More intelligent use of peoples’ talent is set to rival the process and technology improvements of the last three decades.
Every efficiency breakthrough has a lifespan of about 30 years. Starting in the late 80s, a massive focus on IT and business process allowed organizations to make cost savings and improvements in productivity that have driven up profits. This was the first transformation. Those improvements will continue but the law of diminishing returns means that efficiencies and savings will be harder to find. The glory days of huge income growth resulting from the introduction of an IT system are gone.
Now however, it’s the turn of the people dimension. A new wave of science and understanding is unleashing the natural creativity and energy that most people bring to work with them. Usually, this energy is stifled. It’s not that employers want to stifle it, they just don’t know how to empower it. Yet it has resulted in employee disengagement figures up to 80% (Deloitte).
That’s all changed.
Teaming science is ushering in an age, not just of unparalleled productivity, but an age when ordinary workers – across offices and factories – are looking forward to coming to work. At last, employers are finding out how to select the right people for the right jobs and give them co-workers who complement them, not compete with them.
People are no longer being mis-applied. Teaming science is ensuring that everyone can star at work, no matter how humble or exalted their position. It’s a transformation. And it’s only just begun.
