The principle of ensuring both a High Tech High Touch philosophy in the digital age is a principle that will serve us well in both our personal and professional lives. It is too easy to centralise, computerise, analyse, digitalise and misplace the importance of human interactions. It is not an intentional strategy but an evolving one, as technology becomes more a part of our lives.
It became obvious to me how important this principle was, when I was having lunch at a riverside outdoor restaurant in Melbourne last year. A young couple with a baby, in a pram arrived and sat a couple of tables away from us. The parents pulled out a small computer, sat the baby upand turned the computer on for the baby to watch it. I was transfixed, so much for a casual lunch with my partner. The parents never interacted with the baby and the baby never made a noise. I actually could not help myself; I had to get up to see what the baby was watching, subtly of course. On the screen was colourful balls going up and down, up and down. What concerned me was what, impact the High Tech environment was having on the child without the balance of High Touch or human interaction. I realised it was only one dot point, however it provoked me to think, was it a mini fractal of what was happening in business today?
Is the same story repeated, except in a different context, whether it is at a riverside cafe a boardroom, reception areas, HR departments and businesses in general? Busy directors are able to utilise the wonderful High Tech technologies, board papers downloaded onto I pads and projected onto virtual screens in a world away from the business. Strategies are developed and agreed to with the only real touch points with the business being the interactions with management presentations. My concern for a long time, as an executive who has presented to Boards and as a qualified director, is that the Boards need to be more involved. To be a successful board member as much as a successful parent you need a High Tech High Touch approach to the job at hand.
I was therefore delighted to read in one of my favourite business magazines, The Harvard Business Review, a recent 2015 article called “Where Boards fall short”. Itwas expressing a similar concern, though they did not express it by using the High Tech High Touch principle. It stated that “According to a McKinsey Study in the United Kingdom, the notion of regular group outings for directors, in say retail stores or new R&D facilities or asking members to tag along on sales calls is also now in vogue. The aim is fostering the proper long-term view by having a deeper understanding of the business. (Higher touch points). This was particularly important as the research showed that only 16{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52} of directors understand the dynamics of their firm or industry. It is an article well worth reading.
It is at every level of the organisation that this principle adds value from the boardroom to reception. I recently had an appointment with a large company where the CEO has been an advocate for Customer Service. When I went to the head office reception, a young woman behind the desk asked my name, asked me who I wanted to see, told me to sign in on an I pad and never once took her eye off the computer. I later found out that to save costs, reception had been outsourced and everyone was contacted on line for reception related activities. High Tech certainly, but not High Touch or congruent with what was being espoused within the organisation.
In contrast to this example, I had another appointment in another organisation. The receptionist smiled, welcomed me and even remembered me the next time I visited, All the same High Tech equipment was used but what a difference when combined with High Touch.
Naturally having been a GM of HR in a past life and in my current role, I am involved with and have visited many HR departments. I have observed many dedicated HR professional’s working tirelessly on their computers many with earphones on. Most modern officers are in a centralised open plan with separate office areas for meetings or private calls. Somehow I often find this visual snapshot of the office very disturbing for a HR department. On reflection I think this is because I can only see the High Tech not the High Touch that seems incongruent for a HR department.
Yet one of the key functions of HR departments is the collection of data, which is now called HR Analytics, and much time is spent collecting and analysing the data. They are such things as pulse surveys, on line employee surveys, 360-degree feedback, EQ metrics performance management scores, psychological testing results to name a few. Obviously this High Tech approach in our digital age has become important. My concern is that the principle of High Touch, which can provide such invaluable insights, may become superseded by the data printout.
My concerns however were soothed somewhat when I read the 2014 Human Capital trends research. In one article, which is called Performance Management Is Broken they say “Replace rank and yank” with coaching and development. It states that the new role for managers is to become coaches rather than evaluators. I agree totally with this premise and hope as many people, as possible read the article. I am staggered, however, that this could be considered a new concept.
Yes as long ago as 1994, when I was a fresh-faced young woman in business, my boss would spend “quality time” time with me on a regular basis. Face to face time in his office coaching and developing me. He reinforced to me the importance of a good manager spending quality time with their employees rather than focusing solely on ratings.
As the GM of HR in my next Life, I applied his wisdom by developing a High Tech High Touch approach to performance management. We threw out the name performance management, which most people associated with being fired and called it Managing for Success (MFS.) The power of language is often underestimated. We also did not rate people as such. How motivated do you feel when you are rated as average or a 3? Do you like feeling average, though logically 85{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52}of us are? How do you feel when your colleague gets a higher rating than you when you felt you have worked just as hard? Instead we designed a system that was based on exceeding, meeting or not meeting objectives, combined with employee development and quality time. Capturing the data was the end result and we introduced a High Tech solution to this.
While thinking about writing this article, I was fortunate to read a wonderful article in the QWeekend magazine written by Kristina Olsson in November 2014, which was called “Fruits of Our Labour”. In that article she referred to an Australian film called Spotswood. It is a fantastic illustration of the principle of how maintaining the High Touch is so important. This is a short extract:
“Anthony Hopkins plays Errol Wallace, a tough time-and motion man bought into find efficiencies in Ball’s moccasin factory which had been losing money for years. It is the 1960’s and cheap Asian imports are carving the heart out of the local manufacturing industry. The benevolent ball presides over the out-dated factory floor and a workforce of diligent, if eccentric, men and women who regard each other, and their boss as extended family. Over the hum of machines, the men plan their annual slot-car race and the women gossiping in the lunch room, don’t notice when their tea break is over; they have no idea that the boss has been selling assets to keep the place afloat or of the parlous state of their jobs
But the hard-headed Wallace is appalled. The place is something out of a comic book, he thinks, and the workers are hopeless. He immediately institutes cost saving measures: partitions suddenly appear to prevent workers talking to each other, and staggered lunch times to prevent too much socialising.
But there is a surprise waiting when the time and motion man goes to Bill and tells him his staff has let him down. He insists that 60{01332a80e2e652688e18927fa9a6162580960d47bc08263a3993439d666dcd52} of them have to be sacked. Balls listens then bows his head. Then looks Wallace in the eye. His staff had worked day and night, without overtime pay when business was booming he replies. They had saved him. He wasn’t going to sack them now. “You don’t get it do you?” He asks Wallace. Work isn’t just about dollars and cents it’s about dignity. It’s about treating people with respect.
In the end Ball’s factory is saved but the real lesson in the movie were its portrayal of a humane working environment, one in which qualities of decency, loyalty and generosity existed as business ethics as well as personal ones.”
I thought this was a very poignant article that harks back to a lost era but reinforces the importanceof a “High Touch” approach. High Tech is a part of life now and it adds a lot of value, however inadvertently we can lose the value of High Touch in this digital world if we are not careful. Whether you are a parent, a director, a receptionist, a HR professional or a manager, itwould be a tragedy if any businessperson, unit or department becomes the voice of Wallace alone.
The High Tech High Touch principle is as simple as it is complex. If, however, we consciously consider both aspects of the principle equally and act accordingly, can you imagine what a difference applying the principle could make to our lives and the lives of others? It may not be so obvious today, but maybe it will be to the child who was sitting in the pram, in twenty years time.
