All lived experiences have the exponential power to outlive themselves. Is technology bringing you such possibilities?

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.” —Anais Nin, French author.

Human knowledge and organisational destinies are interwoven. In order to be effective leaders, executives, change agents, etc., we must be adept in the art of reading, understanding, and analysing organisations as living human constructions.

‘Knowing’ is at the centre of every attempt at change. Thus, the way we know is fateful. It is not so much about mapping yesterday’s world as it is about articulating tomorrow’s possibilities and, therefore, creating the generative aspect of an experience. As such, each experience has exponential possibilities of building knowledge and producing newer experiences.

How we see the world creates our reality. Our psychic and emotional worlds are thusly best understood through lived experiences. These experiences help in creating the language to know how we feel and think. Accordingly, the power of language in creating our reality and our world is inconceivable. “We do not describe the world we see; we see the world we describe!” — this adage plays a pivotal role in shaping the experiences that we adopt or reject. Digital experiences happen to be one of these many occurrences in our daily routine.

Go back to a moment when you first encountered a new experience that was enveloped with technology. I recount my first day with Alexa at home. It was a day that began with curiosity and exploration of how to install it and get it started. It then slowly transitioned to a conversation, joy, and playful expression. I only realised later that the experience became ingrained in everything I did. Right from playing music, making a shopping list, managing lights, and more, it no longer remained a technology at home. Rather, it is now one of the many experiences that live with us at home. And it is an experience that makes life delightful.

Transcending the initial resistance with people and technology, one needs to go more deeply into creating value in each of these experiences. Let’s take a moment to pause and reflect on some of these inquiries.

1. What is the value-creation opportunity that technology can provide?

Critical experience management and value creation are what differentiate a good organisation from a great one. Being the designer of these experiences, HR holds the potential to elevate the way people think and feel within a company. It not only solves the problem at hand but also creates value that meets the latent needs of diverse stakeholders. As such, the values of the future will be intangible like talent, culture, intellectual property, brand, motives, etc.

The intangible is what the customer is ready to pay for when all functionalities are the same. Hence, we can pivot the HR landscape from being the ‘designer of processes’ to the ‘designer of experiences’. An organisation that can leverage technology to create its leadership brand, talent brand, culture brand, and more will have the edge over competitors.

2. What pain is technology eliminating?

 Empathy is at the centre of user experience and helps eliminate negative emotional attractors (NEAs) in an organisation. These NEAs are moments that create stress, conflict, and resourcelessness. Technology can thusly play a vital role in shifting the NEA experiences to PEAs (positive emotion attractors) and help build more inventiveness, hope, and possibilities. Perhaps the new definition of HR will progress from “human and resources” to “humans and robots.” Here, humans and robots will not be standing at polarities but working effortlessly together as an integrated reality. By instituting the tools, frameworks, and mindsets that enable digital transformative experiences, seamlessness can be introduced into how humans experience and work with technology.

3. What dream is technology seeding?

The beauty of technology is the emergence of exponential possibilities. They say all good things help in multiplying greatness. What are the avenues for new possibilities that technology is opening? Is it bringing people together, building efficiencies, reducing redundancies, and elevating emotions or simplifying life? What is technology really serving? As we step into a boundaryless world, the opportunities are bountiful. The freedom to connect and work with anybody anywhere is redefining what competition looks like. In all probability, your competition is going to come from someone from a different sector. With the level of disruptions and innovative practices, it is essential to understand how boundaryless the organisation is and what role technology plays in this. HR is a strong ally in understanding human behaviours and psyche; the same insight can be applied in other spaces with the help of digital solutions for finding out about career happiness, career derailer moments, trigger moments for anticipating attrition, and more.

4. Does technology meet the needs of diverse personas?

An organisation is an amalgamation of several diversities—multigenerational, multicultural, different abilities and more. While people are unique and different, the processes and technology often adopted by organisations are stereotypically designed and configured to suit the needs of only one persona. These are frequently the alpha roles or critical personas in the organisation.

Imagine the potential of an organisation where experiences are designed to conform to the different needs of each persona group. Technology can make processes agile and ensure that there is conscious inclusion in the way the formal and informal structures of the organisations are designed and configured. Imagine the ease, engagement, opportunities, and positive emotions this can create in an organisation.

Experiences that are customised to meet the needs of an individual are the most valued, loved, and remembered. Perhaps that reinforces why we as humans generally tend to remember and appreciate those moments where our needs were respected and met. It’s a moment of being fully seen and understood by an organisation.

All lived experiences have the exponential power to outlive themselves. We once loved a pager until we discovered a mobile handset. These experiences can redefine human expectations as well as the potential to create new value each day. This is the moment for us to transcend from creating the most viable solution to the most lovable experience. Is technology bringing you these possibilities?