What Matters Most Is How You Behave When Things Get Messy

Photo licensed from Adobe Stock.

Text: Essi Ryymin

We’ve been describing the skills of the future over a decade. Analyses, frameworks, future visions, policies, heat maps, the lot. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 does it again, mapping the roles that are growing and the skills they’ll demand. Helpful? Yes. Sufficient? Not anymore. The messy is now the new normal of working life and the only way through it is to finally live the skills we keep talking about.

Skills instability is structural 

Roles are remixing faster than job architectures can keep up. Burning Glass Institute’s research shows skill profiles inside roles are churning. New skills rise, others fade, and the half-life of what you “know” keeps shrinking. This is a standing feature of modern work. The peaceful moment after an occasional rush is not coming anymore. The new normal, messy is like gravity, not weather.

The World Economic Forum’s outlook backs this up at a macro scale. Tech and green transitions are rearranging demand across entire occupations, while skills gaps sit among the top barriers to transformation. What does this mean in practice? Your job is less a noun and more a verb, a moving one.

Human-centered skills are the fastest-rising

Yes, AI skills are hot. But the most durable advantage is surprisingly analog, meaning, how you relate, frame, and decide. LinkedIn’s recent data, reported by Axios,  puts communication at the top of employer demand, again, while leadership, collaboration, and adaptability remain perennial chart-toppers. The more tech pervades workflows, the more those human interfaces matter.

OECD’s latest synthesis adds rigor. It reveals that social and emotional skills reliably predict labor-market outcomes and well-being, not just grades. In other words, being able to read the room, regulate your reactions, and build trust has measurable career ROI.

GenAI isn't closing gaps but accelerating them

Generative AI acts as a force multiplier, especially for people and teams who are ready to learn and adapt. McKinsey’s 2025 AI survey shows that more organisations are using AI, but many still struggle to use it effectively. The companies that get the most value from AI are strong in areas like strategy, leadership, and new work methods. When these areas are weak, AI tends to increase the performance gap between teams and companies.

In the job market, AI is spreading faster than many workers can reskill, which is causing both excitement and worry about jobs. Policy experts and business leaders are now more open about how disruptive AI can be, especially for people starting their careers. This does not mean humans are out of the picture, instead, it makes uniquely human skills even more valuable in stressful times

Success at work is no longer about what you know, but about how you respond when the situation gets messy

However, ambiguity, well-being, and productivity in the workplace are shaped by continuous development. When stakes are high, and situations become unclear or emotionally charged, employers prioritise how employees respond under pressure over “by textbook” solutions. In critical moments, it is not just knowledge, but four key behaviours that enable workplace communities to navigate challenges: 1) Making sense of ambiguity, 2) taking others’ perspectives, 3) regulating emotions, and 4) creating psychological safety, trust, that encourages honesty.

Let’s look more closely at supporting scientific research:

• First, sensemaking is the ability to interpret complex, unclear situations by constructing coherent explanations, identifying possible options and tradeoffs, and selecting a path forward despite incomplete information.
• Next, perspective-taking is the skill of understanding and clearly expressing an opposing point of view, and using that insight to help guide a group. This is not just about being pleasant, but about reducing political friction and improving collective outcomes.
• Additionally, emotion regulation is the ability to maintain curiosity, composure, and openness when facing challenges or criticism, rather than reacting defensively or emotionally.
• Finally, fostering psychological safety is about making sure everyone feels comfortable raising concerns, giving honest feedback, and speaking up without worrying about negative consequences. When people feel safe, it supports their well-being and helps the team perform, innovate, and learn better.
  
  

These capabilities are difficult to replicate, automate, or scale in the absence of a shared cultural commitment. Developing these skills requires a collective sharing within the workplace community. They cannot be cultivated in isolation or assigned to individuals alone.

Smart tools to start practicing with 

But as smart species that we are, we can harness our technology to develop these skills is us. Have you heard for instance about Cyborgs?
It's an awarded Estonian innovation that focuses on rehearsing behaviour in complex, messy work situations, rather than just teaching knowledge. There are plenty of similar applications and platforms (behaviour-first, scenario-based) to practice the skills. See the list of some examples here:

Cyborgs

• Provides realistic, story-driven workplace simulations that help teams build key competencies and soft skills in dynamic, unpredictable environments. 
• Uses interactive scenarios that feel like an escape room challenge — teams must deliver a complex project under tight deadlines to a demanding client. 
• Widely used for developing teamwork, communication, problem solving, and adaptability in professional settings. 
• Focus: behaviour and collaboration under social pressure in workplace-like situations.
  🔗 https://cyborgs.work  

Sopu Academy

• Offers negotiation training designed to help individuals and teams build practical skills for influencing outcomes and reaching agreements in real-world contexts.
• Uses structured modules and scenario-based exercises that focus on strategy, communication, and effective bargaining techniques.
• Widely used by professionals seeking to improve negotiation confidence, conflict resolution skills, and decision-making in both workplace and everyday situations.
• Focus: developing negotiation mindset and interpersonal influence through guided practice and frameworks.
• 🔗 https://sopuacademy.com

 
Kialo

• Provides a structured debate and discussion platform that helps users strengthen critical thinking, sense-making, and reasoned communication.
• Uses visual argument mapping to break down complex topics into clear positions and supporting reasons, encouraging thoughtful dialogue and analysis.
• Widely used in educational, professional, and community settings to enhance clarity of thought, civil discourse, and collaborative sense-making.
• Focus: refining reasoning skills and understanding multiple perspectives through structured argumentation.
• 🔗 https://www.kialo.com

Mursion

• Utilises AI-driven avatars paired with live facilitators to recreate realistic leadership, feedback, and conflict situations.
• Enables participants to practice challenging interpersonal interactions in a safe, controlled environment.
• Widely used in leadership development and professional training—including education and corporate contexts.
• Focus: behavior and communication under social pressure in high-stakes scenarios.
• 🔗 https://www.mursion.com/

Finally, what should then be the first practical thing to do when things get messy? As one wise man once said, “Keep calm and carry on.” That advice is still just as relevant today.

Note: This text uses Google Scholar, a search engine for scientific publications, to find sources and artificial intelligence to analyse and summarise research results (SciSpace, Scholar GPT). It also uses Grammarly for language proofreading. 

#behaviour #socialskills #socialpressure #rapidtransformation #newwork #changeatwork #scenariobasedapplications #futureskills #AI

Tiivistelmä suomeksi: 

Eniten merkitsee se, miten käyttäydyt, kun tilanne mutkistuu

Nopeasti muuttuva työelämä saattaa tuntua toisinaan kuin jatkuvalta ja ennakoimattomasti etenevältä remontilta. Seinät liikkuvat, kahvihuone löytyy milloin mistäkin, ja kytkimestä, josta viimeksi sytytettiin valot, nyt ne sammutetaan. Roolit ja osaamisvaatimukset muuttuvat nopeammin kuin strategiakalvot. Listat tulevaisuuden taidoista eivät enää riitä. Nyt tarvitaan niiden jokapäiväistä toimeenpanoa. 

Tutkimukset kertovat samaa viestiä eri suunnista, osaamisvaatimukset ovat alituisessa liikkeessä. Työ ei ole enää titteli, vaan jatkuvasti kehitteillä oleva tapa tehdä ja oppia. Kestävimmät taidot ovat yhä inhimillisiä. Viestintä, yhteistyö, sopeutumiskyky ja kyky lukea tilanteita ja ihmisiä vaikuttavat suoraan sekä työn tuloksellisuuteen että hyvinvointiin.

Odotamme ja saamme paljon apua generatiiviselta tekoälyltä, mutta se ei välttämättä tasoita työpaikkojen kyvykkyyseroja. Eniten tekoälystä  nimittäin hyötyvät ne organisaatiot, joilla on jo valmiiksi selkeä suunta, toimiva johtaminen, järkevät työtavat ja päivittyvä tiekartta tulevaisuuteen. Tai edes ääneen lausuttu tavoite kehittää niitä tosimielellä. Jos perusta on heikko, myös älykäs kehittäminen rakentuu savijaloille.

Jatkuvassa muutoksessa hyväkin työ hässäköityy monista työntekijästä riippumattomista tekijöistä. Monet tutkijat uumoilevatkin, että ratkaisevaa sekä työn tulokselle että hyvinvoinnillemme on se, miten toimimme, kun tilanne muuttuu sekavaksi. Osaavatko työyhteisöt jäsentää epävarmuutta, ymmärtää erilaisia näkökulmia, säädellä reaktioitaan ja luoda ilmapiiriä, jossa voi puhua avoimesti? (Ei kai kukaan enää tosissaan ehdota rakenteellisiin haasteisiin lisää syväkyykkyjä?)

Kyseessä ovat nyt sellaiset tiheäsyiset ja kulttuuriin kutoutuneet osaamiset, joita on vaikeaa simuloida, replikoida, automatisoida tai kehittää ilman samaa ilman hengittävien ihmisten yhteistä ja tietoista ponnistelua. Älykkäänä lajina voimme kuitenkin valjastaa nerokkaat tukiälymme ja teknologiamme auttamaan meitä näidenkin taitojen harjottelussa. Kokosin ylemmäs listaa mielenkiintoisista ohjelmista, jotka vaikuttavat potentiaalisilta. 

Kannattaa vilkaista uusin tulokas, virolainen innovaatio Cyborgs. Olin juuri tapahtumassa, jossa yksi softan kehittelijöistä esitteli sitä sanoilla: "Hyvä yleisö, tarvitsette tätä, jos olette ikinä olleet töissänne siinä pisteessä, että olette halunneet [noh, eräs kohtalaisen väkivaltainen verbi] jotakuta". Asiantuntijoista täyttynyt yleisö naurahteli vaivautuneesti, mutta nyökkäili.

Huomio: Tämän tekstin lähdehaussa on käytetty Google Scholaria, ja lähteiden tutkimustulosten analysoinnissa sekä tiivistämisessä on hyödynnetty tekoälyä (SciSpace, Scholar GPT). Englanninkielisen version oikolukuun on käytetty Grammarlya. Härmä on jälleen kerran mitä on. 

#sosiaalisettaidot #työelämä #muutos #tekoäly #hyvinvointi #osaaminen #tulevaisuudenosaamiset #jatkuvamurros #tutkimusjatyö