Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Soon, Your Boss May Be a Machine

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Soon, Your Boss May Be a Machine Michael Schrage, a research fellow at MIT Sloan School’s Center for Digital Business, has a compelling proposition: once machines track your every move and tell you exactly how to become more productive, will you listen to them? A few years ago, in support of the pioneering practice of people analytics, MIT invented employee badges that allow organizations to tell which employees are most productive, and where their efforts should be directed to ensure maximum success. At the time, these badges were considered an experiment â€" a novelty. Not anymore. Whether you think counting your steps with FitBit is motivating or a chore, you’ll have to get used to the idea that it’s only a matter of time before FitBit for business arrives on your device or in the mail via a wearable. Seemingly harmless software and/or software powered by big data algorithms will turn your working life into Big Brother on steroids, and you’ll have no choice but to use it. As Schrage says in Harvard Business Review: “Anybody and everybody who wants to succeed in tomorrow’s organizations will have to commit to levels of self-monitoring, self-surveillance, and self-quantification that makes Orwell read like Pollyanna.” That Little Voice That Whispers “You Can Do Better” Is No Longer in Your Head But On Your Device How will this work, exactly? Schrage explains that much the way Amazon suggests books to read and Netflix recommends videos to binge watch, data aggregators will synthesize and customize explicit recommendations designed to make people productive and effective. Annoyed that your boss doesn’t give you enough attention? Fear not, for soon, algorithms will recommend strategies to boost your creativity, optimize your performance, manage your time, and improve on your work product based on your unique style. An algorithm may serve as a communication coach, too. It could prompt an introverted employee to get out there and network, and an extroverted one to tone it down. It may help you solve a problem with a colleague, deliver criticism to a direct report, or manage a sticky political situation. Even if your boss did have the time to help you out, who’s to say his or her advice would be as good? What will win here, human intuition or scientific objectivity? The jury may be out now, but machines are only getting smarter whereas human capabilities are pretty static. For more where this came from, check out the full post at QuickBases Fast Track blog.