De-Automating People to Intelligently Automate the World

In my digital transformation series, I have been looking at how technology is transforming multiple industries. However, I feel compelled to highlight that people make a business successful rather than the tech itself.

Unfortunately, I have encountered a few businesses that finance the latest shiny tech solution by removing headcount. However, this legacy mindset is possibly the worst decision an organization could make. Technology should enhance human performance not replace it as we embark on a journey where we co-evolve with machines and enjoy the best of both worlds.

For example, artificial intelligence (AI) is predicted to create 2.3 Million Jobs in 2020, while eliminating 1.8 Million according to the research firm Gartner. Whether you see this as a fantastic opportunity or challenge will once again depend on your mindset. But companies recognize that they should be embrace AI as a partner to their people rather than replace them.

If 81% of executives predict that AI will work alongside humans in their organizations as a co-worker or trusted advisor, what changes do we need to make to the employment landscape itself? We have all encountered the half-baked attempts at improving employee engagement with the annual survey of generic questions. Then there is the dreaded appraisal system where an employee will walk away with a rating out of 5 feeling devalued.

I found myself thinking, how can we end this standoff between employees and organizations and provide a better solution fit for a digital age? And who could help me find the answers who has been involved in areas that matter to every single company today such as AI, business process management and digital transformation initiatives?

Thankfully, Marylene Delbourg-Delphis listened to my plight. She is famed for being one of the first European women to settle in Silicon Valley and founded a technology company with Guy Kawasaki. Despite being affectionately called the Duchess of Silicon Valley, the tech pioneer, writer, translator, and serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience is very much a people person.

Culture is less about “values,” and much more about employee belongingness. It’s about how employees experience the company’s culture and to what extent they feel they belong. 

Although we are living in a digital age, Marylene told me that for companies, “work” is a means to an end. For employees, “work” is their livelihood and what they experience every day. The result is that between 50 and 70 percent of employees in the Western world are either mildly engaged and sometimes downright disengaged. For many, this disengagement is a coping mechanism.

Do You Think that leaders must also develop empathy and their emotional intelligence, which is a significant trend in business literature?

Yes, provided that empathy and emotional intelligence (EI) do not remain fuzzy concepts. The relevance and effectiveness of our EI is predicated upon our accessing and reflecting over the emotional data of the people we want to empathize with.

We must get this data and adopt new ways to measure the employee experience and do it regularly to address the natural entropy that causes the degradation of any living system. Emotional intelligence is relevant if companies have adequate emotional data and sufficient data to enable management to make appropriate decisions.

How do we resolve this standoff between employees and organizations?

If we want to make the world a better place, we should start improving the workplaces that create the tools to make the world a better place. The future of work is not going to remove people. It’s going to need people who are continuously willing to learn.

We need to de-automate people if we want to intelligently automate the world. That’s the main difference between the 4th industrial revolution and all the revolutions that preceded.

You can listen to full interview with Marylene by clicking on the link below where we also discuss her new book. Everybody Wants to Love Their Job: Rebuilding Trust and Culture which is a pragmatic guidebook for executives, HR leaders, and employees in a digital age.

One of the biggest lessons I learned from my conversation with Marylene was that as traditional roles begin to disappear, there will be new job roles appearing. The most significant skill in short supply is people that are continuously willing to learn and adapt.

Ironically, technology will set us free us from performing mundane robotic tasks that do not provide value. De-automating people will enable us to intelligently automate the world and get back to using human skills such as communication, empathy, creativity, strategic thinking, questioning, or even creating the impossible. This has to be progress, doesn't it?

A business will not be able to enjoy success in the digital age with just human skills or technology on its own. It's the blending of both where technology and workers seamlessly co-evolve where the real magic will happen.

Please share your insights, experiences, and opinions by commenting below.