Hyper-productive, hyper-connected and hyper-innovative teams

Recently, at a CHRO roundtable (conducted by People Matters) that I participated in, the topic of discussion was : "A digital roadmap is key to HR transformation in an organization". There is no doubt in anyone's mind that having such a roadmap will enable your organization navigate through the digital touch-points. But, we need to be equally sure about what we are really trying to achieve out of the digital strategy. Where is this digital roadmap leading us to ? So, as we debated at the roundtable, we concluded that we need to visualize and envisage the outcomes that any CHRO will want to achieve out of the digital roadmap. 

Context

Given the volatility and uncertainty in the environment, every aspect of business is being questioned and re-examined. In HR, we have consistently faced the question, “How does HR add value to business?” Further, advent of new technologies have added pressure on HR to rethink and reinvent the traditional ways of working. Going digital is not a choice anymore but is a game of survival. At the roundtable, we concluded that, from a HR perspective, we could seek to achieve three clear outcomes out of the digital roadmap.

Hyper-Productive Teams

One of the critical objectives of the digital roadmap should be to dramatically enhance your organization’s productivity. We call it hyper-productive teams. Teams that leverage technologies to improve their output and help optimize operating costs and resources. Automation of workplace will eliminate redundant tasks, simplify work and allow your workforce to deliver fast. Technologies like AI, Machine Learning and Bots are significantly enhancing the productivity of the workforce.  With the use of technology and automation, Alibaba claimed to boost the productivity level by 20 percent, even enabling a single day sales of USD 25 billion !

Hyper-Connected Teams

Hyper-Connected teams are teams that get work accomplished by employees regardless of their physical location, position in the organization chart, seniority or level of hierarchy ! They achieve it through use of cutting edge communications, data sharing, collaborative work flow and problem solving technologies.

According to a recent Accenture Survey, by the year 2020, a Connected Industrial Workforce could help to unlock as much as €500 million in profitability for an automotive manufacturer with annual revenues of €50 billion. Similar predictions are available for other sectors. The future will belong to the organizations who embrace diversity of a new variety - the combination of Human and Machine ! In simple terms, a hyper-connected team is characterized by the ability to create a functional and 'fit for purpose' ecosystem which connects employees, customers, things and robots !

Hyper-Innovative Teams

A century ago, the average 'life' expectancy of a firm in the Fortune 500 list was about 75 years, according to Deloitte. Today, on an average, Fortune 500 companies drop off the list in less than 15 years. Further, Gartner predicts that only 30% of digital innovation strategies will be successful in the coming years.

The digital roadmap should empower you to come up with innovative solutions for your customers. Increasingly, innovation will depend on how effectively you can allow humans and machines to collaborate and innovate. For example, Google Brain is a deep learning artificial intelligence research project at Google. It combines open-ended machine learning research with system engineering and Google-scale computing resources. The aim of Google Brain is to make machines smarter so that they can learn from their own features, and use data and computation efficiently. On the other hand, Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are nothing but machines that can teach humans to become skilled. Hyper-Innovative Teams will thus flourish in an ecosystem that enables both humans and machines to learn from each other and innovate.

In conclusion : CHROs who are implementing a digital roadmap can chase three tangible outcomes : hyper-productive, hyper-connected and hyper-innovative teams. Such teams are truly capable of re-defining the workplace.

Enablers

Even as we visualise these kinds of outcomes out of the digital roadmap, one needs the right culture, mindset and desired behaviors to be successful. Across the world, from the experience of HR leaders and other CXOs, it can be concluded that the cultural imperatives of a digital strategy are : empowerment, transparency and regular communication. The mindset that needs to embedded is : ownership. The behaviors that make or break are : collaboration and silo-less.

This change is refreshing. It is not about mechanisation or automation that brutally eliminates human effort. It is actually about creating more space and time for humans to pursue what they are uniquely capable of : innovation.