By Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP

In his book Simplexity, author Jeffrey Kluger describes how different biological, chemical and physical systems function according to the same set of rules. He shows how the same dynamics which create a bustling city network are found in the biological systems which give creatures like you and I life.

A similar phenomenon occurs on the interconnected web that is the Internet. Data flows, becomes information when it is collected in a community, and then – perhaps after surpassing a threshold – becomes influence. The process is how movements form. Strangely enough, in the human brain, chemicals flow within neurons, accumulate, and then form synapses. Enough of the right kind of synapses creates thought and behavior. Put another way, the accumulation of synaptic activity creates influence, much the same way the accumulation of disparate data over the Internet creates influence.

Why is any of this important to business?

Researcher W. Brian Arthur recently wrote about the coming of a ‘second economy’ – one that is being driven by the described informational networks and movements above, and one which may have the ability to bring ‘new social classes to the fore and creates a different world for business.’

Arthur describes this second, digitized economy as ‘running an awful lot of the economy. It’s helping architects design buildings, it’s tracking sales and inventory, getting goods from here to there, executing trades and banking operations, controlling manufacturing equipment, (and) making design calculations….’

He says our very economies are developing ‘a neural system… Around 1990, computers started seriously to talk to each other, and all these connections started to happen. The individual machines—servers—are like neurons, and the axons and synapses are the communication pathways and linkages that enable them to be in conversation with each other and to take appropriate action.’

For HR, this means the systems which drive our business are becoming smarter and more agile than ever before. No longer are processes dependent on human form, physically relaying bits and pieces of information sluggishly from one location to another. In their stead are machines which communicate with other machines, spread around the world, in real time. They adjust to changes instantly and are even capable of adapting more efficient ways of doing things, through their ability to ‘self-organize, self-architect and self-heal.’

Processes that were physical in nature are now becoming digitized and more efficient than before. This has (and increasingly will) resulted in a new grade of workers who no longer fit into the people systems of yesterday. Popular HR concepts like ‘managing and engaging subordinates’ will no longer suffice for tomorrow’s economy.

Rather, HR will need to formulate people systems which appreciate the creative, innovative and influential capacities of the mind – rather than the physical capacities of the body. Machines will increasingly take care of many of the physical processes that eat up time and resources (i.e., people) in organizations. It will be the underlying neural mechanics of human behavior which will need to be harnessed to in order to reach increasing efficiencies in productivity.

Broken will be the control hierarchies which sought to make efficient physical processes. For tomorrow’s adaptive organization, think of webs of interconnected thought leaders working alongside one another (rather than above and below) – perhaps (and hopefully) without the biases of titles weighing them into constricting ‘roles’.

As we move into a more mind-focused future, what’s your organization thinking?

Nilesh Bhagat, CHRP, is a rewards coordinator with Best Buy Canada. Nilesh graduated from Simon Fraser University with a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, First Class Honours. He majored in Human Resources Management and tacked on an extended minor in Psychology. He’s a self-confessed nerd (the first step is admitting), likes to read, loves hockey and is struggling with the complexities of learning the game of golf.