Will “real work” tomorrow be the fruit of algorithmic self prescription?

My reading of RE-Humanize by Phanish Puranam

Re-Humanize de Phanish Puranam

The author: Phanish Puranam holds the Roland Berger Chair in Strategy and Organizational Design at INSEAD. He has just published “RE-Humanize / How to build human-centric organizations in the age of algorithms?

This book can be read in several ways. Here's what inspired me:

On the cusp of a tsunami of AI and automation that will profoundly alter organizational models and the landscape of work, Phanish Puranam invites us to rethink the place of the human in modern organizations. He warns us of the paradox of the age of algorithms, where technologies can both improve efficiency while dehumanizing working relationships. His main message is clear: for an organization to be truly successful in the digital age, it must reconcile productivity and human well-being, combining the duality of “Goal Centric” and “Human Centric”.

Puranam explains that organizations must focus not just on results, but also on fundamental human needs such as autonomy, social connection and the meaning of work, and define a favorable OCP (“Organizational Context Preferences”). He proposes an intelligent division of labor between humans and machines, delegating repetitive tasks to algorithms and preserving for humans the roles that require creativity, judgment and human interaction.

The author goes further, suggesting democratizing organizational design by using digital tools to enable all employees to participate in process creation and decision-making. This approach would enhance inclusiveness and adapt structures to the realities of modern work, while fostering a climate of trust and collaboration.

Finally, Puranam stresses the importance of a shared vision and clear intent from top management to guide this digital transformation. He asserts that, even in an increasingly digitized world, people must be at the center of priorities, to preserve long-term commitment and performance. After all, the integration of artificial intelligence into organizations will ultimately depend on “what we choose to do”.

However, behind these warnings and recommendations lies an optimism and confidence that I find hard to embrace:

This optimism is based on the future of a harmonious balance between human and machine, a balance in which technology serves rather than replaces the human being, calling on a form of wisdom to tame these challenges which, like previous technological revolutions, may or may not prove fireproof. Such wisdom, however desirable, has never really existed in the history of technological and organizational evolution, which makes this a risky gamble.

Puranan relates this anecdote at the start of the book: “When I told my colleagues that my new book was about keeping organizations human-centric in the age of algorithms, some reacted with a wry smile: ‘They're already not very human-centric!’”. How, indeed, can we Re-Humanize organizations with new digital technologies, when we see how difficult it is today for organizations to work for and through people? Will curing evil with evil be virtuous this time?

Puraman makes more technical proposals: the decentralization and democratization of organizational design, suggesting that digital tools could enable us to rethink the governance of organizations by enabling everyone, whatever their position, to participate actively in defining processes and making decisions. This idea of organizational democratization may seem seductive, but it will come up against a more pragmatic reality. Algorithms, which are instruments of standardization and control, will paradoxically tend to reinforce uniformity and hierarchy. What's more, large organizations, often driven by the imperatives of profitability and control, will be less inclined to allow human heterogeneity to take root in the face of the power of data that standardizes, centralizes and standardizes.

Puraman's analysis and warnings are accurate, and his remedies optimistic. The danger, in the near future, is that real work will be reduced to algorithmic self-prescription of one's own work! This will lead to a dynamic in which the individual, in his work environment, becomes both actor and executor of a script or series of instructions, which he will fetch from an AI, trained to point out and resolve his difficulties.

Our organizations will become nothing more than gigantic mechanisms for producing goods or services, whose various parameters will be continuously adjusted by isolated employees, caught in a loop of dehumanization and disengagement at the service of a purely business objective.