Touch. Tod Maffin

even for those at the very top, who up until recently have been able to plead blissful ignorance when it comes to how technology and social media is shaping their business’s future. Leaders must also be equipped to handle and process an unparalleled amount of big data and know-how to pull meaning and implement actionable items in a fast-moving, highly reactive, and interconnected global economy with new power players and developing nations who are quickly adapting a more Western lifestyle.

      Future leaders must have a skill set that encompasses deep digital understanding in order to navigate the complex world of tomorrow, mitigate potential threats, and steer their company or brand toward sustainable profitability. The days of CEOs and high level executives not understanding how technology works or impacts their business are numbered. After all, by 2025, millennials will comprise 75 percent of the workforce. “If 89 percent of them are currently using social media, how can anyone not think that social business will be imperative?” says Jeff Gibbard, president of True Voice Media.

      Convergence and Digitization

      Leadership always begins with a picture of the future.

      — MARK MILLER

      The future of business is undeniably digital and convergent, but behind every step we take forward, technologically speaking, there is always a human dimension informing it. Rather than having separate tools to perform specific tasks, we are moving into a realm where our tools are increasingly multifunctional and ubiquitous. Ways of working together that were once thought of as radical (remote offices/workforces) are now becoming the norm (for better or worse, as we’ll learn later in the book). Leaders need to understand the implications of these trends and be prepared to lead a dramatically different team or operation to success along paths that may look nothing like they did ten years ago.

      NBIC, which stands for nanotechnology, biotechnology, information technology, and cognitive science, continues to transform how we interact and do business. Some experts believe that by 2030, nearly all work will be done in the Internet cloud, where data and applications are hosted on servers which can be accessed from any device, anywhere with an Internet connection. In many ways, we’re already there. Convergence — technology that interacts synergistically — will also influence how people run companies from the inside as well as playing a central role in customer-facing technologies (mobile apps, customer relationship management and software systems, and eCommerce). In this race of who can innovate and integrate the fastest, there are destined to be winners and losers in terms of what gets adopted by whom and how quickly, and what ends up becoming obsolete.

      In a 2014 Forbes story, only 21 percent of business leaders said they have a clear digital vision. Leaders will need to live with a certain amount of uncertainty, as the outcomes of NBIC innovation are highly unpredictable, and must remain sensitive to society’s general reaction to radical technological leaps and adoption patterns.

      Emphasis on Human Dimension of Employees and Collaboration

      The adoption of technology and the population that is online continues to shape how we work and how leaders lead. The pervasive nature of cloud computing, collaborative/mobile work applications, and a stronger emphasis on work-life balance render the concept of “private” or “personal” time much more hazy.

      As we continue amalgamating our public and private lives, the onus will slowly shift onto employers to provide a work environment that celebrates and respects the personal lives of their employees and to modify policies to allow for a more transparent border between work-life separation — or connection, depending on how you look at it. Flextime and work-from-home days are already part of many employee packages in a number of progressive corporate environments and are bound to become the rule rather than the exception, with more and more companies adopting virtual arrangements. This needs to be carefully measured for productivity gains, though — as we’ll point out later in the book, the trend to move workers out of traditional office spaces sometimes backfires.

      TOUCH POINTS: Five Leadership Takeaways

      It is possible to use social media and other technological tools and platforms to convey your human side. It’s not rocket science. It’s about being who you are in person, online. People are already doing it, from students to business leaders.

      The digital age has complicated human decisions with shiny technology, making the path to successful outcomes less clear. If you have identified and embodied human values in your organization, a path will appear. And you’ll be better equipped to navigate the rough patches.

      Trailblazers are often showcased and sometimes skewered for challenging the way things are. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t see ourselves in bank presidents, astronauts, and religious leaders. By being genuinely you, you can help people see more potential in themselves.

      Messages worth delivering are worth delivering well. Don’t spin or sanitize your message. Be direct, use words people understand, and take only the time necessary to be understood.

      People relate to other people and the embodiment of human qualities. While we do like our devices and align ourselves with particular brands, there’s nothing quite like sharing a moment. Why else would researchers be so interested in creating human-like robots?

      Chapter 5

      Communications

      Used with permission © Rob Cottingham, Noise to Signal. http://robcottingham.ca/cartoon/

      Firestarter

      Mark’s “cousin-in-law,” Patrick, gathered up some VHS tapes of Christmases and family gatherings dating back to the 1970s. He emailed his mother a short time later to enthusiastically tell her, “Just watched old home movies from when we were kids. Now I’m going to burn them.”

      Aunt Barb was stunned. “Thanks a lot, Pat,” she wrote back sarcastically and more than a bit hurt. “You must have really enjoyed your childhood.”

      We love how each so easily misunderstood the other; Aunt Barb thinking Pat’s digitizing of home movies was a cathartic destruction of family history, and Pat thinking his mom would be pleased that he had such great memories they were worth immortalizing. (It all worked out in the end and copies of the DVD were circulated, complete with footage of Mark’s wife toddling around in cozy one-piece pyjamas.)

      Misunderstandings are often the rule, not the exception, in digital communication. Language is nuanced by emotions, grammatical devices, and generation gaps. Character counts and other constraints lead to creative use of language to communicate ideas in limited space.