Thinking about partnering with, instead of being replaced by, technology creates a collaborative instead of adversarial relationship between humans and robots.PeopleImages/iStock
Naomi Titleman Colla is the founder and principal of Collaborativity Leadership Advisory
Earlier this month, in the heart of Toronto, a group of executives gathered at MaRS Discovery District for an event called future foHRward to contemplate innovative “People” strategies for this new world of work.
The future of work is certainly an exciting technology story, but it is a more interesting people story: What will happen to our workforce as jobs are automated, augmented and added to via exponential technologies?
Experts presented generally optimistic views regarding the evolution of jobs, skills, teams and workers. The key to bringing these views to life is thinking differently about how and by whom work gets done: A much more collaborative approach is essential.
In a nutshell: Collaborate or perish.
Collaborate with each other
Hierarchical models served a purpose in the times of Alexander the Great (which is when they were designed). In 2018 and beyond, we need to reimagine organizations around the work that exists today. According to Gary Bolles, Chair of Future of Work at Singularity University, work is simply 1) a problem to be solved; 2) performing tasks; and 3) using skills. Traditional hierarchies are not meant for work that exists in our current economy – we need to build organizations as networks of teams, built around problems to be solved, with the customer at its centre. How do we ensure that we are adequately seeking diverse perspectives to solve problems at hand? Try a visible reminder such as posting the phrase “who have we not heard from yet?” in meeting spaces, as suggested by Mark Bowden of Truthplane in his key note on Growth Mindset.
Collaborate with technology
Don’t fear the 3 As. Michael Priddis of Faethm AI spoke about the 3 As related to jobs and technology: automation, augmentation and addition.
Thinking about partnering with, instead of being replaced by, technology creates a collaborative instead of adversarial relationship between humans and robots. Technology that replaces tasks enables us to better utilize our unique strengths. Remember, humans decide whether jobs will go away, not technology: Reskilling and upskilling (and not just job elimination) are important tactics to consider for any People strategy – we were surprised to discover, via Faethm’s platform, that bank tellers can be quite easily reskilled and retrained as human resource specialists, because of similarities in the fundamental skills required.
Who are the techies in your neighbourhood?
Leader-enabling technologies are all around us. Specifically, there are tech ventures in Canada that help screen candidates, provide in-the-moment training, give insight into employee engagement, assess candidates for cultural fit, analyze candidates’ “human skills,” match gig workers to gigs – the options are endless and much more cost-effective than ever before. Leveraging these solutions can remove bias and eliminate mundane and time-consuming tasks, making leaders more effective and efficient.
Collaborate with (and advocate for) ourselves
Creating agency within ourselves is critical in this new world of work. We need to embrace the concept of lifelong learning – constant evolution and extension of our skills to meet the needs of ever-changing problems. Organizations and governments have a role to play in giving workers the space, tools and opportunities to evolve; however, we need to advocate for ourselves – to be curious and go to the problem to be solved, instead of having our job description dictate the work we do. Mr. Bolles described the need for PACE: Problem Solvers, Adaptive, Creative and Entrepreneurial Thinkers.
Collaborate with your “people” function
“HR is a people-optimization machine,” Mr. Bolles says.
HR has evolved from the employee department to human resources, and now many organizations refer to the function as “People” or “Talent” – which, in top organizations, are not gatekeepers or policy enforcers, but rather critical partners in unlocking human potential to achieve corporate objectives. This part of your organization has the unique enterprise-wide vantage point required to most effectively and efficiently channel human energy to solve problems.
While collaboration is a theme we hear constantly as we think about ideal corporate culture in this new world of work, a word of caution: Collaboration for the sake of it (or for the sake of consensus) may not achieve objectives in the most efficient manner.
It is important to balance collaboration with effective decision making that will empower teams to try, fail and iterate so that problems are solved with pace needed for businesses to thrive. For example, some companies encourage workers to propose a solution and run with it until someone has a good reason not to.
We’ve launched a new weekly Careers newsletter. Sign up today.