RoboBoss – Bloch&Østergaard ApS

Roboboss – to bot or not to bot? // Part 2

Erik Østergaard — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 14:48:44 +0000

Roboboss – to bot or not to bot? // Part 2

By Anders Skytte Martinsen, 29. October 2018

In this second part I continue my view on the what, the how, the why of the roboboss. We smelled the roboboss in part one, and let me just reveal that the smell will not go away. Oh yes, and then I promised a namedropping of Robert Downey Jr. It will come. But let us first see what the politicians and research are saying, what it means to be high tech and/or high touch, and why we need to split management and leadership.

Find part one of this mini series blog posts about roboboss here

Policy and research

In various formats we are witnessing how politicians today are trying to deal with the issues of ethics and morale when it comes to the use of data. Two good examples of this are the Danish Tech Ambassador Casper Klynge and President Emmanuel Macron. As Ambassador Klynge describes: “Cambridge Analytica was a blessing in disguise in the sense that I had a lot of questions before about why we need a tech ambassador, why we must have this kind of conversation. That case showed that we do need to have a dialogue and that there are real problems with some of the platforms.”

The same goes for President Macron that in an interview with Wired said the following: “If we want to defend our way to deal with privacy, our collective preference for individual freedom versus technological progress, integrity of human beings and human DNA, if you want to manage your own choice of society, your choice of civilization, you have to be able to be an acting part of this AI revolution. That’s the condition of having a say in designing and defining the rules of AI.”

We also find the positive winds when we look at the world of academia. Much more is still to be researched, but it is very encouraging that the Danish School of Education have started a research program called REELER – Responsible Ethical Learning with Robotics. This program includes partners from the fields of anthropology, learning, robotics, philosophy, and economy and aims to align roboticist’s vision of a future with robots with empirically-based knowledge of human needs and societal concerns.

The above statements and the development in different areas of academia underlines the needed discussion about a roboboss, about data, about the trend of high tech.

High tech vs. high touch

The fact is that high tech is a hard trend. But often with these hard trends comes an opposing trend or soft trend. For high tech the following soft trend is high touch. In short, high touch is the emotional intelligence skills that support a better team environment by looking at people. So when framing high tech & high touch, as John Naisbitt did, it is a matter of saying that the more technological the future becomes, the greater the need for physical touch is.

It is not a matter of saying that the world becomes more “tech” and more “touch”. Instead, it is a view that when something essentially human is downgraded, the need for it increases accordingly. This also goes for the discussion around a roboboss. Yes, we should embrace it, because it will come. But at the same time, we need to be very careful about it. It is not a matter of high tech or high touch, it is instead applying both high tech AND high touch when starting the travel of integrating a roboboss in your workplace.

Management vs. leadership

But is there a way that I could be a little more high tech in some areas, and more focused on high touch in other areas? Yes, there is. My answer to that question lies in the famous quote by Peter Drucker, where I at the same time allow myself to divide the everyday task of a leader into only two parts: management and leadership: The good Mr Drucker says: “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” I truly believe that the management part can be taken over by a roboboss. If telling the robot what to do, it will be able to the things just as right as you, or even better, when taking on the management hat. Hence, my believe is that you can go hardcore high tech on the management part!

This will likewise free up time – time to spend on the leadership part, and do the right things. The question is then whether a roboboss can take over the leadership part. My quick answer would be no. My daring answer on the other hand would be a maybe. We still need leaders to have good leadership skills, and, not least, exercise these. But we also need to dare to let our leadership skills be augmented by different technologies and software.

If imaging robots, you should see the robot taking care of the management part be R2D2, whereas the robot taking care of leadership could be the handsome Robert Downey Jr. Wait a minute, he is not a robot. You are right. But when he takes on the Iron Man suit he becomes Iron Man. He is still Robert Downey Jr (or Tony Stark in the movie), but he becomes augmented. See where I am heading? In short, have a R2D2 as well as an Iron Man suit in your office.

Augmented intelligence

This idea also goes hand in hand with the proclaims we see from World Economic Forum. In the beginning of this year, WEF had an article where they in a matrix perfectly described how the task setting and nature of task are revolutionized by technology – going from management to leadership. WEF’s focus on augmented leadership is even further highlighted when reading the newly-published ‘Future of Jobs 2018’, as the word continues to appear in different forms throughout the report. The use of augmentation is not to neglect, and it seems as if WEF is smelling the roboboss as well.

In that relation it is also worth mentioning the a new book by Thomas Terney called ‘Kampen om Fremtiden’ (in English ‘The War of the Future’). Here, he likewise highlight the above but also dares to see the acronym AI in other ways than what we have been explained for a long time. More specific, he describes the following:

Autonomous intelligence
Adaptive intelligence
Automated intelligence
Augmented intelligence

I really like this approach, as it sees AI with different lenses than what we have been told to use.

In the same manner I also started this blog by taking on the technological-optimistic lenses. And I am still wearing these lenses. I strongly believe that the roboboss is just around the corner. The technologies and software are already there. It is just a matter of building the robot. Maybe two robots, one taking shape like R2D2 and help you with the management task, the other being an Iron Man suit that augment you as leader.

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The newsletter is filled with articles and tools for modern, future-oriented leaders. In this we strive to share relevant insights on stuff like the Future of Work, on transformation, on mega trends, on millennials, motivation and on how to create a happy, productive workplace. Not all in one newsletter, but now you know what to expect.

Roboboss – to bot or not to bot? // Part 1

Erik Østergaard — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:39:04 +0000

Roboboss – to bot or not to bot? // Part one

By Anders Skytte Martinsen, 22. October 2018

The Usain Bolt speed of technology being integrated in our everyday life is not to be neglected. This also goes for our work life. But how should we deal with, and, not least, how should leaders deal with it? Are we at a point where we are ready to talk about a roboboss?

For me, the answer to that question calls for blog that is broken into two parts. First, giving a needed historic view of technology, and an overview of what kind of software and technology is out there that can strengthen and support leaders in their actions. Second, a discussion of high tech AND/OR high touch, as well as management AND/OR leadership – a discussion that will also include an odd namedropping of Robert Downey Jr.

1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2…

Searching for answers, I quickly realized the need for looking at where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. Looking ahead of what might happen in the future is always a matter of guessing. Looking back, to some extent, might therefore seem easier. Nevertheless, this is a matter of which lenses you see with.

We are mostly bombarded with the alleged fact that we are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. And yes, I cannot deny that. However, if I take on the technological-optimistic lenses, I would follow a proclaim by e.g. Huawei, that we are also, and maybe more, in the second information revolution. Following this, we are now witnessing a flowing together of very different, and conflicting, emerging technologies, including a roboboss. A paradox, one might say. Or are we already so accustomed to these conflicts, that we do not even notice it?

Paradox or not, we also see how the extra step on the revolution stairs have affected the description of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Here we find, among others, the target in 8.2 describes: “Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors”. A very vague definition given the speed of which we are climbing the revolution stairs. Nevertheless, it is there, it is mentioned, and let us be happy about that.

20/20 foresight

This description of the historic revolution gives a good overview to deal with the discussion of a roboboss. To give it a Shakespearian expression, it becomes a question of: ‘to bot, or not to bot?’. What do you believe in? With what lenses will you look at the future? One can try to have 20/20 foresight, but it will not be a perfect vision of the future, but instead filled with uncertainties that are beyond reasonable for a human to predict. And exactly therefore, it might be time to embrace the idea of a roboboss, so the vision of the future can be even more perfect.

I am not saying that roboboss would do better, but I am certain that it at some point will do at least as good as a leader, and hence free up time for other matters. So, the right discussion to have is probably how much one opens his or her arms up.

Can you smell the roboboss?

So, what can a roboboss do? Or maybe more precisely, what kind of software and technology are out there that can strengthen and support leaders in their actions? In a very rigid way I will try to divide it up in two categories: HR analytics and emotion sensing technologies.

The principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte has on SHRM shared a really good overview of the most trending HR tech trends right now. Like so many areas, HR is in a state of volatility, and has gone from being operational-, over strategic- to now data-driven. As stated by SHRM, this is “…being driven by the shift from cloud to mobile; the explosion in analytics and artificial intelligence; and the emergence of video, social recruiting and wearables in the workplace. Everything is changing, and quickly—including the types of technology HR professionals use, the experiences those systems deliver and the underlying software designs—making many of the traditional HR systems purchased only a decade ago seem out of date.” As the chart shows, this includes everything from classic performance management, over people analytics to fully automated HR. Can you smell the robot now? Can you smell the roboboss?

Emotion sensing technologies

When it comes to emotion sensing technologies, one might say that this is also an area under Wellness Apps. Nevertheless, the thing is, that this just stands out so much that it needs to have its own category. In the 2018 spring issue of MITSloan Management Review emotion sensing technologies are described as being able to help employees make better decisions, improve concentration, and adopt healthier and more productive work styles. And yes, that is exactly what they can do.

Today we can measure stress by having employees using pressure-sensitive keyboard; asking day-traders to wear a bracelet in order not to get auction-fever; using webcam to measure your pulse; combining your mobile phone data, weather data and your dispositions of individual to detect stress. Other technologies can detect your boredom from mobile phone usage, and thereby enable boredom-triggered proactive recommender systems.

Lastly, we have companies that developed a system using employee badges to track who you talk to, how long you talk, and the tone of voice. These measures all require wearables. But be not disappointed. Researchers have also found a way of measuring our stress by using already-there-for-use Wi-Fi-signals, by seeing how the signals are projected back from our body. It does not smell of a roboboss – it stinks now! And these are just some of the many emotion sensing technologies. There are many, many more.

The paradox of ethics, morale, data…

But what about the ethics, the morale and the use of data? I am happy to see that the authors of the article in MITSloan are quick to say that companies must address important privacy issues when considering emotion sensing technologies. Even though a roboboss could be a good idea, it requires a good dialogue with all stakeholders. Of course, the matters of costs and complexity also need to be addressed, but the key part is the privacy related barriers. This obviously also goes for the use of different HR analytics.

Many people are skeptical about the use of their data – a skepticism that often relates to the question of who will get access to the data and what the data is used for. Here, you might speculate that concerns of privacy will not be a problem when the people being measured are the beneficiaries and when disclosure is voluntary. Nevertheless, the authors of the MITSloan article postulate three important things: 1) Be sensitive to employee concerns; 2) Develop data governance agreements; 3) Assure employees in written agreements that emotional data will be used only for specific business goals.

Make data agreements – that people read!

The paradox in this is that there is such a big need for the agreement on data in the workplace, when it at the same time does not seem to be a problem when we are in our homes and joining different SoMe-platforms. Everybody just clicks ‘yes’ when accepting the terms of service of e.g. Facebook. This also goes under the name: “The biggest lie on the internet”, and has several times being underlined in different studies, one being that 98% of people are willing to give up their first-born child to use a service. To quote the MITSloan article a last time, the paradox is that: “[s]ocial media itself has conditioned us to accept and even embrace new levels of personal transparency. The challenge will be to introduce new devices and measures into workplaces in a way that empowers performance, mitigates privacy concerns, and generally reassures employees that the benefits are mutual. “

This gives food for thought, and at the same gives me the option for giving you a break. I have much more to say in part two, and will continue around the policy and research within this field, high tech vs. high touch, and management vs. leadership.

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I Have Hired a Robot – His Name is Leo

Erik Østergaard — Thu, 02 Feb 2017 11:48:02 +0000

I have hired a robot. His name is Leo.

By Puk Falkenberg, date

Meet Leo. Leo is our new colleague. Leo is a software robot, who automates one of the jobs as a leader: Investigating the happiness and well-being of your employees, and generating proposals for actions.

Leo does that by:

Gathering input and feedback from employees on wellbeing and engagement
Analysing the data
Comparing the data to big data in the global database
Presenting suggestions and recommendations to you

Technically, Leo is an application from OfficeVibe on a server somewhere. To us, Leo lives as an app in Slack, and hence Leo now is part of the Slack team. You cannot have a chat with him, though. Yet.

OfficeVibe has a huge database of questions, answers to compare your answers with, and trends in those big data. Based on the data you provide, Leo shows dashboards with your stats and with others in your peer segment, and provides input to you as a leader of a team or a company.

So, in that sense Leo is an assistant to the leader, and has taken over the mundane data gathering and presentation. Leo is in some way a helpful robo-boss.

Let’s look at what he provides:

Leo asks all employee, how they are

Every week at a randomised time Leo asks us, how we are. Leo has a list of opening questions, followed by 5-10 detailing questions.

This is the opening I got last week:

Some of the follow-up questions are related directly to the opening question, but some covers other areas, like recognition, purpose, compensation, motivation, sleep and physical workout (a sensitive topic in Denmark at the moment), etc. I have a feeling, that the questions cover a lot of ground.

The assessments are single choice, multiple choice, ratings, or sliders. Once in a while you are required to comment, too. Also, you as an admin can create customised polls or specific questions you need an answer to, like “Did the strategy seminar provide enough direction for you?”

The solution works well on both mobile and browser.

Leo analyses for us

Based on the input, Leo creates a dashboard. It contains many data, with two levels of drill-down, and (tada) with peer comparison. Leo matches the data to the big database with responses from peer organisations, thereby giving you a benchmark point.

The suggestions seem clearly based in the Future of Work philosophy, but might not fit all national cultures.

Non the less, it’s good input, and gives food for thought. It made me stop and think.

Classification of Leo in the robot spectrum

Looking at this spectrum of AI, Leo is a 2, 3 and 4. He notifies me with data. He recommends. He automates the data gathering and the dashboard.

The illustration is by @rwang0, from his blog post “Monday’s Musings: Understand The Spectrum Of Seven Artificial Intelligence Outcomes”

It seems like Leo is a straight-forward rule-engine with some semi-advanced mathematical modelling in.

What do I think? Is it great?

Yes, I’m fascinated. It’s fun to fiddle with and it works smoothly.

I can clearly see the benefit:

Leo handles the automation
Leo creates nice dashboards
Leo has a big database to compare with
Leo provides suggestions for me, which I can ponder and evaluate. However, it makes me think, and this is the huge take-away.

Having Leo around has sparked some new discussions on how we design, manage, and run our organisation and work, and that alone is a tremendous benefit.

That being said, give us 6 months more, and we have more experience with it.

I think, this type of automation is here to stay. Soon, level 5, 6, and 7 will appear too. Our jobs are being automated. The dialogue and caring for the eachother is not. Don’t worry. Experiment with it.

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Roboboss – hell or help?

Erik Østergaard — Sat, 23 Apr 2016 08:46:06 +0000

Roboboss – hell or help?

By Puk Falkenberg, date

So the roboboss is coming. The name “roboboss” alone sets the tone of a bad, controlling, surveying, 1984 George Orwell-esque manager. But is it really that bad? Will automation be hell or help?

Employees prefer an unbiased computer over their current leader, study finds
In 2018, 3 mill. employees will be supervised by a “roboboss”, Gartner predicts
It’s against the law in EU to make fully automated decisions on personal matters

Let’s walk though these 3 aspects, to show how automation changes work and sets new demands for leadership. Spoiler alert:

Automation will support you, your employees, and your leader
The future of leadership is about fairness and happiness at work

Automation is a central aspect of The Fourth Industrial Revolution (see also the Wiki page on Industry 4.0) and is correlated to both digitization, globalization, cloud computing, and mobile, and to an emerging understanding of the need for meaningfulness and purpose.

Automation has for a long time been a driver for industrial revolutions in physical labor, and the speed of change and development in computing, cloud, big data, and deep learning technologies now makes it possible for automation to impact the work of both the desk worker and the broader leadership disciplines significantly.

Input 1: Employees prefer an unbiased computer, study finds

A study by Intentions on 2.299 Canadian workers concluded among other things this:

“According to the survey, 31 percent of Canadians aged 20 to 39 agreed that an “unbiased” computer program would be more ethical and trustworthy than a human boss. Thirty-four percent said they would rather be hired by an “unbiased” computer program, 33 percent would prefer to be assessed, and twenty six percent said they would prefer to be managed by a robot.”

Some raw data from the study:

On-boarding
- If applying for a new job, I would prefer to be screened and hired by an unbiased computer program
  26 % Strongly Agree + Agree
Management
- I would prefer my workplace to be managed by an unbiased computer program.
  21 % Strongly Agree + Agree
- I believe an unbiased computer program would be more trustworthy than my workplace leaders and managers
  26 % Strongly Agree + Agree
- I believe an unbiased computer program would be more ethical than my workplace leaders and managers
  26 % Strongly Agree + Agree
Assessment
- I would prefer my job performance to be assessed by an unbiased computer program
  26 % Strongly Agree + Agree

(See more data here.)

The consulting firm commented: It’s no wonder that so many young Canadians would rather a computer program do the job. (…) “Cognitive bias, which is a very human condition, can make our jobs quite tough,” said Nikolas Badminton, a Canadian futurist and biohacker who helped write the survey questions. “Some people, like HR people and managers, kind of need to get out of the way so a better job can get done.”

To support that, here is the Wiki list of cognitive biases, that employees – especially the younger – want to avoid. That’s a LONG list.

The responses are clear signals to the current leadership and a cry for a new approach. We want a leader (robot or not) that is fair, and acknowledges me and my work in fairness.

Input 2: By 2018, more than 3 million workers globally will be supervised by a “robo-boss”, Gartner predicts

In October 2015 Gartner published “Gartner Predicts Our Digital Future“:

“Some performance measurements can be consumed more swiftly by smart machine managers aka “robo-bosses,” who will perform supervisory duties and make decisions about staffing or management incentives.”

That’s 3 million in only 2 years, being embraced and affected by automation.

Interesting part is also that they predict “supervision”, and not “support” or “relief”. Maybe it’s a word that I interpret more dystopic than intended from Gartner …

Input 3: Currently, it’s against the law in EU for robo-bosses to make autonomous decisions

Check out this except from “Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data”

Article 15

Automated individual decisions

1. Member States shall grant the right to every person not to be subject to a decision which produces legal effects concerning him or significantly affects him and which is based solely on automated processing of data intended to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to him, such as his performance at work, creditworthiness, reliability, conduct, etc.

So, it’s against the law in EU to base decisions on e.g. performance at work on a robo-boss alone. A human being must take the final decision, hence the robo-boss may only provide guidance and decision support.

The question is when this jurisdiction will need an update to remove the human bias or to embrace areas where we can allow the automation to decide for us.

So, how can the robots help us?

According to the study in Canada:

“People are losing faith in human management, and rightly so. Who would you trust, a human with personal biases and opinions or a rational and balanced AI? These results are not surprising, and I expect to start seeing automated HR and management systems being deployed in the next 3 to 5 years – with a human touch to maintain creativity and empathy. Flexibility and empowerment will be the new work currencies and productivity will be redefined,“

Here are some examples of where the robo-boss will support you, ranging from the mundane to the judging.

The iOS 9 traffic helper, notifying you about when to leave for the next meeting
Scripts and software to handle trivial, repetitive work, e.g. in finance, by handling bookkeeping, invoices, regulatory aspects, and taxes. Here’s a Danish example (in Danish): Martin Thorborg i ny satsning: Vil erstatte revisorer med robotter (and a Google Translate version – which in it self is an example of a robot)
Translation services
Creating duty rosters, taking into account personal preferences and availability
Finding spots for calendar bookings, e.g. Meekan
Distribute information based on preferences
Taking notes and creating minutes of meetings
Notifying you of when you should consider starting the next piece of work
Gartner writes: “Content that is based on data and analytical information will be turned into natural language writing by technologies that can proactively assemble and deliver information through automated composition engines. Content currently written by people, such as shareholder reports, legal documents, market reports, press releases and white papers are prime candidates for these tools.”

And the more sensitive tasks:

Spotting talent via deep learning and big data
Finding the right people to hire – and promote, see e.g. IBM Watson’s personality reader is creepily accurate about which is said “IBM Watson is capable of using text – in your emails, speech, or social media – to analyse the soft facts of a person; not just what you did, but also how you interact with people, how you react in specific situations. HR departments are very strong at analysing the people that are actually applying for specific jobs but it’s very labour intensive, and this is harder if there’s no budget or time.”
Analyzing the internal informal network and relations (Organizational Network Analysis), and spotting weak links, people who will leave in a few months, or rising stars)
“Can’t afford a PA? Don’t worry IBM Watson’s here to help you.” “Meet Amy: A virtual PA that is fixing my meetings”
Assessing results and progress according to expectations
Supporting you in decision-making, giving unbiased input and possibilities for actions
Creating strategic scenario-simulations, eliminating the guesswork in setting direction
Gartner writes: “Some performance measurements can be consumed more swiftly by smart machine managers aka “robo-bosses,” who will perform supervisory duties and make decisions about staffing or management incentives.”

What is the future of leadership, with the support of the robo-boss?

Your primary task in the future is to ensure happiness at work. Happiness. At work.

According to the studies and predictions above, you should focus on:

Fairness
Purpose and meaning
Well-being
Empathy

The new behavior of a leader is still those 8 patterns. The robo-boss will be able to relieve you of the tedious tasks, and free up time to being creative and work with your relations. The robo-boss will help you by predicting your behavior and suggesting your next tasks, will spot relations that need care, and will come with strong proposals for who to hire and who are the talents.

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