Transcriber: Gosia Wheeler Reviewer: Anna Sobota
Let me ask you all a question.
Are you future fit?
What does future fitness even mean to you?
Renowned futurist Alvin Toffler said,
“The illiterate of the future will not be those who cannot read or write
but those who cannot learn, relearn and unlearn.”
To be future fit, you need a fluid and flexible mind
that seeks out change over comfort.
You need the willingness to adapt to today’s methods
instead of relying on yesteryears approaches
like some old school managers who are still measuring hours,
instead of outcomes.
For most organizations, future fitness is synonymous with digital transformation.
And since the global pandemic, they’ve all hopped on the tech bandwagon
investing in virtual collaboration tools, automating low value processes,
or introducing artificial intelligence to predict demand.
A 2021 Fortune study stated that
85% are going hard and accelerating their tech transformations.
That’s a lot of change.
Now, ironically, although change is the only constant,
the 80% failure rate of change initiatives hasn’t budged for decades.
It's almost like change itself is resistant to change.
Our ability to absorb information has plummeted
to 2.5 times less than pre-pandemic levels.
We suffer from constant information overload, dwindling attention spans,
and the intensified pressure to do more with less.
It’s no surprise then, that the success rates of digital transformation,
they are in the single digits.
This would be unacceptable elsewhere.
Can you imagine if a skydiving company
only successfully landed three out of 100 customers?
(Laughter)
Splat!
(Laughter)
These numbers won't change unless we stop traversing the path of least resistance,
which is autopilot spending on more tech.
I’m going to let you in on a secret.
It’s not the tech that failed.
It is the people side of transformation that’s been neglected.
Our love affair with the latest and greatest technologies
means that we’ve forgotten the tool is only as powerful
as the people who are using it.
Imagine the most powerful, sexy, high performance sports car in the world.
That’s right - Toyota Prius.
(Laughter)
I’ve got better taste than that.
Jokes aside, I’m sure many of you have a red Ferrari in mind.
Now imagine your little old granny driving this powerful beast.
And here she is!
(Laughter)
So if F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo was behind the not so sexy Prius,
do you think he would be running around the track?
Yes, he probably would.
You see, a couch potato in the most high-tech advanced Nikes
is not going to be winning any marathons.
But yet executives think future fitness is determined by the tech stack.
What about the people stack?
Picture an actual people stack.
Giant human Jenga blocks stacked on top of each other
and just like Jenga,
if you remove the wrong block, the wrong skills, the wrong mindset,
that tower transformation will come crumbling down.
Instead of only worrying about malware or the metaverse,
reverse Jenga, your people stack.
Start building how they think, make decisions and manage their emotions.
When I’m hiring the dream team,
I’m looking for two key traits:
openness to change and assuming positive intent.
These are traits that enable transformation to come alive
as people explore and experiment with new technology.
Extended reality, ER for short,
is an emerging technology that combines tech and people,
turns it into something even better.
It adds digital elements to our physical environment,
making our world more vivid, more exciting.
And it includes augmented reality and virtual reality.
You may be thinking, “Oh, this is relatively new.”
But it’s actually not.
Movies such as “The Lawnmower Man”, “Existenz” and “Virtuosity”
they all featured elements of ER from way back in the 90s.
But real world adoption was slow.
Nothing happened for 17 years.
Then, ER started to go mainstream.
In fact, the sector is poised to grow 58% over the next five years.
Why?
They started to put people first.
They started to build their tech around people, not the other way round.
They invested in its user friendliness. They sought to understand human needs.
And only then ER could meet those needs.
It has unbridled potential to revolutionize all industries.
In tourism, can you imagine straightening the Leaning Tower of Pisa,
seeing the Sphinx with its nose attached, parting the Red Sea with Moses,
or maybe hurdling round the F1 track with Ricciardo in the not so sexy Prius?
In the next crisis,
because mark my words, there will inevitably be one,
ER can enhance our sense of presence and connectedness
of truly being there together.
Did you know it’s already possible
to attend virtual reality meditation sessions, church services,
even improv comedy nights?
You can feel like you're right there with your BFFs in hysterics.
A newer gaming generation has spawned
that’s hooked on that immersive, first-person experience.
It’s getting so affordable and accessible by the day
with cyber gloves, air glass, and augmented reality glasses
supporting head, touch, voice and gesture control
already on the market.
With these gloves, I can live my best “Minority Report” life.
My digits controlling all things digital,
manipulating floating images like an orchestra conductor.
But if you don’t know how to use these tools,
then these might as well be Elton John’s bedazzled weightlifting gloves.
(Laughter)
During my time leading change
at the largest gold miner in the southern hemisphere,
augmented reality was used to train autoclave operators.
“What on earth is autoclave?”, I’m sure you’re thinking.
Well, it’s not so much on earth, but rather mined earth containing gold.
It goes in it.
Think of a four-story oven that bakes precious metals
instead of chocolate chip cookies
at temperatures and pressures more intense
than anything found naturally in the atmosphere.
It's a dangerous piece of equipment,
even if you know what you’re doing with it.
In Lahiya Island on Papua New Guinea
augmented reality overlays of the autoclave were created.
The mine site experiences humidity of 90%
with temperatures averaging 32 degrees Celsius.
Think of the lovechild of “Avatar” and “Jurassic Park”,
chirping birds, lush tropical jungles,
just minus the blue alien dinosaurs.
The operators, local Papua New Guineans
who often left their remote mountain tribes to work in mining,
could now learn about autoclave operation from the safety and comfort of the office.
using VR goggles.
I tried it myself.
It was a middle of a cold and miserable, and wet winter day in Melbourne.
I’m wearing not one, but two pairs of tights
and my trusty black puffer jacket.
It was surreal.
Experiencing the training felt like I was actually there.
High up in the air, walking along those suspended steel beams.
I saw the instructor so clearly in front of me
talking about the machine specifications.
The sun was shining and my brain knows it’s impossible,
but I swear I actually felt that island heat on my face.
Because of its experiential nature, operators retain 35% more information.
Safety and productivity improved
as they had a familiarity with the site before even setting foot in it.
The technology molded to the people’s stack,
developed around their needs, wants and traits.
It worked.
But, this is where it stopped.
You see, even though this tech could be used for remote expert assistance,
or be replicated to train other people in other high risk roles,
the lack of continued focus on the people stack
meant that next quantum leap forward never eventuated.
There just wasn’t enough openness to change
and positive intent to explore more of the unknown,
push through resistance and combat unspoken fears.
These examples illustrate why embarking on digital transformations
without equal, if not more effort to the mindset change that comes with it,
is the same as putting little old granny in that powerful, new Ferrari.
Full capabilities won't be used.
She’ll be shifting those tectonic gears
at the pace of tectonic plates coming together,
toddling down the freeway like it's a school zone.
Part of the problem is binary thinking.
Instead of defaulting to,
“Have I got the right tools at the right time and did I pay the right price?”
focusing on the people stack raises more pertinent questions such as,
“What does a day in these people’s lives look like?“,
“In which situations will this make life easier, simpler, more efficient?
Heck, maybe even a little more fun?”
For organizations that over index on tech, the lesson will be bittersweet.
Sweet - there may be some initial benefits.
Bitter - they’ll be short lived.
One thing that’s never bittersweet is dining at a Michelin-star restaurant
until you’re shocked with the bill.
(Laughter)
I remember being one of just eight diners at an iconic restaurant in downtown Tokyo
globally renowned for its gastronomical theatrics.
I zoomed up the glass elevator to the 38th floor of a five star hotel.
The twinkling skyscraper lights below me.
First, you are ushered to sit and presented with a tiny toolbox
containing miniature hammer, shovel, tweezer, a tape measure,
and the menu sleekly printed onto it.
I thought, “Okay, is this meal being cooked by Smurfs?”
(Laughter)
And then, the 14 dishes present themselves with increasing intricacy and complexity.
These delectable morsels are made right in front of you in real time.
What they were able to create was magic.
I felt like I was in the front row of a culinary David Copperfield show.
Restaurants like organizations have access to the same inputs:
people, process, tech.
Michelin-star kitchens are culinary autoclaves.
They ingest these inputs and apply more pressure, passion and precision
beyond what is “normal” to create a consistently, abnormally stellar result.
The Michelin world has cracked the code.
They fortified their people stack
with the support systems and structures for them to thrive.
Surely we can improve digital transformation success
by adopting their people-first approach.
My career has seen me bring digital transformations to life
in six of the seven continents.
I developed a toolkit of frameworks, processes and models.
But what really amplifies future fitness
is applying the three principles of prism, play and production.
Prism -
if we view tech-enabled transformation through the prism of human experience,
it refracts into a rainbow of possibilities.
Diversity,
the full spectrum of human capability and immersion
makes the people stack not only more beautiful,
but more likely to succeed.
Play -
even the biggest Luddites will be enticed to move to the bleeding edge of tech
if we give them the right environment.
Tribulation turns into transformation when curiosity is stoked.
People will play.
Production -
what separates Michelin from mediocre
is that expert orchestration of talent, teams and technology.
Make no mistake.
It is about putting together a star-studded production.
The truth about digital transformation is that it's not just about digital.
The future fit organizations are those who reverse Jenga their people stack.
Focus on readying, instead of resisting,
and are investing in helping their people learn, relearn and unlearn.
I’m sure Alvin Toffler would agree.
(Applause)