Discussing our place in the digital world.
By Declan Noone
Change is a given. In fact, in our personal and professional lives, change is an essential catalyst for positive growth and development. But it’s no longer just the (increasingly breakneck) pace of change that we must contend with, but the nature of technological change impacting our lives, too.
Technology is developing so rapidly that it is incredibly difficult for individuals, societies, and organisations to adapt and flourish. Ignoring the pace of these changes or hoping to stall until they pass us by can only lead to increased instability, as the gap between coping and flourishing widens.
One very obvious change is the unprecedented level of data that has entered our daily lives. This information stream comes at us from multiple angles; from social media, permanent connectivity to work emails, how we eat, how we shop and how we communicate are just some examples. It is estimated that the average adult processes approximately 34 gigabytes of data (that’s 100,000 words) each day, according to research by the University of California.
From another perspective, Dr Martin Hilbert and his team at the University of Southern Californiahave assessed that “every day, the average person produces six newspapers worth of information compared with just two and a half pages 24 years ago – nearly a 200-fold increase”[1].
However, our brains – our processing centre for information – have not evolved at a similar pace, and we are incapable of processing this volume of information in a discernible way. Consequently, we become overwhelmed. The UK Health and Safety Executive released statistics for 2018 related to workplace stress, depression or anxiety. This report makes for stark reading, stating that “595,000 workers are suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety (new or long standing) in 2017/18[2]” and “15.4 million working days were lost due to work related stress, depression or anxiety[3]” for the same period.
Meanwhile, in Ireland, health insurer VHI published its first in-depth research report into the health of Ireland’s corporate employees in June 2018. This report indicated that a “total of 78% of those surveyed believe mental health issues are of increasing concern”. Indeed, the report stated that “41% (of those surveyed), think that the amount of stress in their lives now is more than five years ago[4]”. A recent OECD report indicates that mental health problems cost the Irish economy over €8.2 billion a year[5].
Conversely, technology can be a force for good in our lives, from the personal: wearable technology enables us to monitor health and fitness on a daily basis, connectivity can positively alter our relationships, new apps can help us modify and alter destructive behaviours and we can more readily access information on education, healthcare, support networks, etc, to the professional: new and evolving technologies are changing work practices and processes, removing hierarchical boundaries for decision making, enhancing efficiencies, while also enabling business leaders to remain connected to the pulse of the organisation.
Human Change and Technology is a vast, evolving topic that demands significant, ongoing exploration and evaluation. At Serrano 99 Management Consultancy, we believe in building human-centred organisations that can flourish in our dynamically changing work environments. To facilitate this conversation, we are bringing together leading academics and senior business leaders from around the world to explore this topic and to share their insights with like-minded business people. We are proud to announce the 4thEdition of our CPD Certified, Positive and Mindful Leader Summit (www.pml-summit.com)on October 18th2019 in London.
This year, we will focus on Human Change and Technology, and how to use the principles and tools of positive leadership, behavioural science and mindfulness to deal with the increasing prevalence and importance of technology in our lives. We will havea day of in-depth panel discussions with a broad range of academics and business leaders, who will look at how technology is driving change on a personal level, as well as in organisations, and society as a whole.They will share insights and advice on cutting-edge leadership and management practises to ensure that you, your team and your business benefit from the opportunities these changes in technology offer, without losing sight of a positive, human-centric approach to leadership.
[1]https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8316534/Welcome-to-the-information-age-174-newspapers-a-day.html
[2]HSE Report ‘Work related stress depression or anxiety statistics in Great Britain, 2018’, published 31 October 2018.
[3]Ibid,.
[4]https://www.thejournal.ie/mental-health-workplace-survey-4080568-Jun2018/
[5]https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/ireland-has-one-of-the-highest-rates-of-mental-health-illness-in-europe-report-finds-1.3707073
