Giacomo Rozzo, Strategist at Il Prisma based in Milan has written about the Natural Processing Workplace.
In a world bombing us with 220,000 times the amount of information we can handle, power resides in clarity and empathy. But as we discover the beauty of data-based efficiency for the workplace, our daily lives are already way beyond that. Personal data collection and mining is routine for the companies running our favourite services and products, and we are gladly willing to allow them to use this data if they provide us with amazing, seamless, natural services. They learn from us while they mould our habits; we improve our life experience while we discover new ways of living. It’s a value exchange system that seems to work great!
Why can’t we establish the same agreement about our workplace experience?
Data collection could and definitely should be used to improve company efficiency while diminishing the burden on employees’ shoulders and in the meantime improve employees’ personal empowerment, awareness and wellbeing. It could help companies build a strong sense of belonging to their mission and vision, and equally support employees connecting to each other and give authentic meaning to their own work-life existence. As I see it, digital can help corporate and personal interests and values merge, and help corporations and employees write down a win-win story.
The Natural Processing Workplace
Lately a growing number of companies are taking the hint and starting to talk about offering their employees and stakeholders a great experience. The workplace is trying to close the gap with the outside world by starting to think in terms of customer experience in the office: all kinds of services and perks are driving a new employee-centred workplace, but still, something way more basic is often lacking. You can see it on your own: How stable and pervasive is your office Wi-Fi connection today? How clearly can you hear your colleague speaking during an average conf-call?
What is still missing is a natural seamless digital experience, intertwined with our “physical” workflow. Of course, in the workplace, the major complexity relies on individuals sharing tools and collaborating.
So how can you make this relationship work? Here are four hints coming from my experience:
- Understand your company’s digital literacy before starting to digitise it.
- Design a quality experience with people in mind, not just the business.
- Support individual choice and environmental ownership, and make people, space and machines “fraternise”.
- Drive the change through a continuous communication and change management strategy.
In fact, the very process of learning becomes a common thread of the experiences of both people and machines that basically establish a relationship of mutual interest. A human-machine relationship where both learn and give back to the other in a very natural way.
Welcome to the Natural Processing Workplace…...
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