Not Another Predictions Article For 2020
I love to make and read predictions as much as the next person. I love to envision the future,
and game how predictions will play out. Our current conversations and predictions are around
people, technology and data. This is because in an effort to comprehend what is possible, we
have created the most extreme scenarios for our future. We see it in books like George Orwell’s
1984, movies like Minority Report and IRobot, and television shows like Years and Years and
FEED. This is not to say these predications have not, at least in part, come true. We all know
about dictators who use social media to push their personal agendas, only to turn around and
shut it down when people share the truth. We also know about governments who have created
propaganda machines and hacked their opponents’ elections. To prevent these end of world
scenarios we have created for ourselves, however, we need prescriptions not more predictions.
To that end, this is not another predictions article. It is an expansion on my “letter from the
founder”, written when I originally incorporated my business years ago, wherein I offered
prescriptions for the world of business to rethink how it operates, and to put information and
decision power back in the hands of its people. This is, afterall, the only solution to combat
tyrants who wish to misuse technology and information. To be clear, technology and information
are not the problem. People who use them to subjugate others are the problem. In fact,
information is the great equalizer, and technology democratizes information. It makes it available
to everyone, and an informed people are an empowered people. Technology is not going away.
It’s changing the world, as we know it, in every way. It is on us then to make sure the changes
are for the better of the human condition.
People
When technology has all but taken our jobs, it becomes our mission to prove that humans are a
capability, a resource, an asset like no other. When asked “people for what purpose”, never
forget that our ideas, our relationships and our contributions are the stuff that business is built
on, the fuel that success is made of. Machines only do what they are programmed to do. The
real value add, the real differentiating capability, is the chemistry between people. Yes,
technology has taken jobs, but it has also presented humans with an opportunity to do what
humans do best — create. As technology automates and augments our work lives, we have an
opportunity to design more creative work, roles, relationships and measures. Three areas of the
business where we can create anew are the C-Suite, Human Resources and the workforce.
C-Suite
For too long, the real drivers of performance (humans and technology) have taken a back seat
to support functions (finance and marketing). Fortunately, the future is still being written and it
is in our power to direct the conversation and shape the future. If the current conversations
around people, technology and data are any indication, and people and technology are drivers of performance, which they are, then we should restructure the C-Suite to consist of a CIO, CHRO
and CTO. In a world where information is queen and data becomes ever more central to
business decisions, the Chief Information Officer in all her wisdom should replace the Chief
Executive Officer. The CIO together with the CHRO and CTO can decide what and how the work
is to be performed and structured. They can decide strategy and shape policy. They can decide
what work will be performed by technology and what work will be performed by humans. They
can decide what capabilities, competencies and potential are required to achieve success. Then
they can use their future talent management and HRIS technologies to locate the most qualified
individuals, teams or firms, from inside and outside the organization, to perform the work.
Lastly, Finance and Marketing, who once held C-titles, can sit under the CIO as they are data
and information driven support functions; with their resources brought to bare in support of the
business’ performance drivers.
Human Resources
The recent wave of companies changing their Human Resources titles to ‘People’ titles, while
hopeful, is short sighted. They do this because they have decided to start to put people at the
center of decisions, only ‘human’ has always been in Human Resources. To be fair, the ‘People’
title is relevant where it applies to managers who work directly with individuals in the
organization, but the future of Human Resources in the future of work will involve more than
people management. I believe firmly that people must come before profit, probably even before
most other functions of the business. The fact remains, however, that when a company or
organization is started, it does not start with people. It starts with the mission, the work, and
the strategy. If we as Human Resources professionals want to continue the momentum we have
as partners to the business then we have to understand that the job of Humans Resources is
about more than people. It is also about strategy, what course we are on and why, and about
work, how work is structured and distributed, and about data, how people data is collected and
for what purpose. With the CHRO as the head of Human Resources, and technology automating
the functions’ lower levels, we can start to create real human-centric roles for Human Resources.
In the way that we already have payroll and benefits specialists, executive and performance
coaches, L&D and change experts; we can create other HR roles like talent scouts and talent
agents, data governance managers and data analysts, and organizational anthropologists and
consulting psychologists. Think of the implications for employee experience, engagement and
wellness with more of these types of roles. Especially since, according to research, the same
technology that makes it easy for us to connect and communicate is making us more isolated,
depressed and self-hating.
Workforce
There has already been much published on the subject of ‘the future workforce’. In short, the
future workforce in the future of work will be one that is strategically dynamic, differentiated and
distributed. It will include, in large part, remote workers and teams (both permanent and contingent) who will be supported by technology that removes the distance between people. This
new workforce, regardless of their task or work agreement, will report in to Human Resources.
Imagine, Human Resources can finally see collectively, the big picture and the long view, to
connect dots once unable to better address talent threats and opportunities of the entire
workforce.
Technology
As with any decision, prior to investing in technology, make sure you ask the right questions that
tie the investment back to your business strategy. When asked “technology for what purpose”,
the only right answer is to augment work and support people.
Technology needs to make collaboration and communication between remote people and teams
effortless, as in the example above. This is where digital, IoT and XR technologies need to be
adopted. Let us not forget the chemistry between people is the real fuel for success. Technology
then needs to be designed, assembled and integrated for the purpose of creating an experience
for workers that promotes relationships and enables humans to do their best work.
Technology also needs to socialize and personalize the employee experience, and secure and
protect people data. If technology is to promote engagement, we must make sure it has the
same ease of access and attraction as our current social tools. Unlike our current social tools,
however, our people data needs to be protected, not sold to the highest bidder for advertising
purposes. This is where cybersecurity, encryption and blockchain technologies come in to play.
Otherwise, you will surely lose the trust of your workforce, likely see a decrease in retention as
people jump ship and find it nearly impossible to attract new talent to your company.
Lastly, technology needs to provide the capability to access and analyze real people data in
many different forms, at a moments notice, as opposed to our current systems that take days if
not weeks to acquire, compile, organize and analyze data from disparate sources across the
organization. This is a job for a technology that does not yet exist. I am talking about
reinventing our talent management and human resource information systems. I am talking
about creating a whole new information architecture that measures not only our current HR and
human capital metrics, but the company’s true wellness, health and fitness on three levels: the
organization, the team, and the individual.
Data
When performing data science, as with people and technology, we need to ask and answer “data
for what purpose”. In our future, where the CIO has replaced the CEO and data has become
central to both business success and the health of the workforce, we must make sure our
structures, policies and practices exist for exactly that, and not for the manipulation or
subjugation of others. In addition, we must make sure we do not manipulate data and
information to serve our own personal interests or to support a decision we have already made.
This would be abusive and unethical. There are three areas where we can measure human data
points in order to hold business leaders accountable for the overall health of their organizations:
wellness, health and fitness. Let me say, I have read the research that states the organization
has a greater impact on business success than the individual. Except, this is not a fair argument
because you do not have organizations without individuals. Organizations exist when individual
capabilities are brought to bare in relationship to others. Put simply, without individual
capabilities, you don’t have an organization or workforce, you have a crowd. And a crowd only
becomes a workforce when you organize individuals by their competencies and capabilities in
service to a common cause.
Measure employee experience and the health of the workforce
Our current metrics for measuring human capital and HR are great. They brought recognition
and credibility to the HR function and got us a seat at the table. Now, though, it is time we move
away from a view of people as units and dollars (eg. cost per employee, revenue per employee,
etc) and toward a more human approach that looks at individual competencies, capabilities and
contributions. While we have evolved in the way we value people — skills over experience as
currency — we are not done. We wont be done until we are able to measure and value human
potential. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to humans. It is only when we factor in
personality, intelligence and priorities that we can really personalize the employee experience.
Only then too can we measure wellness, health and fitness in any meaningful way. While these
three areas sound similar, they are, at least in how I define them, different. In addition, the
example data sets I suggest to measure are by no means exhaustive. You can be as creative as
you want, as long as they are relevant to your strategy.
Wellness refers to the state of one’s personal (physical and mental) health. Habits, stressors,
thoughts and feelings affect this part of our selves. To those transactional managers who right
now are wondering why they should care — we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on
health insurance and other benefits each year to repair us; yet sick days and mental illness are
at record highs. This issue has become so important that the conversation has turned from
‘healthcare’ to ‘welcare’, in an effort to address preventive measures to medical conditions. This
is a problem for a population that spends more of its time engaged with work than any other
activity. We can track this area with an index that measures employee opinions and perceptions
of, and satisfaction with, people, work, culture and diversity, inclusion and belonging. We can
collect this information from surveys and reviews, 360 assessments, focus groups and round
tables, and hotlines. For best results, create analytics that look at these data points in relation to
complaints, grievances, hours worked, ‘always on’ indicators, absenteeism and turnover. Once
you have performed an examination of organizational symptoms and diagnosed the problem and
identified areas for improvement, whether physical or mental, you can then prescribe remedies:
psychologists or therapists; nutritionists, personal trainers or gym memberships; a safe room
where individuals can mediate conflicts, meditate and reflect, or power nap; and/or business, life
and financial ‘guidance councilors’. I know snack bars and bean bags are cheaper but you get what you pay for. To use a data science reference, the quality of your output is only as good as
the quality of your input.
Health refers to the state of one’s current professional health. It refers to our competencies
(knowledge, skills and abilities), our capabilities (facilities, resources, relationships) and our
contributions (past achievements). With various assessments, we can identify and measure
styles of work, communication, management and leadership. We can track successes and
failures, and behaviors like engagement (interactions) and incidents (accidents, conflicts), and
distrust (lies, theft, sabotage), and relationships with others both inside (interpersonal) and
outside (community and crowd) of the organization. To understand and harness the chemistry
between people, create analytics that look at relationships and interactions in relation to
achievements. To understand and prevent unhealthy work environments, look at relationships
and interactions in relation to incidents and distrust. After all, it is people who create healthy or
unhealthy workplaces, environments of innovation and risk taking or fear of failure and
discipline.
Fitness refers to an individual’s ability to affect change in both themselves and in their sphere of
influence. It refers to what one is capable of, their future potential. Potential is represented by
the combination of personality, intelligence and priorities. Once again, these can be identified
and measured easily with existing assessment tools. Once we have quantified these data points,
we can measure items like risk appetite and risk approach, as well as, decision styles and mental
models.
With this information, managers can create teams with greater chances of success, and know to
whom it best to assign certain tasks. In addition, a more self aware workforce can hand pick
work that flexes and stretches their capabilities, and engages and challenges their whole selves.
Measure business performance and the health of the company
We already discussed people and potential at the individual level. Once we have measured
individual wellness, health and fitness; we can aggregate the data to create metrics for the
organization. Together, these three areas create the ‘workforce health index’. Except, companies
should also be measured by their purpose (mission, vision, objectives and strategy) and by their
pillars (beliefs, values, principles and policies). These two areas can be measured by how well
they hold up under scrutiny, how they are perceived by stakeholders and by how aligned the
organization is on them. These two areas create the ‘company health index’. We want to
distinguish between the organization’s reputation and the company’s reputation. You can then
create an analytic to view and analyze these two new health indices in relation to your
company’s current Corporate Responsibility Indices to learn how the former index influence the
latter.
We can also create a ‘human capital index’; a true representation of your total human capital
investment. To be clear, the purpose of this human capital index is to track investment in, not
cost of, our people. In addition to current human capital metrics, it can include metrics for innovation capital, social/relationship capital, intelligence capital, and reputation capital.
Calculate these items by aggregating totals for all individual measures; then view and analyze
this new ‘human capital index’ by team, department or whole organization. You can also view
this human capital index in relation to your new health indices to learn how investment in your
workforce affects the health of your workforce.
Think of the incredibly exciting things we can do with this data; new human capital statements
and a new stock exchange where people can invest in a company’s human health and human
capital. It could follow on the heels of the recently approved Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE)
that allows for people to invest in the long term potential of tech companies. Lastly, think of the
implications this information has for your customer and employee value propositions. I want to
reiterate three points now. First, you do not have organizational capability without individual
capability. Second, you must put the information back in the hands of your people. Third, you
must, at all costs and above all else, protect your people’s data.
In closing
When we ask the question “for what purpose”, whether about people, technology or data, we
must always come back to our mission, our work, our strategy. Imagine, if you will, a world
where companies exist to better the human condition, a world where people only ever join
companies whose causes they value and missions they believe in, a world where companies are
measured as much by their purpose, people, potential and pillars as by their financial
performance, a world where an individual or company’s good deeds determines their growth.
What a wonderful world it can be.