The New Human-Centric Workplace: Power Skills + A.I. Convergence
Workshops: Strengths-based Power Skills + Imaginal Agility
Imagination is more important than knowledge - Einstein.
This essay examines the convergence of three global work trends and their implications overall. Including the idea of a "human-centric workplace," the introduction of "power skills" as a new rubric for talent and project management, and the rapid, revolutionary emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence.
Crisis
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. While immense progress continues with vaccinations and treatments, at this writing, January 2024, COVID-19 remains a dangerous threat, especially to vulnerable, high-risk populations. The WHO has not declared its end.
At the height of the pandemic, going to work became a question of life and death. Those on the frontline of public-facing work were most in danger. Remember all those news videos of folks everywhere standing outside their doors each dusk beating pans and drums to acknowledge the heroic healthcare and essential workers holding the line?
Working from home took on profound value and relevance; workers found new agency and voice, being self-directed and able to manage work-life demands as they deemed best. A new sense of "responsible freedom" arose based on trust between workers, their teammates, and managers. The implicit social contract - "We can do the work well while living our life, not at its expense." 'Virtual teaming' and 'hybrid work' entered the business lexicon.
That trust is lost as employers demand workers return to the office, take on the commute again, re-worry about eldercare and childcare, and reassume the physical and emotional challenges of negotiating one’s diverse disabilities in transit and public space.
The medical concept of a "crisis" is ancient,? first codified by Hippocrates and Galen two millennia ago. The original Greek term meant the "turning point in a disease." In other words, the "vitally important or decisive state of things, the point at which change must come, for better or worse."
In facing one's uncertain mortality - while family members, neighbors, and workmates died in numbers to staggering to comprehend – one naturally asked what is truly important. What is one willing to endure for a needed paycheck? Toxic workplaces with bullying bosses and uncivil co-workers (often explicitly misogynistic and racist) are sadly not the exception.
Understandably, there's been a substantial drop in employee satisfaction compared to much higher happiness levels during the pandemic. A recent BambooHR study indicates a 6% decline in employee happiness since 2020, accelerating ten times faster in 2023. Sustained low Employee Net Promoter Scores suggest workers have accepted their poor morale as the status quo.
"Our stories, behaviors, and memes shape an environment that nurtures misery and invites despair: the great resignation, quiet quitting, pervasive burnout, and more."
This collective unhappiness of employees is a loud warning call. "It starts with recognizing that our collective unhappiness is not a petty complaint, it's the canary in the coal mine telling us that disaster is looming." In other words, the crisis continues in a new way with ongoing implications for workers, employers, and their workplace.
The Cape of Storms and Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a metaphor. This point of land is where two oceans collide, the warm Indian and cold Atlantic. The result is turbulence and unpredictability; its original name was Cape of Storms.
Today's workplace is like that storied cape land, and two forces – Human-Centricity and Artificial Intelligence – are crashing into each other and shaping its shoreline. Human-centricity, like the Indian Ocean, is warm, while A.I., like the Atlantic, is cold. To continue this imperfect metaphor, the Cape of Good Hope was and remains a vital sailing route for global trade. To wit, these forces cannot be ignored but navigated.
"Load the ship and set out. No one knows for certain whether the vessel will sink or reach the harbor. Cautious people say, 'I'll do nothing until I can be sure.' Merchants know better. If you do nothing, you lose. Don't be one of those merchants who won't risk the ocean." Rumi
The Human-Centric Workplace
The following article titles reveal that the concept of a "human-centric" workplace has gained currency within business circles for a few years.
“The Humancentric Enterprise," an eBook by Mercer and Thinkers 50 in 2023, is perhaps the most comprehensive examination.
“A profound shift is underway from traditional organizational “ error culture." However, this shift is hindered “by the deeply rooted command-and-control paradigm. The fear of failure contrasts with the need for psychological safety, preventing employees from bringing their whole selves to work.”
A human-centric workplace prioritizes employees' needs, well-being, and professional development. It acknowledges employees as the most valuable asset and endeavors to cultivate a supportive, inclusive culture that fosters collaboration, creativity, and a healthy work-life balance.
“Scaling empathy is identified as the cornerstone of success, necessitating a departure from transactional mindsets to relational perspectives.”
Such workplaces actively engage employees by providing diverse professional and personal growth opportunities, ensuring a rewarding and fulfilling career for everyone. Additionally, they cultivate an atmosphere of respect and inclusivity, where each person feels genuinely valued and appreciated.
This shift in perspective involves tailoring workflows, business processes, and spatial arrangements to accommodate physical, cognitive, and emotional human needs. Instead of expecting individuals to conform to pre-existing methods or locations, this design philosophy adapts the work environment to enhance human capabilities and behaviors, ultimately creating a more harmonious and effective workplace.
Flexible Hybrid Work
To successfully implement a human-centric work model, organizations should adopt an approach that combines accountable autonomy and incorporates employee perspectives into work design. The "flexible-hybrid" model, which combines on-site and remote work, has emerged as a successful alternative, achieving significant talent outcomes without the drawbacks associated with rigid location-centric designs.
?Granting freedom over when employees work has increased performance by 2.3 times, reduced fatigue by 1.9 times, and enhanced loyalty. Additionally, involving employees in the design process makes them 2.5 times more likely to achieve high performance and four times more likely to report lower fatigue.
Intentional Collaboration
Central to human-centric work models, intentional collaboration outperforms even the most effective location-centric models by 1.6 times. This deliberate approach significantly enhances the likelihood of high employee performance, boasting a 2.9 times increase. Social interactions foster creativity and productivity because intentional collaboration is pivotal.
?In hybrid work environments, where team members operate remotely and in-person, intentional collaboration becomes essential to bridge the physical and virtual divide. While hybrid work arrangements offer flexibility, they can present challenges in communication and collaboration. Intentional collaboration is crucial, helping teams balance individual flexibility and collective cohesion.
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Power Skills
In today's rapidly changing workplace, there’s been a shift towards prioritizing skills over specific work roles. That is, tasks to be matched with skills. By breaking down jobs into composite parts or tasks, organizations can align their workforce with the required skills and capabilities, clearly highlighting skills gaps and improving productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. This shift from process execution to project guidance emphasizes the need for leaders to actively choose, assign, and develop team members based on their skills. According to Deloitte research findings, organizations prioritizing skills are 52% more likely to be innovative. A skills-based approach enables organizations to use better the skill capacity already available to them by redeploying workers and shifting tasks within the workforce.
It stands to reason that a human-centric workplace calls forth the need for related skill sets.? In 2019, Josh Bersin published "Let's Stop Talking About Soft Skills: They're Power Skills." That was pre-pandemic. The traditional distinction between "hard skills" and "soft skills" categorizes technical skills as hard and people/managerial skills as soft. However, he argued that this perception needs to be revised as it implies that hard skills are easy while soft skills are complex.
Bersin suggested renaming human "soft skills" as "power skills" to reflect their importance better. Power skills are crucial for success in the workplace, especially as future skills will likely be more behavioral than technical. Power skills, according to his light, ?include kindness, generosity, trust, ?adaptability, effective communication, and capacity for innovation. Curiosity, in particular, is an essential power skill in the corporate world.
Companies must invest in and actively nurture power skills. Their development is a life-long professional commitment, Experiential programs, group interactions, and challenging situations are effective ways to develop power skills.”
Project Management Institute
In 2022, COVID-19 was still ongoing. That year, Udemy profiled "Power Skills" in its annual report. That same year, the Project Management Institute updated its core Talent Triangle, introducing a new vocabulary, replacing "Leadership" with "Power Skills."? The Project Management Institute (PMI), founded in 1969, serves more than five million professionals, including over 680,000 members in 217 countries and territories worldwide, with 304 chapters and 14,000 volunteers serving local members in over 180 countries.
As Pierre Le Manh, PMI CEO, wrote in? Pulse of the Profession 2023:
“We have updated the PMI Talent Triangle? – which represents the ideal skill set for project professionals – to reflect that power skills are necessary for project managers. ?Power skills enable project managers to align their projects to organizational objectives and inspire their teams to work together, solve problems, and deliver results that contribute value to the organization and its customers. When integrated with strong technical skills that stay current with evolving ways of working, power skills help project professionals navigate the rapidly changing business landscape we now operate."
The?PMI Talent Triangle demonstrates the three skill categories?PMI requires of a project manager: Ways of Working, Power Skills, and Business Acumen.
Ways of Working encourage mastering as many ways of working as possible – so you can apply the proper techniques at the right time, delivering winning results.
Business Acumen skills include cultivating effective decision-making and understanding how projects align with the big picture of the broader organization.
Power Skills?
The Project Management Institute (PMI) actively encourages project managers/leads to understand better the crucial role of power skills in optimizing project team performance to support organizational objectives. Moreover, Project Managers/Leads must become proficient in applying Power Skills as a prerequisite to ongoing Certification. "Indeed, a project leader's power skills are often the difference between project success and failure."
“It's now up to Project Managers to invest further in their power skills and hone their technical PMTQ.”
In conclusion, the shift towards prioritizing skills over specific job roles offers numerous benefits for organizations. By focusing on skills, organizations can adapt more effectively to changes in the job market and take advantage of new opportunities. The evolution of work towards a skills-based approach and recognizing skills as the currency of work highlight the importance of lifelong learning and personal development in today's rapidly changing job market. Power skills, or soft skills, are especially crucial for success in the new human-centric A.I. enabled workplace, and companies must invest in and actively nurture these skills.
Generative Artificial Intelligence
Generative Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) rapidly transforms the workplace, offering benefits and potential dangers. As organizations integrate A.I. technologies, it is essential to consider the impact on the human-centric workplace and the cultivation of power skills.
Benefits of Generative A.I. in the Human-Centric Workplace
Generative A.I. has the potential to create space for more human work by automating highly repetitive, rules-based tasks. Employees can focus on tasks that require creativity, empathy, and critical Thinking, ultimately enhancing their value in the workplace. Additionally, automation can increase productivity and value creation. Organizations that establish a culture of accountability and encourage role reconfiguration can harness the productivity-boosting potential of generative A.I., leading to improved outcomes for human-skilled workers.
Dangers and Considerations
While generative A.I. offers significant benefits, there are also potential dangers that organizations must navigate. The rapid evolution of A.I. technology presents challenges for CEOs and business leaders who are still learning about the business value and risks associated with generative A.I. Establishing guardrails to ensure a human-centric approach to technology and A.I. integration is crucial, involving understanding the limitations of A.I. in areas such as empathy and complex decision-making and recognizing the need to cultivate and harness power skills to thrive in the evolving workplace.
Conclusion
Navigating the human-centric future of work is as crucial as rounding the Cape of Good Hope in good order, weathering the storms, and thriving throughout. As organizations embrace flexibility, collaboration, and a focus on individual and team power skills, they pave the way for a more inclusive and productive workplace. The choice between long-term investment and short-term cost persists, impacting profits and inhibiting the evolution toward a more human-centric enterprise. By recognizing the significance of power skills in the context of generative A.I. and the human-centric workplace, organizations can ensure a seamless integration of technology and human capabilities, ultimately leading to a more fulfilling and sustainable future of work for workers.
References
Kowal Smith, A. (2024, December 15). Here’s Why You Have Every Right To Be Unhappy At Work. LinkedIn. https://lnkd.in/gyqsp_6J
Gartner. (n.d.). In Human-Centric Work, We Trust. Beyond Supply Chain Blog. https://www.gartner.com/en/supply-chain/insights/beyond-supply-chain-blog/in-human-centric-work-we-trust
Gartner. (2022, December 6). Gartner Research Shows Human-Centric Work Models Boosts Employee Performance and Other Key Talent Outcomes. Press Release. https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/12-06-22-gartner-research-shows-human-centric-work-models-boosts-employee-performance-and-other-key-talent-outcomes
Rencher, B. (2023, December 18). Your Employees Are Struggling — and It's Only Getting Worse. Here's What You Can Do About It. Bamboo HR. https://lnkd.in/ea4zbt4W
Fast Company. (n.d.). Innovative Leaders Guide Human-Centric Workplace. https://board.fastcompany.com/blog/innovative-leaders-guide-human-centric-workplace
?Memoori. (n.d.). The Human-Centric Ethos at the Heart of Workplace Design. https://memoori.com/the-human-centric-ethos-at-the-heart-of-workplace-design/
Bravery, K., Swift, M., Jesuthasan, R., Anderson, K., Averbook, J., von Rohrscheidt, A., & Naresh, S. (2023). The human-centric enterprise. Mercer. https://www.mercer.com/insights/people-strategy/future-of-work/the-human-centric-enterprise/
?2023 PMI Pulse of the Profession, https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pmi-pulse-of-the-profession-2023-report.pdf?
Co-Founder of Altrosyn and DIrector at CDTECH | Inventor | Manufacturer
1 年The concept of a human-centric workplace has its roots in the Industrial Revolution when labor conditions were far from ideal. Reflecting on this historical context, one wonders how far we've come in truly prioritizing the well-being of employees in the modern era of AI convergence. Now, delving into the subject matter, could you elaborate on the specific power skills that are most crucial for success in this AI-driven landscape, considering the evolving dynamics of flexible work and empathy integration?