On Human Resources

Posted on | May 29, 2009 | No Comments

This vintage IBM ad got me thinking about how we thought and think about human resources, human capital. I have already touched on this idea from another angle in my post Right Brained Expressionism where I argue that the discussion about modern art is too academic and ignores the spiritual. In the context of business it seems we are similiarly afflicted. I’d like to drill down the argument from these philosophies and discuss sufferring from too much intellectualism to suffering from too much linearity.

This ad is a perfect example of how in 1930 we felt the best way to optimize productivity was to have quantifiable control of time. It starts: “The value of the minute is going up fast. At the end of 1930 statistics will show that, during the year, the minute reached the peak of its importance on a dollars and cents basis.” Our thinking has certainly evolved past this anachronism (forgive the pun), but we haven’t embraced the new way of thinking that proffers a less linear, a less left brained method of management. Ultimately the problem is difficulty quantifying new methods of optimizing productivity. Who really understands the value of team building events? Who really understands the value of dispersed workforces collaborating face to face in small groups or in large groups online?

I’d like to know who else is asking these questions and where. Slowly but surely we are all dying and office culture is not enough to sustain us. We need to be elsewhere and do other things to satisfy ourselves. A change in the way that we think about human resources will allow generations of Americans to live better lives.

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