The Forgotten Art of Working with Our Hands: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
Hint: We’ll need human hands and the human touch in the mix for a long time
By Cyndi Coon and Shannon Mullen O’Keefe
Digital screens dominate our lives. For example, our smartphones are more often in our hands than in our pockets. If we’re not searching or engaging with apps there we’re probably scrolling on our social media feeds.
And if we’re not scrolling, chances are that we’re gazing at our computer screens on our desks.
Because these types of digital interactions have become our norm, it’s easy to forget the value and importance of hands-on work. Work that engages our bodies and minds. Work that requires our physical presence. Work that invites us to touch something in front of us.
Here is the deal, though. We shouldn’t forget that such work has real value. We shouldn’t minimize it at all.
This is because as we navigate through the complexities of the 21st century, the resurgence of craftsmanship and the tactile skills associated with working directly with our hands will be crucial for the future of our workforces. And because so many have their eyes on the development of technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how those skills will be needed, it might be easy to miss the other workforce trend.
The need for skilled workers — skilled trades.
The good ole’-fashioned hands-on work that we’ve always done, generation after generation, will continue to matter for a variety of significant reasons.
In fact, if you had to imagine a visual representation of what is coming in the future of work — you might imagine something like this: call to mind a gigantic funnel. On one side of the funnel is the ‘safe zone.’ Those with Artificial Intelligence or AI and AI-enhanced skills will reside in this safe zone. Their newfound AI abilities will carry them forward in the future of work. On the other side of the funnel — in another safe zone — -those with skilled trades. Their hands and abilities will still be in demand. However, those sitting right at the top of the funnel, riding the narrow rim, will be those with neither skilled trades nor AI-enhanced abilities.
They’re in danger of sliding right down through the funnel in the middle and out the other side — -to?
We’re not writing this article about those in the middle of the funnel though. Or where are they going? (That is an article for another day.) And we’re not writing about those on the safe-side in the AI-zone (we wrote about that in an earlier article.)
This article focuses on the need for skilled trades in the future and why they’ll matter (even more) in the future. This article is about why we think those with skilled trades will remain in the safe-zone for a long time.
Here are four reasons why skilled trades will matter more than ever in the future:
1. Sometimes hands-on or a human touch is better
Consider this: a recent article by The Guardian highlighted the profound impact of analog experiences on learning, revealing that children comprehend and retain information better when reading from paper compared to learning on screens. The thing is that we’re only just beginning to understand how some of the digital technologies affect our lives. This insight about learning serves as a powerful metaphor for our broader engagement with technologies including the workforce.
Digital solutions will continue to have a place. But, it may not be that digital solutions are always better. And maybe not all solutions can be digitized. Sometimes the human touch, quite literally, holds significant value.
Consider the recent case of retailers who, after a prolonged experiment with cashier-less checkouts, decided that perhaps it was better to man the registers with human beings. Why? Frustrated customers and “lost merchandise,” cited among the reasons why humans might make more sense.
Perhaps the research and our own experiences bear out something that we seem to intuitively know about ourselves. In spite of the shift towards cognitive skills and digital literacy in our knowledge-based economy there is a growing recognition of the limitations of screen-based work and the indispensable value of human — hands-on skills.
Our humanity trumps digital interfaces, sometimes.
2. Some professions won’t be replaced by robots or other forms of automation for a long time
Here is another reason we should keep the skilled trades in our line of sight. There are some jobs that we won’t be replacing with robots or automation soon. Consider plumbing, for example. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 2% growth in plumbing jobs from 2022 to 2032. A careers page reminds potential plumbers of the “essential nature of plumbing services.” Plumbing services, including the pipes and water systems associated with buildings and homes, will continue to be an essential part of human life. While technology is impacting the field, including advanced plumbing technology such as smart pipes that raise the alarm when there is a leak, or “tankless water heaters,” or “waterproof cameras’’, the plumber themself is still also needed and is necessary for the work. Some of this technology is helping to make the job of a plumber easier and safer, but the plumber, the human, will remain at the center of the work for now.
Here is another reason plumbers will matter to our future: plumbing will also serve a role in engaging new technologies to support a greening economy as systems shift to engage gray water solutions and other advances. So our plumbers are likely to be on the center stage as we develop enhanced capabilities to manage a nature-friendly plumbing approach in the future.
Thus, we shouldn’t expect the robot plumbers to fix our plumbing soon.
3. Maintenance matters
We may love to spend time in our digital worlds, but our real world needs attention too. The recent (significant and heartbreaking) mishap with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore called all of our eyes to the infrastructure that matters a great deal to our lives. The workers who lost their lives were repairing potholes and maintaining the road for the rest of us. Any one of us who has hit that sort of bump in the road notices the annoyance (but the damage it can cause to our vehicles is significant, too.)
The truth is that while it is exciting and inspiring to think about the future, our greatest legacy may often be in our opportunity to simply take care of what we have. The items around us that hold us up — -our bridges — — or that enable us to transport ourselves from one location to another.
Maintenance matters to our everyday lives in more ways than we may often give it credit for.
A recent article by NOEMA Magazine pointed out how important the “art of maintenance” is. In that article, “The Disappearing Art of Maintenance,’’ the authors remind us that the New York Subway system takes “a lot of work from a lot of people, day after day, year after year,” to maintain.
But of course, it takes even more people to take care of the aforementioned bridge, or our city roads, our freeway systems, our sidewalks, our pipes, our buildings, our cars. . .
You get the point.
Once we create something, we need to keep it up — — maintain it.
Here is another thought about our opportunity to embrace maintenance. Some thinkers project that as we shift our thinking from creating for a “disposable planet” to creating things for the long term, there will be more demand for maintenance and repair work. If our values shift, to create things to keep, by default we’ll need people to care for the things we want to keep.
Thus, someone will be needed to remain attentive to patching and polishing and repairing and maintaining what we create. In other words, if we want things to last, we’ll need to offer support and maintenance to keep them.
Thus, the robot bridge maintenance crew won’t be arriving any time soon.
4. Embracing our “humanness” matters to the quality of our lives
Last, perhaps there is something a little philosophical or even spiritual about work that is worthwhile mentioning here.
That is that there is something about hands-on work that engages our senses to promote a deeper connection with the task at hand, and ourselves as human beings. Of course, hands-on work, from plumbing, to pottery, to coding, and surgery, encompasses a wide range of activities — and skill levels, interests, and abilities.
But this type of work requires physical manipulation and interaction with materials — -including, sometimes us. Other human beings.
Consider nurses, for example.
So, this type of work engages multiple senses. And might not only promote a deeper connection with a task at hand, as aforementioned, but also invite the opportunity for a person to engage in and foster a unique form of problem-solving and creativity that cannot be replicated through any digital means currently available.
There are robots that give hugs — and they may feel real, but a real hug, from a real person, will seem to always feel real too?
This means that our ability to use our bodies may help us leverage our full human potential. And give of our human potential to other humans and to our society.
So, the argument to do more hands-on work isn’t just about nostalgia or resisting technological advancement; maybe there is something about work that is just about us “getting done” as humans. Engaging in work that requires us to manipulate, create, and repair things with our hands can lead to many benefits for all of society.
Thus, as leaders, we may need to take a stand to ensure that our own human development stays at the center of how we choose to mold our future of work decisions.
Implications: How to prepare the workforce of the future
Now that we’ve outlined what we see coming and why, let’s get specific about what to do now:
First, when envisioning the future workforce, it will remain crucial to integrate hands-on skills training alongside digital literacy. Let’s not let all the talk about AI overshadow how important our bodies and hands will remain to the work that we’ll need to do in the future.
This means honoring the work and then preparing individuals for a broader range of career options.
It will also mean keeping workers in skilled trades.
Next, there is an opportunity for us to engage all of our educational systems, from K-12 to higher education and vocational training in new ways. We might emphasize more than ever the importance of experiential learning. We might consider new ways in which to engage students in direct work with materials and tools and invite them to solve real-world problems and thrill in the joy of finding their solutions applied in the world.
Last, consider this recent Wall Street Journal article How Gen Z Is Becoming the Toolbelt Generation. It notes how America’s call for more plumbers is being heeded by Gen Z, marking a pivot in the labor landscape. The skilled trades, long suffering from a shortage of workers, are now enticing the nation’s youngest workforce. Escalating wages and the infusion of new technologies across various fields, including welding and machine tooling, are fueling this shift away from the traditional college trajectory towards more hands-on careers.
The good news is that businesses, institutions and organizations can play a significant role starting now, by fostering a culture that values and encourages hands-on activities and exercises. This means things like allocating time for employees to engage in physical projects to investing in maker spaces and opportunities for workshops.
Companies can unlock the creative potential for workforce disruptions that drive invention, starting now.
Conclusion: Embracing the Human Element
As we mentioned in the beginning. Digital screens dominate our lives.
In our world, our screens can pull us away from each other. But they also often bridge our connections. The coauthors of this article connected through screens to collaborate, for example. Our work on this article was possible because of the digital technologies we have — our work shows how digitally inspired work can also shine brightly through our hands.
But we can focus on the digital while overlooking an equally important aspect of our work lives.
The solid structures we stand on. The human-made infrastructure that underpins our lives. The healing touch in caregiving — these are the threads that weave together the fabric of our humanity.
Technology, for all its wonders, may never truly replicate the profound satisfaction and connection that comes from hands-on creation, or human touch. Or our ability to maintain and repair.
This means that by nurturing our manual skills, we will do more than just enrich our lives; we will forge a resilient future by enacting a strategy that is deeply rooted in the richness of lived human experience filled with opportunities for invention.
The art of working with our hands speaks to our shared heritage — a reminder that, amidst rapid progress, the feel of clay, the grain of wood, and the pulse of life through our fingertips are experiences that ground us.
In the future, we have an opportunity to value not just the efficiency of digital solutions but also the irreplaceable craftsmanship that comes from the human touch, that honors the wisdom of our ancestors and enriches the tapestry of our present. When we do this, we will craft a future that celebrates the fullness of all human potential.
The celebration of manual labor in this digital era grows our evolving understanding of progress. It’s not about regressing but advancing into a future where we recognize the incredible capacity of our hands to innovate, heal, build, repair and connect in ways no technology can mimic. By weaving together digital know-how with the richness of tactile skills, we envision a workforce that is not only versatile and continuously innovative but also profoundly human.
This balance ensures a future where progress is measured not just by technological advancements but by the depth of our human connections to the work we do and the world we inhabit.
Cyndi Coon is a time traveler and rule-bender, nerding out for good using data, science and curious questions as an Applied Experiential Futurist for enterprise, governments, higher education, industry, the military, and private partnerships. She is an Affiliate at the Center for Emergency Management & Homeland Security and is a Co-Chair of the Human Wisdom Committee IEEE Planet Positive Strong Sustainability by Design, she is the Chief Media Officer for Content Evolution. She leads the i4j (global innovation for jobs workforce), Coolabilities and Women in Web3 communities. She is the Founder and Principal Futurist at Applied Futures Lab, Founder at Laboratory5, Founder and Publisher at Turkey Hill Press and Co-Founder of the Threatcasting Lab and Press.
Shannon Mullen O’Keefe is Founder and Chief Curator of The Museum of Ideas, an organization that invites leaders, thinkers and everyday experts to express the ideas that will shape our better future. She is also a thinker, advisor and strategist dedicated to imagining what we can build and achieve together. She is a founding member of QCollective and co-author of a new book 10 Moral Questions: How to design tech and AI responsibly. She practiced the art of leadership for close to three decades, leading workplace engagement and culture change initiatives. She has served in leadership and executive roles in a global professional services firm and in a nature-based nonprofit organization. Find her leadership thinking on linkedin.
