Work with wonder and imagination

By: Eric Landicho

WHEN the US space agency NASA needed to figure out how to dispatch bulky objects into outer space in the lightest, most compact way, it turned to an unlikely medium to generate ideas: origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. Using the principles of origami, a team of engineers — including the most accomplished paper folders — were able to design components of a telescope, which was eventually launched on Christmas Day 2021 to, among other things, give us a view into the farthest, oldest galaxies to better understand how our universe evolved.

This exercise in imagination for solving a complex work problem may seem par for the course for an organization such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which was built on the spirit of exploration and daring. But considering the uncharted territories that are now opening up due in large part to technological advances, it may be time to take NASA's cue and put a premium on imagination and wonder in the talent pool.

Annually, Deloitte releases a study that tracks the most pressing issues for organizations, leaders, and workers. One of the focus areas for this year's Global Human Capital Trends report is how organizations can best navigate the disruption and uncertainty that characterize the new world of work. With new technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) advancing with unprecedented speed, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and anxious over the changes these developments will bring and the attendant risks. But another way to approach the shifting landscape is with wonder, a curiosity over the possibilities and opportunities. Getting to that mindset will require a different kind of "training."

Traditionally, organizations positioned workers for success by arming them with specific, easily replicable functional or technical skills. Think of a factory line worker, for example, who focuses on one section of the production process until they become so skilled at it that it becomes a natural, flawless task. That approach worked in a more stable, predictable environment. But in today's highly interconnected and volatile world, it has become more important to develop workers who can quickly adapt to changing market conditions and find new ways of creating value.

Business leaders recognize this new imperative. According to Deloitte's study, 73 percent of the business and human resource (HR) leaders who were polled acknowledge that ensuring the imagination and curiosity of the people in the organization keep pace with technological innovation is important to the organization's success. But only 37 percent of the respondents are doing something to nurture those capabilities.

Admittedly, cultivating uniquely human capabilities such as curiosity and creativity is not as straightforward as developing a skill for, say, soldering. But there is a way to build a space where these capabilities can thrive. Here are some ways to begin that transformation:

Operationalize human capabilities as part of overall workforce strategy. Cultivating uniquely human capabilities begins with assessing the current state of your workforce's collective human capabilities. In doing so, HR leaders will have to look beyond the factors they use to measure hard skills. Peer or manager feedback, psychometric assessments, simulations, or endorsements of capabilities are good sources of information to better understand where your team is at in terms of human capabilities. There are also AI tools that can infer human capabilities by analyzing workers' daily behaviors and audio or video calls, provided, of course, workers consent to this monitoring.

Once an assessment is done, an organization can bridge capability gaps by hiring for them and making sure it develops, supports, and rewards the effective use of human capabilities across the workforce. One uniquely human capability, for example, is empathy — being sensitive to the feelings, thoughts, and experiences of another. Engaging in empathy-related training and development will help orient workers towards this mindset so that they default to empathetic responses — an important skill to have in the service industry, for one.

Practice imagination in service of human sustainability. One of the best ways to encourage the use of creativity and imagination is to allow workers to use these capabilities in service of outcomes that are personally meaningful to them. Giving them time and space to pursue projects that may be outside their defined wheelhouse but are important to them will allow them to flex those creative muscles and generate value for the organization and for themselves.

Highlight for workers, teams, and managers the need to prioritize human capabilities. Shifting worker mindset from "What needs to get done?" to "What possibilities can I help unlock?" will need a strong tone at the top. Leaders must communicate the importance of curiosity and empathy and, more importantly, model such behavior. One way to do so is to encourage worker autonomy and feedback — not an easy task for business leaders who may be holding on to a bias that creativity and curiosity compete with efficiency. But if people across all levels of an organization are demonstrating the importance of curiosity and imagination in their day-to-day actions, then they are together building a culture of trust where workers feel safe to experiment and explore even as they fulfill their responsibilities.

This period of advanced, powerful technology does not have to be marked by anxiety for the future of the human worker because human capabilities continue to be exactly that — uniquely human. Business leaders can leverage these skills to nurture talent and well-being, to continue creating value, and even, perhaps, like NASA, answer some of the universe's biggest questions.

As published in The Manila Times on 12 February 2024. The author is the Managing Partner & CEO of Deloitte Philippines.