Prepare yourself for a transpersonal workplace

The rapidly settling emotional economy is encouraging a definite distinction between economic transactions and transpersonal services. Real value-add will occur person-to-person as basic economic transactions are already automated to a significant extent. This will enable a range of choices about the level of interaction that an employer – and subsequently clients, as well – desires and how much they are willing and prepared to pay for it, with some choosing to pay a higher premium for human involvement and interaction. Less for humanoid-based interactions.

In a knowledge-based economy, we emphasise people as our greatest asset, endeavour to manage by objectives and use words like ‘mind share’ (i.e. mainly left brain) and added value. In an emotional-based economy we recognize that relationships are our greatest asset, manage by meaning, and use words like ‘heart share‘ (i.e. mainly right brain) and purpose. Leadership is more about character than vision and viable organizations focus more on social contributions than chasing profit margins.

In a knowledge economy, personal value is directly related to how much a person knows, how much s/he can create or generate and the quality of his/her judgements… in essence the ability to acquire, process and apply knowledge.

However, the ongoing digital AI revolution is completely disrupting current-day workplace tasks and activities. Computers will do most of the work currently done by ‘knowledge‘ workers. And this will impact everybody. Are your future or present job at risk? For sure! People will spend less time doing intellectual work and more time engaging with one another. Therefore, the ability to empathize, compassionate, to apply emotional know-how and reach out and touch other people, will be the new source of success, wealth and prosperity.

In an emotions economy, the personal employable value will be the size of one’s heart, not the size of one’s ideas, not one’s pool of knowledge, nor one’s professional network and access to resources. Qualifications, ideas, knowledge, networking and abilities will keep one in the run for an ‘emotions economy‘-position, but our competitive edge will be determined by our work ethics, values and how we manage to develop and grow (i.e. self-actualize). In essence, manpower – preferred and sought after – will not be determined by WHAT we do… but by HOW we are doing it.

It’s always been important for any business venture to understand their clients, and the stuff that people need and/or want (i.e. supply and demand dynamics). More recently, this has been done by collecting data on past actions and analysing that data to try and predict what each client’s possible next action might be like. However, this is just half of the puzzle, when attempting to understand what a client might do. Today, we’ve come much further than many thought possible for machines, as technology is being used to read, analyse and even replicate that missing piece of understanding… our emotions. For organizations (i.e. service providers), it’s no longer just about understanding what we do, but understanding what we feel. This is the core of the Emotions Economy, and recent advances in technology have already placed us on an accelerated path towards it.

The futurist Richard Yonck first describes the emotion economy as an emerging “ecosystem” of emotionally intelligent devices and software iterations, that will completely change the way we interact with machines, which is already happening. For example… take Google searches which no longer is a question of merely using a search engine, but how to tailor searches and – most – importantly, which search engine to use for best usable results. Understanding how this “ecosystem” functions, and learning how to draw value from it, will be critical for the success of any organization, company or individual that is looking to engage with clients and stay in front of the pack amongst the many competitors… locally, nationally and internationally.

Last Updated on 21 April, 2024 by Jan Viljoen (More Info)

Stay up-to-date and never miss an article! Join our mailing list for more helpful insights straight to your inbox.