Human beings often fear the unknown. They fear new technology. They fear change. They worry about things they don’t understand but come to depend upon those same things when they understand them.

This fear stops people from adopting new technology and processes that could transform businesses and shoot productivity to the skies. However, there are steps you can take to get around this fear and when you do, you will see higher productivity in your organization than you thought possible.

But why do people fear new technologies? Well, first of all we have a built-in scepticism towards the new.

But it’s also not surprising when we consider how technology has been presented in the media.
For as long as the media has existed technology has been presented, and polarised, as the most exciting or dangerous thing to happen to human kind. For example, in the 1950s EDP was presented to businesses as a way to automate repetitive tasks that involved large amount of data. People feared job losses and the removal of human intuition and creativity.

The 1960 and 1970s, saw the emergence of artificial intelligence and intelligent manufacturing machines, the idea that computers would eventually develop the ability to speak, think and do evil surfaced in the mainstream media.

The 1980s and 1990s saw the introduction of ‘Singularity’ with intelligent computers independently thinking and reflecting by themselves, developing the uber fear of machines creating a nuclear war or replacing the need for human kind.

For the past decade or more, smart people have been predicting an age of technological unemployment as ‘robots take people’s jobs’ e.g. in 2013 Oxford Martin School confidently postulated ‘According to our estimates, about 47 percent of total US employment is at risk.’ The fears of job losses, intelligent computers running amok, human intelligence being lost to robots have never materialized. In fact, if anything the last few decades have shown, is the need for knowledge workers.

Knowledge workers are workers whose main capital is knowledge. Examples include programmers, physicians, web designers, content creators, engineers, scientists, design thinkers, public accountants, lawyers, and academics, whose job is to ‘think for a living’. [Globally the world has over 1 billion knowledge workers (Gartner). And they play an essential role in the development of global businesses.

It was Peter Drucker who in 1959 coined the phrase “knowledge worker” in his book, The Landmarks of Tomorrow. Drucker described knowledge worker’s labor as “ever-changing, dynamic, and autonomous”.

Knowledge workers use high-level analytical knowledge to develop services or products. Their work is mostly about problem-solving and critical thinking. Knowledge workers use their brains to find solutions to the questions and challenges that arise in daily work.

They ‘think’ for a living, having acquired this knowledge through formal training such as college or professional certification.

With the rise of automation, and the belief that the number of blue-collar workers will continue to decrease, knowledge workers are becoming extremely valuable assets for organizations across the world. A knowledge worker’s problem solving, creativity, critical thinking, persuasion, negotiation and handling and distribution of information skills have never been more important nor more in demand.

The future of work is knowledge work. As Peter Drucker said ‘”Knowledge workers would be the most valuable assets of a 21st century organization because of their high level of productivity, different mindset and creativity.”

Knowledge workers are at the core of your organization. It is their ideas, experiences, interpretations, and judgments that keep your business, the economy and society constantly moving forward in the modern digital age. They invent new products, develop new strategies, lead negotiations, and help keep you ahead of your competitors.

In order to close the increasing skill and knowledge gaps that they are facing, organizations now are looking for ways to get the best out of their knowledge workers. Here are 4 ways organizations can help knowledge workers be more productive so they can reap the economic benefits.

1. Align Knowledge Workers with your business goals
   For knowledge workers to be successful at their jobs and deliver value you must first make sure that they are 100% aligned with your strategic business goals. Frequently communicate your company’s mission, vision, values and the ultimate business goals in order to point knowledge workers towards the right goals so they can focus on, and deliver against them.
2. Eliminate organization silos and enable knowledge sharing
   Knowledge workers don’t perform well when they work in siloed organizations. In the business world, that can bring huge financial losses. Fortune 500 companies have been quoted by International Data Corp. (IDC) to lose at least $31.5 billion a year by failing to share knowledge.
3. Eliminate the barriers of poor workplace communications practices
   Drive co-creation of new ideas and solutions. Even though knowledge workers may be responsible for driving change and innovation, they are certainly not the only ones participating in the implementation of new solutions. Put excellent communication methods and systems in place to encourage interaction and idea sharing between
   knowledge workers to get the most innovations from their collective thinking. The best results happen when the workplace is connected and when everyone can participate in the co-creation process by sharing feedback and ideas.
   Remember to protect your knowledge workers’ thinking time. Eliminate information overload coming to your knowledge workers’ way as well. As busy as they are, dealing with irrelevant information can only make them less productive and therefore less effective.
4. Give them the digital tools they need to be successful.
   Help knowledge workers build awareness about digital transformation, change management initiatives and the digital tools they need to make their jobs productive and effective. Engage them, involve them. Train them and encourage them to use digital to ideate and innovate e.g., digital assistants, communications tools such as digital whiteboards.

Conclusion:

Every organization must recognise the importance of knowledge workers in driving their success. As knowledge workers tend to be the ones driving innovation in the workplace their specific skills and knowledge are valuable. Engage them and involve them in your digital enablement programs. Give them the knowledge, training and digital tools to do their jobs to the best of their ability. When you do, productivity will increase to levels you have not seen before.

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