Series 1: Close To Us // Episode 3: Business and People
“This is a People’s Business” it was the closing remark after visiting Russell at his Ohio plant. How often do we forget this simple statement?
People are the heart and the core of business; furthermore, I would say that the word “Business” would be meaningless if we take away the “People” from the play.
Over the past decade, technology has been transforming the way business is carried out. We have been pushed to see how many “people’s” job have been replaced, instead of focusing on how much more “people” we need to continue developing businesses.
As a matter of fact as correctly elaborated in the HBR article by Megan Beck and Barry Libert, in a world run by AI we would need more EI. Emotional intelligence is a feature that is part of ourselves as human beings but we are taught to limit it or control it for a “higher good” (remember Supertramp's The Logical Song?!?!)
The lack of understanding of the potentials of EI is, for me, the main single reason why large corporation will be inherently disrupted in the coming years ("the future of corporations").
I arrived to the above conclusion, by reading the words of two distinct tech visionaries, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk (Wired interview on Mission to Mars). Both pointed at the “process” as the culprit of killing people’s motivation. Large Corporations who have been in business for the multiple decades have adopted the “management by process” as the main mantra. Anyhow as both JB and EM say, process will become a behemoth which will push the most creative and most advanced minds out.
The first effect is a significant drop of over all companies EI and consequently a natural selection of non-risk-takers, which will tend to contribute the least possible, trading time for money, to a visionary growth plan. Creativity and EI are not simple to manage if we try to fit a person in a pre-constituted box.
Furthermore, JB highlights the 5 pillars for a successful company. The first one has caught my attention because, I personally see it as the cornerstone: True Customer Obsession. To push an organization to be customer-centric it takes openness to let your people lead. Each one of us is a potential customer and we are directly exposed to disruptive solutions on daily basis. Together with High-Velocity Decision Making, it will be possible to enhance those who can bear stress and are willing to go beyond the present barriers and challenge the statu quo. The latest United Airlines case shows exactly the opposite: a Captain of a flight/plane is responsible for the lives of hundreds of people but can not intervene and "engage" more than 800$ to "accommodate" a passenger.
Success is the opposite of irrelevance. To attain success, though, it takes vision and patience (read Joe Gebbia's interview with La Nación).
So we from Bridging Value, like to share few advices if you are:
An employee trading time for money: CHANGE!!!
A manager whose employees are just fitting a box: BURN THE BOX!!!
An HR Manager in a large corporation: UPSET THE PROCESS!!!
An Entrepreneur: DISRUPT YOURSELF and YOUR TEAMS!!!
Remember: people are NOT Human Resources but Human Potentials!!
If you need an external eye to help you transition this path, contact us at info@bridgingvalue.com
