The ILO’s Global Youth Employment Forum 2019 ended with deliberations, key action plans, and thoughts that will contribute to the frameworks for today and tomorrow. Through  series of Tripartite fishbowl discussion, Keynote speeches, Roundtable sessions, Tripartite fireside chat panel discussion, and Panel dialogue that featured over 100 young representatives from government, trade unions, workers, employers’ organizations, and civic society organizations from over 60 countries across the world. 

In some of the topical issues, it was clearly marked that young people are anxious about the future of work and what will influence the future of work. The energies of young people, the potential of young people, and the voices of young people needed to be heard.  

In another submission, “Workers were duly recognized as the creators of wealth for the world”. Their input and ideas towards transformative processes needed to be regarded. 

Mr. Guy Ryder, ILO Director General, stated in an action statement during his opening speech that “we need to stop, think and take action”. We need to stop and look at the barriers that exist, the barriers that are impeding us from making progress towards decent jobs creation, do a reflections and brainstorm to come up with ideas and thoughts that will contribute toward achieving the sustainable development goal 8, and collaborate to take practical steps and actions that will ameliorate the effect of over 255 million young people who are unemployed; and over 136 million young people who are working in extremely hard, and  living in poverty. Of which, 60% of these statistics are from Africa.  

We explored innovative and emerging issues that are critical to key economies. With a definite call to action to create framework for enabling youth employment opportunities and enablers within the digital, green, lavender, blue and orange economies. We also engaged in an intergenerational dialogue, reflection, and commitment to champion the call for action from now to 2030. 

An open market for youth employment solutions was also Featured such that 17 selected Young Participants exhibited best practices, new ideas and broadcast recent achievements on youth Employability and Entrepreneurship. 

My work at Social Impact Africa was also selected to be Exhibited. I contributed by discussing key ideas that will reduce youth unemployment, foster partnerships, and prepare for the future of work in rural Nigeria through teaching basic Employability and Entrepreneurship Skills in both primary, secondary and tertiary schools as well as setting up innovation workspaces and hubs that will be devoted to quality R&D in youth unemployment solutions, build strategic partnership, synergy and support towards reducing the unemployment rate within Nigeria. 

There were areas of key action plan which I believe will be of great benefit towards defining the future of work. And they are: 

• Pro-employment: Discussion on microeconomic policies that will contribute to economic growth and development; 
• Investment in quality education and skills that are needed by youths and that will help them be relevant in the future.  
• Promoting youth Entrepreneurship and Employment Solutions.  
• Been respectful of the rights of young workers. 

I appreciate all the contributions and investment by United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development and in Partnership with International Labour Organization (ILO) towards promoting decent jobs and Economic growth in Africa and all across the world.

Some people wonder why they are not so good in writing. Some believe they aren’t cut out to be writers. Some are struggling with it, some have conquered, and some have given up. Anyway, I believe everybody is a writer, all that is needed is learning the tricks.

Writing is a skill, just like speaking, listening and reading. If you can speak, you can write. As it takes learning and practicing to develop other skills, so is it with writing. You can look up articles on developing writing skills from the internet and read them up, but I want to drop my two cents on the matter.

Creative writing is different from academic writing. To me, creative writing is using our experiences and the experiences of others in an invigorating way to pass on intended message(s). A creative writer is expected to be imaginative, captivating and unique, even if the write-up is not a fiction. This means that you need to let your mind make use of its creativity during this process.

Before you start writing, you need to bear the following in mind:

1. Motivation: The first thing you have to do is ask yourself why you need to write. You have to be motivated for you to be a writer. If not, you will lose interest along the line. Besides, motivation should be your driving force in everything you do, including writing. So ask yourself these questions: Do I want to write because I needed to inspire people? Do I want to write because I wanted to correct some societal norms? Do I want to write because it is an outlet for my emotions, opinions and ideas (that’s me here)? Do I want to write because it will bring in more income? Anyway, look deep down you and find the reason you really wanted to write and allow it to pull you through.

2. Choose a Stand: Here is where you decide on the area(s) you want to write on. Your decision here will affect everything about your writing – language, length, mood, style and so on. So, do you want to write on politics, religion, romance, marriage, business, ICT, health, crime, community development, philosophy …? There are so many of them. But I’ll advice that you choose what interests you and what you are conversant with.

3. Audience: Who are your intended readers? What are their interests? Do you think your work will capture those interests? You have to bear your intended readers in mind when you write. It will be wrong to write to medical practitioners about the latest inventions that help in language teaching. It will be wrong to write to teenagers on exotic places they can enjoy their retirements. It will also be out of place if farmers were told about robots that can carry out surgeries. Let your targeted readers decide your write-ups.

4. Communication Channel: What I meant here is where you plan to send your write-ups to. How do you intend to get your audience to read your works? Which outlet will your audience have access to? You can think of using any of the following – newspapers, periodicals, blogs, magazines, social media, flyers, pamphlets, and so on. Some platforms have length requirements, making a word count tool necessary.

5. Language Choice: The language and the language variety chosen depend on a lot of things – topic, audience, purpose and channel. If you plan to write to professionals, it will be proper to use related jargon. If you are writing to the man on the street, then use street language. If you want to write to a semi-literate, please simplify your language. If your intention is to make your audience laugh, go for comic terms. Are writing religious matters? Then, use religious register. Let your language be the forerunner of your message.

6. Style: By style I mean the narrative technique you plan to use – suspense, imagery, code-switching, flashback, symbolism, and so on. You need to develop your own style to make your work unique (try not to pick up another person’s own). For example, you can choose to present your works using stories, rhetorical questions, proverbs, code-switching, arguments, and so many others. Find a way to make your work unique and captivating.

7. Practice: The saying that practice makes perfect still holds. Writing skill needs constant sharpening and oiling to avoid it getting blunt and rusted. And, if you don’t write at least once a day, you are going to lose the zeal to write. So, form the habit of writing everyday. You can make it long or short depending on your unique style. The major thing is that you transfer what is in your mind into the paper. If you get stuck along the line, just take a break and get back to it later.

8. Choosing a Topic: Choosing a topic is not the same thing as choosing an area. Within the area you focused on, you have to choose what to write about. That is the topic. Sometimes, the topic we are to write on eludes us; you find yourself wondering what to write and nothing will come to you. What I usually do in situations like this is to meet with people for some conversations, hang out in places that interest me, or read posts on social media. Trust me, ideas will keep jumping out of every structure, interactions and comments you see or read.

9. Facing your Fears: Sometimes, or rather most times, we are afraid of how our write-ups will be received by the readers. We are afraid that no one will want to read them or that they will be criticized. We are also afraid of our grammatical errors being pointed out and our ideas being thought as shallow. The truth is that everybody is afraid of how their works will be accepted. No one can really say what the reactions to their works will be until they push them out. It is also good to know that there is no perfect work, and that your idea isn’t all encompassing even though it will add to existing knowledge. Besides, criticism helps us to develop. So, remember, fear is a normal thing. Just write it and send it out.

I will come back with another post on different stages and strategies of creative writing. But before then, draft something and get it ready for your audience.

Every New Year, most people come up with different goals to achieve for the year. Those goals might set due to lapses observed by each individual in a particular area. Consequently, the person thrives to seek improvement. It can be a financial ,spiritual, relationship or a personal development goal. 

Goals are set to be achieved not just for the pleasure of setting them. But most goals don’t get achieved due to one reason or the other. Reasons include lack of motivation to continue the goals, lack of focus, no solid plans, etc. One major driver in achieving a goal is motivation and it is also difficult to sustain. Building anticipation to achieve a set goal must be intentional.

Anticipation is the art of expectancy, having faith and assurance that a goal or a particular outcome would be achieved. Building anticipation is an art of building up motivation to achieve a particular result. Motivation helps us build and sustain the inner strength to accomplish a goal. Why most goals don’t get accomplished is lack of ability to sustain the motivation that initially started the goal. 

So, how can we build our anticipation to achieve our goals?

Step 1: Don’t start immediately

We are sometimes enticed to start a goal we lack motivation to achieve due to pressure we get from our peers and the society. For example a person may decide to set a goal to learn programming because of a friend who is a programmer is making a good amount of money from it. Starting immediately without the right source of motivation might hinder the goal from getting accomplished.

While building anticipation, you can set a future date – a month, a week, or a few days after the initial plan to carry out the goal. It all depends on you. And during the time of anticipation, begin to set out plans on how you are going to achieve that goal. During this period of anticipation, you will be able to discover whether you have the motivation to achieve that set goal.

Step 2: Anticipate challenges

“Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory .” ~ George S. Patton

Anticipating challenges set the mind in preparation for possible stumbling blocks that might hinder the success of a goal. Mohammed Ali anticipated his opponent’s next move and prepared for the next punch during training which helped him to know how to maneuver them. 

Source- Create a strong work Environment… by John Jenkins.

Step 3: Anticipate success

While anticipating, it is wise to anticipate success in whatever goal we want to accomplish. By anticipating success, we can be able to initiate and sustain the necessary motivation needed to achieve a positive outcome.

With the right source of motivation, all goals are possible to achieve. Build the right source of motivation through anticipation.

Every day of our life, as we move around, and interact with people, we conduct one form of negotiation or the other. Negotiation is such an integral part of our life that we have even failed to realize we are engaged in it on a continuum – while boarding a bus, while buying at the market, while speaking with our children, and while talking with our boss. Indeed, we negotiate every day long. But how can we master this art better? How can we become more artful? How can we ensure we get the maximum benefit from a deal? These and many more related questions are worth pondering on if we all agree that negotiation is an everyday art for us.

When negotiating a condition, the major mistake we make is over-fixation on ourselves, what can I get from this situation? How can I get 100% of my request? How can I get this deal for the least possible price? We ask these questions continually and it is the bane of bad deals.

What our focus should be on is a win-win situation. To get a win-win deal, we cannot afford not to have an answer for the unselfish painstaking question that all counterparties always ask: What’s In It For Me?

What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)?

If you are entering a negotiation arena without having the answer to this question, you have most likely lost your strength even before the beginning of the negotiation. For every deal, there must be something for all parties, and if something you highlighted is valuable enough to the counterparty, then you know what area of ‘weakness’ to harness for your benefit.

WIIFM works in two powerful ways while negotiating

1. If you are proposing/leading a deal, knowing what’s in it for the counterparty will help you in weighing your options if you are willing to offer the value or it will be a bad deal if you offer such value.
   • For example, Dave is willing to buy a plot of land from Jenny for N200k, a land which will ordinarily go for N120K. It behoves Jenny to answer the question, what’s in it for me Dave? Is he seeing something about the land that I can’t see yet? Is there a treasure hidden on the land? Are Dave’s ancestors buried on the land and Dave will pay any amount to make sure he gets the land? These and many more questions will help you to know what’s in it for me Dave and why he is ready to accept your offer. It can then inform your decision about closing the deal (if the piece of land is precious enough to Dave as to pay any amount) or cut the deal (if valuable treasures are hidden on the piece of land that is worth more than any amount Dave can pay).
2. If the other party is proposing the deal, it will be nice if you know what’s in it not just for yourself, but for the other party as well. While the other party might be proposing a juicy offer, you should understand that ‘it is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.’ This realization should push you to know what’s in it for such party beyond what’s written in black and white.
   • For example, Jenny is proposing to employ Dave for wages of N200k. If Dave considers this offer either too good to be true or too low to accept, then it behoves Dave to find the answer to the question, what’s in it for Jenny? What is the work culture like? Will Jenny take all my time and I won’t have time for other parts of my life? Does Jenny have a history of offering so much and defaulting? Does Jenny think lowly of my value to have offered such low wages? Answering these and many more questions will help you to understand why Jenny is offering so much or so little and in effect inform your decision.

You see the question WIIFM is a universal one, and it can remove a lot of hurdles and make negotiation position clear, if you are diligent and painstaking enough to find the answer(s) to the question.

Introducing BATNA – A Powerful Negotiation Tool

Whenever I talk about negotiation, another powerful tool I always like to mention is BATNA – Best Alternative To A Negotiated Agreement. While WIIFM will help you to remain critical about your negotiation, BATNA will help you know when it’s time to walk away, when it’s time to raise the bar, and more. Importantly, BATNA helps you to set a ‘price’ floor for your deal. 

How does BATNA work?

When you are about to negotiate a deal, more often than not, you tend to have more than one option. Say you can do any of the following: sell your car or continue using it, or give it to your sister or donate it to charity, or more. You see options abound with corresponding benefits. Of all these, your BATNA will be the one you derive maximum value from (say giving it to charity) before going to negotiate the next one (say selling the car). When you set your price for sale, the minimum you will be ready to accept must be either equal to the benefit you will derive from the next best alternative or more than it, nothing less.

Understanding this will help you to know what price the buyer will mention that will make you say “I will rather give this to charity than sell it to you,” and there lies your power. If you don’t know your BATNA before going to a negotiation table, you might end up with a bad deal for your car. 

If you enjoy reading this, I have also written a couple of Goodreads:

1. Becoming a victim of exposure
2. Balancing the need for internet privacy and human advancement