Will robots replace my boss?
If you have a horrible boss, a friendly robot boss might sound great.
There’s interest –– check out the titles of three recent HBR articles:
- Here’s How Managers Can Be Replaced By Software, Apr. 2015
- How Artificial Intelligence Will Redefine Management, Nov. 2016
- The Pros and Cons of Robot Managers, Dec. 2016
A fourth HBR article from Sep. 2016 laments that “excess management is costing the U.S. $3 trillion per year.”
Unnecessary managers drag down the economy and people hate their bosses. One of the articles claims “It would not require too much for AI to outperform average managers.” Automate away!
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely to happen soon. Good management is extremely hard to automate. Even if we could, should we? Call me a Luddite.
Great management is an intensely human activity. Great managers are expert communicators, coaches, mentors, supporters, and developers. They guide careers. They rally their teams around visions and organizational change. They care personally about each team member. They bond. Managers change lives.
Further, “managing” is different for every function (e.g., sales vs. engineering), industry, company, culture, team, geography, business cycle, and time/place.
How can you automate millions of unique managers?
A similarly unlikely question: Can we automate sports coaches? Steve Kerr, the coach of my beloved Golden State Warriors, has a $25 million contract over five years. Let’s automate him! We can use predictive analytics to decide what players to sign, what schemes to run, and when each player should play.
No way. Listen to Steve talk about his team. He’s an incredible leader and manager.
AI will nip around the edges of management –– for example, tracking attendance, monitoring performance of low-level jobs, encouraging regular feedback, and reducing bias in hiring decisions. But replace the core? Unlikely.
The real issue is how to get rid of bad managers. They hurt lives, companies, and the economy. Yet, we already have the answers to the bad boss epidemic –– selecting the right people, developing them, and managing out the bad ones –– but too often organizations don’t make this a priority.
What do you think? Is AI likely to automate management? Does your organization have bad managers? Why?
Need to develop great managers at your company? Learn about Jhana and request a demo at www.jhana.com.
