‘More than managing, the focus has to be on developing people’

meetings to create the right emotional environment. In the machine age, strategic competitive advantage will be based in large part on the quality and speed of human learning. How can HR help accelerate the learning curve? In concert with the chief executive officer and other senior leaders, HR leaders should design and install a learning system. Define the learning behaviours you want and then design a culture, the structure, leadership model, HR policies, measurements and rewards that enable and promote those behaviours. It is behavioural, thus measurable. Keep it simple and put in place simple processes or tools that can be rigorously used throughout the company daily to drive the desired learning behaviours. Leadership has to role model the behaviours and own the culture. Adopt a human development mentality as opposed to a HR compliance mentality. Then train leaders and managers in the science and art of facilitating learning and the receiving and giving of frequent real-time constructive feedback. With automation, businesses are going to witness rebalancing of human capital. What are the new roles that will take centre stage across industries? Most functions will remain but they’ll look different because technology will replace many human workers in production, marketing, customer service, distribution, finance, human resources, legal, administration and middle management. Businesses will need more high performance thinkers, experimenters, creators, and innovators along with more data and computer scientists and human development professionals trained in various fields of psychology.