In a World Dominated by Tech, Invest in Your Humanity

We are living in a time of rapid technological growth without complementary rapid growth in our commitment to becoming more human. What could possibly go wrong? The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Amazon joined other tech giants in taking the next painful, logical step in the future of work, laying off 14,000 employees, with plans to reduce up to 10% of its white collar workforce. We have ample evidence that AI can do things better than humans, in two ways.

• AI does “synthetic intelligence” better, from pattern recognition, to generative combining, to repetitive process iterations on mind-boggling quantities of information. This is neither the application of skills to problems nor spontaneous creativity, it is more like a snapshot capturing the most likely solutions, based on all available information, including rules for managing the information given by some smart human. AI processes information non-sequentially, (hence the snapshot), and it does this (bonus!) without fatigue, irritation, or error. This is why AI essays are often high in fluency, but low in meaning. AI creates facsimiles of essays, and it feels like that. (Uncanny valley essays!)

• Using AI reduces layers of management, developed over years, as humans created (now unnecessary) processes and the bureaucracies once needed to manage this sort of work together. Amazon’s shift to AI will allow them to “operate like the world’s largest start-up,” — leaner, with action and decision making authority invested in small, flexible teams, using better information, presumably, as the basis for decisions. AI can do well what human “bureaucracies” do very poorly. Humans make things more complicated when trying to share, pass, and process important (and unimportant) stuff. (We are animals, and so, slow, territorial, and fearful. This has to be a part of the issue.)

What People do Best

So what do people do better than AI? Humans are better at values based decision making and acting, judgments involving real physical contexts and other humans, empathy and intuition, sensemaking in ambiguity, judgment in the context of conflicting values, and creativity. (Think of the very good reasons for the scramble to protect young people from abusive “mentoring” relationships with AI.) Humans have “existential and ethical intelligence.” Now is time to invest in becoming better humans. Our human qualities have suddenly become essential to our market value. If this drives us back to ourselves, our communities, and a deeper commitment to what matters, than AI is more than a productivity tool, it is an opportunity to become better at being human.

Being Better Humans

We can become better humans. Bonus — this seems to be a better option than competing with technology, although becoming better at using AI well offers us a distinct, much discussed, productivity advantage. So how do we become better humans? Commit to curiosity as a first step. We are most human when we are learning and growing. This starts with curiosity and a belief in our own ability to learn. Start with simple questions. What matters most to you? Which values drive you in different contexts? When do you go on autopilot and refuse to think or feel? What are you passionate about? What do you want more of? What do you want less of? Seriously.

Our Blind Spots Stifle Learning, Excellence and Creativity

Commit to discovering your “blind spots” as a second step. We filter information to prevent ourselves from changing. Lucky mammals, we are hard wired both to be able to change and adapt and also to resist change. We tend to cling to our habitual protections. An executive I was coaching last week shared — “I can see people stop themselves from telling me what they really think, and I need us to be more candid as a team.” I pressed, asking what happened when feedback was offered in the past. As you might expect, it was not greeted with enthusiasm and excitement. Feedback jumpstarts learning about blind spots, so start by making it easy for others to offer. What would happen if you made a commitment to responding with gratitude and enthusiasm whenever you are offered feedback. What might you hear? Remember we have made ourselves who we are in many ways. What you have pushed away is what will teach you the most. So open up to inputs. Sit with them. Decide what value they hold.

The Good News: Humans are Creative, Courageous, and Capable of Change

This is not advice to “be yourself.” “This is who I am” is often an excuse not to grow; it is a story we tell ourselves about how solid and “machine-like” we are. On the contrary, we humans are creative and fully capable of change. Rigidity and lack of flexibility is a sign of malfunction. We are adaptive. To be more human, adopt the goal of continuous improvement. Self-mastery — understood as responding ever better (including with novel approaches) to the challenges of the present moment — is our lifelong opportunity. Self-mastery requires discipline. We could also call it “character development” because we each have a nature (observable to others, though often not to us), and our characters are improvable.

Disciplines for self-mastery:

• Manage your attention. Without control over your attention, you can become quite unaware of what you are thinking, feeling, and doing. Others are eager to control your attention, so be serious about this.

• Control your own actions (talking is an action, and so is listening). Self-control and openness will allow you to learn.

• Take in the information you need to be whole and to act sensibly, not the whole world of information. Remember that your body has information that is very relevant for you.

• Learn which contexts require research and analysis, and which contexts do not, and commit to acting accordingly.

Valuing Differences is a Core Team and Organizational Value

How do human beings work together effectively? Transparency and accountability are key, but so is respect for differences. Without appreciating the different strengths, values, and capabilities that each person brings, we cannot collaborate effectively. In teamwork, we recognize our own capabilities and weaknesses, and we rely on others, recognizing their capabilities. Healthy teams are stronger because they are able to leverage the strengths of different individuals to achieve agreed upon goals. Teams of individuals who see things differently, and engage honestly and openly, with accountability, have better outcomes.

Better Individuals→ Better Teams→ Better Organizations

The tech companies know that the most effective teams are small and empowered. The Kiev Independent reported recently that Ukraine has even tried to shift to a “corp command” model. Though hampered by legacy operational groupings, expect other militaries to pursue similar efficiencies. Technology is enabling more sensible human hierarchies. This shift is likely to accelerate in any organization that prioritizes results. It is not hard to understand why it works. People with very different capabilities and strengths, working in small, creative and flexible teams, pursuing shared goals, are smarter and more capable. They engage in constructive disagreement when necessary to do the best they can do collectively and as individuals. Teamwork. Simple. Not easy.

The Ethical Capital Quotient: Mapping Value Creation

Gaining efficiencies in teams takes more than just cascading goals, it takes an understanding of shared values as the human decision making context. I use a proprietary framework, the Ethical Capital Quotient, (ECQ), for aligning values (ten groupings with ten dimensions for each from “autonomy — community” to “safety -- risk”) along 3 dimensions — individual, team, and organization. This tool can be used to measure culture and map alignment to predict efficiency. The ECQ is a good first step in diagnosing culture challenges to begin to address them. It assumes a baseline of values — transparency, accountability, and respect for difference — as foundational requirements, measured separately. Here’s how it works:

1. Map values (up to 5) for each individual, (we come with these), then for each team (yes, teams should embrace specific values related to their goals), to established organizational values. (Determining these is a first step, if they are not already identified.)

2. Identify gaps and “misses.” (I create a numerical rating for each value alignment chain. By the way, there are times when individuals simply report that organizational values are not known or not upheld in fact. This is a finding.)

3. Determine areas where team values should or must diverge from organizational values (if any). Do the same for individuals.

4. Map organizational alignment based on team values. The result is a new, values-based organizational chart reflecting which teams are leading in specific values areas.

The Payoff of Values Mapping

• Values mapping allow us to spot conflicts and address them before they result in organizational misalignment at the team and individual level.

  • For example, it is absolutely predictable that the sales team at a pharma company will be less risk averse than the research team but seeing how that plays out in specific team values can mitigate conflicts that might otherwise feel personal.

  • An individual with a strong desire for autonomy may not work as well on a team where a high degree of collaboration is needed.

• Values mapping allows for conversations and interventions to make clear which values are non-negotiable and which are helpful expressions of organizational values that the company is committed to making room for. To put it bluntly, organizational values can become 1) pointless or 2) weapons (“we’re more courageous - no we’re more courageous”) if their purpose and expression is not understood in the context of goals. This process of ECQ development is also a process of culture mapping — making explicit why we care about what we care about and how that connects across functions.

• Improvement in values alignment is a very strong indicator of future performance. This metric can become very useful.

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your feedback, as always.

Cindy