The Human in the Digital
On the essence of digitalization and why humans still matter in the age of AI.
Digitalization will not replace the human. The unique human elements will be even more valuable in a more digital world. This refers, in particular, to our ability to find creative solutions in teams and organizations and to work together effectively and efficiently to achieve the set goals. When we talk about the human factor in general and humane leadership in particular, it is always about how we can achieve great things together--especially against the backdrop of complex, global problems such as climate change. Solutions to those global challenges will be much less the achievement of individual masterminds, top performers, and heroes than is generally assumed and often portrayed.
A Brief History of Digitalization
Digitalization: Hardly any other buzzword has been used so inflationary in recent years. And as with all buzzwords, the frequency of use is inversely proportional to understanding. Obviously, digitalization has something to do with computers and computing power. But that alone is not enough; computers have existed for too long. Interconnected devices and the power of platforms make all the difference.
Computers becoming smaller, more powerful, and more suitable for everyday use are obviously essential to digitalization. In 1965, Gordon Moore put forward the theory that the computing power of computers doubles every year.1 Although somewhat slower (doubling every 18 months), Moore's law is still valid today.
Most people rationally understand this exponential growth in computing power. However, when imagining the future, we project the past linearly. For instance, we might look at what has changed in the past five years and assume that this will continue similarly in the next five years. But that is not correct.
A thought experiment can quickly recognize this error in thinking. The movie "Back to the Future" is about time travel between 1985 and 1955, and part of the comedy is based on the fact that the world developed and changed technologically between 1955 and 1985. However, if you were to make the same 30-year leap between 1985 and 2015, Marty McFly would be lost entirely as a time traveler. In those 30 years, the first mass-produced computers, such as the famous Commodore C64, turned into a constantly networked smartphone that is at the same time a camera, navigation device, Walkman, portable TV, and much more.
Digitalization is more than sheer computing power. With it, all kinds of information can be created, converted, and edited digitally. However, initially, that happened only locally on some isolated computers. The music industry itself has pushed ahead with digitalization and digitized analog music in the form of CDs.
MP3 alone was not a problem for the music industry. It only became a problem with the networking of computers and the resulting file-sharing platforms such as Napster, which were then replaced by streaming services such as Spotify. The digital information available locally was suddenly accessible to everyone, anywhere and anytime. The networking of devices is the basis, but platforms make the difference.
Nokia, with its market dominance in mobile phones, and RIM, with the very successful Blackberry, had first-class products in 2007 that were technically superior to the first iPhone. One significant difference, however, was that the iPhone consistently focused on mobile Internet. The previous mobile phones, which could also do email and more or less the Internet, became fully-fledged smartphones with a permanent Internet connection as a key differentiating feature.
But even that wouldn't have been enough because there were too few use cases for mobile internet at the time besides email and web browsers. The decisive difference was Apple's App Store (and the corresponding Google Store for Android). Apple (and Google) turned the smartphone into a more or less open platform for third-party applications. Apart from the fact that Apple also made significant profits from the App Store, every new app on this platform made the iPhone more valuable.
Since then, this ubiquitous networking has spawned ever-new digital platforms on which supply and demand can come together. Thus, Digitalization also reaches into areas that initially appear less digital. Uber is attacking the business model of cab companies without a single vehicle. And it is doing so worldwide thanks to digitalization. Airbnb is competing with established hotel chains without a single hotel. And this also is happening all over the world, of course. That is the real digitalization.
Here, I Am Human—Here, I Can Be Curious!
Digitalization is displacing human labor from the value chain. It simply continues what industrialization, robots, and automation started long before. One can feel threatened by this but also see it as an opportunity. Digitalization is finally bringing unique human skills back into focus. It is an opportunity to re-humanize business and see the whole human instead of just some workforce.
All of us were curious once. We were born that way. My children are constantly asking why and questioning everything and everyone, and that's a good thing. It would be even better if we didn't lose this curiosity over time by being taught not to ask so many questions.
School reinforces this tendency. Instead of harnessing and encouraging innate curiosity, the focus is usually on imparting factual knowledge and skills and testing the ability to regurgitate them. "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." If schools followed this advice from Plutarch, the students were taught to ask the questions and work out the answers with the teacher's help. Usually, however, it is the other way around: the teachers ask questions, and the pupils give the answers based on what they have learned.
However, the school system ultimately only follows the principle of supply and demand. For decades, the economy has demanded standardized "human material" according to set roles or job descriptions; "asking stupid questions" is not part of them. On the contrary, those who question too much only disrupt the process. Although fortunately not formulated so drastically, in many places, Vilos Cohaagen's quote in the movie Total Recall still applies in principle: "Who told you to THINK? I don't give you enough information to THINK! You do as you're told, THAT'S WHAT YOU DO!"
This kind of socialization and training immediately explains the fear of automation, digitalization, and artificial intelligence. Of course, people who have been degraded to cogs in a massive organizational machine are now justifiably afraid that an algorithm will soon take over this function. But this is also an opportunity for people in companies to develop more as human beings again instead of just being standardized workers. Or, to paraphrase Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Here I am human--here I can be curious!
One day, machines and computers might be able to find better answers and solve problems better than humans. But with their innate curiosity, only humans can ask the right questions. This constant questioning is the crucial human core competence in a world that is changing ever faster. We now "only" have to restructure and manage organizations to nurture this curiosity sufficiently.
The more complex the problems become, the more critical our human creativity becomes. However, this does not mean increased difficulty but rather a different category of problems and situations.
Check out also the previous chapter published last week:
The Coronavirus Pandemic as New Work Boost?
One can speculate much about this astonishing inertia in transforming organizations and leadership culture towards a more “species-appropriate keeping” of knowledge workers. The pressure of suffering was not significant enough, or it increased so slowly, similar to the water temperature of the finally cooked frog.
The next chapter will follow next Friday. In case you want to read on as soon as possible, the book is available on Amazon in many countries as hardcover, paperback, and for your Kindle. (also on Leanpub). And all my German readers can get the German edition in every book store.
Gordon E. Moore, "Cramming More Components onto Integrated Circuits, Reprinted from Electronics, Volume 38, Number 8, April 19, 1965, Pp.114 Ff.," IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society Newsletter 11, no. 3 (2006): 33--35, https://doi.org/10.1109/N-SSC.2006.4785860.