How Stuck are You in the Industrial Age?

You might assume that I'm preaching to the choir, but let me assure you I’m not. I know we’re all on here networking and connecting and collaborating like no one ever has before in the history of humanity, but how are we marking our progress? Likes? Shares? Followers? Viralability? Metrics are very industrial age; the idea that if it can’t be measured it lacks solid value.

How about work life? Are you feeling successful? How do you describe it? Are you all about the aspirational qualities of making a difference? Or is it more quantitative: degrees, titles, promotions, salary, raises, office size, number of direct reports, awards? What does any of it have to do with your personal satisfaction in what you do every day? It’s a very last-century view of your impact and your value.

Then there’s life outside of the day job. How do you think about it? In terms of quality; your options, access and relationships? Or quantity: the size of your home and your car, the quality of your clothing and jewelry, the number of vacations you take, the number of kids you can afford, and the number at the bottom of your financial portfolio? Once again, these are values carried over from a bygone era.

Now think about all of the challenges the world faces on 2025: the deep divides between people, disparities in resources, climate change, hunger, disease, aggression and hate. In each case, we continue to describe them in industrial age terms. So what? So we are struggling to even agree on how to define these problems never mind finding solutions. Facing an information age future with an industrial age frame of reference has us stuck.

We have all these digital tools and virtual realities in front of us. What if we let go of the old ways of thinking about our existence and adopt new ways of improving the quality of life by emphasizing the common ground of community, the strength of diversity in ideas and experiences, and the boundless possibilities of digital solutions that free us up to be caring, empathetic, proactive participants in our mutual success and happiness?

How’s that for a loaded, run-on, interrogative?

I’ll wait. Mull it over. Talk amongst yourselves. Pay attention to all the industrial age triggers setting off. Are you okay with that? Are you unwilling to give up your old school metrics and genuinely shift how you live now and how you shape the future because it's uncomfortable, inconvenient or just plain annoying?

Or are you ready to more authentically lay claim to the information age promise you thought you were fulfilling? More quality over quantity? More increased capacity to find solutions to age-old problems? Not sure what that looks like? Hey, neither do I. But until we take off the blinders that keep us limited in our view, we’re not going to see the alternatives. Have faith in human ingenuity and digital possibilities. They got us this far, didn’t they? There are no limits to the human mind and the human spirit, especially in this exciting new age if digitization and automation.

At some point the disruption has to stop and the solutions have to start. Our industrial age legacy is one of unbridled consumption of dwindling resources and accelerating climate change. It’s unsustainable. Let’s not unwittingly perpetuate it.

Our best days are ahead of us. And seeing is believing.

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