It’s Always People Who Power Performance
Korn Ferry CEO Gary Burnison reminds leaders that it’s people, not technology, that will determine how an organization performs.
Gary Burnison is CEO of Korn Ferry. For more career advice, read his latest book, I Need a Job!
Just last week, after I shared a message about AI, it clearly struck a chord with executives at global organizations, who had some thoughts.
- “As we continue to push for AI adoption… our humanity and human connection remain essential,” said an executive from one of the world’s largest life sciences companies.
- “Can we challenge AI to identify ways to generate more human connections in a world that relies heavily upon robotic call centers and automated email distribution?” implored a former executive of another major life sciences company.
- “I work at the intersection of strategy, AI, and energy. AI has the potential to be one of the greatest equalizers of our generation—or to deepen existing inequalities. The outcomes will depend on the choices we make,” an executive at a Fortune 50 technology company told me.
- “I absolutely know where you are coming from. That human touch, bond and understanding between people…,” offered profoundly by an executive at a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate.
As David Dotlich, PhD, a senior leader in our Consulting business, told me recently, “Without question, AI is a transformational technology, but it is still a technology—it’s an adaptive challenge, not a technical challenge. It’s not a question of replacing us, but replacing work next week.”
Nothing replaces that human connection. Not AI, agents, bots, systems, processes… or even the ability to analyze information, recognize patterns, generate ideas, and make decisions at a speed that would have seemed unimaginable not long ago.
And we can’t confuse efficiency with humanity.
Recently, we were speaking with a CEO whose company had just acquired a very large organization focused on AI. We could have spent the entire conversation talking about models, agents, and capabilities. Instead, he was thinking about behavior change, and how to bring people through that change.
Because it’s people who power performance. And there is nothing artificial about that.
Or as Syndey Harris, the late journalist and author of the famous syndicated column Strictly Personal said, “The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.”
This quotation was shared with me just a few days ago by a retired professor, and it reminds all of us that performance is, was and always will be about people.
Technology can be installed, downloaded, and implemented, but it’s people who have to adapt. Experience, judgment, context, and relationships don’t simply disappear because of transformational technology.
Let’s remember that in a world that is increasingly blurring the lines between the artificial and the genuine, we still intuitively and instinctually know the human side of organizations. We all recognize what enables people to perform, what causes us to change, what makes a trusted leader, and what it takes for great leadership to elevate potential.
Indeed, it’s people who determine what an organization becomes—and ultimately, how it performs.
