In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Brandon Laws sits down with Deborah Westphal, author of Convergence: Technology, Business, and the Human-Centric Future. The two discuss the role of technology in human connection, especially concerning its effect on the future of business. At this point, it’s impossible to avoid the convergence of technology, business, and human connection, but would we really want to if we could? According to our guest, there is a bright future ahead, and businesses should embrace the changes that technology will continue to bring.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Deborah Westphal — author, consultant, and futurist — has over 30 years of experience guiding businesses to future success and security. She is the recent author of Convergence: Technology, Business, and the Human-Centric Future, a challenging read about reevaluating the focus on technology and human connection within our businesses.
A QUICK GLIMPSE INTO OUR PODCAST
🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN CONNECTION
As technology increases, will human connection decrease?
Human-centric organizations will make for a better future for business, but according to Deb Westphal, “most people would say we’re becoming less and less human.” An increased dependence on technology has decreased face-to-face interaction, and COVID only seemed to deepen this divide.
But Deb says that there are positives that came out of the rise of tech-dependence: “Technology has allowed us to connect, share ideas, and voice our concerns. We’re able to pull together groups of people to advocate for the change we want to see.” In short, technology is allowing people to connect and communicate in ways that we never have before. And we must embrace this change.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
Getting Back To Purpose
“Now we’re having this larger conversation — these discussions around the purpose of business. And we’re actually getting back to businesses’ purpose being to serve a broader spectrum of stakeholders, that being their employees, their suppliers, their communities, and their customers. And I open it up to the larger humanity because some of these problems that we are facing bridge way beyond any one company or any one industry climate.”
A Growing Distrust
“I’m very pro-business, and I think that if you scratch the surface of some of the things that are really being questioned, there’s a cynicism here. [People say] they don’t trust business. They don’t trust the government. And so why is that? And if we’re truly addressing the larger stakeholders, then we’re having conversations with them so that we can understand what the trust problem is. This is about making business better, not about attacking capitalism.”
Looking Ahead
“What is different now than even a couple decades ago is that we’re in the information age and individuals can learn, they can access information, they can connect, they can innovate. And so that closed system of our organizations got blown apart, and this is going to continue as we move further and further into the Knowledge Age. Everybody thinks about the future, whether it’s tomorrow, 10 years from now, or 50 years from now. And with increased access to information and technology, there’s no way to contain that. So we’re going to have to change how we think about business to work in that new environment.”
Coming Together To Innovate
“I think we’re going to see more and more people saying, ‘Well, I don’t know how to do that,’ but who also have the ability to find someone who can. And if that person doesn’t know, then they have a network. So I think that’s the network effect that will create even more innovation and more solutions. And that’s the root of this power of humanity.”
Betting On A Better Future
“Future thinking resides in all of us. It’s how much risk we want to take to shake up the status quo. We’ve optimized and we’ve built and we continue to run. What’s changing now is there are different demands, and that’s really scary — to really look inside yourself and then look inside your organization and say, ‘I got to disrupt this. I don’t know what I’m going to break in the process of doing that, but I got to take that chance. I’ve got to have that courage to see where this goes.’ And there are a lot of smart and courageous people that, if they banded together and talked it out inside of these organizations, they would figure out how to transform. It’s not going to be something easy. It’s not going to be something quick. You can start with little steps and test the waters, but you’ve got to get started.”
LEARN MORE
Continue the discussion by reaching out to Deb Westphal. Connect with her on LinkedIn, or head over to her website to find out more about technology, humanity, and the future of business.