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The Machines Are Coming! But What Does It Mean?

The Machines Are Coming! But What Does It Mean?

Millions of eyes and ears count on―and respect―Geoff Colvin’s insights on the key issues driving change in business, politics, and the economy. The senior editor of Fortune magazine, and named by Directorship magazine as one of the “100 Most Influential Figures in Corporate Governance,” Geoff draws on his years of insider access to top government figures and high-profile executives to share effective leadership strategies, and provides his unparalleled perspective on the business climate of today…and tomorrow. In his 2014 article for FortuneIn the future, will there be any work left for people to do?, Geoff looked at the future of technology and how it will impact jobs, competition, and the value people bring to the workplace and the marketplace. It’s also the focus of his next book, coming out in August, Humans are Underrated – What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will. A description of the book follows below, and you can watch Geoff talk about these topics in the video above.

Humans Are Underrated: What High Achievers Know That Brilliant Machines Never Will

Technology is rapidly invading fields that it once could not touch. It can drive cars better than humans, predict Supreme Court decisions better than legal experts, identify faces, scurry helpfully around offices and factories, even perform some surgeries, all faster, more reliably, and less expensively than people. And while technology is doubling in power every two years, people are not.

In a world like that, how will people fit in?  How will organizations create maximum value?

Geoff Colvin hows that the answer lies not in the nature of technology but in the nature of people. Regardless of what computers achieve, our greatest advantage lies in what we humans are most powerfully driven to do for and with one another, arising from our deepest, most essentially human abilities—empathy, creativity, social sensitivity, storytelling, humor, building relationships, and leading. This is how we create value that is durable and not easily replicated by technology – because we’re hardwired to want it from humans.

With eye-opening examples from the Cleveland Clinic, the U.S. Army, Stanford Business Schools, and many other organizations, Geoff shows how we all can – and must – build the valuable human skills of tomorrow. These high-value skills create tremendous competitive advantages – more devoted customers, stronger cultures, breakthrough ideas, more effective teams.  His message is inspiring and reassuring: In a transformed and disruptive economy, far more than we ever imagined, we already have what it takes to be great.

May, 2015