Leadership – Aric Dromi | Thoughts | Scribbles

The energy buzz reality

Energy, Leadership, Policy / 2 minutes of reading

When we talk about energy, we fundamentally must adopt a holistic approach. One, where a diversity of competencies and capabilities, based on a common platform, can look at our current contextual placement and challenges from a 360 degrees perspective. I say contextual placement and not an energy crisis because we do not have an energy crisis but rather a leadership one.

You can’t keep making decisions based on the current marketing fashion and the latest buzzwords. Energy, being one of the most important fundamental building blocks of the development of society, requires a multidisciplinary approach to its complexity. It’s not only designing a product (electric vehicle for example) or reducing taxes on its consumption. It’s about understanding what all the implications are.

We keep forgetting that renewable energy is not necessarily a reliable energy. We ignore the fact that geographic locations play an enormous role in the usability of energy sources (wind, solar). Furthermore, we hide the total impact of energy on the touch-point (going back to electric vehicle, CO2 reduction must be calculated on the total energy harvesting and consumption – the supply-chain of the materials that makes but one EV is so damaging that we rather hide it and never talk about it)

Coal, Oil, Gas, they are natural as water, solar, wind. We have been miserable in harvesting, storing and converting energy into power, changing the energy source will not change our behaviors. We need to stop phasing out nuclear power and develop its next generation. We need to get our priorities right.

The Perspective of impact

4th industrial revolution, Innovation, Leadership, Philosophy, Policy / 2 minutes of reading

The perspective of impact is subjective; it is changing with time and is often influenced by something we call the “ecology-of-the-self” (the context in which decisions are made facing natural disasters, data hacks, climate change, bubbles in the economy, geopolitics, wars, and more)

We are surrounded by more smart things, more money, more people moving into the cities, and more capacity and more speed. Yet, in the eternal universal mechanism of equilibrium, wherever there is more, less is sure to appear as well. Less healthy food, fewer farming landscapes (and worse, less knowledge about farming), less serotonin, and weaker human bonds.

At the end of the day, the main impact of the industrial revolution was to develop industries and business models around the core building blocks that have always been essential to humanities survival. The building blocks are slowly dying.

The industrial revolution turned out to be not a revolution at all, but a more linear evolution. The further we move away from its baseline, the easier it has become to forget the delicate balance of its intended impact.

Today, technology and business models are giving us the potential to travel to other planets, build colonies on Mars, connect our brains to the internet, grow organs, extend or lifespan, play God and create intelligence. We want to automate every aspect of our lives and live in parallel universes, ones that are written in code.

We cannot continue to use resources to improve the past (for example, the industrial revolution 4.0) Furthermore, we must educate a new generation of leaders if we are to pave a path toward collaboration and establish new economic behaviors. A path that is not anchored in copying the past into code, but rather using code to rethink the narratives of efficiency and productivity for a better, more bountiful future.

Why self and organizational learning are so important to the innovation process.

Education, Leadership / 1 minute of reading

As humans, we are not evolved to live in insulation. As such, environmental triggers are important to the learning process, ability, and outcomes. Collaboration and sharing have always played an essential role in the development of societal ability to enrich itself with knowledge and skills. By sharing your experiences and being open to accepting other people’s opinions and knowledge, we become both students and teachers. Giving back knowledge creates an impact circle that enables us to grow alongside others.

Competences of the future.

Education, Innovation, Leadership, Policy, Technology / 2 minutes of reading

It’s hard, some say impossible, to predict the future, but you can navigate it if you have the right set of tools. It’s clear that with the current pace of jolting technologies, yesterday’s learning will fade away, and we will have a choice on our hand. To be replaced. Or to advance ourselves to a new level.

Algorithms certainly can process more data than we as humans can. Contextual placements, empathy, creativity and dreams are the territory of a human brain. The ability to forget is the first competence we must learn. We must forget the way we used to learn and rethink the whole narrative of learning.

Another competence we must master is critical thinking. In a world where we constantly shift from a physical reality to a virtual one, where we will need to adjust ourselves to immersive experiences, and where the laws of physics are written in code, it is critical thinking that will help us cope.

As empathy might be one of the most important competences to have in the future, it will be the force that anchor us to the essence of humanity. Without it, there is no reason to discuss the future at all. Creative thinking and curiosity, no society exists without them. It’s not a competence we need to learn, but rather never lose.

EU resilience

Europe, Geopolitics, Leadership, Philosophy, Policy / 1 minute of reading

I think that the EU’s model is driven by the idea that in order for it to create a bigger resilience, it must not allow its smaller members to grow stronger. The whole is always stronger than the sum of its parts when the parts themselves are strong. Similarly, a chain is strong as its weakest link, that is the case with the EU. Limiting a member state’s ability to grow and prosper will eventually limit the European Union as a whole.

Losing sight of the problem

4th industrial revolution, Innovation, Leadership / 1 minute of reading

Since the industrial evolution, the global economy has not experienced such a dramatic transformation. We have several solutions, but we have lost sight of the problem. Every move dramatically altered the strategic and tactical landscapes. Leadership and innovation is how we address the changes.

What is the future of human resources?

Education, Innovation, Leadership, Philosophy, Policy / 4 minutes of reading

Recently, I was asked to give a keynote speech for one of my clients during their human resources employee retreat. I have always believed that the greatest asset of any organization is its people (something that Elon Musk is discovering after he fired most of Twitters employees). That brings us to the question of why human resources departments (along with IT departments) always seem to be at the bottom of the food chain?

The human resources idea was conceived against the backdrop of the industrial revolution by Charles Babbage and Robert Owen. The intention was that the wellbeing of the worker was critical to worker productivity. The core purpose of human resources practice was to drive industrial welfare, personnel management, scientific management, organization management, and industrial psychology. But, like everything connected to the industrial revolution, ideas tend to be diluted and fade away, and from a productivity-driven function, human resources became an administrative department responsible for attracting, hiring, training, and developing employees.

(Yes, there are a few cases where the role of human resources has evolved to be more strategic, but these are few and not enough.)

The impact of new, jolt-inducing theologies on computation power, machine learning, automation, and fast-tacking, as well as social trends and a shift in narratives will require a new thinking. In order for organizations to secure their place in the future, they will need a guiding power to help them navigate the unknown.

The most important human attributes that have brought us this far are first, our ability to envision the future, to imagine multiple scenarios, and choose the one we want to go after. The one we believe is the best option for us. Secondly, our ability to cooperate and collaborate with each other. We value communication skills and an understanding that only when we work together can we grow and develop. And, finally, our ability to bring the right people together to engineer and build solutions for the future that we envision.

One could argue that the first step, envisioning the future, is something that leadership is responsible for, and as not everyone in the organization is a leader, this function is held by a small group of people at the top. However, the other two functions are related to industrial welfare, personnel management., scientific management, organization management, and industrial psychology. In other words, two-thirds of an organization’s ability to navigate the unknown is in the hands of human resources.

It is obvious that to have a successful future, all parts of the organization must work together. However, human resources are uniquely positioned to be especially helpful to the organization because of their focus on people.

This focus on people is crucial in this time of change. With the approaching era of mass technological automation, when algorithms will be able to process information faster and better than humans. And, as we step into a narrative where social constructs and public dialogues are determined by technology companies like TikTok rather than thought leader. It’s important more than ever to safeguard the humanity of organization. The ability to construct a dialogue with your co-workers, clients, and partners is not a marketing, IT, or R&D skill, but a basic human function. The product of human resources is understanding the constructive narratives, driving creativity and innovation, and influencing the companies strategic trajectory.

The future is not only about technology, it is about our ability to make technology work for us. It is about finding new ways to create value and to make a difference in the world. We need to be able to see beyond the horizon and to embrace the future with open arms. In order to achieve that, we need human resources. We must find ways to partner with technology to enhance creativity and thinking skills, rather than replace them. This approach will help us create better doctors, better lawyers, better leaders, and better dialogues. If we keep the human resources departments on the bottom of the food chain, we will find it almost impossible to tackle the unknown. Perhaps it’s time to rethink human resources departments as a profit centre rather than a cost centre.

The perfect storm

Energy, Environment, Europe, Geopolitics, Innovation, Leadership, Policy, USA / 2 minutes of reading

There are types of storms that you can hear about on the news. There are types of storms that you can simply hear knocking on your window. And, there are types of storms that you can feel all around you—the perfect storms.

Perfect storms might be rare and require a perfect alignment of multiple elements from unrelated ecologies. Yet, once they hit, they emphasize the interconnectivity of these elements and the fragile lines that hold everything together. When a perfect storm arises, it can devastate the surrounding structures and collapse our societal wellbeing.

We are about to be struck by such a storm.

The consequences of COVID-19 are beginning to take a toll. I’m not here to judge the decisions that policymakers took when driving lockdowns, masks, distance working and learning, and more. Yet, the law of physics should have played a bigger role before taking these actions—every action has an equal opposite reaction. We have not even approached the full force of the aftermath winds, yet we can already now see a hint of what is coming our way.

The geopolitical climate is changing, and circus shows are only adding to an already burning situation. From a devastating blow to the promise of freedom in the digital domain to intensified supply chain struggles, fuel shortages, and food shortages. Add to that an uncontrolled inflation and the realization that nations around the world cannot sustain themselves, it is clear that the king is indeed naked.

One of my favorite quotes is by Vivian Greene, who said, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” When faced with a perfect storm, we all learn that there is no place we can simply wait it out.

On climate and data

Energy, Environment, Geopolitics, Innovation, Leadership, Philosophy, Policy, Technology / 1 minute of reading

Unfortunately, science is not based on data anymore, but on people’s opinions. We don’t try to learn the data, and instead get caught up in the buzzwords. We confuse correlation with causation, forgetting that correlation is not causation!

The climate is a non-linear, chaotic system that lacks a core of implicit order. As such, it is beyond our ability to fully understand and accurately predict. Carbon dioxide is essential to live on our planet, and it can’t be the enemy. By driving narratives that are not anchored in data, we lose sight of the bigger picture. Fossil fuel is a reliable, environment-friendly, and cost-effective energy source, while wind and solar, for example, are not.

The measurement of self value

Education, Leadership, Philosophy, Policy, Technology / 1 minute of reading

More than anything, Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter brought forth the question of what is real. The battle between bots and humans is not simply a question of what is the real value of a company, but how our obsession with measuring self-value is leading us down a path that will land us in the fire of a digital hell.

How many times have you watched ‘Friends’? How many times have you had sex? How many vehicles did you drive? Why is our physical reality not being measured the same way our digital interactions are?

The way the digital realm is changing our perspective on the measurement of self-value is becoming more and more dangerous to our basic human interactions and mental models. It is shifting our focus from the data to people’s options, and by doing that it’s creating an extremely subjective environment where facts are not relevant as long as the numbers of likes and shares are high.