“The best managers realize that time is
much better spent trying to capitalize on
who a person naturally is, as opposed to
trying to change them into someone else.”
despite all the energy we’ve thrown at engaging our
people. And we’ve got record high levels of burnout,
stress, anxiety due to work. In fact, your
members are trying to create
places where you can recover from
those things.
So, something that we’re doing
is wrong. I’ve been doing this for
25 years and like to believe I've
been making a difference, but we
haven’t actually changed anything
systematic. The other thing is that
we’re moving into a world of
artificial intelligence and machine
learning, and AI is going to be built
into our human capital
management tools—the tools that
determine whether you get hired,
what job you get, what goals are
set for you, whether you’re
promoted, how much you get paid,
whether you’re fired. Everything is
mediated by these tools, and all of
them are about to be programmed
with AI algorithms which will supposedly increase their
intelligence at finding the right talent, developing it,
giving you the right training.
And yet, when you really look at what an algorithm is,
it’s really just an assumption turned into math. But is
that assumption confirmed by the real world? When we
push on these assumptions—like
that people care which company they
work for, or that the best companies
cascade goals, or that people need
feedback, or that people have
“potential”—every one of those
assumptions is provably wrong. Not
theoretically wrong—provably wrong.
Now is a really good time to go,
“Wait, stop. Let’s take a look at our
core assumptions.”
P: One of the lies you discuss
in the book is that work/life
balance matters most.
Work/life is a frequently
used term in the spa
industry. Can you elaborate
on why its importance is a
lie?
B: Balance is a funny concept,
anyway. When you look at the world,
anything in balance is in an incredibly
precarious state. Finding that one moment where every-
thing is perfectly balanced, if you ever did find that
moment—”my bank account is balanced, my work, my
SEPtEmbEr
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