The Human Hub: Reflection and Resilience

Every month we focus on two particular aspect of human nature as our themes.  For June, our themes are Reflection and Resilience.  

Reflection: ‘the throwing back by a body or surface, of light, heat or sound without absorbing it’, ‘serious thought or consideration’.  

Resilience:  ‘the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness, and the ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape; elasticity'.

These two go hand-in-hand.  

Our ability to carve out the space to consider how we’re feeling, whether what we’re doing is the right thing, to review our sense of satisfaction or joy – is often viewed as a luxury.  For time-poor professionals, its regularly something that gets pushed to the bottom of the list.  Without opportunities to reflect, our capacity to safely withstand the pressures we all face becomes strained before we realise it. 

Resilience is not about taking everything thrown at us.  It is about being conscious about what we can and will be able to take, without changing ourselves.  And being clear about what we can’t and don’t want to take, because we’ve considered it and made a decision about it.  

Feeling in control of your time, your life, and your decisions enables all of us to feel more positive and be more impactful in our professional and personal lives.

Artificial Intelligence is here

We are on the cusp – seeing how new realities are developing in front of our eyes, and how we need to get ahead of that to shape those realities into ones that are positive, equitable and regenerative.  

Nothing more clearly showed the global impact of this than Covid 19, which appeared and extremely quickly created a new reality that many of us had no control or influence over.  We may like to think we have ‘bested’ it, but really we’ve just learnt to live with it as its impact has abated. 

Are we really more prepared for the next pandemic?

And now we have seen the emergence and very very fast adoption of Large Language Models (like ChatGPT4).  Something emerges (as if by magic) and the hand-breaks go on across the world because of very real concerns.  But the reality is, its already out there.  Companies and individuals have been purposefully building and refining it for years!

How long have we talked about Artificial Intelligence, been entertained and scared by movies about it, and talked a lot about what it might mean for jobs, for national and global security? 

Yet we’re surprised that its now here, there appears to be little accountability for that from the organisations or individuals who consciously built it, and there is a collective citizen-wide feeling that we’re no longer in control.

So how can we take some of the heat and anxiety out of the debate, how can we start to rebalance the discussions, and focus on impact and outcomes in a constructive way that deals with the both the now and the future, rather than relitigating what has already happened?

Acknowledging that the fear is real and valid, that the opportunities are there, that the risks are already eventuating...that is half the challenge.  Opposing views spat across a rhetorical divide are meaningless. 

We need to look for what unites us - I would suggest what unites us is our humanity, our need for a planet like Earth to sustain us, and our sense of loyalty, love and care for the people that matter to us. 

Regardless of whether you believe AI is the best thing since fire was invented, or the thing that will bring down humanity, we are truly all in this together.

Increasingly, we are seeing that people want purpose and meaning in the work they do, respect and dignity in the way they experience that work, and some sense that there is a future.   

That comes together in the movements towards sustainable consumption, regenerative and circular economies and supply chains.  And workers and consumers looking at the connections across countries, communities, industries, wanting those to be transparent, valuable and constructively long term.  

The Global Goals for Sustainable Development are no longer seen as just for ‘developing countries’, they’re pertinent for everyone (they always were, it’s the perception that has shifted!).

And what this shift requires is thinking that is both outside and between the ‘boxes’ that make up our working and personal lives. Or boxes that cement us on opposing sides of a debate.  Or geographical boxes that artificially create a sense of separation from others...the boxes go on and on.

In an organisational context – the boxes and systems can and do include:

• Visioning and strategic decision-making that considers the wider good and the longer-term good - for citizens, biodiversity, the planet - not just the government or shareholders of the day.
• Talent sourcing and acquisition approaches – what else can we do? Are we truly as inclusive and expansive about opportunities and where to find talent as we can be?  An example of this is Virtual workers – what more can we do to liberate geographical biases to clear away barriers for skilled workers around the world to have access to jobs that really do not require physical proximity?
• Why do we continue to run separate entirely organisations when we could collaborate more e.g. how long have we been talking about joining up contact centres (with all the barriers of non-compatible tech, privacy concerns, training and knowledge requirements of customer-facing workers) – are these barriers really insurmountable?
• Leadership and retention – are we prioritising support for leaders to lead as people need to be led (with humanity, authenticity, growth-mindsets) and organising the jobs/work around the talent to keep them interested, engaged and feeding good ideas and growth opportunities back in?

AI is 'out of the box' - it was the minute someone first started developing it.  Now we see competitive 'boxes' - ChatGPT, Google, Microsoft and others - all competing that their box of tricks and tools will become dominant. 

But the real issue here is not which one, its that any one will dominate. 

Because up until now, its humanity that has dominated the planet, and very quickly that position can be usurped and humanity may quickly become the last thing that AI believes the planet needs.  (That went very dark there I know!)

Coming back to the idea of rhetoric and story-telling to shape the reality – have we got the settings right (values and measures, ways of working, incentives, purpose), do we have the right people and culture in our organisations and governments, and are we having the right conversations to consider the ways forward that work in the future not just now (the near past)?

It really does start with individuals coming together and changing the settings and the dialogue - what and how we talk to each other, about topics that matter - that is what can start to shift the dial. 

Reflecting, consciously deciding what we can and won't take, and retaining our resilience through our value, purpose and humanity.

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