Duncan Garner: Creative thinking needed to plan for the future of work

OPINION: Auckland leaders are debating the future of work today - whether we are learning the right things, attending the right courses, and keeping up with technology.

But, how do you plan for the future when know one really knows what it looks like?

It's a stab in the dark but it keeps people busy, justifies a few jobs. 

So often people want to just throw money at an issue and we consider it solved. 

Money won't solve everything, let's get creative in our thinking. The solutions are here already but we need to be prepared to change, how we do things and where we do things.

I reckon we've stopped building things with our kids and we need more problem-solving.

It's all done for you now. It's all about technology, apps, have we got lazy? 

We need to be creative - we will always need to construct things. We need builders, so why do girls schools still block the construction sector from entering the gates and promoting building as a career? 

If we're 20,000 builders short, why not really target our young women - the potential is untapped.

Are bosses really offering four-day weeks or flexible work hours? Do we all really need to be sitting in CBD offices? It would take cars off the road and we could save billions by not having to spend that on public transport and roads. 

Use the money to incentivise our companies to make those changes. I would argue, the public service and Government are too slow on this while the private sector is miles ahead. Andrew Barnes is one boss who promotes the four-day week, who else does it? 

If schools kept the kids 30 minutes a day longer then why not have a four-day school week - stagger the fifth day off across the different suburbs and communities. Again, it takes cars and buses off the road. 

No matter what the issue is we're trying to solve, we need to do more than throw money at problems. 

We need to get really creative - the climate will thank you, too. 

Humans are still top of the tree. We could do much more to not only embrace the future, but shape it. Leaders will you please step up.

Duncan Garner is host of The AM Show.