Dear Employees

 

We have decided to implement automation in our environment because robots and programs are way better than people. We will need you to justify your job in the next week or we will fire you and make you work in a really crappy job that doesn’t involve computers while we light cigars with dollar bills.

 

Sincerely, Management

The above letter is the interpretation of the professional staff of your organization when you send out the following email:

We are going to implement some automation concepts next week. What are some things you wish you could automate in your job?

Interpretations differ as to the intent of automation. Management likes the idea of their engineering staff being fully tasked and working on valuable projects. They want to know their people are doing something productive. And the people that aren’t doing productive stuff should either be finding something to do or finding a new job.

Professional staff likes being fully tasked and productive too. They want to be involved in jobs and tasks that do something cool or justify their existence to management. If their job doesn’t do that they get worried they won’t have it any longer.

So, where is the disconnect?

You Do Exist (Sort of)

The problem with these interpretations comes down to the job itself. Humans can get very good at repetitive, easy jobs. Assembly line works, quality testers, and even systems engineers are perfect examples of this. People love to do something over and over again that they are good at. They can be amazing when it comes to programming VLANs or typing out tweets for social media. And those are some pretty easy jobs!

Consistency is king when it comes to easy job tasks. When I can do it so well that I don’t have to think about things any more I’ve won. When it comes out the same way every time no matter how inattentive I am it’s even better. And if it’s a task that I can do at the same time or place every day or every week then I’m in heaven. Easy jobs that do themselves on a regular schedule are the key to being employed forever.

Automatic For The Programs

Where does that sound more familiar in today’s world? Why, automation of course! Automation is designed to make easy, repeatable jobs execute on a schedule or with a specific trigger. When that task can be done by a program that is always at work and never calls in sick or goes on vacation you can see the allure of it to management. You can also see the fear in the eyes of the professional that just found the perfect role full of easy jobs that can be scheduled on their calendar.

Hence the above interpretation of the automation email sample. People fear change. They fear automation taking away their jobs. Yet, the jobs that are perfect for automation are the kinds of things that shouldn’t be jobs in the first place. Professionals in a given discipline are much, much smarter than just doing something repetitively over and over again like VLAN modifications or IP addressing of interfaces. More importantly, automation provides consistency. Automation can be programmed to pull from the correct database or provide the correct configuration every time without worry of a transcription mistake or data entry in the wrong field.

People want these kinds of jobs because they afford two important things: justification of their existence and free time at work. The former ensures they get to have a paycheck. The latter gives them the chance to find some kind of joy in their job. Sure, you have some kind of repetitive task that you need to do every day like run a report or punch holes in a sheet of metal. But when you’re not doing that task you have the freedom to do fun stuff like learn about other parts of your job or just relax.

When you take away the job with automation, you take away the cover for the relaxation part. Now, you’ve upset the balance and forced people to find new things to do. And that means learning. Figuring out how to make tasks easy and repetitive again. And that’s not always possible. Hence the fear of automation and change.

Building A Better Path To Automation

How do we fix this mess? How can we motivate people to embrace automation? Well, it’s pretty simple:

1. Help Your Team See The Need – If your teams think think they’re going to lose their jobs because of automation, they’re not going to embrace it. You need to show them that not only are they not going to lose their jobs but how automation will make their jobs easier and better. Remember to frame your arguments along the lines of removing mistakes and not needing to worry about justifying your existence in a role. That should encourage everyone to look for new challenges to overcome.
2. Show the Value – This goes with the first part somewhat, but more than showing the need for automation with mistake reduction or schedule easing, you also need to show value. If a person has never made a mistake or has built their schedule around repetitive tasks they are going to hate automation. Show them what they can do now that their roles don’t have to focus on the old stuff they did. Help them look at where they can provide additional value. Even if it starts off by monitoring the automation platform to make sure it’s executing correctly. Maybe the value they can provide is finding new things to automate!
3. Embrace the Future – Automation allows people to learn how to do new things. They can focus on new skills or roles that help support the business in a better way. More automation means more complexity to understand but also a chance for people to shine in new roles. The right people will see a challenge as something to be overcome. Help them set new goals. Help them get where they want to be. You’ll be surprised how quickly they will get there with the right leadership.

Tom’s Take

Automation isn’t going to steal jobs. It will force people to examine their tasks and decide how important they really are. The people that were covering their basic roles and trying to skate by are going to leave no matter what. Even if your automation push fails these marginal people are going to leave for greener pastures thanks to the examination of what they’re actually doing. Don’t let the pushback discourage you in the short term. Automation isn’t the goal. Automation is the tool to get you to the true goal of a smoother, more responsive team that accomplishes more and can reacher higher goals.