Succeeding in The Great Transition
(People + Technology = Human Behavior 2.0)
Do you find yourself overwhelmed by being pulled between running to meetings, sending emails, texting, or getting on the app and posting, all while trying to get work that needs to be done completed? This is the beginning of what I’m calling the GREAT TRANSITION.
The solutions to this bombardment of connectivity have been to develop more efficient connective tools such as instant messaging, video conferencing, document sharing, technological platforms of shopping, servicing, distribution, accounting, operations, media, intranet or whatever SAS, SAP, or SaaS, APPs, cloud tools and now AI Agent. Each is meant to enable simultaneous, multi-lateral interaction, streamlined processes and responsiveness.
Many of us feel like we’re working longer hours with more responsibility with increased access requiring more immediate responses. The nostalgic idea of having a closed door or a door to close rarely exists. Many of us work with more people we’ve never met and producing more while having increased responsibility and accountability to a larger population of workers with less influence and control.
The price of staying in the labor force today and working toward in the GREAT TRANSITION is to be in a constant state of learning and evolution.
Some people handle transition, ambiguity and tenuousness with ease and grace, while most of us are on a spectrum of okay-to-crazy. Some are more stressed than others, see my work on The Relationship of Personality Trait and Job Strain for virtual Workers. Some feel more overwhelmed, over-worked, underappreciated, or that more effort is exhibited than rewards received. Still, some people are over-compensating by working more intensely, for longer hours, and still feel no relief.
Throughout this Human + Technology = Human Behavior series, we refer to 2nd wave middle as the human part of the 2nd wave business transformation (as defined by Daugherty and Wilson in Human + Machine: Reimaging Work in the Age of AI), a subset of the 3rd industrial revolution (as defined by Schwab and Davis in Shaping the Future for The Fourth Industrial Revolution). The human part of the 2nd wave business transformation, the 2nd wave middle, is represented as the act of being torn between your technology and your “real” work; the work you are responsible for on your desk/computer that does not get done because of your technological “connectedness”.
The series interweaves how developing 7 soft skills, your personal power tools of mindset, context, critical thinking, judgment, re-imagination, building trust, and leadership, plus a bonus superpower soft skill emotional intelligence (EI), will prepare you for this GREAT TRANSITION that is upon us. This series also discusses the human behavioral factors that are a result of the interaction of personality, stress and the amount of virtual work in which most workers and leaders are currently engaged. These tools presented will help develop our behavioral mindsets to be positioned for success within any revolution, business transformation, wave or evolution
Knowledge seeking, and adaptation is the new normal for the new learning organizations. Careers are no longer myopic, they are dynamic. More to follow on in the next article in the series…
