If there is any good time to bridge the advancements of technology and the ingenuity of people, it is now and I was pleased to see that the 54th PMAP conference was aptly themed around “Disruptive HR in a Digital and Borderless World”.

The conference did not simply intend to paint the picture of driverless cars and threaten the workforce with robots replacing assembly lines.

Instead, PMAP hoped that attendees walked away with a sense of hope – that technology and automation is here to complement, augment, expand people’s ingenuity – so we can all be even more productive and purposeful at work.My session was magnanimously entitled “4th Industrial Revolution (4IR): Sustainability, Opportunities and Challenges”. Big words – that needed to be distilled to three simple things…

The first is the global context we are in, which is the fourth industrial revolution. It is evidenced by the future that is here today through deep shifts such as IOT, the sharing economy and AI.

Second is the local Philippine reality, where despite 4IR realities, there are pressing sustainability issues that continue to challenge day to day work in the country. This includes the issues of migration, labour rights, welfare, ageing population and more.

Lastly, it’s about the Filipino HR leader, within whose hands lie the power to shift the way people are managed in the workplace. I was blessed to engage an audience who understood not only how 4IR was not supposed to be seen as a threat in the distant future. Rather, that it was already here and now, and that people management stood to gain the most by invoking critical mindset changes including jobs and the nature of work, trust & transparency and the way we view communities both on & offline. One attendee came to me afterwards and said,

“It was refreshing to hear that both sustainability was not just about climate change and 4IR is not just about replacing our jobs. I am excited to look at solutions like reverse mentoring to allow intergenerational collaboration in the workplace as well as using online platforms to create a better sense of community and break down silos amongst teams.”

I look forward to catching up with her in the next PMAP conference and perhaps using her transformation story as the next best practice to share.

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