Shouldn’t we just play instead of reading & analysing playbooks?
Every now and then, in the digital world, catch words, phrases or terms become everybody’s favorite and pass away into history; much like the flavor of the month, for certain ice cream brands. Seems like these days the word ‘playbook’ has caught everybody’s fancy. For a while, it actually caught even mine... hearkening me back to the days of my childhood, when play was all I looked forward to.
No digi-playthings or digi-anything in those days, mind you. Even as an adult, the call to play or watch others do so, hasn’t diminished. So moving beyond this global fascination for play, any word prefixed or suffixed with play still catches our imagination. We become subconsciously inclined to it, irrespective of the context or content.
A leading US-based management institute and Indian tech services giant have collaborated to research, curate and publish a leadership playbook for the digital age. It’s prognosis, perspectives and prescriptions are great. However that’s not the point of this piece. The context from which this has sprung up, viz. the tech space and the digital medium is developing at speeds that defy even the blink of an eye. Let’s look at some telling stats:
- By 2025, 38.6 billion smart devices will be collecting, analyzing, and sharing data.
- The web hosting services market is to reach $77.8 billion in 2025.
- 70% of all tech spending is expected to go for cloud solutions.
- There are 1.35 million tech startups.
- Global AI market is expected to reach $89.8 billion.
- There are 4,383 million internet users.
Given the interconnected-ness and mashup of all things tech, it would be myopic to look at digital media from the context of the next cool platform, function on an existing platform, or any shiny new bauble that catches our fancy. Or even on the views of the digital guru we follow, or news site we get our information from.
The digital world comprises not just tech, but ICs, transistors, data volumes, quantum computing, the cloud, streaming, AI, IOT, voice and more. If you’re not yet out of breath, inhale this. The future holds possibilities that are even more fascinating, like the growth of solar power, genetic engineering and Nanotechnology to name just some.
Like any new car whose value depreciates 50% the second it’s driven out of the dealership, the same is true with the relevance of playbooks. Not that we don’t learn anything from them, but given the reality, here’s a time-tested antidote to the malady affecting our age. Go play! At least, make a genuine attempt...