anyone.
(And yes, I do know humans aren't dogs. It was still enough of an "aha" moment for me with relevance to how I work that I thought I'd include it.)
💡 Innovation and Creativity
Generating novel, surprising, and useful solutions to problems.
What this looks like:
- Implement "5% time" or monthly "Innovation Fridays" where people can explore new tools or approaches
- Budget for "learning licenses"—software subscriptions for employees to try new tools
Budget allocation: Consider dedicating 5-10% of your L&D budget to individual exploration rather than formal training.
🤝 Social Connection: Connecting with and deriving support from other people, especially over short periods of time in a work context where average tenure in many industries is now <3 years.
What this looks like:
- Maintain budget for in-person experiences like retreats and conferences
- Create "learning pods" of 3-4 people who share new discoveries monthly
- Resist the urge to eliminate all "non-essential" social touch points
🎯 Mattering and meaning
Knowing your contribution matters and contributes to some form of social good or personal purpose.
What this looks like:
- Connect individual tasks to business outcomes at least quarterly
- Create "customer love" channels where positive feedback gets shared company-wide
- Start or end team meetings with "Here's how this week's work impacts [customer/mission/vision]."
⚖️ Common Tensions in Whitewater Navigation
Here are the trade-offs you'll face when helping teams navigate rapid change:
→ Deep Expertise vs. Broad Skills People want to become experts, but skills become obsolete quickly. Help individuals develop "T-shaped" capabilities—deep in one area, broad in several others.
→ Innovation vs. Execution Experimentation feels good, but customers need results. Use the "70-20-10" rule: 70% proven approaches, 20% improvement on existing methods, 10% completely new experiments.
→ Individual Growth vs. Team Cohesion Fast-changing skills mean people want different learning paths, but teams need shared capabilities. Create individual development plans within team skill clusters.
📌 The Four-T Playbook: Tip, Trick, Tactic, or Template
Every edition, I’ll share a proven insight to help you scale faster, smarter, and more efficiently.
👉 Template: The Whitewater Skills Assessment
Use this quarterly check-in with each team member:
- Prospection: What trends are you tracking in your field? What skills do you think will be essential in 18 months?
- Resilience: Tell me about a recent setback. How quickly were you able to pivot? What helped you bounce back?
- Innovation: What's one new tool, approach, or method you've experimented with recently? What did you learn?
- Social Connection: Who are your go-to people when you're facing a new challenge? How are you maintaining relationships despite busy schedules?
- Mattering: How does your current work connect to our customers/mission? When did you last see direct evidence of your impact?
Use their responses to identify development opportunities and potential areas of concern.
Final thoughts:
The whitewater isn't going to slow down. AI isn't the last wave of change—it's one of many coming.
Don't try to eliminate the discomfort of constant change. That's impossible and dishonest. Instead, help people build capacity to thrive within uncertainty.
I've seen companies promise "stability" they can't deliver, which only increases anxiety when the next wave hits.
The goal isn't to slow down the river—it's to help your people become better kayakers.
What's the one PRISM skill your team needs to develop most? Hit reply and let me know—I read every response.
Until next time,
Melissa
