How to Revalue Humanity

let me take you back in time

just a few months ago it’s march 2020

it’s 4 30 in the morning i’m lying in

bed

you know that moment just in between

sleeping and waking up

i often find those moments to give great

clarity

these are uncertain times no work

no new clients projects that are being

put on hold

yet somehow i feel happy

and hopeful feeling that this

could just be a new beginning

i believe that things happen for a

reason

we’ve been sleeping for so long

but now finally it seems like we’re

waking up

this is life as i know it i’m only a few

minutes old

when i get my first a 10 points for the

apgar score

a perfect score for a newborn child

my daughter is studying business

analytics and in her first year

she decided that she would like to

graduate with honours

her conclusion is that high scores mean

better chances

so she puts in the work the strive for

performance

is on do any of you have young children

then you know all about the seto test

right

nowadays kids are tested at school from

the age of five

twice a year but we don’t care for their

talents

like some of the other speakers here

today suggest

all that counts is their ability for

reading writing and mathematics

and as parents you do all you can for

your child to do well

right at least i did

here too the strive for performance is

on

a while ago i joined a sounding board of

a large international company

with employees from all around the world

at the end of this call something

happened

that really hit me it hurt me

still does the last question

for the participants was to share how

they felt about being an

employee within this company

and then one of them said we sacrifice

people

for the sake of performance

now he wasn’t the only one others joined

in

and shared examples for instance how

standard processes were being

implemented that was supposedly

efficient

but caused so much hassle for the

customers

that they secretly took on extra tasks

to fix things whereas they were supposed

to put in less time

it cost them more we sacrifice people

for the sake of performance

and then the weekend started as if

monday is just another working day and

nothing had happened

i couldn’t let it go it had hit me

and hurt me but moreover

it fueled me on saturday night in the

middle of the night

i got up sat behind my laptop and wrote

a blog

but it wasn’t enough i’ll strive for

performance

it’s just going too far kids students

parents

employees everywhere i see signs of how

a focus on performance

has a grip on us we’re stuck

yet our whole system revolves around

performance and to be honest

i’d been playing this game too

at the age of 13 my eldest daughter

got a depression i took her to a doctor

i found her a therapist and when that

didn’t work

i found her a new one when my other

daughter wasn’t feeling well i found her

therapist too

but all the therapists in the world

would not be able

to give them what they needed most

these times our focus is on doing on

performing and yes

as a mum i did everything

so that my daughters too would be able

to perform

i’d been doing everything i could

but i’d not been being everything i

should

and giving my daughters the most

important thing

i could give them an example

wake up we’re selling ourselves short as

individuals as

organizations as society

we sacrifice people for the sake of

performance

to be honest it’s even worse

we sacrifice our planet for the sake of

performance

first i’d realized i was on the wrong

track

as a mum and now i saw it in my

professional life too

there’s a fault in our system in our

society

and it needs fixing

now how do we get here and more

importantly

how can we break this cycle

those were questions that begged for an

answer

and it was the beginning of a personal

crusade

will you join me we’re going back in

time

to understand what brought us here

we’re going to the 17th century 400

years ago

now this was a time when the church had

all the power

life was pretty simple all you had to do

was live according to the rules of the

bible

but there was one young man he strongly

believed

that you shouldn’t blindly follow the

word of god

but that you should think for yourself

his name was renee dakart

he said i think therefore

i am and with that

power shifted from god to the mind

the start of the age of reason

or rather the age of performance

now fast forward to our time isn’t it

amazing to see

the huge impact of that insight

400 years of innovation has changed our

lives immensely

and there seems no end to what’s

possible

now let’s take a look into the future

where we see the fascinating

possibilities of artificial intelligence

artificial intelligence makes it

possible for machines

for robots to perform human-like tasks

and going forward perform tasks that are

even beyond our own ability

now this got me wondering

isn’t it time that we rethink our own

position

isn’t it clear that we as humans

are reaching the limits of what our

minds can do

isn’t it apparent that our strive for

performance

can come to an end

wake up we’re selling ourselves short

as individuals as organizations as

society

artificial intelligence at some point

will

exceed human intelligence but

here’s the thing thanks to the cut

for more than four centuries our

education

upbringing and culture has focused on

the rational side of life

being smart gave us power

but now the snake is biting its tail

while infesting in our rational

abilities we’ve neglected

our emotional imaginative and connecting

qualities as humans

now let me tell you about miriam just

across the street from the office in

utrecht where i work

there’s a coffee place it’s a social

company

the people that work there have a brain

injury which makes working in a regular

environment too demanding

i was there with a colleague and we

ordered two cappuccinos

and with a smile we were asked to take a

seat the coffee would be brought to our

table

a few minutes later the waitress arrived

but when she’d put down my coffee

it spilt leaving a wet saucer i said no

worries it’s fine

thank you but she insisted she wanted to

give me

a perfect coffee so she took it back

and returned with a perfect one

when i asked her how long she’d been

working there she sat down

and shared her story twelve years ago

she was run down by a car she’d been in

coma

for weeks and it had taken her all these

years

to get where she was today

this was the first job that suits her

and she really wants to make it work but

everything she does

she needs to do with intention

it was a very special moment for her to

confide in us

she was authentic made a connection

she showed what it is to truly be human

no robots can copy this embracing who

you are

putting yourself out there and

connecting with others

she miriam is forever

my favorite waitress

but looking at day-to-day reality we are

slowly losing

our ability to connect when i’m standing

at the bus stop and look around me

everybody’s staring at their phone in a

restaurant

we’re not talking but we’re taking

pictures of our food sharing it on

instagram waiting for the likes of our

online friends

we are more connected than ever

but are we really

loneliness depression

burnout have never been

as big an issue as now

we seem to want to diagnose everything

and everyone

our need for psychological and

psychiatric help is sky

high we are more connected than ever

but somehow we’ve lost connection

with ourselves

just wake up what does it mean

to be human human in this digital age

now don’t get me wrong innovation and

everything that it brings is good

progress is progress it can’t it

shouldn’t be stopped

but we are reaching some dead ends

computers and artificial intelligence

are exceeding

our human abilities our digital

connectedness

and strive for performance is making us

sick

our context is changing so dramatically

and in high speed that we are reaching a

crucial point

in time we are

homo sapiens literally

wise man in all our wisdom

we are making something that is smarter

than us

something that can perform better than

us

something that truly is a high

performing machine

so why should we put pressure on

ourselves and continue

this performance rat race

this is life as i know it

this is life as we made it

and then kofit 19 kicked in

and life will never be the same

it’s time to wake up

lying there in bed at 4 30 in the

morning

i realize there are two things going on

first somehow when things are really at

stake

performance becomes meaningless even

worthless

from being in the driver’s seat with one

big swipe

it has taken a back seat seriously

second now that we are limited

in being able to connect with the people

that are most dear to us we come to feel

what’s important our social spirit is

fired up

a revival of family life of small

communities

taking care of our neighbours we’re

stepping down from our dome

our strive for individual wealth and

well-being

and we’re taking responsibility of our

of our role

in our social setting

it’s just happening it’s a natural

course of things

we’re waking up

despite all its misery this crisis

is giving us a unique opportunity

to take a left turn to change

our faulty system and to fix

what’s broken to revalue

ourselves our social setting

and our planet

now let’s look at the one big

question what is the purpose

of life well life is slowly slipping

away

even as i am standing here i’m here for

a reason

and so are you and so are you

and being a robot being a high

performing machine

that just doesn’t fit the mark

we’ve been putting our head first in

everything we do being good at the

head-to-head connection

but now it’s time to do it the real way

i guess that’s hard

because we’ve pushed it away for so many

years

but being persistent i know we’ll get

there

we’ll learn to see the difference from a

connection head to head

the robot way and a connection from

heart

to heart and with an open heart

doors will be opening like never before

this is what it means to truly be human

this is what i need to show my daughters

our ability but also our need

for being connected

we are humans we are social creatures

able of making a connection with each

other

moreover we are born to do so

once we acknowledge the value of every

individual

be inclusive be connected we

can do amazing things we can make

magic happen we can own

our future now please

close your eyes and for a moment

just be

be who you are you’re okay

just as you are

feel you

and feel the connection with all of us

here

we are connected with ourselves

with the others and with the whole

we are homo connexus

and yes we are waking up

thank you

[Music]