Want success in digital times? Become more human again

Many of us have this image of the fast-changing digital times that are coming: we will live in a robotic world where human contact becomes rare, and our jobs will be replaced by robots or algorithms. And although it is true that we will be able to automate many current tasks, many experts believe that we will need and have room to become more human than we are today.

Successful companies will become more human for two big reasons

The first one is linked to the customer’s experience. To be successful in digital times, companies are focusing less on the competitive advantage (as we knew it) and more on the customer’s experience. The companies that will capture the most value will often be the ones that offer the best customer experience. Offering an experience is an emotional thing—our customer needs to have positive feelings when in contact with our offer. What can be automated will probably be automated in the coming years. But that means that human contact will become scarce. And scarcity always increases value. In order to offer the best possible experience to our customer, we’ll need to both automate some tasks where human contact is less important AND offer a great human connection with our customer for more complex tasks.

Just look at yourself. Sometimes you want a rapid, automatic solution (for bank transfers, for ordering a product, for buying insurance), but then for more complex processes, you prefer having a real person that understands and helps you when you need it (a mortgage, a product that doesn’t work, or your house that burned down). You want someone that understands your problem, shows empathy and helps you find a solution—someone with passion, creativity and empathy.

The rapid and constant change also forces us to become more human as leaders

The speed of change has accelerated, and the successful organizations will be the ones that manage to adapt rapidly to these changes. It means that you have to seize opportunities or fix threats faster than your competitors. Adapting to new situations means learning new skills. It also means seeing your market with new eyes and broadening your view. But there are also so many things that take your attention that you can’t do them all. You have to focus. The problems have often become so complex that you need to collaborate better to solve them and you become very creative. Following a centralized decision process will often be too slow to seize an opportunity or avoid a threat in our fast world. People will need to be empowered.

We’ll need to manage our mindsets to reinvent ourselves. We’ll need energy to learn new skills. We’ll need to learn to say no and let go in order to be able to focus on what really matters. We’ll need empathy and listening skills to improve collaboration. We’ll have to become more creative to solve complex problems. We’ll need trust to increase empowerment. WE NEED TO BECOME MORE HUMAN TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN DIGITAL TIMES.

How human is your current organization?

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