Special edition of the book for Online Educa

Books are frozen thoughts. That's why once in every so many months, I'm updating the book Homo Competens - Let's talk about competent people in the network age. There's a special edition out there now, made for the workshop I'm delivering at Online Educa the first of December. It has a new foreword, and three new sections. I'll post them here in the coming articles.

Here are the new sections in the foreword:

Congratulations, this book is about you!

This is a book for the competent people of today. It serves as both a conceptual handbook and a practical guidebook for those who are really good at what they do and who keep growing and finding ways to become even better. I call those people HoCos. A HoCo is not a dirty word. It is short for 'homo competens', and that is not an insult. That is Latin for 'competent person'. Are you a HoCo? I think you are. This book is for you.

...

Reading this book will give you the impression that the central word in the HoCo universe is 'self'. A HoCo is a self-reliant, self-steering, self-motivating, self-failing or self-succeeding person. Some people will hate this and consider it a threat to their current career development and life. Other people will embrace this new found freedom. But regardless of whether you like this responsibility or not, regardless of any emotion or preference, it is just a fact. It is a logical consequence of the network age we live in.

From talking to people about the HoCo concept I either get responses indicating fear of this change, or joy for the liberation and self-reliance. Both are irrelevant really. The shift from 'the system' or 'the employer' taking the most responsibility for your development to you taking more care of your own success (or failure) is just logical in the network age. Fear or joy don't really matter. Facing newly shaped realities does.