According to Clayton Christensen of Harvard’s Business School, “Disruption displaces an existing market, industry, or technology and produces something new and more efficient and worthwhile. It is at once destructive and creative.”
Disruption creates opportunity!
Current projections forecast over the next two decades 47% of US workers are at a high risk of automation.
We need to think differently about who we are serving, what we are serving, why we are serving it, how we are acquiring talent, and where we are enabling them to best serve our customers.
We need to go into the future with our eyes wide open - from manufacturing robotics to drone operated farms to AI driven transactional activities - everyone will be replaceable! At least in their current jobs. Fortunately, there is an upside. While a large number of the mundane and repetitive roles may be transitioned to automation, the upside is an even larger generation of creative and innovative positions will be required to keep up with the explosion of "human" enterprise.
How many of you are transhuman?
OK, let me rephrase that a little. Do you wear glasses, have a pacemaker or a dental implant or joint replacement? Did you ask Siri or Alexa a question today, use Google maps to get somewhere, or use a computer to do anything? If you answered yes to any of these or a myriad of other ways of enhancing yourself or prolonging your life, you are transhuman.
Transhumanism is an international philosophical movement promoting the belief or theory that the human race can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations. While several dystopian movies and books have painted transhumanism as evil or at worst the end of mankind as we know it; in reality, it is a lot less sinister, and though not originally under that term, dates back centuries. For talent management it means advancing traditional HR to include resources that are innately transhuman and those that are not human at all.
Human Resource organizations have been dealing with the impact of transhumanism for decades. The difference today is we have added to the equation Artificial Intelligence, advanced robotics, and physical modifications at an accelerated rate; permeating organizations at all levels, from transactional activities to fully automated manufacturing. And, for those of you at the top of the food chain, note that participants in a survey conducted in 2019 by the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Software and Society expect artificial intelligence machines will be part of companies’ boards of directors by 2026.
To support all our changing world Human Resources needs an upgrade.
According to Yuval Noah Harari, Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem the most important question in 21st-century economics is:
“What should we do with all the potentially unemployable class of people, once we have AI that can do almost everything better than humans?”
Well, here’s a little secret, if we eliminate all the human workers, no one will be able to buy all the products created by the robots. Zero sum game.
In today’s business environment, strategic thinking, complex problem solving and creativity are as important as technical skills and quality control.
Organizations have the responsibility of helping their workforce understand how AI and robotics can help enhance productivity and job satisfaction, and reassure them that they have a crucial role in future business working alongside the technology, rather than being replaced by it. The physiological and, perhaps more staggering, psychological impact of these changes may require adding an entirely new dimension to the care of employees.
We are shifting from a world where men and women are merely cogs in a manufacturing process to a world where empathy and community is highly valued as we return to being human.
We are in an age of imagination, where intelligence augmentation and automation frees up time for human beings to add value through consulting and creative thinking while the machines do the mundane and repetitive tasks.
In fact, there’s a “factory of the future” being built in Shanghai to build “collaborative automation solutions” — known as cobots — that work with humans instead of replacing them.
Is your organization positioned to effectively recruit and manage robots, cyborgs and their human counterparts?
Transhuman employees will develop personal toolkits of their capability profiles, virtual personas, AI support, robotic process automation and other enhancements to increase their individual and team capabilities.
Across the globe, the workforce is increasing in diversity by gender, ethnicity, culture, religion, sexual identification, ideas and other ways we are not even aware of yet. Transhumanism has the potential to allow us to physically or virtually be whatever we want.
Will transhumanism become a movement for physical and or mental augmentation on demand? Will people demand equality through augmentation in reverse of previous generation’s desires to be more “normal?” How will this impact talent recruitment?
Employees are already using avatars, language software and conversational interfaces to work and speak with team members.
Current technology reduces the need for human managers to assemble teams and monitor performance. One example is the hack-a-thon movement where teams self-organize, using technology to help them create more than the sum of their parts. This new environment requires leaders to evolve HR by investing in algorithms that identify worker skills and competencies, and modify worker profile tools to display portfolios of work rather than job titles.
Leaders will have to determine where they require human and machine partnerships. We will even use technology to assess when people have worked too much and when they need to recharge by monitoring their health apps. Gen Alpha will never know a world without AI or IoT or, depending on whether current trends play out, physical augmentation (we already have Alexa ear buds for knowledge retrieval). They are their way to be the next evolutionary step for humanity. To support their needs and the needs of the rest of the workforce requires a new way of thinking and a business role to match.
We call this new functional group Transhuman Resources.
Right now, today, we have technology that can ‘resurrect’ people as ‘evergreen’ digital personas with whom we can practice a variety of skills to solve the wickedly complex human conditions and business problems we face in a safe environment. These personas are fully simulated customers, employees, or significant influencers that learn and evolve over time. We will work with and learn from them as easily as with other real humans.
Soffos.ai, for example, learns as it teaches. What the machine cannot solve automatically is transferred to human experts to teach the machines until they can in turn develop solutions and teach us. AI is good at detecting patterns in data and identifying trends. AI is not yet good at determining motive or understanding human emotions or addressing ambiguity. Humans are. Working together we get the best both sides have to offer.
With AI powered servers of knowledge and procedures, everyone in your organization can have the information they need at the tip of their fingers, and any new knowledge they create will be automatically organized.
In 1942, Isaac Asimov set forth his three laws of robotics:
Now that the talent pipeline will include AI and cobots working with their human counterparts throughout organizations, including strategic level positions, at what point do these three laws override corporate decisions that by their nature conflict with the First Law?
And, at what point are humans going to be forced to comply with these same laws?
We are becoming interdependent. All parts making up the whole. Not singular. Transhuman.
In addition to the COVID-19 virus, 2020 will be known as the year of diversity and inclusion – no longer bound by race, gender, language, disability, area of specialization, etc. and now transhumanism may allow us to physically or virtually be whatever we want.
Humans are social creatures. We tend to flock to those like ourselves. We have seen a push to homogenize all social groups, however, in a world without boundaries, we will invent our own.
We must use inclusiveness as a deliberate action to create areas of mutual interest. We want to construct specific business oriented boundaries to provide environments for diverse teams to foster successful innovation.
Transhuman behavior is by nature inclusive. Businesses need to gather a diverse mix of human and non-human team members and actively take steps to align your strategies by involving all parts of your organization. Successful organizations see the competitive advantage of exclusivity and the benefit of multiple minds. Social distancing makes this mix even more important and more challenging as we compete for attention in Zoom meetings; the party is only a success if everyone is participating in the experience.
Transhumanism includes all of us and is controlled by none of us. It is self-organizing and evolving at the speed of technology and human adaptation. Awareness of its existence and impact will differentiate the success rate of businesses and our employees tomorrow and over the next several decades.
So, how can we prepare for these changes?
AI and robotics are advancing rapidly, but will still take time for full impact. Take advantage of the moment and help your organization…
Promote the transhuman career cycle and recognize the employee’s whole value.
Enhance social learning and develop team players.
Teach everyone how to work with technology and learn to code if possible.
Increase competence, confidence, and consistency; and, build the human factor of your organization.
Improve your employee experience and embrace transformation technologies
Evolve from Human Resources to Transhuman Resources