People Get Business Done
Not Machines. People.
Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash
One of the problems we face as we examine the expected impact of technology on life and business in the future is that we continue to reduce complex exchanges to measurable and doable transactions. Whilst that is not a bad thing in breaking down which jobs can be automated, it is a bad thing if we promptly forget all the other parts of the job that aren’t transactions that can’t be coded. … because that part of the work is not going away.
'Software may well be ‘eating the world’, but the bits being eaten should be pretty indigestible to most humans. So that’s good. Right?
What we mustn't lose sight of is the human work, the experience, the quality, the personal touch, the engagement are still necessary. We get so caught up by the clickbait headlines that talk breathlessly of the millions of jobs being lost to technology, we forget to triangulate, go deeper and ask if that bit is automated, who - and how - is that other bit going to be delivered.
Simple acceptance and zero questioning of the underlying assumptions is dangerous, though we live in a society where sadly it is routine.
In this week’s podcast we doubled down on that thinking. I talked with Mark Roman for an hour and a half. You can listen to the whole podcast here (don’t worry - we might have talked for an hour and a half - but I did edit!). It was a great journey through some business landscapes and great stories of what it takes to do business.
Key takeaway …
“People matter in business and personal relationships, people get work done, not machines, not ‘bots’, ‘software agents’ or ‘AI algorithms’. These are all just tools. People get the business done.”
Mark Roman
We are starting to pick up this discussion over in The People First Network.
My thanks and appreciation for your continued support, comments and attention. Please like the post, share through your social channels and forward the email to colleagues, friends and family that want to join us on this journey and do comment or email me your thoughts.
