The Myths You Can Bust to Embrace Automation

[Music]

i’m sure everyone here has an old

grandfather’s tail

you know one of those stories you used

to hear when you were young

that you were never sure whether it was

true or not it might have included that

little bit of exaggeration

changed slightly every time you heard it

and sometimes even left you with a

sprinkle of fear

but right now in a world that is

changing at a pace never seen before

organizations and their employees are at

a crossroads

they’ve heard about this for several

years now it’s mentioned in parliament

on the news and even their competitors

have been whispering about gently

starting to get involved

but unfortunately the topic is often

surrounded by fear

and misunderstood by us humans and today

i want to bust four myths i often hear

around the topic

of automation and whilst this wasn’t

something me and my grandfather would

sit down and discuss

as a society now more than ever we have

the opportunity to break down those

barriers

and allow ourselves to leap forward

every one of us use some sort of

automation in our everyday lives

whether that’s with our bank booking a

taxi or the end-to-end process of taking

a flight from an airport

we try it we test it we have a right

good morning about it

but in the end we often embrace it as it

makes our lives

that little bit easier it allows us to

spend less time on the admin and more in

what we enjoy doing

but to get involved in designing it and

embracing it in the workplace

no chance that’s for the techies they

say i don’t have any experience in that

sort of thing

and our financial services from one in

five of our automation team

are apprentices who’ve come straight

from school and i remember one of them

telling me

ally i originally thought about doing a

four year university course on

technology

but i was worried the skills i gained at

the end of it were then irrelevant

i thought it was better to learn as i go

our youngest team member 21

or eldest 50 less than 15 percent have

an i.t qualification

of any sort the remainder

they’ve been re-skilled and upskilled

from traditional roles of the past

highly experienced individuals with

years of knowledge of our customers and

our markets

employees in the latter years of their

career having the realization that

something needs to change

if they’re still to work for another two

decades

never did they expect to have to do much

different from what they did today

but with the right mindset change is

possible

with the technology also advancing at

such a pace low code platforms have

meant it’s easier than ever before

for employees to get involved in the

basics and get a foot in the automation

door

this coupled with the ever increasing

amount of data that businesses have at

their disposal

there is a real opportunity for us to

improve our business decisions

customer outcomes and start to develop

these future employees

people having this personal resilience

and then the curiosity to explore is key

but when s statistics show that

employees with a degree

or equivalent higher qualification are

four times more likely

to have received training at work than

employees with no qualification at all

and as leaders we must change this we

must provide the learning to allow

people to embrace this new way of

working

and not something that is leveraged by a

select few

and by doing so we will really enable

ourselves to build teams

not only diverse in their experience and

background

but also in their thinking

change can often be difficult for people

most of us prefer the status quo

we prefer that things were left how they

are now

and that’s a natural reaction for all of

us to have i want to stay in my comfort

zone

and when it comes to automation there is

a real myth that looms over society in

general that the robots are coming

they’re here to take all of their jobs

and us humans will be left out of the

equation

the media seem to have whipped everyone

into such a frenzy

that people often find it easier to

avoid the conversations

or put up barriers thinking they need to

protect what they have

but the fact is roles are changing

reports suggest over 80 percent of the

roles that will exist by 2030

haven’t yet been invented having led the

change team myself

i’ve seen firsthand how we’ve had to

adapt in recent years

to stay relevant and on top of the

latest trends in technology

for us this has meant a significant

shift towards

upskilling and reskilling as well as

coaching and feedback

building centers of excellence is one

thing but then federating this skill set

out to others

is just as important why is it important

because we need the behaviors as much as

the experience

because believe it or not the real story

here is a human one

building and developing automated

solutions may result in tasks or

processes

being removed from traditional roles of

the past

but these solutions need monitored they

need maintained

health checked they often need

redesigned and sometimes even

switched off humans are front and center

of this

and so in turn we begin to create these

roles of the future

automation is a real asset which is

changing almost every part of our

society

whether that’s scanning or shopping or

ordering a drink at the bar

but it’s not the answer to every problem

now more than ever human behaviors are

key

what we say how we act and how we leave

people feeling after an interaction are

priceless

and not something a robot has yet

mastered the art of

in a time when we’re telling each other

to be more kind

embracing automation and your

organization can support you to do just

that

automation done properly can do the

stuff that customers would not be

willing to care for

nor do they care about and free up us

humans to do

what we are good at empathy support

care who better to understand the needs

of the customer

and the customer themselves

now anyone who works for a company

hundreds of years old

with thousands of employees isn’t

without its challenges

often we are naturally a little

risk-averse

many of our employees are long-standing

ones who’ve experienced change

many times throughout their career

they’ve seen mergers

acquisitions and new i.t systems come

and go

they have great technical expertise

which is often invaluable

but one thing that hasn’t changed in

these hundred years

we are here to serve our customers and

their needs are changing

fast 2020 was a great example of this

for all of us

how we communicated and interacted with

customers changed significantly

important business meetings were held in

our kitchens sending posts to the office

was pointless

and every staff member had to overnight

learn to become

a home worker communication seemed a lot

more instant a lot faster

but at the same time somehow with a

closer degree of human touch

and increased emotional intelligence

this coupling of technology and people

has the potential to catapult many

industries forward

and as a result we’ve seen automation

opportunities double in those 12 months

of 2020

and in the last five years the number of

processes we have

supporting our customers has increased

fivefold

and here’s the thing this isn’t just

about the technology

when the burning platform is there and

we’re forced to make that leap of faith

into a new way of working and shining

new tools

us humans can achieve remarkable things

automation technology will continue to

change like it has for the last hundred

years

but businesses succeed or fail on the

decisions

the training the leadership of us the

employees

a recent two-year commission led by a

vet cooper mp

on the impact of technology on workers

was recently released

and in 2018 i had the pleasure of

meeting them

in this report it describes the real

fear employees have

around the topic of automation and one

of the reforms proposed

is a major overhaul of adult training

and skills

to better help workers adapt these are

our colleagues our team members

this is each one of us the fact is

organizations must change and to do this

we must provide our employees with the

opportunities before the gap widens and

avoid anyone from being left behind

in the summer of 2018 i personally was

at a career crossroads

having been involved in change for

several years i’d built up a reasonable

bank of knowledge and had a team of

hungry staff wanting to change the world

but up until then i’d avoided stepping

too much into the automation world

stay clear of technology i’d say this is

way out your comfort zone

my mom even bought me my first

smartphone

but then an opportunity was presented to

me and i have a decision to make

do i jump into the unknown or do i

shuffle to the left and avoid it till

next year

maybe i could avoid it until someone

forces me to

it would have probably just been easier

to stay in my sweet spot

but i decided to take the leap of faith

and since then i’ve been on my own

personal change curve

robotics artificial intelligence data

science

topics i’m sure you’ve heard many times

on this channel before

become the conversation and a normal

working day for me

overnight i had a team of people looking

to me for the answers

i didn’t have them all they did the

technical capabilities and automation

tools

were already there waiting to be

utilized i just needed to help them grab

a hold of them

discussing the fears with the business

teams and customers became a lot easier

because

i’d experienced those fears firsthand

myself

and slowly as the myths are dispelled

you begin to turn around what can often

seem

like a pretty large cruise liner staff

become more

at ease as they start to see the

benefits and they have a little more

time on their hands

to do the things that’s important for

the customers

good news stories of a robot acting as

their virtual assistant

start to spread on internal social media

and with that comes momentum

belief acceptance customers start to

notice the difference they want to be

looked after and cared for

they often want that human touch

and the fact is this partnership of

humans and technology

forms a strong allegiance but as the

technology accelerates forward at such a

pace

we must also take our open mind with it

far from limiting what we as people can

achieve automation can truly make us

limitless within the workplace

but only if we allow ourselves to open

our mind and embrace its potential

for business leaders they have a duty to

inspire

motivate and help our people dispel some

of these myths and fears that surround

it

and in doing so only then will we build

a culture

that we really are all in it together

you