Motor City Magic: Lessons from ShiftLabs Detroit

Detroit knows a thing or two about rising to a challenge. From the city’s heroic contributions during World War II, to recent progress in recovery from the Great Recession and the decade-plus of decline that preceded it, Detroiters know what it feels like to face an enormous challenge and ask: So, what are we going to do?

That attitude might explain why last month, when New America convened a planning session on the future of work in Detroit, we found rooms full of city leaders—from nonprofit, business, government and more—revved up and ready to go.

Detroit isn’t alone in preparing for the challenges posed by advancements in automation, artificial intelligence, and other emerging technologies. In the Detroit metro area, the breakdown of jobs at risk of automation hews closely to the national picture. In 2017, 652,850 people in the Detroit metro area worked in jobs that are at high risk of automation. (This doesn’t mean that a particular job will definitely be eliminated; it means that most of the tasks required for that role could be automated with existing technology, so it’s at-risk for elimination or significant change). That translates to about 35% of jobs at high risk in the Detroit area, or one in three jobs, which matches the national average. Detroit fares a tiny bit better than the national average in percentage of jobs at medium risk (27% for Detroit vs 28% nationally) and jobs at low risk of automation (38% in Detroit vs 37% nationally).

The good news is that while the story of jobs at risk locally matches the national story, much of the crucial innovation, energy, and community knowledge required to confront this challenge is already present in Detroit. Bringing city-specific data, New America’s ShiftLabs, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, ran an afternoon design session around the future of work in Detroit, leading the room to the question so familiar to Detroiters: How do we adapt?

The attendees offered several useful insights to guide Detroit as it prepares for the challenges and opportunities posed by automation. Here are three we’d like to share:

1. Know what you’ve got. Detroit has more key resources available to those seeking opportunities than most people know. In one activity, participants brainstormed a specific future path to success for a hypothetical Detroiter. Throughout the exercise, participants brought up innovative programs they knew of already operating in Detroit that could make an enormous difference in this hypothetical person’s life, if only they knew about it, and if colleagues across sectors knew to point this person towards the resource. That kind of knowledge often lives in highly specialized programs. How can Detroit better map and connect opportunity-seekers to key assets that already exist?
   
2. Individual ingenuity is critical. While key resources can be pivotal, they aren't always enough. One way in which the future of the work differs from much of what has come before is that far more of the burden for success will likely fall on the individual. (Consider the motivation and effort it will take to hone, market, and sell a skill in a nontraditional and less predictable economy.) Increasingly, that ability to self-motivate will be an key ingredient for success in continuing to connect to opportunity in a dynamic economy. How can we sustainably inspire and support Detroiters in a future that will demand so much more individual initiative to thrive? Recognizing the potential difficulty of motivating individuals, what would it look like to meet people where they are and harness their existing passions?
3. The future of work won't happen in a vacuum. It will collide with other powerful forces, from health crises to racial divides to political movements. In scenario planning exercises, ShiftLabs participants traced the trajectory of a hypothetical Detroiter’s path from today to 2030. Invariably, each group encountered a mix of factors that affect an individual’s chances for success. Thoughtfully preparing for the future of work means recognizing roiling changes in other areas of society and understanding how these other factors are highly relevant to future-planning in every sector.

As our work in Detroit continues, we’d like to partner with inventive thinkers throughout the city to create and support the following opportunities: entrepreneurship meet-ups where people with an idea can talk to experts in monetizing ideas; a library of examples of Detroiters who have found ways to generate income from an unusual skill or interest; and new ways to connect workers to the support services and financial stability that allow them to take risks in gaining more knowledge or education. Most of all we’d like to harness and share with the rest of the country Detroit’s unique brand of hope. As one ShiftLabs participant so eloquently put it, “The auto industry once made a reality the idea that any American who wanted one could have a job…We believe Detroit can make real the idea that any American can have meaningful work.”

If you’d like to be a part of these conversations in the Motor City, or contribute new suggestions, please follow the conversation on Twitter at #ShiftLabs, sign-up for the e-newsletter, or submit comments to: sharp@shiftcommission.work. Thank you!