Humility: The Value of Organizational Interaction

We currently live in a period where machines and software is taking over many things that required manual labour. Artificial intelligence is making humans redefine their role in their current jobs.

Estimations have been made about job losses and many people have caught the luddite syndrome (This means people are afraid about technology making their labour obsolete). I don’t think their fear is in order.

Technology will always make life easier and better. That has been the traditional role of technology. The traditional roles of humans lie in leading the process of value creation.

Yuval Harari in his book; Homo Deus talks about how mountains of data and manipulation of same is giving technology firms a chance to improve longevity for humans. At the end of the day, the good we can derive from technology must outweigh the downsides provided we lead the process using our soft skills. .

The Homo Sapiens (Thinking Man) is leading the earth and other planets because of the ability for collaboration. The most important value for humans has been the value of interaction. When we interact, we achieve great things.

The Wealth of Nations was written in a Coffee shop. Adam Smith used to bounce his ideas off his coffee drinking friends in Scotland. That seminal work is a product of many brains.  America was designed largely through interactions between James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay which was published in the federalist papers. Many life changing inventions/innovations originated from Bell Labs, CERN, ARPANET, Apple, Yahoo etc.

Because of the historical benefit of human interaction, many organizations create campuses and design their offices to increase chances for human interaction and serendipity.

The importance of interactions cannot be overemphasized. However, some organizations may not benefit from it. Many factors are responsible for this.  Examples are;

1.       Ego:

Individuals who have ego may not be willing to learn from the environment and other colleagues. They may see learning as a threat because they have a dogmatic belief in their abilities. It is very hard for an individual to be smarter than his customers or the crowd.

In the age we live in, ego remains a stumbling block to learning and the required interactions for doing great work.

2.       Rewards and Politics.

Leaders reinforce culture through the things they reward.  If personal effort is placed above teamwork, people won’t interact on behalf of the company. They will be set against themselves through pursuit of personal achievement.

Members of staff won’t share knowledge with themselves or the organization. Ultimately, this hampers learning and creativity.

Leaders must find a way to allow ideas flow, to promote interactions and reward more of team efforts. Individuals will stand out, but teams must be given priority.

3.       Design Flow of Ideas (No Stupid Ideas)

Ed Catmull in his book; Creativity Inc emphasized the need to design organization’s so that ideas can come from anywhere. This means teams should become cross-functional so that ideas can be cross-pollinated.

Organizations must also create a safety mechanism to ensure people don’t get ridiculed for their ideas.

I have seen ideas that were stupid 5 years ago become profit center’s today. No Idea is Stupid.

All these factors point to the need for organizations to design for humility. Humility has many definitions, but in this context, it is simply assuming that you don’t know everything. However, a piece of the puzzle may be with you.

Organizations should not assume that the answer lies with one person. The strongest organizations are the ones that rely on people collectively.

If organizations want to tap from the wisdom of the crowd, they have to design their structure for interaction and humility.