In the midst of all the changes we have been living in society, people’s interactions are probably one of the most challenging and underdeveloped improvements in life.
Since the Industrial Revolutions, governors and businesspeople have been promising to deliver better living standards to all humanity on Earth by replacing labor intensive activities with technology-based artefacts and systems. According to this futuristic vision, families would enjoy more time for physical activities, entertainment, learning and love. By the end of this fantastic journey, robots would be allocated to every technical task possible, keeping people out of any type of work, including manufacturing, farming, management and services. We would finally live as Roman aristocratic nobles – this time with no requirements for human slavery.
So far, even though technology has indeed accomplished several goals regarding automation of humanity’s daily routines in several aspects of our lives, enhancing by far our living standards, it seems fair to state that we are not working fewer hours to enjoy these wonderful white spaces in our days and nights. I still remember my grandfather closing his small grocery shop by 5pm, not having to serve any new customers, and my father arriving home around 7pm with no possibility of calling his office or his clients. With the advent of Internet, boundaries between work and spare time no longer exist– everything is concurrent, urgent and fuzzy. Although our brain is not ready to operate in a multitasking mode, we are handling dozens of things at the same time and place.
Getting back to people interactions, from the late 18th century to the beginning of 20th century, the uprising of large companies structured in layers, spans of control, systems and rules created white-collar and blue-collar human species in the corporate world. At the same time, the Maintenance Department focused on machines and equipment; the Employee Department was created to design policies, define rules, evaluate productivity, train skills, and calibrate compensation.
Eventually, these Employee Departments were relabelled as Human Resources with more sophisticated tools and perspectives. Then, more recently, Human Capital has been the trendy label that encompasses every complexity regarding people management.
Regardless of labels and models, at least in my opinion, companies have been facing one big question around people management: Staff versus Stuff.
As one company grows, perspectives between staff and stuff can be blurred. Bosses measure power by the size of their headcount, as if they were counting soldiers or, even worse, cattle. The lack of perspective increases as the distance between layers diminishes affection and human connection. That’s when staff become just stuff.
Today, societies, companies and people are dealing with two major drivers of change: digital transformation and social ethical transition. The first has been “stuffizing” everything, by accelerating the replacement of humans by robots enhanced with artificial intelligence in all aspects of life – suddenly, in corporate offices, disciplined headcount is losing relevance compared to cloudy algorithms. The second is the dramatically changing human perspective on life and death, as egocentrism overcomes historical individual commitment to families, communities, nations and God – paradoxically, people are seeking their human consciousness and cultivating emotional attachments inside mobile phones.
As companies evolve, what will happen to their people? Digital transformation and ethical transition are still just beginning to disrupt everything we know about people management. Robots will probably bring pressure bear to transform staff into stuff, highlighting efficiency, safety and quality gains. Human talent will fight not to be designated as “stuff”, trying to find meaning, relevance, and engagement in workplaces.
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Daniel Augusto Motta, PhD, MSc
Founder & CEO BMI Blue Management Institute
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