The purpose economy is here thanks to Ai. I don’t think CEOs are ready for it. Fixated on playing a game of “matchy-matchy,” their HR folks are still seeking cog-shaped people, to fill the cog-shaped roles, left open from cog-like predecessors. Projects and goals be damned!
Think about where we’ve been heading. Pre industrial revolution, the idea of “free time” was absurd and/or just for rich folk. But automation brought entertainment, film, music, and even professional sports industries. Imagine describing pro sports to someone from 1890. “Listen to me. People will go pay money to watch other people play sports, and they’ll buy jerseys, merch, and bobbleheads!”
Automation led us from hard labor to knowledge work. Ai will continue the trend, replacing what Christopher Mims calls “toil” in his new book How to Ai.
So, where does that lead us? PURPOSE.
Leaders can no longer hire/manage people based on a list of skills or certifications—that’s “cog-like” thinking. Ai does that sh*t. Knowledge is cheap now, just ask Grok.
You need to hire for critical thinking. You need to hire for creativity. You need to hire for curiosity. You need to hire for communication. But you can no longer play matchy-matchy with a set of predetermined skills. “We need to look at hiring the whole human.” Arne Gast, Partner at McKinsey told me as we discusses this concept last month.
Creativity isn’t an innovation edge anymore, it’s an entry-level requirement.
The problem solvers and critical thinkers will be the most valuable workers. But will companies figure that out?
No.
Maybe eventually, but they sure as heck have no idea how to do that now. Even “innovative” tech companies that should know better suck at this.
It took minutes for me to figure out an acquaintance of mine, in a tech-forward company, couldn’t find a match for a job he had posted because he was trying to play the matchy-matchy game for an open role. Because they didn’t have a previous person in this role, he went to LinkedIn, found Mr. Perfect and built his job description around the titles and experience Mr. Perfect had.
The problem?
He liked Mr. Perfect’s output because he was unique. The company he copied didn’t play the matchy-matchy game at all. They had unique roles, designed for projects and goals.
What he needed to do was find others output he liked that fit his brand, and had the creative capacity to accomplish projects, then reach out directly. But that would require critical thinking on goals and projects. That would take understanding a person’s unique strengths. And that isn’t valued.
Most recruiters, hiring managers, leaders and CHROs still look for identical cogs to fill the cog-shape left by the person ahead of them. Did that person accomplish anything impactful? Probably not, but what do we do when a role is open? We just fill it.
Truthfully, this hasn’t worked in years, but leaders haven’t learned the lesson.
As Ai does the knowledge-part of these roles however, they’ll be left with no choice as their competitive advantage of having a deep bench goes away.
Ai enables a small team of 2 critical thinkers to run laps around a team of 200 cogs. In an Ai world, you need whole humans.
