…… Part of The Basics series. First published in February 2016 ……

How would you respond to the 4 questions below? They have been explored with several hundred organizations, first at the end of 2013 and then again at the end of 2014. The results were practically identical. 

Whereas deployment of technology has advanced rapidly inside companies, the real impact on business has not followed.

What’s clear is that we now need to focus our energy on liberating people to do their work and helping them take advantage of digital tools at their disposal. It’s a role for a humanist rather than a digitalist!

Where does your organizations stand? How would you answer these questions for your company?

Rate your responses a scale of 5 very easy to 1 very hard

1. Learning — How easy is it for people to learn and develop their skills and knowledge in the natural flow of work?

2. Customers — How easy is it for customer-facing people to find the information they need, provide rapid service, collaborate with their customers and colleagues and in general have a smooth and efficient work experience?

3. Agility/flexibility — How agile or flexible is your organization when you need to react rapidly to major events: market changes, new competition, economic downturns, environmental or disaster events?

4. Knowledge — How confident are you that your organization can retain the knowledge and know-how of experts and specialists when they leave the organization?

How many points did you get? In the past two annual surveys, not a single organization scored 20 points. You can see the detailed statistics here, but the chart at the top of this article gives you the gist.

Calling all humanists: time for action!