Fintech, Martech, Edtech.. — The real missing link fueling Mid-Career Crisis
What is common across these new-age buzz words? Is of course Tech. But what is tacitly hidden, is the process of amalgamation itself. All these words are a combination of Markets+Technology. Financial Markets + Technology = Fintech; Education Markets + Technology = Edtech etc.
Market and Technology Amalgamations are Artificial and Mechanistic leading to lifelessness.
My hypothesis is, this very mechanistic, artificial and reductionistic view of new business, provided by such amalgamations, has actually created a false sense of belief, that if organizations today, are able to handle the technology messiness of digitalization and the market messiness of rapidly changing demand, then all is well. Nope. Quite the opposite has actually transpired. Why has volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity hit almost every one of us? If they were only technology-based issues, then why are they felt by humans? Does not market-sentiment actually mean, that it emotionally-affects humans? VUCA world of today is not just a technology-bug, or a market-shortcoming, its a human-reality. These are felt-experiences, and majorly affect the human psyche, then why the amalgamation of only technology and markets? Isn’t giving a false indication that the impact is only on inert-markets and mechanistic-technology, misleading all humans? Brexit, White Supremacy, Racist Ideaologies, Protectionism have all taken root, not because they only impacted lifeless systems. Yet, the ability to cater to these human-contexts and the capacity to handle sensitive human issues, like psychological safety with respect to careers, anxiety about the future of work, fear about the nature of jobs, etc., collectively what I call, the psychological messiness, is missing from the equation. Are not aliveness, intelligence, growth, affects and desired changes in any system, actually based largely on human agency? I have previously argued that Triple Immersion (psychological messiness + market messiness + technology messiness) and Experiential capacity building is the necessary way forward. Let me elaborate by giving several instances, from my own experience.
Why Psychology Messiness is so important, and how to Build Capacity for Triple Immersion?
Way back in 2015, when I was part of iSPIRT, discussing the future of Banking in India, SBI’s Chairman, made an opening statement that I felt was incredibly remarkable.
We cannot be a bank, looking for Software development & support, we need to be a Software Company doing Banking. ~Arundhati Bhattacharya, SBI.
Arundhati, clearly pointed out that there needs to be radical mindshift, in all individuals across the organization. iSPIRT afterwards, as part of FTLC (Fintech Leap-frog Council), has then followed up with several workshops, but alas catering only to handling the Technology and Market Messiness. Thankfully in 2H18, as part of iSPIRT Wave#2, the Neo-Entrepreneur archetype has emerged, as one, who is able to handle his inner psychology messiness along with the other 2 messiness of technology and markets.
According to Sharad Sharma, Bharat Entrepreneurs are missing the right internal psyche. This is what Sharad Sharma writes in the 33rd Meeting of iSPIRT Fellows and Volunteers.
Create a new entrepreneur archetype — a new God, a new superhero — with a psyche facilitating internally consistent beliefs! Changing the world and changing yourself are intimately linked. ~Sharad Sharma, iSPIRT.
Whether you are a Banking Professional, as indicated by Arundhati, or a Fintech Entrepreneur as indicated by Sharad, you need to understand and reconfigure your inner landscape better. So, all Organizational Capacity building, triple-immersion capability and all change needs to start with the individual, first handling the internal psychological mess. This is true for all Entrepreneurs, Professionals facing the future of work, not just limited to fintech. In Jenny Blake’s words the only pivot that matters is your next one. Not the Pivot of the Product, not that of your business.
Bandha Sahi Tho Dandha Sahi — Developing Winners in the Organization and Manager as a Coach
How do you cultivate doers and develop winners in the organization? Google through its Project Oxygen and Project Aristotle has tried to answer the same questions, now for more than a decade. In fact its research team at Project Oxygen, initially set out to prove, that managers actually don’t matter. However, the data as part of Project Oxygen revealed that managers matter a lot, and in fact that managers can be made great! Also, data as part of Project Aristotle spoke about Psychological Safety as #1 requirement for high performing teams. Combining the both, Google has clearly outlined that handling Psychological Messiness is a top priority. A good manager’s #1 trait is that he is a Good Coach. Further empowering teams, and facilitating wellbeing, thus affirming the fact that Bandha Sahi tho Dhanda Sahi, meaning Business is right, as long as the human is right.
Handling Psychological messiness and being a good coach is mostly operating in the gray area. Some of the most complex and hard problems managers and leaders face are gray area problems. The nature of psychological crisis is that you are dealing with imperfect information (head-space complexity), highly-charged emotions (heart-space complexity), and lack-of-time to react (gut-space complexity). Such transient / gray-area problems hence cannot be resolved with just skills. They need character strength, self-awareness, experience and most importantly guided facilitation towards desired goals. As the world shifts to lean, agile and digital transformation, old behaviors and frozen skills don’t work. Artificial intelligence, machine learning and rapid paradigm shifts in business, clearly command more humanistic forms of solutions and resolutions.
Conclusion: External traits like technology-skills and business-know-how are passé. What are your Internal/Inner practices for Life and Work?
What is then really fueling your mid-career or mid-life crisis? Clearly not the lack of external traits like technology-skills or domain know-how. Lets stop being naive and gullible, and let’s not fall prey to superficial hype created by such service providers. What we need in mid-life, are not ephemeral skills or intellectual know-how. What we need are emotionally intelligent and psychologically fluid life-practices, like coaching, facilitation, nurturing, relationship management, self-awareness etc. You may already be a lean-practitioner or an agile-practitioner. But are you a facilitation-practitioner? Do you know interventions to fill the gap between knowing-and-doing? Are you managing or leading people, or will you soon be doing so? Does your work involve group facilitation? What type of communities do you want to build? Are you a business owner, or startup founder working with teams? If these are some of the questions you are grappling with, then you must attend the Urja Workshop. Urja is designed around experiential interventions that increase empathy, relatedness and compassion, which are especially important in increasing emotional intelligence which helps in navigating gray areas and also has a direct correlation with well-being and happiness.
If old mindsets remain entrenched VUCA-aware capacities cannot be built either in the individual or in the organization. Change can only happen if you willfully seek it and make it happen volitionally. Are you ready to deliberately rub your own magic lamp, to call out your inner genie, the hidden treasure inside of you?.
So then, what are you waiting for? Visit the website, apply to participate and spread the words to your friends and fellows. Look forward in anticipation to work with each and everyone of you. Good luck and all the very best!
