Here’s an article by Zach Baron called “The Conscience of Silicon Valley” https://www.gq.com/story/jaron-lanier-tech-oracle-profile (5,264 words) [GQ, 24-Aug-2020]
In it Baron interviews Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley creator, thinker and author. They discuss the future and how we may live in it. To illustrate this they touch on Together mode, a concept he worked on with Microsoft to bring us side by side in Teams meetings instead of being separated in our own boxes. The interview explores human interaction with technology and comes back to a common theme, that Lanier says is “to not create perverse incentives that ruin quests for meaning or for happiness or for decency or betterment”. For us, this is part of knowing our customer, objectives crafting and human centred design.
Some things to consider:
Respecting the line between the product and the customer as the product. Who owns and analyses what we contribute.
Connecting with our customer. “When a person is empowered to make a difference, they become more of a full person”, Lanier.
Running away from our problems. Facing up to discounting our present reality.
What is your squad focused on? What are the problems? Where are you meeting the customer? What product are you trading?
How does this thinking apply to you in your Tribe? What objectives are you crafting? What human qualities are you considering? Where are the problems you are not facing? Who is being empowered?
Why is this important? Good question. When our customer becomes the product we remove a part of what it means to be human. Our connection becomes less about empowerment, more about engagement. At its extreme it becomes a commodity to be traded. The problem we face when we lose our customer connection is the long road back from trading the customer to trading with our customer. Empathy with the qualities of our customer when they trade with us is human and valuable.
For further viewing / reading:
How Much Data is Generated Each Day?, Jeff Desjardins, https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-data-is-generated-each-day (Infographic) [Visual Capitalist, 15-Apr-2019]
A guide to Empathy in Customer Service, Prashanthini Mande, https://freshdesk.com/customer-service-skills/guide-empathy-customer-service-blog (9 minute read) [Freshdesk, retrieved 11-Sep-2020]
Running Away From Problems, DJ DENZ The Rooster, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T7QLudXSxk (3:21) [YouTube, 27-Jun-2019]
Inviting you to have a view / read and to have a chat with me about your thoughts.
[Originally posted internally in my role in IS Governance at The Warehouse Group.]