Will a machine take your job?

I was at the Doctor's office last week for a check-up. Inevitably I found myself cooling my heels in the waiting room. Rather than staring at the walls or at my smart phone I glanced through the magazines lying around until the receptionist called my name.

I don't honestly make a regular habit of reading Fortune magazine and was a little surprised to find a copy as one of the offerings in the waiting room. The cover story was titled "Humans are Underrated" and had a picture of a human arm wrestling that of a robot. Not really paying much attention I began to read the article. At Pinnacol I often have candidates ask me what will make them successful. I often respond with the fact that we'll see 3-5 folks who can all do the technical aspects of the job; the nod will go to the one who will be the best interpersonal fit for the team, and our company. The article brought into sharp focus much of what we have been intuitively doing for years - seeking out those who understand and can deliver on the value of human to human interaction.

I'd encourage you to read the article by Geoff Colvin, but here are some of the major points that

really hit home...

Everyone knows that computers are increasingly displacing workers doing routine transaction (bank teller, checkout clerk) and production (manufacturing) types of jobs. No surprise there. Everyone also knows that Google, and an increasing number of auto manufacturers, are doing research on self-driving cars. What I had never stopped to think about was what this would mean job-wise. Do you know what the number 1 job among American men is? I had no idea but as the article points out its driving trucks (2.9 million American men drive a truck for a living). What does this have to do for future job prospects? In May of this year Daimler (the folks behind Mercedes-Benz) began testing the first self-driving semi-truck on the roads in Nevada. I had never done the brain damage of connecting the dots that the likelihood of my having a self-driving car in the near future also means that the truck driving industry (semitrucks, FedX, UPS, cement trucks, etc.) will eventually also be driver-less displacing all those currently doing this kind of work. How soon will it be before you call UBER or your local taxi service and a driver-less car shows up to whisk you to your destination? The ladies aren't immune either - the number one job among American women (3 million)? Administrative assistant. How soon before those roles completely disappear? How many managers now get along without anything other than their smart phone doing tasks on their own that they used to delegate to their assistant?

Technology displacing workers is nothing new (what did buggy makers think the first time they saw a Model T Ford?). But as the article points out, historically these technology shifts, while painful to the actual displaced worker, have actually multiplied jobs and raised living standards. Far more people have been employed, and at a higher standard of living, building cars rather than horse-drawn carriages. Economists are now wondering if that economic trend can continue.

Mr. Colvin drives home the point that the age-old question of what kind of work will a computer never be able to do is misguided because it is dangerous to claim that there are any skills computers cannot eventually acquire. He turns this question on its head and asks "What are the activities that we humans, driven by our deepest nature or by the realities of daily life, will simply insist be performed by other humans, even if computers could do them?"

The article then tackles answering this critical question. The part that resonated most with me, and that is already applicable in our company, is that "Being a great performer is becoming less about what you know and more about what you're like."

Do you particularly care about the interpersonal skills of the UPS driver who leaves a package on your front porch? Probably not, but how about your Doctor, police officers/judges, teachers and a whole list of others who's ability to interact effectively on a human to human level are critical? Relationship building, the ability to work effectively as part of a team, cultural sensitivity, empathy, are rising to prominence over the simple ability to do a given task. As the author concludes - "For the past 10 generations in the developed world... most people have succeeded by learning to do machine work better than machines could do it. Now that era is ending."