The de-humanisation of business

I’ve just got back from a rugby mad, typhoon damaged Japan – a country of incredible contrasts with a population that sees service as something to be honoured.  I made a deliberate choice to go social media free during the (typhoon induced) 4 weeks away and I returned to the UK with a clearer mind than when I left.

That digital break linked with the Japanese emphasis on personal service led me to consider what I do as a leadership consultant and coach and how as we've become increasingly automated and digitised, the disconnects we have in a western society in our personal and professional lives grow large.  We become disassociated from our humanity.

​Bringing the human back into business
When talking to other rugby fans about my work with the Thinking Environment, one said, “you bring the human back into business.”  Clearly the lack of humanity he experienced in the business  world was a stark disconnect for him.

I know that his is not a unique experience. From a psychological viewpoint we need to make personal connections if we are to maintain a healthy mind/body balance and the workplace today is driving that human connection out of the equation.  It is de-humanising business.  Is it any wonder that productivity is moribund or declining whilst workplace stress is increasing? 
 
Reconnecting for a healthy mind/healthy body
We must all make effort to spark those connections again and I’ve taken a decision to use the phone wherever possible to make those human connections.  Today I made 6 calls instead of compiling 6 emails, made personal connections with 6 people, had conversations to clarify understandings and check assumptions and got answers to questions in a shorter time frame than if we’d been playing email ping-pong.  Not only do I feel more alive and liberated by having those personal contacts, more connected to my community and less digitised, disassociated and automated, but it’s saved me time and made me more productive.


From a Learning Organisation to Thinking Organisation
This is what I like about the Thinking Environment too, that element of human contact and the humanity it brings back into the workplace.  The use of emails and SMS builds barriers to synergistic thought whereas in a Thinking Environment we connect with our ‘tribe’ in a way that liberates us and enhances our creativity.  It allows us time to think, it allows us to creatively solve problems, it allows us to de-stress as we allow the brain to work how it’s designed to work.  It allows us to re-humanise business.
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I’ve now given myself two challenges.   The first is to actively reconnect with my ‘tribe’ through personal as opposed to digital conversations.  The second is to champion a change throughout my business connections so that they move from aspiring to being a Learning Organisation to being a Thinking Organisation.  What will you do to reconnect with your ‘tribe’?

To find out more about how you can become a Thinking Organisation, get in touch.