Future of Work and Wealth for Historically Excluded Populations

Sieberg: We're on location at the 2024 Skills Summit in Washington D.C. discussing efforts to upskill America's workers to support economic mobility and the evolving employment landscape where the need for digital skills will continue to grow. Hello, I'm Daniel Sieberg and this is "Getting Connected," powered by Comcast Newsmakers. Joining me now is Michael O'Bryan. He is a distinguished resident fellow with the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University. Michael, thank you so much for being here.

O’Bryan: Thank you for having me.

Sieberg: Michael, you lead the Wealth and Work Futures Lab at the Lindy Institute. Tell us about the work you do there.

O’Bryan: Yeah. So, the Wealth and Work Futures Lab is a startup lab. It's a speculative design and policy center focused on the futures of work and wealth for historically excluded populations. We look at historical exclusion through the lens of policy and cultural practice. How have people of a variety of identities and makeups been excluded from participating in the labor market or participating in wealth building and asset building activities since the beginning of the country. And, so, we're curious about what opportunities in the future, including right now as we're building into the future, right, could be made possible for folks to really widen opportunity and close the economic gaps in the country.

Sieberg: Now, tell us about the connection you see in the work that you do between the barriers to wealth and the work that people want to do or need to do.

O’Bryan: Yeah. So, for a lot of Americans, their opportunity to start seeding and creating wealth is going to come through a job, something like a 401(k), it's going to come through tuition remission opportunities to help them get to the next spot in terms of like earnings and the learning needed for that. So, a lot of what we try to do is help employers and public policy folks and folks involved in talent development, workforce development really be thoughtful about how we got to where we're at with an uneven playing field as it relates to opportunity and what can we be doing right now to change these trajectories away from where they're going. Right? We know, in Philly, it's the largest, poorest big city in America. What's it like to set a goal that by 2040 Philly is the most opportunity-rich city in America for all folks, Black, white, Asian, it doesn't matter?

Sieberg: And what is the impact you're already having on some of those communities?

O’Bryan: Yeah. So, a lot of what we're seeing happen is this awakening, if you will, to the realities of the interconnectedness of being a human being, right, that at the core, who you are as a physiological being, as a psychological being, like all these things are interconnected and your learning is taking place in all that context. Learning is physiological as much as it is psychological and we're all interacting with each other. And, so, employers are having to be thoughtful now about, whoa, what's the environment I'm creating for my current employees to even learn these new skills rapidly, quickly and then apply them. That's a lot of pressure. And brains don't tend to do that well under stress. They can. But not in stress that's lasting for periods over 20 minutes. That's my public health nerdy self coming out. But you've got to be thoughtful about the environments you're creating for learning, whether they're in the job, at a school, at a university, on the street, you know, wherever you're learning. Stress and learning have a healthy relationship, but we're kind of overloading on the unhealthy part of stress. And I see a lot of employers learning that.

Sieberg: And what could employers learn nationally from the work that you're doing in Philadelphia?

O’Bryan: Yeah. I think one of the things that employers could take away is the need to understand that learning -- upskilling and reskilling are learning-based activities and that learning is a byproduct of the fact that humans have a complex memory system. It's not the other way around. Right? And, so, this is why understanding like how do humans best work, how do they best thrive, how do we recover. Right? All of that information is going to help you better attune to creating learning environments for the people that are coming through the door.

Sieberg: Michael O'Bryan of the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University. Thank you so much for being here.

O’Bryan: Thank you.

Sieberg: And thanks to you as well for watching. For more conversations about digital equity and broadband expansion, visit gettingconnected.com. I'm Daniel Sieberg.