WHAT ARE 21ST CENTURY COMPETENCIES?
In our age, where technological advances and transformations in human life have reached serious levels, it is no longer easy for corporate businesses to achieve sectoral success by catching up with the era. The existence of resources that almost every business has no difficulty in reaching, forces corporate businesses to differentiate and grow with innovative goals. At this point, the 21st century competencies that we encounter become an important part of planning at both the individual and corporate level. By combining technology with the expectations of the age, your application in businesses both puts you one step ahead of your competitors and takes you to an irresistible level at the point of in-house integration.
21st century competencies refer to a set of concepts that have been spoken about a lot in recent years, but which are difficult to implement in a functional sense. In this article, while explaining the 21st century competencies, we will also express the earnings to be obtained on the basis of the enterprise. The 21st century competencies, which are indispensable for technology and innovation, are as follows.
CRITICAL THINKING
The ability to think is something that has only been possessed by humans since the universe existed. However, the existence of more than 6 billion people in the world and the fact that every person can think makes thinking effective on its own. Critical thinking is the way businesses prefer to produce different solutions, especially with technological developments and a visionary perspective. Critical thinking, which is a very important value in problem solving and producing solutions, plays a very important role in the growth target of enterprises.
CREATIVITY
When this concept, which can also be used as productivity in Turkish, is considered only as generating a new idea, it is inevitable for businesses to have a static structure. As technology moves to a different dimension day by day, the duty of business owners and employees is to put forward new ideas in order to benefit from these developments at the maximum level. For a car manufacturer, saving fuel in diesel vehicles may be a good idea, but the idea of creating a water-powered car means significant progress has been made in 21st Century capabilities. Of course, one should not be a dreamer while trying to be creative.
STRONG COMMUNICATION
Communication is an issue that should be evaluated far beyond the conversation of employees with each other or spending time in business environments. Strengthening the workflow and working environment through continuous communication, thanks to technology-oriented tools, should be the most important goal. It is imperative that both employees and employers establish the necessary environment in order to ensure strong communication, which is the first issue that comes to mind when it comes to 21st century competencies.
MEDIA LITERACY
It is very important that you gain the ability to compete with your competitors by making your business visible in written and visual media tools. Especially in the 21st century, the fact that many marketing methods have been developed through social media necessitates a good analysis of the media for businesses. Considering that almost every successful business in its sector has a strong media team and marketing department, it is imperative that you create these teams for your business. Thus, by following the trends more closely, you can meet the expectations of your customers and partners much better.
FLEXIBILITY
Although developments and transformations come to mind when it comes to the 21st century, one of the first things that should be considered in terms of businesses is the capacity to adapt to changing conditions. With this concept, which will be expressed as flexibility in short, you should develop your company's reflexes against unexpected conditions and use your critical thinking skills to save your employees from being monotonous. Of course, flexibility, which is important at both the employee and employer level, plays a role in minimizing business losses as much as possible.
INITIATIVES
As much as profitability and growth are important for a business, it is so valuable to take new initiatives in order to be successful in the 21st century. Apart from the loss of value of ordinary brands in the eyes of customers, it will not be long-term to work in an institution that does not have a new strategy, plan and program from the personnel side. When the chance of success of an institution that does not make its personnel happy and is closed to innovations is evaluated, it can be said that initiatives will play a serious role in increasing this chance.
21st Century Competencies and Businesses
The primary purpose of every business, whether corporate or not, is to make a profit. But now that we are in the 21st century, besides making a profit, sustainability is also very valuable. Businesses that manage to use the above-mentioned competencies together make significant progress not only in terms of profit but also in terms of sustainability.