Let’s get PhyGital! Rethinking communication in the new world of work

From Socrates in ancient Greece to Narendra Modi in modern India, the power of rhetoric has never failed to be significant. It can be argued that language and communication have been the most crucial elements to the development of modern world and flourishing of civilizations through the ages. Today, the entire world is grappling with and is consequentially propelled by the twin forces of Covid epidemic and digital disruptions. While the field of communications has seen tremendous changes from the days of cave paintings to printing press to the internet, it can be argued that the new world of work is going to throw entirely new challenges and uproot conventional wisdom on how communication between human beings, across society, countries, and organizations will happen. Hence, the entire discipline needs a rethink - I prefer to call it, a take-off from song I loved from childhood, “Let’s get PhyGital!”

There are four fundamental changes that were already taking place in the pre-Covid world. These relate to millennials forming bulk of workforce, shifting demographics, AI/ technology/ social media induced risks, and changing consumer expectations. Each of these elements is undergoing changes with the pandemic impacting values, lifestyles, and ultimately communication goals and patterns. Now let’s get to how the old is getting disrupted, the new world is rushing in and how the above elements impact the discipline of communications and raise some key challenges ?– for the individual, organizations, and society.

Old wisdom: For individuals, nothing beats face to face communication. We all have been believers in the effectiveness of face to face communications. Studies have indicated that 80% of communication is non-verbal. Whether we like it or not, that is not how the future will be. ?

PhyGital disruption: With billion dollar deals getting signed virtually, and businesses, society, etc getting used to a virtual world, there is little doubt that we will never go back to pure physical mode again. Millennials prefer chatting and gaming online to physical modes. The challenge for the organizations and society would be on how to make sure that the culture stays in place, and the mechanisms to engage people with different personalities is thought about. Communication is paramount in the virtual world and the power of words, the right story and a tight narrative is more important than ever, in the absence of non-verbal cues. ???

Old wisdom: For organizations, the long-term vision came from the top and the need was to ensure alignment and consequent controlled communication. The command and control model has anyway been in decline. What is now being questioned is also the validity of a long-term vision in the VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous for the uninitiated) world.

PhyGital disruption: The consumer is now truly the king, and not just as part of an audience segment, but as a single unit. This is the era of hyper personalization. Amazon home page, powered by AI, Machine learning and analytics engines, is unique for all internet users in the world. As the Netflix series “The Social Dilemma” effectively articulated, individuals across the oceans can be influenced by unrelated events. The need for organizations now is to be agile, take in the outside in approach to craft vision, re-evaluate priorities dynamically and have models to communicate them to key stakeholders real-time. We are not there yet.

Old wisdom: For the society post industrial revolution, the fall of the empires, and the rise of nation states, the power of unifying ideas was very strong. It was hard for a section of the society to uninfluenced by it or have alternate options. Socialism in the Soviet era, or the power of the American dream in the US are two examples. Social media has changed all that.

PhyGital disruption: The revolutions in connectivity, communication and social media had led to billions of people, regardless of their national identity, have alignments to their core values, beliefs and ideological preferences. It is easy for them to feel and stay connected to another person across the world on twitter than their neighbor next door. This has positive implications as well as socio-political risks which the communications discipline needs to address.

As always, welcome your thoughts and reactions to these preliminary thoughts!

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