Every year the lines of anxious consumers grow longer on the eve of Apple’s introducing its new iPhone. Media outlets roll the camera’s, the internet provides countdown clocks, students skip classes, technology websites burn bandwidth explaining how the new version will change the world, change the way we interact, change for the better.
Then there’s Version56. On such an extended version roadmap one may assume the product carried several years of sales success – to the point of being worth the time and cost to keep it in production. It went from Version 1.0 to v56. New features were added annually to the product to make life better and efficient and, importantly – empowered with knowledge.
But with all the spheres of social media chattering it up about the latest technology upgrade, Version56 got downgraded. Truthfully, Version56 got mothballed back around v45 but it held on for a few years. What is this Version56? It is me: Age 56. Baby Boomer. Educated. Experienced. A learner. Been up through the ranks, had promotions, knows the “system”. Thinks about customers.
The Ford Mustang has been in production since 1964. Pushing beyond age 50, a new version rolled off assembly lines every year since ’64 and today the Mustang is still hot. Even the slender, sexy female models advertisers used to attract customers back then have led to the new slender, sexy female models in 2015.
What about Version56? Still learning, still adapting, still thinking. It is the business culture, more precisely – the corporate America culture – that rejects the value of the person with advanced maturity and skills. By analogy of the automobile, the new culture wants an electric car, talking GPS, full-screen digital feedback social media center on wheels. It demands electric stations at fast-food restaurants and Whole Foods parking lots. The automobile is about two environments: the compartment experience and the eco-environment; both needing to be cleaner than last year’s version. The Version56 employee, however, still drives excitement. He or she isn’t predicting the future but is focused on “how to” make what is currently in production better for today. Version56 takes a set of known data and advises business to adapt to the times – not to year 2050. He’s not a data psychologist dreamer but rather, an engaged producer of ideas with that same old tired focus: Customers.
Culture2015 is about knowing customers so deeply that companies will drop millions of dollars on demographic profiling tools to gather data – overwhelming data. Human Resources is now just as much enthralled with the trends in pop-human behaviors of employees. My question needs answering: why is the HR office driving software founded upon behavioral psychology and psychometrics? Employees and customers are but data metrics. HR officers believe the wheels in your brain turn the rotors of your personality – the assessment software is more tuned to predicting your personality [metrics] value than understanding skills awaiting potential greatness. Here is the beginning of a future software selected workforce. But the wise know better.
Robert Waters
Then there’s Version56. On such an extended version roadmap one may assume the product carried several years of sales success – to the point of being worth the time and cost to keep it in production. It went from Version 1.0 to v56. New features were added annually to the product to make life better and efficient and, importantly – empowered with knowledge.
But with all the spheres of social media chattering it up about the latest technology upgrade, Version56 got downgraded. Truthfully, Version56 got mothballed back around v45 but it held on for a few years. What is this Version56? It is me: Age 56. Baby Boomer. Educated. Experienced. A learner. Been up through the ranks, had promotions, knows the “system”. Thinks about customers.
The Ford Mustang has been in production since 1964. Pushing beyond age 50, a new version rolled off assembly lines every year since ’64 and today the Mustang is still hot. Even the slender, sexy female models advertisers used to attract customers back then have led to the new slender, sexy female models in 2015.
What about Version56? Still learning, still adapting, still thinking. It is the business culture, more precisely – the corporate America culture – that rejects the value of the person with advanced maturity and skills. By analogy of the automobile, the new culture wants an electric car, talking GPS, full-screen digital feedback social media center on wheels. It demands electric stations at fast-food restaurants and Whole Foods parking lots. The automobile is about two environments: the compartment experience and the eco-environment; both needing to be cleaner than last year’s version. The Version56 employee, however, still drives excitement. He or she isn’t predicting the future but is focused on “how to” make what is currently in production better for today. Version56 takes a set of known data and advises business to adapt to the times – not to year 2050. He’s not a data psychologist dreamer but rather, an engaged producer of ideas with that same old tired focus: Customers.
Culture2015 is about knowing customers so deeply that companies will drop millions of dollars on demographic profiling tools to gather data – overwhelming data. Human Resources is now just as much enthralled with the trends in pop-human behaviors of employees. My question needs answering: why is the HR office driving software founded upon behavioral psychology and psychometrics? Employees and customers are but data metrics. HR officers believe the wheels in your brain turn the rotors of your personality – the assessment software is more tuned to predicting your personality [metrics] value than understanding skills awaiting potential greatness. Here is the beginning of a future software selected workforce. But the wise know better.
Robert Waters
