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]