The Tectonic Shift

I was four when my father passed away, he ran a shop which had to be closed as no one was there to take care of it. I have since then stayed with my uncle and aunt. Both being part of multinational corporations, have been my corporate teachers. The biggest lesson I have been taught is to be prepared for change. For as the saying goes, “Change is the only constant” and as it has been in the case of life, it indeed is the only constant.

And in the seventeen years of roof sharing with them, I have been a front-row spectator of their struggle to learn the new and apply it in their work. I distinctly remember my aunt using a typewriter to file important documents. She now uses a smartphone to do the same. My uncle went out late at night to make STD calls to connect with his clients. He now sends emails and pings on WhatsApp. They now do it smoothly, but I have seen the initial days of their struggle to adapt to the new technology. And in the process heard numerous stories of their colleagues losing jobs as they failed to tango with the new. And that is the worst character of change, it always boils down to the survival of the fittest.

I do not know how old you are, but irrespective of your political and religious differences we will have to agree that there has been a shift in the tectonic plates of corporates. In a matter of five years, there has been a shift from the classical approach to the more modern way of working.

Attendance records have been done away with and software has taken their place. Software like Regular.li has not only made things easier, but more convenient. Tonnes of paperwork replaced by a single application.

Paper folders have been replaced with folders in Cloud. Remember the days when sorting folders was a painful task. And losing important documents due to a variety of issues like displacement, rat attacks, or even a leaking ceiling hurt more than heartbreak. With online document storage tools, the fear of losing has gone. And by going digital we are in a way reducing our carbon footprint. Less hard copies mean less paper used. And less paper means more trees saved.

And the list goes on. There has been a huge shift in the way we work. Technology has advanced so much, that even doing work from home seems not so difficult of a task.

Such has been the dominance of technology that the peon in my aunt’s office had to learn to send emails and use the office printer as his work of making tea was replaced by the instant coffee machine. This may sound hilarious but it should be scaring you. Every time there is an advancement in technology multiple jobs are lost. The war against the machines is tough, for we live in a world that loves automation. And it should even. As automation not only saves time it increases productivity too. The time saved in doing mundane tasks can be used to innovate and create. Two things our world desperately needs.

“As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership.”
Amit Ray, Famous AI Scientist, Author of Compassionate Artificial Intelligence

The only way to survive this tectonic shift is to adapt to it and then find a way to innovate and come out on top. It’s up to you to decide. You can either sit and complain about software taking your job or making that software dance to your tunes.

Let us embrace this tectonic shift and use the organ that makes us better than all the organisms on the planet, our brain. And leave a better world for our future generations.

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