The Platinum Workforce - by Trond Arne Undheim (Hardcover)

About the Book

Discover the skills required in the 21st-century workplace and learn how to train and hire for these skills so you can succeed as technology, nature, and society evolves. This groundbreaking book reveals the trends that will dramatically change colleges and workplaces across the world in the coming decade.

Book Synopsis

Argues that the rapid rise of artificial intelligence and other pressing global challenges necessitate a fundamental reset in skills, career paths, and leadership approaches to prepare workers for the evolving workplace of the 21st century

The career path you prepared for no longer exists. AI is reshaping work faster than schools can update curricula or employers can retrain staff. Whether you are a student choosing a major, a professional facing disruption, a parent guiding your child's future, or an executive rethinking talent strategy, the same question now drives every decision: What skills truly matter in an age of intelligent machines?

The Platinum Workforce delivers a practical, research-backed answer. Drawing on a decade of work across MIT, Stanford, Fortune 500 firms, and more than 1,500 startups, futurist Trond Arne Undheim introduces Human+, a unified capability model built for an economy defined by rapid technological and social change. Human+ brings together twelve essential skills that determine who adapts, who thrives, and who leads in the new industrial era.

The Human+ skill set includes:

Human-AI collaboration - working productively with intelligent systems
Interoperability mindset - adapting across tools, teams, and technologies
Systems thinking - understanding complexity without losing the plot
Risk aptitude - navigating cascading hazards and volatile environments
Psycho-resilience - staying steady under continuous change
Eco-awareness - integrating sustainability into daily decisions
Maker skills - hands-on technical fluency in a digital world
Mediation skills - bridging human and machine decision-making
Megascale operations - executing effectively at enterprise or global scale
Mobility - moving fluidly across industries, roles, and contexts
R&D hacks - accelerating innovation without bureaucratic drag
Sociotechnical finesse - understanding the human side of technology
Whether you are building a future-proof workforce, navigating your own career path, entering a shifting job market, or preparing the next generation, Human+ provides the blueprint. This is the skill reset the 21st-century economy demands.

Review Quotes

"Dr. Undheim's timely and creative book, Platinum Workforce, tackles one of the most critical existential questions of our time: how work will be performed, organized--or whether it will exist in familiar forms. This is a bold and necessary contribution to the future-of-work dialogue." -- Avanish Sahai, Stanford DCI Fellow, Investor, and Advisor

"Trond Undheim understands that talent--not just tools--defines the future of enterprise. Platinum Workforce is a timely, tech-literate manifesto for building adaptive, AI-ready organizations without losing sight of human creativity." -- Sanjay Manandhar, CEO & Co-founder, Zifino, serial Tech Founder, Board Director, MIT alum

"Undheim offers thoughtful insights on technological evolution alongside actionable strategies, providing organizations with a valuable roadmap to navigate workforce transformation in our rapidly changing world." -- Dr. David A. Bray, Distinguished Fellow & Chair of the Accelerator, Stimson Center & CEO, LeadDoAdapt Ventures, Inc.

"Undheim tackles the critical issue of preserving human agency in the age of AI, providing organizations with strategies to empower their workforce while leveraging technological advancements." -- Mark Minevich, Author, Forbes Columnist, Strategic Partner at Mayfield Venture Capital, Chairman, Going Global Ventures.

"Undheim doesn't just predict the future of work--he engineers it. The Platinum Workforce is a masterful guide for forward-thinking leaders who see digital disruption not as a threat, but as a platform for reinvention."-- Truls Berg, Founder, Open Innovation Lab of Norway.

About the Author

Trond Arne Undheim is a futurist, scholar, speaker, podcaster, venture partner, and entrepreneur based in the United States. He has worked at Stanford, MIT, WPP, Oracle, and the European Union. He holds a PhD on the future of work and artificial intelligence and has authored seven books.