In the early days of COVID-19, CEOs and other leaders of organizations told their employees to practice empathy and compassion in managing relationships with customers, partners, and employees. At the time, we were collectively going through a traumatic experience with lots of unknowns, and many thought it was the best approach to maintaining these relationships. For some of us, like salespeople, this came naturally, as most salespeople understand the importance of empathy, listening to customers. But for the rest of us, it was a chance to lean into the human qualities and characteristics that we all have that were sorely needed during a time of distress.
As we move to a post-COVID world and begin to think about how to move forward amidst all the change and transformation that has taken place in the workplace, I can’t help but think that if we take away anything from this experience it’s this – the innately human skills we demonstrated to one another of the past 18 months were sorely needed in this difficult time, but why did it take such a long time for us to acknowledge this? Why did it take a global pandemic for us to wake up to realize that we needed to be empathetic? And how come we needed so much time, investment and training to learn how to be empathetic, compassionate, and to learn how to communicate with others? Aren’t these things that we all should have been doing?
During my time as a consultant, I worked on a handful of digital and organizational transformation projects where we were developing a strategy for change and then building programs to implement it throughout an organization. In almost all cases, this meant using technology to do things differently that would help the business drive efficiency, cost improvement, or revenue growth. To communicate clearly with our clients, we often used a framework called PPT: “People, Process, Technology.” It was a simple way to help people understand how things were changing across dimensions they understood. Later on, I worked at a technology software company, where our job was to again, enact change – to take them from a manual process, and to automate it through the use of technology. Again, the framework of PPT was often helpful in communicating the change.
In both instances, I worked with numerous customers and clients where the change and transformation was successful, but in both cases I also worked with clients that failed. This is not a surprise, as it has been reported that up to 70% of transformation projects inevitably fail to meet the desired outcomes they were designed for. My experience mirrors the research, in that oftentimes, the failure point is the people – or the lack of investment in the people component. While the “People, Process, Technology” framework puts people first, the transformation we made clearly didn’t.
By now, you’ve probably heard about the 4th Industrial Revolution, and how the impact of globalization, technology innovation, and environmental shifts are transforming our world and our workplace. The pandemic accelerated these shifts, as McKinsey is estimating that up to 25% more jobs will be automated than previously expected. This, combined with the transformation to the world and work as a result of COVID-19 put organizations and individuals in a precarious spot. As we look to a world of work that continues to change fast and includes an increasing amount of automation and technology and less reliance on human labor, how do we ensure that people have the skills they need in order to thrive and contribute to the changing world of work? And what can people, especially those entering the workforce or making career transitions do and focus on in order to be successful in this ever changing world?
The second issue of the World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs” report predicts the loss of 75 million jobs by 2025. But it also predicts the creation of 133 million jobs thanks to the digital revolution. While we are still studying the impact that COVID-19 and our new world of work will have on that number, the report makes it increasingly clear that the best thing we can do right now is to focus on the skills that make us uniquely human. Based on the WEF analysis, skills like active learning, emotional intelligence, and communication are things we as humans can focus on.
The Rise of People First
Going back to the early days of the global pandemic, what I found unique about that time is that so much of what we do each day is figuring out what tasks to do, what deliverables to complete, and what meetings to schedule. Much like my days in consulting and in enterprise software, we focus so much on the Process and Technology, and then focus last on the People. But during those early days of COVID instead, it forced us to be human and to be people first – to ask people how they were doing, to listen first, instead of speaking, to practice empathy by seeking to understand someone else’s condition, and to collaborate and problem solve, to come up with solutions that we couldn’t find the answer to quickly because we were truly encountering something that was “unprecedented.”
We are still learning what the future of work holds, but as we re-enter this new world of work, start our careers, or transition to new ones, I would encourage everyone to take a people-first approach to doing their work and navigating their career. This means focusing on developing skills that are uniquely human, and working in ways that allow us to effectively work well with other people.
Companies often say that people/talent are our most important asset. I would argue that while people are an important asset, what differentiates it are the unique relationships that people have with each other (and machines) that make it unique. Spending your time being-people first is my advice to navigate and thrive in this future of work. Here are four ways you can do that:
1.Focus on Human Skills
Deloitte has projected that soft skill intensive occupations will account for two-thirds of all jobs by 2030. Why is this? Some have argued that because machines have started to replace human jobs, it’s important that humans work on their “human skills” in order to remain competitive. More importantly, many experts believe that rather than fully substituting humans, machines and humans will work alongside each other. For example, take a human skill like empathy, something difficult for a machine to do, but something that humans are capable of. Empathy matters because when leaders demonstrate compassion and willingness to not just understand, but to actively help their people, through good times and bad, employees will work harder for their leaders. Furthermore, research from the Center for Creative Leadership in 2007 has shown that when leaders demonstrate empathy, they are positively correlated with job performance. Other skills that are human include, learning agility, interpersonal communications, resilience, and creativity, all things that are by their nature, innately human.
2.Invest the time in your relationships with other people
Even in a world of robots and automation, people and employees will still have an important role to play, which is why it’s critical to invest time in developing relationships with other people at work. As Jen Fisher and Anh Phillips, Co-Authors of Work Better Together, point out, technology was the way that we were able to stay connected during the pandemic to build relationships. But according to the co-authors, relying on technology alone isn’t enough, we have to actively engage with others to achieve results in the workplace, which means we need to invest in what they call, “trusted teams”. These days, most work involves cross-functional teaming, and learning how to work with diverse groups of people to achieve a goal or outcome is the rule, not the exception. But showing up and expecting everything is going to go swimmingly is not going to yield exceptional outcomes. Instead, just like you would invest time in your personal life in your relationships, it’s critical to invest time in your work relationships. In a hybrid environment, virtual coffees and digital check-ins are common and normal, and critical to the projects you are working on.
3.Spend Time With The Right People
Motivational speaker Jim Rohn famously said that “we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. When it comes to relationships, we are greatly influenced for better or worse, the people we spend the most time with. It affects our way of thinking, our self-esteem, and our decisions. Of course, everyone is their own person, but research has shown that we’re more affected by our environment than we think.
With this in mind, think about who you are spending the most time with in your workplace and career, and how that impacts the work you do, your overall well being, and your opportunity for growth. With intention, you can proactively decide what other people you want to align with, to increase your learnings, conversations, connections, and impact in your work.
4.Take on Responsibilities and Projects That Involve People
Kevin Roose, author of Futureproof, 9 rules of Humans in The Age of Automation, studied how AI and machines are impacting the workplace and workforce, and urges people to take on projects and responsibilities that are “surprising, social, and scarce.” These are all types of responsibilities that involve working with other people. Consider looking for projects or responsibilities in your job that involve human skills and working with others, because these are places where people can thrive.
Today’s workplace is marked by adaptability, a mindset that is not going to lose value any time soon. But even as our future of work unfolds, focusing on being people first, and on skills and responsibilities that are human, employees can thrive in this new world of work.
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