Future is called future because it is uncertain.

But what if, we can see it unfolding just in front of us?

It is now called reality which can be made accessible to all through NextGen Product Engineering.

We this week witnessed two such great attempts by humankind.

➡️ One aimed at reshaping the Future of Work – The Transform 2024 event in Las Vegas.

➡️ And the other aimed at redefining the Future of Mankind – The Starship Launch in Texas.

Gateaway to Mars !! Much more impressive in person 🙂#Starship pic.twitter.com/obcw4UqsWL

— Lenka Houskova White (@white_lenka) March 13, 2024

Despite being separated by 1600 miles, both of these had two things in common,

➡️ First, it would impact the entire global population.

➡️ And second, it would challenge the already set product engineering standards for solving the biggest problems humans have ever faced – the work and the survival.

We are happy to share key highlights from the Transform 2024 Las Vegas along with the similarities between building NextGen HR Product and a 120m-tall spacecraft.

(Spoiler alert: One major similarity is unshattered commitment toward solving underlying problems.)

Future of Work and Future of Mankind: We’re Closer Than Ever

It gives goosebumps when BBC writes, ‘Elon Musk’s Starship goes ‘farther than ever’ and it also gives goosebumps when Gartner writes, ‘AI creates, not diminishes, workforce opportunity.’

With many innovative HRTech products aiding the implementation of novel Future of Work initiatives, what Tarak Joshi, VP of Sales at Azilen, has experienced and discussed at Transform 2024 is coming out to be closer than ever.

And here are they.

For your context,

First Starship Flight (April 2023): This flight resulted in an explosion shortly after liftoff due to multiple engine shutdowns and a stage separation malfunction.

Second Starship Flight (November 2023): The Starship reached space but exploded during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Third Starship Flight (March 14, 2024): This flight achieved several milestones but ended with the upper stage breaking apart during re-entry.

The importance of having a thriving learning culture for any organization is becoming inevitable with rising ambitions of achieving the impossible.

It delivers these amazing results to organizations.

➡️ Embrace Failure as a Learning Opportunity: Shift the perspective on failure from something to be punished to a valuable source of information.

➡️ Psychological Safety: Team feel comfortable admitting mistakes, reporting problems, and offering suggestions without fear of reprimand.

➡️ Reward Experimentation and Risk-Taking: Innovation often requires taking calculated risks and venturing outside comfort zones.

➡️ Transparency and Knowledge Sharing: Team openly shares information about failures, successes, and lessons learned across all levels of the company.

➡️ Continuous Improvement: Regularly assess progress, identify areas for improvement, and implement changes to solidify a learning mindset within the organization.

➡️ Innovation in Motion (always): A thriving learning culture always promotes innovation, even the innovative ways to fail!

A hallmark of Starship is its ability to operate largely autonomously.

The software is designed to handle most aspects of the mission, including engine ignition, thrust adjustments, guidance during launch and reentry sequences, orbital adjustments, and trajectory corrections.

Just as the sophisticated software of Starship takes charge of critical mission elements, it is no longer a luxury for organizations to deploy automation for handling a myriad of tasks across departments.

However, newer forms of Gen AI-powered automation across HR operations are emerging and it is game-changing.

For example, consider an employee asking, “Am I eligible for parental leave?”

The chatbot responds contextually, providing eligibility criteria and guiding her through the application process, improving HR service efficiency and accessibility.

While it may appear to involve manual efforts, this process accomplishes hours’ worth of work in mere seconds—scanning the parental leave policy and generating a personalized response.

This phenomenon is known as personalized automation, and it’s poised to revolutionize the Future of Work.

Explore more such use cases of personalized automation with Gen AI in HRTech.

‘Starship reached orbital velocity! Congratulations SpaceX team!’, that’s what Elon Musk tweeted even after the news of the ship losing contact with the control center.

As said by the 40th US President, Ronald Reagan, ‘The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.’

Elon Musk is known for his ambitious vision for the future, whether it’s colonizing Mars with SpaceX or elevating transportation with Tesla.

His ability to convey a far-reaching vision attracts talented individuals who are passionate about making a difference in the world.

People-driven leadership is only achievable when there is open communication, trust, and mutual respect among team members.

For that, leaders need to better understand, support, and empower their workforce.

HRTech plays a critical role in promoting people-driven leadership by offering tools, platforms, and most importantly ‘data’ that speaks the inner voice of employees.

It can collect and analyze vast amounts of employee data, including performance metrics, engagement levels, and feedback.

By using analytics, leaders can gain valuable insights into their workforce, identify areas for improvement, and make informed decisions to support employee growth and development.

To leverage it most effectively, those data should be part of an integrated system, rather than scattered across a distributed system.

Conclusion (of this blog) & Introduction (of new Future of Work chapter by Azilen)

No matter how much we glorify the Future of Work, its true success lies in our commitment to solving pressing people problems with the highest standards of product engineering. It’s the depth, height, and length of this dedication that truly defines the effectiveness of Future of Work initiatives.

Because, reaching milestones like Mars may seem grand, the true measure of success lies in our ability to resonate with individuals and understand their aspirations, concerns, and desires with the ultimate goal of discovering the core of human experience.