The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in the Age of Longevity

"The 100-Year Life" explores the impact of longevity on all these areas and offers solutions to the challenges a longer life can bring. It encourages readers to take responsibility for their futures, and to plan thoughtfully and realistically. From saving for retirement, to developing new skills, to staying fit, the authors help readers create a productive, well-resourced and healthy life.

So who's this book for? It's for anyone who wants to embrace the prospect of a longer life and see it as a gift, rather than an ordeal. We think it'll appeal most to those around mid-life who are already wondering, if not worrying, about their futures. But if you're young and forward-looking, or older but still able to influence your life's trajectory, you'll find some great tips in this book.

It's also useful for managers and human resources professionals who want to meet the changing needs of their people, so that they stay on board. Finally, policymakers will get a great deal from this book, as they work out how to manage the changing nature of how people live and work, from coping with an elderly population, to multi-age education, to the growing demand for flexible working.

The authors are academics and this book does contain a fair amount of jargon and management speak, along with statistics, graphs and charts. It's not a quick or easy read but, if you're ready for a reality check and have the time and space to take all the information in, then this book's for you.

Lynda Gratton is professor of management at the London Business School, where she teaches a class on the future of work and directs an executive program on human resource strategy. She's a fellow of the World Economic Forum.

Andrew Scott is professor of economics at the London Business School. He's also a fellow of All Souls College at Oxford University, and the Center for Economic Policy Research. He previously taught at Harvard and the London School of Economics, and has advised governments and central banks on macroeconomics. You can hear Scott talking about the implications of the "100-year life" in a Mind Tools Expert Interview podcast.

For now, though, keep listening to hear why you need skills that robots can't learn, how to become an expert in transitions, and what changes employers can make to keep older workers engaged.

Gratton and Scott begin by looking at life expectancy: how it's increased over the past two centuries and what this means for our lives. Clearly, we all won't live until we're 100 years old but a child born in the West today has a more than 50 percent chance of living to 105, while a 20-year-old has the same chance of reaching 100, the authors say.

If we're 40 today, we have an evens chance of getting to 95, while 60-year-olds have the same odds of reaching 90 or more. This is a big change from just a generation ago. So how do we structure our lives in light of this extra time we may have, and how do we earn or save enough to live comfortably in old age?

Gratton and Scott help us answer these questions with three hypothetical case studies: Jack, who was born in 1945; Jimmy, born in 1971; and Jane, born in 1998. They follow these three characters through their lives and map out various scenarios for them, based on different choices they make in relation to their finances, education, careers, and home life. Along the way, they highlight the upsides and downsides of each choice. This range of case studies is useful, as readers can pick a character close to their own age and use him or her as their benchmark.

So let's take a closer look at the authors' tips on how to ensure we stay employed in a high-tech age.

While we don't know for sure how long we'll live, one thing's for certain: technology will continue to advance at a rapid rate. Talk of artificial intelligence and robots doing the jobs of humans may sound futuristic to some of us right now, but it's already happening, and we need to understand how to manage our work lives in light of technological change.

If, like Jane, the youngest of the book's case studies, we're at the start of our professional lives, we'd be wise to train in careers in which humans clearly perform tasks better than robots. These include roles requiring creativity, empathy and problem solving, as well as many aspects of manual labor. As technology advances, jobs at the high and low end of the skill spectrum are likely to remain in demand, while jobs in the middle of the spectrum will continue to disappear, as they have done in recent years.

We might also consider roles in which technology and human skills can work well together. But Gratton and Scott accept it's impossible to predict the future when it comes to technology, so it's important to stay flexible and ready to switch roles or reinvest in new skills when required.

For those of us in mid-life, like Jimmy, it's important to take a realistic look at how many more years we might be employed. We need to ask whether the skills we have are enough to keep us in work, as technology changes our industries. Perhaps we need to up-skill or retrain, either at our own expense or with the help of our companies, or find more creative ways to earn a living as we age.

We think these are useful tips that are relevant to employees at all stages of their career. It's good to be aware of the skills we need to stay abreast of technology and compete with younger workers. And we must keep investing in our future employability.

Let's now move away from professional skills to look at what the authors call "intangible assets." These include our emotional, physical and mental health, our friendships and close relationships, and our self-awareness. It's vital to take care of all these aspects if we're to embrace the gift of more years, the authors say.

The benefits of physical health are obvious, but Gratton and Scott stress the need to keep our brains stimulated and active, and our stress levels in check – and to invest in our relationships with family and friends. They particularly note the importance of what they call "regenerative friendships with like-minded peers."

Studies cited in the book show that those who are well connected to others are more energetic and positive than people who isolate themselves. We may take our friendships and networks for granted in our younger years and in mid-life but friendships can be harder to make as we grow older. So it's important to be aware of this, to be proactive, and to work to maintain the networks we have.

Given that we're likely to undergo more transitions than our predecessors, we also need to develop our ability and capacity to manage change successfully. The authors call this taking care of our "transformational assets."

People who transition successfully tend to have a high level of self-knowledge and a good understanding of themselves, both as they are now and as they might be in the future. This requires self-reflection and a willingness to seek out and listen to other people's feedback. Self-knowledge gives people a sense of identity and coherence, Gratton and Scott say.

Having diverse professional and social networks, and having experience reaching out into new communities, also helps people transition with ease. Those who cope well with change tend to be open to new experiences. They're active rather than passive, embracing change rather than falling into a victim mentality. All these "intangible assets" are worth developing, the authors say.

This discussion brings an emotional depth to the book, providing a nice balance to the facts, figures, graphs, and charts. And it reminds us there's no point planning our finances if we're not well enough, or contented enough, to enjoy the rewards.

Let's now take a look at how longevity can affect organizations, and what managers and human-resource teams can do to satisfy the shifting demands of employees.

Gratton and Scott suggest employers become aware that individuals, as they live and work longer, will place greater importance on lifestyle benefits, like health, vitality, fulfillment, and time for friends and family, rather than on tangible assets like pay, pensions, a company car, or a housing allowance. Organizations must adopt a new rhetoric if they're to attract and keep employees. They could consider offering sabbaticals and they could think creatively about how to reward employees, perhaps with time off or other non-financial benefits.

As family roles continue to evolve and more men get involved in childcare, companies will need to be clear about the jobs that require full commitment and offer limited flexibility around working hours, and those that are more flexible. They'll also need to make sure flexible working schedules are as accessible to men as they are to women.

Companies also need to understand that employees will likely make a significant transition at some point in their long careers, either to a different department, a new firm, a new sector, or to self-employment. Employers may not be able to prevent this, but they can encourage people to stay with them longer. They can provide training in new skills and help people develop their professional and personal networks. And they can deepen their self-knowledge through peer-to-peer feedback.

Companies will also need to shift their attitudes toward age, doing away with ageism in areas such as recruitment, promotion and pay, mixing up young and old workers, and removing job titles such as "junior" and "senior." There'll be times when an employee of 20 and one of 50 will start the same training journey, so it's in the interests of organizations to look beyond the age of their workers.

Finally, companies will need to experiment, both in their working practices and in the backgrounds and experience of the people they hire. For example, recruiters should no longer look at gaps in CVs with suspicion. There'll inevitably be some challenges as we shift away from standardized employment practices and move into a world of trial and error, and many companies will resist a change to the status quo. But those who embrace new working practices will be at an advantage and be more able to hire and retain talent, Gratton and Scott say.

We think CEOs, managers and HR professionals will find these tips for companies really useful, if they haven't already adopted forward-thinking working practices. This advice will help them plan for the future and create more skilled, engaged and productive workforces.

Elsewhere in the book there are useful sections on financial planning, saving for the future, and managing our pensions. This content provides a reality check for anyone who hasn't considered how a longer life may impact their financial situation, or that of their children. Readers can take a financial literacy test and read some basic tips on investing in the stock market.

"The 100-Year Life" offers some great advice that'll help readers of all ages plan for the future. But it has its downsides. Firstly, we think Gratton and Scott could have provided more take-home messages by packaging the book differently, perhaps providing chapter summaries, lists of action steps, or bullet points.

Also, there are no real-life case studies or interesting anecdotes to mix things up and vary the pace, unlike in many other business books. This means the tone of the book is dry and the pace somewhat monotonous. The book would have broader appeal and be more readable if it was written in a more informal, less academic style, with some real case studies.

That said, this book discusses ideas that will impact readers of all ages and its advice on financial planning, skills training, and maintaining our wellbeing will become increasingly relevant as time goes on. So if you're ready to take a serious look at your finances, career prospects, health, and relationships, or at the way you run your business, in the context of a much longer life, this book's for you.

"The 100-Year Life," by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, is published by Bloomsbury.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.