The Five Primary Skills
for the Future of Work
WINGS
About the book
Technology is transforming every industry and hard skills alone no longer guarantee success. What truly endures are the human skills that no machine can replicate. WINGS revolutionizes the way we look at soft skills, reframing them as the five primary behavioral skills that underpin lifelong growth, adaptability and resilience.
These skills – Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Personal Leadership, Social Intelligence and Attention Management – form the foundation beneath every future skill identified by global experts. With vivid examples, practical strategies and a clear framework, this book helps professionals, educators and leaders thrive in a world shaped by speed, complexity and disruption.
This book is the ultimate toolkit for developing a new mindset for success and future-proofing one’s career and personal development. It provides practical strategies that empower professionals, leaders and educators to develop these essential skills and create a lasting impact. Both within their organizations and beyond.
WINGS.AID
Turn WINGS into daily action!
WINGS.AID is a free practical AI companion built around the WINGS framework, designed to help you turn the five core human skills into daily action.
Use it for quick guidance in the moment or go much further: design a personal growth journey, build team workshops, create complete training programs and even use WINGS as a backbone for L&D strategies or curriculum design. Explore, test and translate ideas into action so WINGS becomes a habit, not a theory.
About the author
Walter E.G. Vandervelde is a Belgian author, speaker and professor who specializes in creativity, innovation, communication and behavioral skills. With over 35 years of experience spanning the creative industries, leadership contexts and higher education, he bridges practice and research to make human skills tangible and trainable.
He developed the WINGS framework as a clear and actionable model to help individuals, teams and organizations strengthen the essential skills that keep people adaptable, resilient and future-ready in a world increasingly shaped by technology.
