Tag Archive for: decision-making

Women discuss change and its impact
Dominique Jaurola

4 steps to understanding change and its impact

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Change can be unpredictable, but how you understand change and its impact doesn’t have to be.

Whether we proactively want to make changes to improve our personal lives, or change is being thrusted upon upon us in a professional context, change can have a huge impact on our well-being. Positive change can improve motivation, drive creativity and generally improve our sense of self, whereas negative change can have the opposite effect – increasing stress and anxiety. 

On some level, all change requires a leap into the unknown, especially when you are not the instigator. But even if you are being proactive, a step away from the status quo can throw up a number of uncertainties and still be nerve-wracking. So how can you better understand change and its impact for better results and a smoother transition?

Making positive change, or mitigating the negative impact of change, requires an understanding of the full picture, or the system that the change is part of, and the various component parts that make up the whole. 

Here are 4 steps to understand change and its impact. 

1. Understand your current position

In order to truly understand change, the first step is to understand your starting point. I’ve previously covered understanding the problem in relation to better decision-making, and the same principle applies here. 

Map out everything you know about where you are now: the status quo, the catalysts for change, the stakeholders involved, etc. For example, you may feel that a career change is on the horizon, but you’re unsure about what direction you want to go in. Do you want a new career because you want more financial stability, or perhaps a better work life balance to spend time with your children? By identifying all the parts that make up your current position, you build a working model to base further analysis on. 

2. Identify the end goal

What is it that you want to achieve by making changes? And if the change hasn’t been instigated by you, what could be the best possible outcome? For example, this could be to better understand your customer behaviors. Identifying the end goal not only gives you something to work towards, it also gives you a better understanding of the current problem. What is it about your current system that prevents you from tracking customer behavior, for example?

At this point, you should also identify the variables that could have an impact on getting from your current position to the end goal. If you implement a new tech solution, will you have to retrain your employees? Does it integrate with your existing tech stack? With an idea of the variables, you can start building an understanding of the ‘moving parts’ of the change.

3. Design your path

How do you get from your current position to the end goal? Plan out the steps and the resources needed to get from your current position to the end goal. Do you need external help, for example? Now is the time to figure out where that may come from. 

Consider how the variables identified impact the steps as you progress – chances are that once you start adjusting one variable, it’ll have a knock-on effect elsewhere. Make sure you’re aware of the possible consequences, especially on those whom the change affects. 

One tip to making sure you’re on the right path is consulting with your stakeholders at this stage. Speaking to the people involved, allowing them to understand change and getting their feedback on your suggested path forward may allow you to consider it’s impact from another perspective. 

For more information about how human-centered design helps build business resilience, check out Mika Raulas’ blog.

4. Implement the steps

You have your base line and where you want to go. You have all the steps in between. It’s now time to implement. As you progress with implementation, monitor the other components that you’ve already identified to see how they develop in line with the changes that you make. 

You may find that it’s plain sailing, but as we all know, change is unpredictable and so keeping an eye out for unintended consequences means that you can react with speed and precision to mitigate any negative effects. Luckily, having mapped out the system that the change is part of, you can understand change in a way that enables you to assess its impact and adjust your approach for the best possible outcomes.

Here are just some perspectives about change. Come add your own to help build a multidimensional understanding of change, and other themes.

 

Make better decisions
Dominique Jaurola

3 tips to make better decisions in every aspect of your life

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Make better decisions. It sounds simple but in practice, it’s not as easy you might think. 

As humans we make more or less 35,000 decisions a day. These decisions can vary from the small things; like what socks to wear; or whether to watch the news, to the bigger choices; will a gap year be detrimental to my career prospects; should we be making environmentally-friendly lifestyle changes; do I go for the big promotion? 

When considering the bigger decisions that we make, both personally and professionally, we know that the outcomes of these decisions have an impact on wellbeing. I loved Barry Schwartz’s great TedTalk about how more choice has made western societies more dissatisfied, rather than making us happier. 

The fundamentals of most strategies for decision-making include objective setting, investigation, establishing options, reacting and evaluating. Many of us already follow this pattern in some form or another, whether consciously or not, from a very young age. And for that reason, I don’t tell you how to make a decision – I want to share how you can make better decisions. Ones that consider all the variables, have maximum impact, and are sustainable in the long run. 

Tip 1. Take a moment to understand the whole issue

The decision you are making may be based on one area and it’s direct impact to you. Take the decision of whether you should go freelance, for example. Going freelance would give you more flexibility and potentially more money.

But like most things relating to us humans, there’s likely to be a series of interconnect points, or systems, that exist around that one topic. Is there a saturation of freelancers in the market? Will new tax rules make it harder to profit from being freelance? Is working by yourself better for your well-being than being in a team?

Understanding the whole system ensures that your ultimate decision is based on the whole issue, not just the pointy bit that is directed at you and your immediate needs.

When considering how human-centered design can help businesses build resilience against COVID-19 uncertainty, Mika Raulas talks about the importance of understanding the core problem. Whether you want to solve a problem or make better decisions, the same principle applies. Your end decision becomes more sustainable when you take into account the whole.

Tip 2. Consider the other perspectives

Who else is interested in this topic at the heart of this decision and why does it interest them? You’ll be seeing and interpreting the topic from one angle but taking the time to understand other points of view gives you a much fuller picture. 

Right now, you have a certain perspective but as you journey down the path that your decision leads you on, it’s pretty likely that your perspective will change and evolve. Someone else, may already be at that point, or have a completely different point of view that makes you consider the whole issue in a different way. Being aware of the different sides to the topic, and understanding why someone thinks that way can save you a lot of effort and surprises.

As an extension of that, take into account the needs of those whom your decision will impact. My blog about how understanding humanness helps you make better decisions goes into this, but essentially a better understanding helps you make better decisions that have the right impact on the people around. 

Tip 3: Be ready for change

We’ve all been there – you make a decision based on the information that you have to hand, but then a new factor emerges that shifts everything. My first two tips can help to prepare for issue-related shifts, but big surprises, whether from the macro-environment or somewhere else, will always, always exist. For example, you enroll in a university course to study philosophy, but your partner is offered a once in a lifetime opportunity in another country. 

And while you can’t plan for every eventuality, you can build a network that helps you understand and evolve your thinking quickly. Whether this is a team of trusted advisors, a repository of materials, or a platform that does all of the above, being prepared means that you can respond to the issues and make better decisions at pace.  

At Hunome, we’ve created a platform that helps our members make better decisions, by allowing them to understand themes holistically, the different perspectives involved and the people who have contributed to them, and real-time evolution of themes. See how Hunome can help you make better decisions by signing up for Hunome today.

Woman considers notes left by other people
Dominique Jaurola

Why does humanness in decision-making matter?

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The concept of putting humans at the core of our decision-making process is nothing new. From Kellogg development of cereal with feedback from the patients in the late 19th Century, to the introduction of focus groups in the 1940s, we’ve always sought the views of the collective in order to make the right choice going forward. Even now, we scour the internet for other people’s experiences or knowledge so that we can figure out what is right for us. 

Decision-making 1.0 – market research

Humanness in decision making isn’t as simple as just asking a person however. It’s about understanding the quality of being human – what really makes us tick. 

The trouble with many of the qualitative research methods mentioned above is how they relate to actually making the right choices going forward. Many of these methods work in a very short and isolated manner. They often produce the wrong kind of input to longer-term thinking or to areas where things are changing rapidly, and almost never take into account the next new thing that will shift the game. In this world, different styles of inputs are necessary to make unbiased, future-oriented decisions. 

Human bias enables us to understand the world around us and protects us from the unknown. Bias is necessary in a lot of ways and we all exercise many types of bias in our day-to-day lives. The problem lies when you have too many perspectives that have stemmed from the same biases. What you end up with is a type of echo-chamber where actual innovative decisions are replaced with something that is much more one-sided. 

The next challenge we face is gathering and processing information. Granted, the internet has made collecting data much easier, however information is scattered and can lack context. This makes the task of gathering the data that is of actual relevance, then analyzing and extracting understanding a herculean effort. 

But why is this? 

Decision-making 2.0 – tech in decision-making

One reason is our reliance on similar, relevant and related, technology-found ideas of what something looks like. Another is that human ingenuity creates new directions for a whole field.

This means that searching for ‘related’ is not as easy as it sounds. For example, what some may call strategy, is known as business design in the agile and creative world. Those two worlds may never find each other, until the technologies make the connection. 

There’s no doubt that AI makes those connections easier. We’re increasingly using AI to help us make choices in our personal life (think Netflix recommendations – even so, not always the best suggestions). AI is even being used to streamline processes in the workplace for better business decision-making. 

However, while AI’s integration into work processes can result in more effective decision making, there’s no way that an algorithm can build upon information that doesn’t yet exist, reassess rules to take into account the exception, or understand the impact of an unexpected anomaly. That’s where our human ingenuity comes in. 

Decision-making 3.0 – humanness in decision-making

Humans create discontinuities. When we consider what might be, we do not rely on past data alone. When we consider what is in our essence as individuals or systems, our humanness, we utilise our human ingenuity. Sylvain Duranton makes a compelling argument for this in his TedTalk back in September 2019. 

The reality is that even in this modern age, understanding our shared humanness remains fundamental for better decision making, even with all the wonderful messiness that we bring into the process. At Hunome, we want to help the world make better choices. To see how we do this, sign up for Hunome and add your perspectives to the thought networks for multidimensional shared understanding.

Woman considers notes left by other people
Dominique Jaurola

Protected: Why does humanness in decision-making matter?

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Mika Raulas

Human-centricity is going to hit society in a huge way – WebSummit

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We attended a WebSummit like no other in early December, 2020. More than 100,000 attendees from all over the world joined the largest tech event in the world, all online. Despite the occasional patchy connection, the breadth and variety of talks gave plenty of food for thought (and action), and I was encouraged to see one theme in particular emerging across the board. 

This idea of human-centricity in the business landscape. 

Some of the biggest companies are speaking about human-centricity

  • “We at Ikea have a big agenda on ethics, sustainability and human-centricity.  We need to make the whole societal system human-centric and put humanity the centre. This requires leaders to be curious and step up.” Barbara Martin Coppola, Chief Digital Officer, IKEA 
  • “When Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014, he quickly reset our mission to ‘ empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.’ Every person. People-centric brands start with culture, and as we became people-centric, we moved from a know-it-all culture to learn-it-all culture” Mascha Driessen, Regional VP, Microsoft
  • “We need to reclaim humanity, what it is to be human. Concepts like sustainability are not enough as a goal for humanity, we need to actively do something to make things better, do good, not just fix what’s broken.” Ruth Andrade, Chief Sustainability Officer, Lush

These are just a few picks of the names that were talking about human-centricity and its impact not only on organizations, but individuals and society as a whole. This idea that we need to move beyond sustainability, to something that puts humanity at the heart of the business is exciting. It moves businesses from just knowing their customers, employees, and other stakeholders to really understanding them as human beings. It enables businesses to understand the real problem that human encounters and offer solutions that have a bigger humanity impact than just one that appeals to a customer in the sales funnel. 

Why now for-human centricity? 

As Sir Ridley Scott said at a talk about how digital technologies can help reach the UN’s sustainability goals:  “Humankind and Earth require intervention. We’re in a crisis state and we need to pull this together to fix the problem. Science fiction is fiction, but we operate in reality. Digital with Purpose is a movement  and in race to deliver against the Paris Agreement. Putting humankind at its core.”

Or as Dominique Jaurola, CEO at Hunome puts it:

WebSummit has shown us that human-centricity is important to the likes of IKEA, Microsoft, Lush and many more. We know it’s important to you. This is why we are building Hunome, a collective platform that is set to revolutionize the world’s understanding of humanity. 

Launching in 2021, we will connect perspectives and evolve insights to create a better understanding of the world arounds us. 

Sign up for Hunome to join the growing number of individuals and businesses who are getting excited about the potential that human-centricity can have to shaping how the world works and should work so that it is human-aware.

human skills wanted - blog
Dominique Jaurola

Human skills wanted: pandemic reveals need for humanness in an age of technology

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You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Old habits die hard. A leopard never changes its spots. We’re pretty much set in our ways if we listen to the old adages, yet a recent report by the World Economic Forum revealed that 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025. 

The Fourth Industrial Revolution, the adoption of smart technology in manufacturing and industrial sectors, has been held up as the biggest catalyst for change in recent years as companies adapt to new human/AI workforce structures. However, the Covid 19 pandemic, and it’s subsequent economic impact, not only is accelerating automation, but is also fast-tracking the need for new human skills. 

Skills set show the need for human ingenuity

According to the WEF’s  The Future of Jobs Report 2020, critical thinking and problem solving skills continue to take the top of the list of skills that will grow in prominence in the next five years. Yet 2020 has seen the emergence of new skills such as active learning, resilience, stress tolerance and flexibility. 

Given the rise in technology, it’s interesting that the skills that have emerged this year are distinctly human. 

It goes without saying that if Covid-19 has taught us anything, it’s resilience and flexibility. As a collective, the human race has found a way to adapt and continue in a way it has never done before. The effects of the pandemic have been an unmitigated stress for most people, a trauma for others. The ability to not only adjust our lives to accommodate this, but to also grow from the experience and emerge stronger with a new perspective, is something that a machine could never replicate. It’s awe-inspiring to reflect on and no wonder that these are the human skills that employers want in their employees’ toolkits. 

How to develop human skills

When we look at how we can develop these critical human skills in the coming years, the understanding and acceptance of different perspectives will be paramount. It’s easier to be flexible when you understand that different schools of thought can lead to the same result. Resilience comes more naturally when you take time to understand your place in the bigger picture.

At Hunome, we combine perspectives to create a holistic view on multidimensional themes. People have the ability to access multiple views and experiences so that they can adapt their perspectives – fast-tracking active learning. 

Active learning as a human skill is becoming more and more fundamental across a wide range of industries. Understanding the shift in context that a new piece of information provides, and assessing how this may help solve problems or make decisions, is something that humans have been doing in one form or another for millenia, and is also a methodology of machine learning. While AI is of course adept at processing information and creating desired outputs, the nuance that humans provide is unique and insightful and takes into consideration context that a machine cannot account for.  

Human skills with AI

Yet, machine active learning and human active learning do not need to be mutually exclusive. Augmenting human insights with AI can improve the quality of the active learning process for better decision-making. 

For example, a HR practitioner looking to implement an employee mental health support scheme might search for mental health and productivity on Hunome, and uncover a number of human perspectives on the topic that she can use to build her position. She can then explore the Insights to get further analysis around the subject to strengthen her position – resulting in a better informed initiative.

There’s no doubt that 2020 is the year of disruption, and that the impact this has had on the workforce, and the individuals among them, will require a new set of human skills as we emerge on the other side. And in a post-pandemic world, technology may continue to be the catalyst for change, but with human ingenuity leading technology use, we stand to come out stronger than ever before. Making sustainable, well received decisions, where our humanness is taken into consideration.

Humans pass each other while crossing the road
Dominique Jaurola

Protected: Understanding humanness – a brief history of Hunome

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Humans pass each other while crossing the road
Dominique Jaurola

Understanding humanness – a brief history of Hunome

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I grew up in dual cultures in a monolithic society. The experience of having to always explain my name, my background, my heritage, made me realize at a young age that people thought differently, had different expectations, ideals, values.  Our humanness is fascinating.

It was when I was working at Nokia in the 1990s that this idea of human awareness started taking shape. As a product lead, I sat in meetings, hearing market research results that clashed with the reality of what people got excited about, pondering on the better way.

One situation in particular stands out. A research agency was presenting its results from a global study and had found ‘that US women wouldn’t want a mobile phone that wasn’t black’. These were the 90s and while many women didn’t want to be seen differently to their male counterparts, changeable covers for phones were just around the corner. We knew through validation, that the research was wrong.

Researching what people want in three years, at a time when the experience of owning a mobile phone as a status symbol was becoming obsolete, was proving to be pointless. The answers we were getting didn’t account for the upcoming shift in perceptions, and resulting behaviours.

The everyday human

Nokia set up Future Watch, an internal organization canvassing change and its impact on Nokia, and I was given the Human area to focus on as I was already working on it. My team and I travelled to 30+ countries around the world to understand how cultures, societal norms, economic situations, impacted the way in which people used mobile phones.

For example, in Chinese cities, the majority of our customers rode bikes, so how could we make mobile phones work there? In Colombia, a country where you didn’t stop at a red light or wear jewelry on the street, we landed upon a stealth concept – a way to communicate without the actual device being visible.

In the modern era of human-centered design, this may seem fundamental, but at the time we were only just starting to scratch the surface of how the unique aspects of humans can help develop a product.

When we talk about the human element in a work context, we more often than not are referring to an employee or a consumer. Yes, there are more modern methods of taking a human-centred approach, (IDEO’s fantastic design toolkit is making strides in this area), but on the whole, businesses still look at humans as buyers. The problem with this is that it leaves out the human in everyday life. What their life is like, outside of purchasing the product, what shifts are taking place for them, what brings them to your market.

While I was traveling, the way I saw the world began to shift and the idea for Hunome as a platform was born.

A world, apart

After Nokia, I co-founded an innovation community marketplace, in the early 2000, in the nascent age of social media. I observed (and participated) in this growing trend with great interest. But as the years passed, it became obvious that social media, and the internet as a whole, was becoming more and more polarized. The world began viewing things in black or in white, and not the many, many shades of grey in between. We are now realizing how problematic this is considering the complexity and nuance of understanding humans and human problems.

The other thing I began to notice was that information was harder to come by. It is all there on the internet but it’s scattered and siloed. Bringing that data together is time consuming (manual searching), or expensive (market research), or clumsy (AI aggregation), and the result is often simplistic, and doesn’t show the whole picture. It’s almost like we haven’t moved on from that market research presentation I sat in 25 years ago.

Understanding humanness

We’ve created a world where the need to understand our humanness is more relevant now than ever before. How can we develop as a society without measuring the impact we have on the people within it? Or canvas opinions, when we don’t accept the diversity of thought? How can we come up with an answer, when we don’t understand the question? Or aren’t even asking the right ones?

Hunome has been a long time in the making. But creating a place where multiple ideas and experiences can be brought together to build understanding, was never going to be a straightforward path. In order to give the world a better understanding of our humanness, we need to allow the collective building of knowledge and the evolution of perspectives.

We need our humanness at the heart.