Throw away change management plans

Humanity will become the most valuable asset in the age of automation and artificial intelligence.

Anything that can be automated will be automated, and anything that’s left will become 100 times more valuable, predicted Tariq Qureishy, entrepreneur and motivational speaker.

“Love, relationships, imagination, intuition, collaboration, emotional intelligence: all of these things become 100 times more valuable. That’s the essence of technology and how we cope with technology,” he said.

Speaking at this year’s CIPS Middle East Conference, Qureishy said the era of employee efficiency was over. “Efficiency is very yesterday, it is gone. Because efficiency goes to a computer, because a computer can be 100 times more efficient and 100 times cheaper than you.” Creativity, relationships and collaboration were among the skills that should now be prioritised.

Qureishy, CEO and founder of public speaking firm MAD Talks, predicted that expertise would also make way for social skills. In five years’ time supercomputers will be able to diagnose ailments and conditions faster and more accurately than humans, he said.

“The doctor’s role changes from an expert to a caregiver, that’s the shift… The doctor can hold your hand and say, ‘How are you feeling, what do you need, how can I help you?’… That’s the humanity.”

For procurement, this technology will eventually mean letting go of long-term planning, targets and measuring return on investment, said Qureishy. Change management plans are also a thing of the past. “Throw them away, useless, because the word change doesn’t mean the same any more.” By the time your plan has been implemented, markets will have moved on and you will already working on yesterday’s change plan, he said.

“It’s networks and interfaces and collaboration and cooperation: this is the new world,” he said.