Issue 27 | Data reported 31.03.19

“Most people think that AI means that humans will be totally automated out of the value chain, but that’s not what we’re hearing from the biggest tech companies in Silicon Valley.” Leila Janah, CEO, Samasource, page 6 Photo courtesy of Samasource Photo courtesy

the rise of artificial intelligence does not engineers. There’s an increasing army of requires new ways of working, particularly THE HUMAN need to be synonymous with the fall of human data labellers who are feeding AI to facilitate human interaction. Increased human intelligence. with the information it needs to function. interaction is vital, as our Provocateur ADVANTAGE IN In this issue of the Review we look at In our lead interview we talk to Leila Janah, Damian Hughes points out, ‘no AI system the impact that AI has already started to the founder and CEO of Samasource, which will ever help the bottom line as much as AN AI WORLD have. While it’s very clever, it does lack has created thousands of AI jobs in Africa. a strong team’. any common sense, and it is still critical for Closer to home, Dr Peggie Rothe AI is not the enemy, but it’s also not the Consider this: the AI era could also people to question AI’s decision-making to analyses how technology has affected answer. What we do know is that creating usher in a new era of human creativity ensure the correct goals are being achieved. our workday; instead of doing fewer tasks a people-centric culture, championing and initiative. Contrary to what the doom In fact, behind every AI innovation in a day, employees are doing more than empathy, collaboration and innovation, and gloom headlines would have us believe, is a person, and they aren’t all software ever before. The increase of technology is a proven strategy for success. Opinion | Tim Oldman, Founder & CEO, Leesman “I’M SORRY DAVE, I’M AFRAID I CAN’T DO THAT”

In Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 epic 2001: In an application features list, this A Space Odyssey, the mission’s might appear a cool new bit of predictive unnervingly sentient ‘Heuristically functionality. But it left us having to programmed ALgorithmic’ computer investigate how to manually override known as HAL, self-assuredly proclaims or cancel something others thought we’d himself “by any practical definition of the appreciate, as it suddenly dramatically word, fool proof and incapable of error”. threw our management information Just 43% of employees globally dashboards off course. acknowledge that ‘learning from others’ is The email came at the end of a bad week an important work activity 1. Tim Minshall, in the news for the designers of similar, Head of the Institute for Manufacturing though admittedly hugely more complex, at the University of Cambridge, describes systems. Ethical hackers at the Tencent Knowledge Transfer as a “contact sport; Keen Security Lab had exposed that it works best when people meet to exchange software flaws in Elon Musk’s Tesla S – ideas – it’s all about the transfer of tangible one of the most advanced cars on the road and intellectual property, expertise, – had enabled them to confuse the vehicle’s learning and skills”. lane recognition system into thinking HAL’s declaration is of course flawed the straight road ahead actually curved, and in his eventual downfall, Kubrick and in so doing, switch lanes directing the and collaborator Arthur C Clarke were vehicle into the path of oncoming traffic. almost certainly exploring what we might Most interestingly, the ‘fake lane attack’ today refer to as algorithmic or machine was an example of a new type of incredibly learning bias, a phenomenon that occurs low-tech hack, comprising of nothing when an algorithm produces results that more than a series of strategically placed are systematically prejudiced due to ‘interference stickers’ on the road surface, erroneous assumptions in the machine so that perversely the very image learning process. Fifty-one years later, the recognition systems designed to keep balance between science fact and fiction the vehicle in the centre of its lane, is no less blurred. Even an innocuous- would do the very opposite. seeming software or systems upgrade can Musk’s typically tactical response have irritating, disruptive, or at worst, complimented the discovery as “solid devastating effects. Take, for example, work” that would help accelerate the Leesman’s recent experience: advancement of such systems. Then dismissed it as somewhat irrelevant, since the ‘autopilot’ could be overridden at any “The balance between moment and that the systems were never science fact and fiction intended to offer an automatous experience that would replace the need for an adult is still blurred. . . even an behind the controls of the vehicle. innocuous-seeming software But this came in the same week that Ethiopian air accident investigators or systems upgrade can have announced that the captain and first officer irritating, disruptive, or at of the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max that had crashed three weeks prior, had worst, devastating effects.” indeed correctly taken manual control of their aircraft and followed all of the specified emergency procedures laid Friday April 5th: an internal email from out by Boeing. Despite their efforts, our Dr Peggie Rothe warns all client-facing all 157 lives on board were lost. team members that our client relationship Initial investigations centre on the role of management (CRM) and workflow the aircraft’s Manoeuvring Characteristics feedback he is getting back from it, can 700ft of altitude moments later before pilots application had developed an anomaly. Augmentation System (MCAS). These put the pilot at risk of pitching the aircraft halted the drop. This pattern continued. Team members create a project ‘card’ on systems were already under industry scrutiny at too steep an angle during take-off. Details from the initial Ethiopian receipt of a client enquiry and we track its following the loss of Indonesia’s Lion Air 737 MCAS will kick in if sensors detect the Airlines investigation suggest that faced development and velocity towards becoming Max flight JT610, 13-minutes after taking aircraft’s Angle of Attack (AOA), or climb, with immediate difficulty controlling the a live project. As a go-live project date off from Jakarta in October 2018, killing all is too aggressive to prevent the aircraft aircraft’s initial climb, perhaps as a result develops greater certainty, a ‘close date’ 189 people on board. The last moments of stalling. It automatically adjusts the of the non-linear lift characteristics, the is added to the card, directly informing both flights exhibited strong similarities. ‘elevators’ at the tail of the aircraft to point pilot sought the support of the autopilot and our workflow and cashflow analysis. Boeing’s MCAS is a software protocol the nose downward. The MCAS should only engaged it almost immediately. Cockpit voice But the Doc, feared and famed for her unique to the 737’s Max variant, introduced engage when the autopilot is disengaged – recordings are reported to confirm that the attention to the finest numeric detail, had principally in response to different in- that predominantly being when the pilot captain called out three times to “pull up”, spotted that all new cards were suddenly flight handling characteristics of the Max is ‘hand flying’ at take-off or landing. and seconds after instructed the first officer including close dates seemingly of their resulting from the specification of new 10% The yoke is designed to shake violently to tell Air Traffic Control that they had a own design. Her hypothesis was that the more-efficient engines. These new engines if a stall is detected. However, evidence from flight control problem. application’s developers had added new display ‘non-linear lift’ characteristics, the Lion Air flight shows this happening With autopilot failing to help the functionality that would predict a close which will mean very little to most, and at despite the aircraft at that point not being situation, it was disengaged by the date based on the characteristics of the the risk of grossly over simplifying the issue, at risk of stall. The flight crew were also flight crew. But as the subsidiary MCAS project card; client name, card value, project the aircraft has a different centre of gravity contending with incorrect altitude and automation appears to kick in, it each time complexity, person creating the card etc. and that the physical instructions the pilot airspeed readings. Flight data shows the appears to worsen the problem. Reuters all presumably based on historic patterns. is inputting through the yoke and the Lion Air aircraft dipped and dropped was reporting that cockpit data confirmed

1 Leesman Index 2019 2 Photo by Movie Poster Art/Getty Images Art/Getty Poster Movie by Photo

pilot and first officer had then both correctly aircraft handling, the flight crew’s ability system’s ‘functionality enhancement’ wasn’t As the sophistication of those systems followed emergency checklist protocols to decipher those anomalies, the various the result of a sentient computer’s insistence increases, so too should the thoroughness and manually disabled the MCAS, taking computerised systems’ ability to correct it knew better, but instead the result of the of the testing and licensing of those systems direct mechanical control of the tail or take over situation management, or insistence of a developer/engineer/data and our understanding of the unintentional stabilisers. This should have immediately for those systems to recognise they were scientist somewhere that they knew better. bias built into them; virtue of the individuals brought the nose of the aircraft back level. acting on flawed data. and/or the design/engineering systems Yet the MCAS system may have repeatedly When the aircraft eventually hit the “AI is designed by humans and steps involved in creating them. reactivated itself without a direct command ground, it did so well in excess of its So whilst other journals revel in how from either crew members. Reuters: designed maximum airspeed, and with with their own limitations.” many of these systems smooth our daily “Investigators are studying whether there engines still at 90% thrust, causing some lives and fuel our business futures, this are any conditions under which MCAS commentators to question whether ‘mode It is put properly into perspective when issue of the Leesman Review has taken could reactivate itself automatically”. confusion’ (see Leesman Review issue 26) you consider the last moments of those an alternative look at different aspects of Perhaps like Kubrick’s HAL, MCAS also played a part or whether computerised 346 passengers and crew on board flights the advancement of systems. As we put believed it knew better. control and sensor systems were fighting JT610 and EA302. Both scenarios should together this issue one thing became very Further information also points to it out in a digital battle, despite the flight surely move to remind us that while AI is clear: it could well be that the organisations erroneous data from airflow and angle of crew’s best actions. the broad science of machines mimicking that will rise to the top are not the ones attack sensors on the outside of the aircraft As the sophistication and complexity human abilities, machine learning is a who invest most heavily in AI, but those contributing to systems’ confusion. Based of the systems designed to make our lives specific subset of AI that trains a machine who invest most heavily in the human on pre-investigation evidence, the battle simpler and safer magnifies, so too does how to learn. And both are designed employees managing, implementing in the cockpit seems to have been between the potential impact if they fail. Our CRM by humans with their own limitations. and controlling AI.

3 Broadly speaking, AI refers to machines that can learn, reason, and act for themselves. They can make their own decisions when faced with new situations, in the same way that humans and animals can. IS Machine learning is a subset of AI, and it’s the area where the vast majority of AI advancements and technology used today are being made. These algorithms use statistics to find patterns in massive amounts of data. They then use those patterns to make predictions about things THIS like what shows you might like on Netflix, what you’re saying when you speak to Alexa, or whether your heart rate is too high based on your FitBit reading.

AI has undoubtedly changed the way we live, but it’s still only a fraction of what AI? artificial intelligence could be. While it may have mastered the complex game of Go, it still lacks basic common sense. Its current iteration is trained to recognise patterns, so if the pattern changes suddenly it isn’t capable The definition of artificial intelligence is constantly evolving, of coming up with an innovative solution. making it difficult to decipher what is, and isn’t, using AI. Because of this, AI can be difficult to recognise This flowchart by Karen Hao for MIT’s Technology Review or define. Follow the path below for a simple is a helpful guide. tour of what is, and isn’t, AI.

START

Can it “see”? Can it “hear”? Can it “read”? Can it “move”? Can it “reason”?

YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO

Can it identify Does it respond in a useful, Is it reading what you type? By itself, without help? Is it looking for patterns in what it sees? sensible way? massive amounts of data?

YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO YES NO

Does it respond Is it reading Does it move based on in a useful, passages what it sees and hears? Then it’s just YES Is it using those Well then, a camera sensible way? of text patterns to make doesn’t sound decisions? like reasoning Cool, it’s using computer That’s natural language vision & image processing processing (NLP) at work YES NO YES YES NO YES NO Are you sure it’s not just running on That’s just a programmed path? a bot Neat, Hmmm... NO Is it transcribing Is it analysing that’s machine sounds what you say? it for patterns? learning like math YES NO So... it’s a word processor? YES NO NO Then what is it reading? OK, it’s a Cool, it’s using So it’s It’s just reading smart robot speech recognition a mic for fun?

YES, IT’S USING AI

Chart by Karen Hao for MIT Technology Review 4 Feature | Dr Michael Bloomfield Leesman Review Issue 27

Dr Michael Bloomfield is an anthropologist with a PhD in mankind’s creative origins, and a former lecturer at the University of East London. He writes at Creative Age blog and runs Qreativity, a creative skills training company whose client list includes IBM and THE Pernod Ricard. For all the links to articles referenced in this piece please view the article online at: CREATIVE www.leesmanindex.com/leesman-review/ IMPERATIVE Microsoft treehouse image used with permission from Microsoft from permission with used image treehouse Microsoft This decade has seen a significant rise in the and the like. Creativity can, for example, value attributed to creative thinking in work be manifested in a leadership decision. life – and not just in the creative industries. Ask people what Henry Ford’s greatest In 2010 IBM surveyed over 1,500 Chief innovation was and it’s very likely they’ll Executive Officers from 60 countries and say the mass production of cars. For my 33 industries, asking them which leadership money, it’s something else entirely. In 1914 quality they would need most over the next the Ford Motor Company was beset by five years in order to successfully navigate our staffing problems – low morale leading to increasingly complex world. The top answer high absenteeism and use of temp workers, was not rigour, management discipline, and rapid staff turnover. Ford decided to integrity or even vision, but creativity. take radical action. He announced to great The World Economic Forum’s 2016 fanfare that he would, overnight, double The Future of Jobs report found that while in his workers’ wages – all of them. It became 2015 creativity was the tenth most important known as the introduction of the Five-Dollar skill in the entire world of work – already an Day. Ford reasoned that the men working indication of its growing role – by 2020 it will on the factory line ought to be able to be the third most important. And this year, a actually buy the product they were making. LinkedIn’s Skills companies need most in 2019 It worked. Within a year turnover study declared creativity to be the number fell from 370% to 16% while the number one skill needed at work today. of temp workers hired fell from 53,000 experience will, of course, have its base in less likely to generate creative ideas than a to 2,000. Perhaps most impressively of the workplace itself. This is the bricks and brain showing slower alpha waves typical “The rise of AI is only making all, between 1914 and 1916 Ford’s profits mortar: the chairs, the stairs, the variety of relaxation. (This is clearly something of doubled from $30 million to $60 million. of settings, colours, size, technologies, a problem for work in general.) Therefore, soft skills increasingly So the idea was valuable. It was new – no services—all of it impact the experience.” the provision of very comfortable furniture, important, as they are one had done it before. And to gauge how A related solution is to use lots of plants. or even spaces to simply take a break, thoroughly counterintuitive a decision Remarkably, research shows that the mere will promote people’s creativity. precisely the type of skills it was, just listen to this pearl-clutching presence of living plants significantly serve Leesman’s Workplace Experience robots can’t automate.” editorial from the Wall Street Journal to boost scores on visual creativity tests, Revolution research showed that relaxing soon after Ford’s announcement: with one 2016 study published in the Elsevier and taking a break is a super driver; it is Journal even finding the effect among one of five activities that are important in Why is this? One reason is Artificial “To inject ten millions into a company factory, children in a classroom. Leesman’s research driving all aspects of the employee workplace Intelligence. As LinkedIn’s study put it, and to double the minimum wage, without also shows that over 50% of employees view experience. So not only is it important in “the rise of AI is only making soft skills regard to length of service, is to apply Biblical plants and greenery as important features refreshing employees’ minds and enabling increasingly important, as they are precisely or Spiritual principles into a field where they in creating an effective workplace. them to work more creatively, it is also one the type of skills robots can’t automate … do not belong. [Henry Ford] in his social That sense of greater space fostering of the main drivers for how employees feel while robots are great at optimizing old ideas, endeavor has committed economic blunders, creativity is evidenced by another study, about their organisation. organizations most need creative employees if not crimes.” run by Joan Meyers-Levy, professor of who can conceive the solutions of tomorrow.” marketing at the University of Minnesota, “A final idea is to provide We don’t know whether some of the more That’s creativity. on ceiling height. She got people to tackle alarming predictions will be realised – AI three kinds of problem solving tasks in a physical space to empower expert Kai Fu Lee thinks that 40% of all the The question is, what can you do about it? 10-foot ceilinged room and an 8-foot ceilinged people to be creative alone.” world’s jobs will be replaced by automation Fine, creativity is desirable, and increasingly room, and found that the higher ceiling within 15 years, for instance – but you can so, but that’s of little use if you interpret it as promoted “more abstract thinking”. Meyers- bet that the best way to “future proof” your a mysterious gift possessed by a select few Levy says: “When people are in a room with a A 2012 global Adobe study found that 75% skill-set, or your business as a whole, is to minds. Fortunately, science tells another story. high ceiling, they activate the idea of freedom. of people actually prefer to think creatively find ways to unlock your creative potential. There are a number of ways to enhance In a low-ceilinged room, they activate more when on their own rather than in groups. creativity, and many of them relate to constrained, confined concepts.” And a little known fact in the professional “Any idea which is new, our physical environment and physical These results can be explained by what sphere is that group brainstorming sessions experience of the world; it’s not all about social psychologists call construal level are on average much less effective than just valuable and counterintuitive what’s in your head. Some of these I theory, which says that “psychological asking people to come up with ideas on is by definition creative.” call “hacks” as they’re relatively easy distance” promotes more abstract thought, their own and in their own time. to engineer and can pay a modest but which is an important aspect of creative Again, Leesman’s research backs this up: significant dividend straight away. Others problem solving. Since most organisations 92.3% of employees state that individual, But what is creativity? Creativity science are more long-term and strategic, requiring will obviously find it hard to suddenly focused work (desk-based) is an important uses a consensus definition of those behavioural change, but are still eminently increase their workspaces’ ceiling height, work activity for them. ideas that are both new (novel, different, doable – and can be transformational. there’s an easier way that can work just as So, while one macro trend in recent unique) and valuable (useful, appropriate, First, colour. A large number of studies well: the use of imagery of distant places. times has been the collectivising adaptive). Some theorists like me think a has shown that exposure to the colours blue In one experiment, when students were of workspaces partly as a means of third dimension is equally essential: the and green stimulate creativity, as measured shown images of distant phenomena like encouraging communication and cross- counterintuitive (surprising, unexpected, by performance on creativity tests such as galaxies, they subsequently performed fertilisation between diverse minds and non-obvious). Look closely and you’ll divergent thinking tasks. The reasons are better on creativity tests than when first voices, giving people isolated spaces find that any idea which is all three of new, not entirely clear, but associations with being shown familiar and “nearby” imagery, where they can be, breathe and think valuable and counterintuitive – what I call growth (for green) and space (for blue, by such as a table. So just install artworks alone can have enormous benefits when the Three Requisites of Creativity – is by evoking the sky or ocean) are one likely cause. around your workspace depicting exotic it comes to creativity. definition creative, and ideas which have So simply making your workspace walls and faraway places, and psychological Such hacks along with the more only one or two of these elements are not. or flooring blue or green (at least in part) is distance will be increased correspondingly. fundamental, structural changes in Interestingly, what this means is that a simple way to stimulate more imaginative One of the key findings by creativity working spaces will not guarantee creativity not only has nothing intrinsically thinking, which will impact your employees’ scientists over recent decades has been employees are able to come up with the to do with art or the arts but also nothing workplace experience. Leesman’s The that a more relaxed brain is a creative new, valuable and counterintuitive ideas to do with those ideas we tend to intuitively Workplace Experience Revolution book brain. When the brain exhibits beta wave that increasingly determine success in the associate with creativity like “designs” or states what seems obvious, but what many activity, characteristic of being alert and modern world, but they are a relatively “concepts” or advertising or branding ideas employers miss: “Employee workplace concentrated on a piece of work, it is much straightforward place to start.

5 Interview | Hannah Finch, Editor, Leesman Insights TRANSFORMING LIVES BY GIVING WORK

6 Photos courtesy of Samasource courtesy Photos Leesman Review Issue 27

The insatiable need of deep-learning algorithms to train on massive quantities of labelled data has spawned an entire industry of human labellers. Leila Janah, CEO of Samasource, talks about how the rise of AI is creating jobs for the world’s poorest people.

Samasource is the rarest of We were challenged by everyone in the organisations in Silicon Valley: it’s beginning. People said: ‘Even if you manage structured as a hybrid organisation, to get this off the ground, you’ll never be which means it’s a for-profit that is able to scale the business.’ The best way to majority owned by a non-profit. Like face those kinds of doubts is to prove people many successful tech companies, it was wrong with data. As we started getting our born from an innovative, disruptive idea first contracts, I personally reviewed every with the potential to change the world. piece of data services work we did and What sets it apart is that it does not checked the quality. We grew organically exist just to become a unicorn and have from there, and now solve training data a huge IPO, but to transform the lives challenges for 25% of the Fortune 50. of the world’s poorest people by giving When a customer was unsure about them jobs in AI. working with us, we would do a free trial for The story of Samasource is intricately them, saying ‘if you’re happy with the result linked to the story of its founder, Leila then keep using us’. That approach really Janah. When Janah was 17, she taught works. Once people saw the high quality of English in Ghana as part of a student- the work and the proof of the social impact volunteer programme. Many of her students there was a ‘wow’ factor that set us apart. were blind and living without running water From there we were able to grow quickly – or electricity. But despite overwhelming we have offices all over the world and count challenges and hardships, they managed Google and Microsoft as clients. to make it to school every day eager to work and learn. And what an impact you’ve made Janah went on to study African in the last decade! Tell us about how Development Studies at Harvard, and the Samasource model works. on graduating in 2005 landed a job as a In the last ten years internet access across management consultant. One of her first Sub-Saharan Africa has made it possible assignments was to manage a call centre for entirely new kinds of work that didn’t in Mumbai. She noticed that the majority exist before. For example, there’s a massive of call centre workers were from well- need in the algorithms of the future to educated, middle-class families. use images to train computers to do what humans used to do. “In the last decade, Those computer vision processes rely on human annotation and all kinds of Samasource has created input data. To understand our company, over 10,000 jobs in data you need to understand a bit about how machine learning works: it starts with input services and AI for some data, this can be video, images, snippets of of the poorest people in texts, and then we need to precisely label that data. Machines learn the same way Kenya and Uganda.” humans learn when we teach a toddler the difference between a tree and a shrub. That information goes into algorithm While outsourcing was providing millions development and then one of the end users of jobs in India, it wasn’t helping the of Samasource will push that out into country’s poorest people. Having worked a product that reaches the customer. with people from extreme deprivation in The head of AI at Tesla has said that Africa, Janah was convinced that they ‘human labellers are the programmers were more than capable of thriving in a of the future’. And if there’s one company call-centre type of setting. In 2008, at 25, that understands the appetite for this Janah turned that idea into Samasource, kind of data, it would be Tesla. a non-profit that connects poor people to digital jobs. “Most people think that AI In the last decade, Samasource has created over 10,000 jobs in data services means that humans will be and AI for some of the poorest people totally automated out of in Kenya and Uganda, the majority of whom are women. Each of those 10,000 the value chain; that’s not people support an average of four income what we’re hearing from the dependents, so more than 50,000 people have directly moved out of poverty as a biggest tech companies in result of Samasource. Silicon Valley.” We talked to Janah about how she’s made it work, and what her plans are for the future: Most people think that AI means that humans will be totally automated out of the Samasource is such an incredible model, value chain; that’s not what we’re hearing but not everyone was convinced in the from the biggest tech companies in Silicon beginning. How did you get started? Valley, where our headquarters is based.

7 Interview

Samasource has an impact working model. They create living-wage jobs in AI and hire people who wouldn’t traditionally be able to get those jobs.

Samasource is certainly proving that aspect of what we do. I passionately believe AI has vast career potentials within it. in creating living-wage jobs and hiring Tell us about your AI training centres people from backgrounds who wouldn’t in Nairobi and North Uganda. traditionally be able to get those jobs. Since we started a decade ago, we’ve Hiring people from really economically become the largest data services company depressed backgrounds means there are in East Africa, employing about 10,000 not only minorities but there is also a people, all of them from extremely gender component: more that 50% of our low-income backgrounds, most of them workplace is female. We look at all aspects earning about $2 a day before Samasource. of impact sourcing – considering not just Northern Uganda is mainly known for poverty but other forms of marginalisation. the horrific civil war that was waged by When your employees come from the Lord’s Resistance Army, led by Joseph challenging backgrounds, the workspace Kony. Most people wouldn’t imagine that that you’re putting them into is really in war-torn Gulu you could set up a tech important. Many of our employees live centre. Our Gulu centre is off-grid, has in the slums, which are incredibly difficult solar panels on the roof, and has employed environments to survive in. For our over 500 people inside refurbished employees who live in the Kibera slum in shipping containers. Nairobi, it means there’s an open sewer There are so many benefits to this outside their home. There’s no running approach to giving work: it’s much lighter- water. There’s no proper sanitation. A lot of people assume that the reason weight than a factory. I don’t have to worry Our impact model is not just about a people are in poverty is because they are about getting goods through customs, about paycheck, it’s about improving lives on uneducated and therefore not qualified for importing raw materials. It’s a much more a daily basis. The office environment is 10,000 well-paid jobs. This often is not the case – efficient way to create large numbers of jobs one of the best tools we have to do that. The number of jobs in data services and in Kenya unemployment rates for youth than many forms of traditional commerce. That’s why we strive to make Samasource AI that Samasource has created in Africa are around 70%. That’s the promise of a digital economy. workplaces inspiring. It’s a bright and airy in the last decade Let me tell you about Martha. She was space with encouraging words written abandoned as a child and ended up at an “It’s a much more efficient on the wall. We offer nutritious food, orphanage. When she was 18, she had to evening transportation, health benefits and leave and had no training and nowhere to way to create large numbers many other benefits. We also incorporate go and ended up in sex work. One of the of jobs than many forms sustainable building principles and nuns from her orphanage heard about employee health and wellness practices 500% Samasource and knew that Martha was into our workspace design globally. of traditional commerce. The average percentage increase in income an incredibly competent young woman, That’s the promise of a that agents get when they come to work so they put her in touch with us and she got for Samasource hired. She did really well and worked for us digital economy.” “Our impact model is not for two and a half years before joining the just about a paycheck, marketing team for a travel company in Kenya. And what do your workers’ lives it’s about improving lives I saw her last year and she is a completely look like before and after Samasource? on a daily basis. The office transformed person to the girl who joined On average, our workers are starting at Samasource. Her demeanour is like night about $2/day, which means that they are environment is one of the 25% and day compared to how she was before, The percentage of Fortune 50 companies victimised by all kinds of entirely avoidable best tools we have to who Samasource works with to solve training she is full of confidence and hope now. She’s suffering solely due to poverty. One of the data challenges caught the entrepreneurial spirit and is biggest risk factors for disease and violence do that.” working on creating her own fashion line. in the developing world is living in informal Confidence is one of the biggest gifts housing, in a slum. We find that people we can give our employees. Especially for are not eating nutritious food – they are One of the natural benefits of working We do sponsor the ‘SamaCup’ every year women who come from very low-income eating sugar cane as their primary source in a well-resourced workplace is the with both our Kenyan and Ugandan teams. backgrounds like these slums, they’ve of calories. natural community that forms around it. There are all kinds of games and dancing, it’s been told so many times that they’re not For the 10,000 workers we’ve employed, How important is it that your employees great fun. And we do a global management capable or not worthy, and so to give them we’ve increased their income by 500%. This feel connected to each other? retreat with our team in the Bay area the confidence to build their own futures means that they can get health insurance, I definitely try to foster an atmosphere where which includes attendees from our offices is so exciting. access to education, proper sanitation. people feel friendly with their colleagues, worldwide. Last year, that included two of This is the power of work over charity. but I don’t want to force people into social our folks from Uganda who started as agents What’s next for Samasource? engagement. My primary goal is that people then became project managers and now We are planning to expand more in One of the impressive things about will get the benefit out of their work and feel they run projects of over 50 people. It was Sub-Saharan Africa. There’s a lot more Samasource is that you’ve put equal like they are growing and achieving things their first time leaving Africa and taking demand for our work and we’re working consideration into the working and meeting personal life goals. a plane; they were a brilliant addition. with some of the biggest tech companies environment at all of your locations – The best social interactions are ones now – Microsoft, Google and the major from San Francisco to North Uganda. that spring up naturally. Our team in It’s fantastic that your employees automotive companies. Why is that important to you? Kenya often play soccer behind our have so much scope for job progression. Samasource has an impact working model, building. Because they initiated it, Are there any employee stories that The next question for us is: and our impact is in the job-creation they own it, which is so much better. stand out for you from the last decade? ‘how do we scale up?’

8 Leesman Review Issue 27 Photograph by credit goes here goes credit by Photograph

THE MANY SIDES OF HUMAN DATA LABELLING

From Finnish prisoners to thousands of Chinese workers, human data labelling is taking off around the world. But is it always doing social good?

Samasource aren’t the only ones who have recognised the opportunity for AI to create work for the low-skilled and unemployed.

A tech startup called Vainu is is on a mission to collect, read and understand all of the information ever written about every company in the world, and then make this information comprehensible to everyone.

Accomplishing this will be no small feat, and it requires people to read through hundreds of thousands of business articles from the Internet and label whether they are about ‘Coke’ the company or ‘coke’ the drug.

For articles in English this isn’t a problem, as there are millions of English-speakers online looking to make money doing small tasks like this. Where it becomes more difficult is with Finnish - a country of only 5.5 million.

Vainu’s founder Tuomas Rasila told The Verge that at the time they were having this predicament they were working in the same building as the Criminal Sanctions Agency, the government agency that oversees Finnish prisons. This gave them the idea to use prison labor as a means for labelling content.

In many ways Vainu has set up a socially innovative programme, helping to rehabilitate prisoners through work. However, Vainu has also been criticised for economically exploiting workers (it’s not known what wage the prisoners receive).

This is one example of many that exists in the ‘ethically grey’ zone of AI data labelling. Another is the emergence of data labelling factories in China, where workers spend hours on end to manually determine the content of images or passages of text for very low wages, as chronicled extensively in The New York Times.

Data labelling is just one of many examples of the monotonous work that is essential to fuelling our ‘high tech’ world. There are also safety drivers who sit behind the wheel of self-driving cars and content moderators who sift through Facebook posts and YouTube videos to clean up after imprecise algorithms.

As boring as these jobs may be, the value of work, no matter how tedious, cannot be negated. The right wage and environment make all the difference.

9 10 Insight I Bill Osmond Leesman Review Issue 27

Why AI will never be as complex as the human brain

Prism is the world’s most comprehensive neuroscience- Which is why with Prism we look at what based personality test. It’s used by organisations around people want to be and what’s holding them back from getting there. I look at hundreds the world like HSBC, Transport for London and Siemens of people’s completed Prism brain maps, to aid effective recruiting and team building. and I’ve never come across two that are completely the same. Two people might look very similar on paper: they might both value Bill Osmond, a Prism practitioner of over a decade, discusses the value of personality completing tasks and have strong evaluation diversity within the workplace. skills, but suddenly there’s a difference. That difference could be that one has slightly Over the next decade, AI is going to continue AI is missing ‘the gamble factor’, or a gut more initiation drive or is significantly more to seep into our workplaces in more and instinct. It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, supportive. No matter how big or small, this more ways. While it’s unlikely that this will business person or teacher, all fields benefit difference will dramatically change the way come in the form of an R2D2 character with from the occasional deviation from normal. the person interacts. a ‘personality’ as such, AI will have distinct A way of thinking that says: ‘I know this isn’t This is where the problem with traditional traits that govern its decision-making. These what we used to do, or what we usually do, ‘personality typing’ lies, and it’s why I don’t traits will have a huge impact on workplace but let’s give it a try.’ Once AI gets to that believe AI will be able to get a grasp on dynamics. Like any new co-worker, there level then it will be really reflective of human people any time soon. Prism offers one of will be some people who are drawn to the thinking. The more prominent AI becomes, the most robust perspectives on how people way AI thinks and others who find it difficult the more human employees should be seeking think that there is, but it’s still nowhere to work with. to innovate and think differently. near as complex as the reality of how people So, what are some of the skills that think and what their motivations are. “While it may be possible to people should be cultivating now to stay People are also constantly evolving and ahead of AI? In addition to ‘thinking adapting. The same person can take Prism identify a ‘personality type’ differently’ when appropriate, people three years apart and will have way higher for AI, we will never be able should build up their innately human innovating scores the second time around. qualities that are essential to good This will be due to life circumstances or job to ‘type’ people as easily management: compassion, collaboration, circumstances that have forced them to start due to the depth of flexibility warmth and understanding of people. thinking differently. We’ve got to be wary Those will be difficult for AI to replicate. of AI that will categorise people and not within the human brain.” If the future of the workplace were up to leave room for growth and change. me, I’d say there should be ongoing training One indicator of how AI will behave are for employees to improve on their human the typical traits of AI engineers: analytical, qualities. AI will be a huge asset to the future-focused, curious, patient, high workforce, but we will always rely on people attention to detail, disciplined. All of these for their emotional intelligence, awareness traits will have been consciously or sub- of their own behaviour, ability to do things TIPS consciously programmed into AI by their off the cuff, to tone it down or tone it up. So, what are some key tips to help creators. While it may be possible to identify People have a huge spectrum of differences you and your employees thrive as a ‘personality type’ for AI, we will never in behaviour and I don’t know how that AI becomes more ubiquitous? be able to ‘type’ people as easily due to the could be programmed. depth of flexibility within the human brain. Granted, AI is getting better at discerning Don’t put people in a box Unlike an AI’s brain, the human mind is what people are feeling based on their facial – don’t demand more not following a set of instructions. expressions. Neuropsychologist Tobias 1 determination from your team. The difference can be easily illustrated Loetscher, from the University of South Instead, be supportive and if you look at AI within cars, and Australia, has been conducting research develop their potential. particularly the development of driverless into how much AI can learn about a person’s cars. In a driverless car the AI sifts through personality based on their facial expressions. Hone collaboration skills heaps of data, and then instructs the It turns out, quite a lot. – stop relying so much on car on how to act. It sifts through pre- Based purely on how someone moves 2 technology to get the job done programmed photographs of trees and their eyes AI can distinguish if they fall into and focus on how to get the best roads and pedestrians and it responds one of the so-called ‘big five’ personality outcome by working together. to pre-programmed instructions. traits: openness, conscientiousness, Develop presentation skills “AI is missing ‘the gamble factor’, or a gut instinct. It doesn’t 3 – so many people rely too heavily on technology when presenting. matter if you’re a doctor, business person or teacher, all fields No amount of AI will connect with benefit from the occasional deviation from normal.” people the way eye contact and

Photo by Tom Parsons on Unsplash on Tom by Parsons Photo passion will. What AI isn’t doing is considering the neuroticism, agreeableness, and infinite possibilities that these trees and extraversion. It currently can’t do this with My hope is that AI will lead to a more pedestrians have – it isn’t considering the perfect accuracy, but researchers describe it authentic, humane and enjoyable unexpected. A child could run out in the as ‘reliable’. While this is hugely impressive workplace. Perhaps in ten years I’ll be road or a tree branch could fall under the (and a bit frightening!) even this level of able to tell you how AI has changed weight of snow. One of the greatest assets in understanding is extremely basic. People people’s Prism scores and affected life, and the workplace, is to think beyond can’t be categorised as one of five personality the way they work the boundaries of the expected. traits – we are extremely complex.

11 Analysis | Dr Peggie Rothe, Development Director, Leesman THE COMPLEXITY EQUATION

Creating a workplace that supports the modern worker Theorists would have us believe that AI will lighten our workload. After all, many of us already use AI as a personal assistant; when we discuss a meeting over email and it automatically adds it to our calendar, when we tell Alexa to “add ‘review article’ to list” and she does it, even when Google Maps calculates the fastest traffic route.

But is it actually reducing our workload or “Employees with lower activity complexity generally have Office features important to is it simply changing the nature of what we a higher Lmi compared to their colleagues who have focused and creative activities do and how we do it? With AI taking care of the more menial tasks, knowledge workers high complexity in their roles. Ultimately this means that will be free to focus on things that require employees who have less variety in their roles feel more social skills, decision-making and creativity. The job of innovating will remain a human supported in their work.” activity, and this responsibility is likely to drive us to even greater complexity. This is why employees with lower activity ‘Individual focused work, desk based’ is Individual focused work, Every job is, essentially, a sum of its complexity generally have a higher Lmi2 the one activity that most employees do, desk based activities and the infrastructure of the compared to their colleagues who have high regardless of activity complexity. Ninety-two – Desk workplace can either support, or hinder, each complexity in their roles. Ultimately this per cent of all respondents in our database say – Meeting rooms (small) of these activities. This is why one of the things means that employees who have less variety in that it’s important to them and it is safe to say – Noise levels the Leesman survey measures is ‘activity their roles feel more supported in their work. that it is one of the basic activities that is a part complexity’. Respondents select all the activities In many ways this is hardly surprising, of the majority of work profiles, also the ones that are important to them in the course of as it is easier to provide an environment that with less variety. Statistically, the three most their work out of a possible 21 (see full list in supports five activities than it is to provide one important features for this activity are ‘desk’, chart opposite) and rate how their workplace that supports 20. This challenge seems to be ‘meeting rooms (small)’ and ‘noise levels’. is supporting them in each activity. Out of even greater in old workplaces. The workplaces But if we look at activities related to Thinking / creative thinking all respondents in our database, 23% have where the Leesman Office survey was done creativity, which is continuing to grow – Accessibility of colleagues selected five or less activities as important, prior to a change (i.e. surveyed in ‘pre’ phase) in importance as AI becomes more – Quiet rooms for working 39% of the respondents recognise 6-10 activities fail to support especially those with high activity prominent, other things emerge onto the alone or in pairs as important, 21% have even more variety in complexity, suggesting that conventional office list. ‘Accessibility of colleagues’ is among – Noise levels their roles with 11-15 important activities, and design – with only workstations and a few the top three important features for the 17% belong to the high-complexity group with meeting rooms – is no longer fit for purpose activities of ‘thinking / creative thinking’, 16 or more activities selected as important. for the more complex work that is done today. ‘collaborating on creative work’ and Evidentially, for most knowledge workers Newer workplaces with a variety of settings ‘collaborating on focused work’. ‘Quiet today work means more than just individual are more likely to cater to the variety of ways rooms for working alone or in pairs’ is focused work combined with planned that technology allows us to work in. important for both ‘thinking / creative Collaborating on creative work meetings with either colleagues and/or – Variety of different types clients and collaborators. Based on our of workspace data, less than a quarter of employees have “Employees within the organisation who have more complex – Accessibility of colleagues what we would classify as a ‘fairly simple’ roles will benefit the most from workplace change.” – Audio-Visual equipment work profile. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they do simple things but rather that they don’t have a lot of variety in the type This suggests that the employees within the thinking’ and ‘collaborating on focused of activities that they do. organisation who have more complex roles work’ while ‘variety of different types of Part of the reason for the high level of will benefit the most from workplace change. workspace’ is important for both focused variety that most employees experience Those within the lower activity complexity and creative collaboration. Collaborating on focused work is down to technology making it possible. brackets still see an improvement, but it is Of course, it can be difficult to be creative – Accessibility of colleagues Meetings are easier to organise and can be not as significant. on demand. To fuel creativity we need to let – Quiet rooms for working hosted virtually, in-person or a mixture of Seniority within the organisation may the unconscious work, which is why it is also alone or in pairs both with ease. Laptops and mobiles mean we give some indication as to how complex an important to create space for relaxing and – Variety of different types can work from anywhere and AI seamlessly employee’s role is. For example, if we look taking breaks. And perhaps unsurprisingly, of workspace pulls our schedule together to ensure that exclusively at senior leaders, only 12% are the statistically most important features for we maximise every minute of every day. doing fewer than five activities, compared to the ‘relaxing / taking a break’ include ‘informal But are our workplaces keeping up Leesman Global average of 23%. While there is work areas/break-out zones’ and ‘leisure with the pace of technological change? no hard and fast rule here, it’s important to be facilities onsite or nearby’. The workplaces themselves don’t necessarily aware of how many, and which, activities the As AI continues to create more space need to be high-tech, but they should offer senior leaders in your organisation are doing in our schedules for us to be able to achieve Relaxing / taking a break a variety of settings that enable all of the and how well the workspace is supporting them. even more in a day, it will become essential – Informal work areas/ different kinds of activities the modern break-out zones worker does as a part of their day to day. Activity complexity Leesman Global Senior leaders – Variety of different types Our analysis in The Workplace Experience (n=514,368) (n=19,842) of workspace Revolution showed that there are certain – Leisure facilities onsite ≤5 activities 23% (Lmi 65.8) 12% (Lmi 64.8) activities, like ‘individual focused work, or nearby desk based’, that are crucial for organisations 5-10 activities 39% (Lmi 62.8) 36% (Lmi 63.3) – People walking past to support in order to provide an outstanding 11-15 activities 21% (Lmi 61.0) 28% (Lmi 62.2) your workstation overall workplace experience. And for some people having a space where they can do 16-21 activities 17% (Lmi 59.9) 24% (Lmi 60.6) focused, desk based work is one of only five tasks that are important for their job, so if that So which workplace features are important for our workspaces to support the wide space is being provided 1/5th of their activities for different types of activities? We’ve looked variety of activities we will need to do. are being looked after. But compare that to the at which features are statistically more Ironically, it seems like the more AI takes employee who has over 20 activities as part of important for employees who do certain rote tasks off our hands, the more we will their role; if one of those tasks is focused, desk activities, compared to those who don’t, be pushed to interact with each other, 2 The Leesman ‘Lmi’ is a simple 0-100 index score that allows employers to benchmark based work and this is supported, it still only which can help map out what infrastructure is perhaps creating a more human-centric and compare the fitness for purpose of their accounts for 1/20th of their activity portfolio. needed depending on what is to be supported. work environment than ever before. corporate workplaces 12 Leesman Review Issue 27

Most important activities

Leesman respondents are asked to select the activities that are important to them in the course of their work. They then rate how well their workplace supports these activities. The chart below shows the activities with ≥50% importance for each Activity Complexity group.

Individual focused work, desk based

Planned meetings

≤5 activities 23% Telephone conversations of respondents Informal, un-planned meetings

Collaborating on focused work

Relaxing/taking a break

Reading

Audio conferences

6-10 activities Individual routine tasks

39% Informal social interaction of respondents

Thinking/creative thinking

Learning from others

Private conversations

Business confidential discussions

11-15 activities Collaborating on creative work

21% Hosting visitors, clients or customers of respondents Video conferences

Larger group meetings or audiences

16-21 activities Spreading out paper or materials

17% Individual focused work away from your desk of respondents

Using technical/specialist equipment or materials

Sentiment super driver

13 Data summary | 2019 Q1 | Ratings reported from 514,368 respondents to date

The Leesman Lmi is a standardised score of performance between the Leesman+ high-performing Top 5 differences in workplace experience. It is calculated from the workplaces and the global averages. The data on responses to the Workplace Impact (p15 Q1) and p15 shows the importance of each activity, physical Workplace Impact Work Activities (Q2) questions. The data column feature and service feature, and the agreement scores to the right shows the top five differences in to the Workplace Impact questions. 1 It’s a place I’m proud to bring visitors to Lmi Agreement global 53.4% Agreement Leesman+ 80.4% 27.0% Our performance

Lmi Buildings Countries 2 It creates an enjoyable environment Respondents to work in Agreement global 59.6% Agreement Leesman+ 78.7% 62.6 514,368 3,683 91 19.1%

3 It enables us to work productively Global data distribution Benelux | 58.1 Agreement global 64.4% Agreement Leesman+ 81.4% 17.0% Americas | 65.3 UK | 60.5 Nordics | 60.9 Asia | 67.5

4 It enables me to work productively Agreement global 61.4% Agreement Leesman+ 76.9% 15.5% Rest of Europe | 62.2

5 It contributes to a sense of community MEA | 64.0 ANZ | 64.6 Lmi (group) at work 25% Agreement global 59.4% Agreement Leesman+ 74.9% 15.5%

20% Top 5 differences in Work Activities 15%

1 Thinking/creative thinking Support global 53.2% 10% Support Leesman+ 74.7%

UK Americas Asia ANZ 21.5% 21.7% 18.7% 16.4% 13.3% 13.2% 9.5% 6.1% 5% 2 Relaxing/taking a break Nordics Rest of Europe Benelux 1.2% MEA Support global 61.0% Support Leesman+ 81.6% 0% 20.6% Respondent0-9.9 Lmi by10-19.9 when20-29.9 surveyed30-39.9 40-49.9 50-59.9 60-69.9 70-79.9 80-89.9 90-100 Age range distribution and Lmi

Pre Post Standard Leesman+ Lmi (group) 40% 3 Informal, un-planned meetings 25% Support global 63.5% 35% Support Leesman+ 82.5% 19.0% 29.8% 30.7% 20% 30%

4 Video conferences 25% 23.7% Support global 62.0% 15% Support Leesman+ 81.0% 20% 19.0%

10% Lmi 15% Lmi 61.6 5 Private conversations % of respondents % of respondents 63.6 Lmi 61.4 10.6% Support global 49.6% 10% Support Leesman+ 68.5% 5% 18.9% 4.7% Lmi 0.5% 5% 62.3 Lmi Lmi 66.6 69.3 0% 0% Top 5 differences in 0-9.9 10-19.9 20-29.9 30-39.9 40-49.9 50-59.9 60-69.9 70-79.9 80-89.9 90-100 Workplace Features 45-54 25-34 55-64 Pre Post LmiStandard Leesman+ 35-44 1 Under 25 Variety of different types of workspace 65 or over Satisfaction global 33.9% When surveyed Time with organisation distribution and Lmi Satisfaction Leesman+ 65.8% 31.9% 40%

2 Informal work areas/break-out zones 35% 61.2% 14.9% 23.9% Satisfaction global 39.4% Satisfaction Leesman+ 70.4% Pre Post Standard 30% Lmi 60.6 Lmi 66.9 Lmi 64.9 28.0% 31.0%

25% 24.9% 3 Atriums & communal areas 20% Satisfaction global 42.3% Satisfaction Leesman+ 73.1% Activity complexity 15% Lmi 30.8% % of respondents 13.7% 13.1% 12.7% Lmi 61.3 ≤ 5 activities Lmi 5-10 activities Lmi 61.7 10% 4 General décor Pre occupancy 64.5 Pre occupancy 61.2 7.7% Lmi Lmi Satisfaction global 43.6% Post occupancy 67.6 Post occupancy 66.9 Lmi 61.6 5% 64.6 62.9 Satisfaction Leesman+ 72.3% Gap 3.1 Gap 5.7 Lmi 68.3 28.7% 0% 11-15 activities Lmi 16-21 activities Lmi 5 Quiet rooms for working alone or in pairs Pre occupancy 58.9 Pre occupancy 57.4 Satisfaction global 30.1% 3-8 years 8-12 years

Post occupancy 67.3Lmi (group)Post occupancy 65.5 0-6 months Satisfaction Leesman+ 53.1% 6-18 months Over 12 years Gap25% 8.4 Gap 8.1 23.0% 18 months - 3 years

14

20%

15%

10%

5%

0% 0-9.9 10-19.9 20-29.9 30-39.9 40-49.9 50-59.9 60-69.9 70-79.9 80-89.9 90-100

Global Pre Post Standard Leesman+ Leesman Review Issue 27

The charts here show the importance of each Activity, Physical Feature and Service Feature. To Q.2, Q.3 and Q.4, the bar length shows the volume of importance. Total no of respondents The colour coding within the bar then shows supported / satisfaction figures delivered across the full database to each line. Sentiment super driver

Q.1 How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements about your current workplace? Agreement Data ranked by agreement Disagree strongly 1.1 The design of my workplace is important to me 84.9% Disagree 1.2 It supports me sharing ideas/knowledge amongst colleagues 70.1% Disagree slightly 1.3 It enables us to work productively 64.4% Neutral 1.4 It enables me to work productively 61.4% Agree slightly Agree 1.5 It creates an enjoyable environment to work in 59.6% Agree strongly 1.6 It contributes to a sense of community at work 59.4% 1.7 It’s a place I’m proud to bring visitors to 53.4% 0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% Percentage of responses

Q.2 Thinking about the work that you do, which of the following activities are important and how well are they supported? Importance Supported Data ranked by importance Not supported at all 2.1 Individual focused work, desk based 92.0% 77.4% Very under supported 2.2 Planned meetings 74.5% 80.0% Under supported 2.3 Telephone conversations 71.0% 64.3% Supported 2.4 Informal, un-planned meetings 58.8% 63.5% Well supported Very well supported 2.5 Collaborating on focused work 55.9% 73.7% 2.6 Relaxing/taking a break 50.7% 61.0% 2.7 Reading 47.8% 60.3% 2.8 Audio conferences 47.2% 69.4% 2.9 Individual routine tasks 46.6% 87.7% 2.10 Informal social interaction 44.3% 74.5% 2.11 Thinking/creative thinking 43.6% 53.2% 2.12 Learning from others 42.8% 77.7% 2.13 Private conversations 41.1% 49.6% 2.14 Business confidential discussions 40.9% 56.3% 2.15 Collaborating on creative work 38.0% 65.1% 2.16 Hosting visitors, clients or customers 35.7% 64.3% 2.17 Video conferences 35.1% 62.0% 2.18 Larger group meetings or audiences 34.8% 62.1% 2.19 Spreading out paper or materials 34.0% 59.7% 2.20 Individual focused work away from your desk 31.8% 66.1% 2.21 Using technical/specialist equipment or materials 22.3% 65.9% 0 50k 100k 150k 200k 250k 300k 350k 400k 425k 450k 500k Number of responses

Q.3 Thinking about the work that you do, which of the following physical features are important and how satisfied are you with them? Importance Satisfaction Data ranked by importance Not provided 3.1 Desk 84.5% 71.8% Highly dissatisfied 3.2 Chair 83.2% 66.2% Dissatisfied 3.3 Meeting rooms (small) 77.5% 53.5% Neutral 3.4 Temperature control 76.9% 30.8% Satisfied Highly satisfied 3.5 Natural light 71.7% 58.0% 3.6 Noise levels 71.5% 31.0% 3.7 Personal storage 69.9% 56.5% 3.8 Air quality 67.4% 42.4% 3.9 Meeting rooms (large) 66.7% 53.1% 3.10 Office lighting 62.1% 58.9% 3.11 Quiet rooms for working alone or in pairs 59.8% 30.1% 3.12 Desk/room booking systems 55.0% 47.2% 3.13 Ability to personalise my workstation 53.4% 47.7% 3.14 General décor 53.0% 43.6% 3.15 Informal work areas/break-out zones 51.5% 39.4% 3.16 Accessibility of colleagues 51.5% 70.4% 3.17 Plants & greenery 50.8% 33.0% 3.18 Space between work settings 48.7% 47.3% 3.19 People walking past your workstation 46.2% 30.1% 3.20 Dividers (between desk/areas) 45.7% 38.9% 3.21 Atriums & communal areas 41.1% 42.3% 3.22 Art & photography 38.8% 28.1% 3.23 Variety of different types of workspace 33.5% 33.9% 3.24 Shared storage 32.7% 41.7% 3.25 Archive storage 26.8% 37.6% 0 50k 100k 150k 200k 250k 300k 350k 400k 425k 450k 500k Number of responses

Q.4 Thinking about the work that you do, which of the following service features are important and how satisfied are you with them? Importance Satisfaction Data ranked by importance Not provided 4.1 Tea, coffee & other refreshment facilities 78.3% 61.0% Highly dissatisfied 4.2 General cleanliness 75.5% 62.6% Dissatisfied 4.3 IT Help desk* 73.9% 58.1% Neutral 4.4 Toilets/W.C. 73.8% 50.3% Satisfied Highly satisfied 4.5 Printing/copying/scanning equipment 69.5% 71.7%

4.6 Restaurant/canteen 69.4% 47.8% * Added in March 2015 4.7 WiFi network connectivity in the office* 68.2% 58.5% 4.8 General tidiness 66.5% 65.0% 4.9 Telephone equipment 62.0% 67.6% 4.10 Computing equipment, mobile (e.g. laptop, tablet)* 61.2% 67.4% 4.11 Parking (e.g. car, motorbike or bicycle) 55.4% 49.6% 4.12 Security 55.1% 74.8% 4.13 Remote access to work files or network 54.6% 64.4% 4.14 Wired in-office network connectivity 50.9% 71.1% 4.15 Access (e.g. lifts, stairways, ramps) 50.4% 66.0% 4.16 Computing equipment, fixed (desktop) 48.1% 66.0% 4.17 Leisure facilities onsite or nearby (e.g. gym, fitness/wellness centre) 47.0% 38.8% 4.18 Mail & post room services 46.0% 69.4% 4.19 Health & safety provision 45.9% 66.6% 4.20 Hospitality services (e.g. guest reception/services, catering, meeting services) 41.2% 58.1% 4.21 Reception areas 40.0% 62.2% 4.22 Audio-Visual equipment 34.8% 47.8% 4.23 Internal signage 31.0% 49.9% 4.24 Shower facilities* 30.7% 35.8% 4.25 Guest/visitor network access 29.6% 43.6% 0 50k 100k 150k 200k 250k 300k 350k 400k 425k 450k 500k Number of responses

15 Shutterstock.com

Provocateur’s Page | Damian Hughes DAMIAN HUGHES Damian Hughes is a Professor of Organisational Psychology and Change at Manchester Metropolitan University. His latest book, The Barcelona Way: Unlocking the DNA of a High Performing Culture, shows how the DNA of a winning team can be successfully applied to any working environment, with dramatic results.

The intelligence of AI will never make as much of an impact on your team as emotional intelligence. As so many organisations look to the future and consider how AI can help grow their businesses, consider this: your most cutting-edge resource is already sitting in your workplace, waiting to be activated. All you need to do is set the culture.

The true evidence of a culture is how The evidence says that commitment culture talented, and you comply with some people behave when no one is watching. tends to be about 22% more successful than of the principles that we adopt. Shortly after Pep Guardiola became the any of the other four types of cultures. This coach of FC Barcelona there was a golden is partly because it taps into a fundamental Guardiola felt that Barcelona had been a chance to score the first goal of the game. sense of belonging; research says that star culture where people made excuses The quickly taken shot flashed past the people stay loyal to these cultures even for talent. So if you were supremely goalkeeper’s desperate dive, past the when they’re offered pay rises of about talented you could behave in an post and missed by inches. 36% to go somewhere else. A team that is inconsistent manner and people would committed to the shared goal will always excuse it, just because you were talented. Before the crowd had the opportunity to achieve better results than any tech – even process the events and react accordingly, AI – will be able to. As part of creating a commitment culture, Guardiola immediately turned around Guardiola instilled a couple of trademark to look at the bench. He wanted to take a So how do you create it? Quite simply, behaviours for the players to adopt. The first mental snapshot of the players that had commitment culture is created when trademark behaviour was humility. If you’re not been selected. He wished to observe leaders are transparent and consistent. Be not humble you can’t continue to learn and their reaction to the incident that had just transparent – tell me the rules of the game get better. The second trademark he asked occurred. Some footballers leapt from their that I’m playing. And be consistent – apply for was hard work. You invest in your talent, seats in anticipation of the ball nestling those rules across the board. This will create you don’t just cruise and draw on it, you in the back of the net, before taking their both psychological safety, because the invest in it as well. seats in a shared frustration that their team knows what’s expected of them, and team had not taken the lead. Other players trust, because they are seeing the leader’s Like all elite sports teams, Guardiola also neither moved nor reacted to the events, consistency in pursuing the end goal. relied on data to help form his strategy appearing to be uninterested in what had for turning Barcelona into a winning side. passed before their eyes. This detachment Of course, you have to start with the right The key to using data effectively is knowing conveyed their personal unhappiness at not players. AI isn’t nearly nuanced enough to which piece of information to focus on. being included in the starting lineup. The be trusted with team selection, or hiring. Guardiola narrowed in on research that following summer all of the players who had An algorithm might be able to create the shows that whoever can keep the ball for 70% not reacted had left the club. ‘perfect team’ on paper but in reality the of the game will win 91% of matches. This is interpersonal dynamics might not work. because of the sheer physical and mental A team’s culture is about the conduct exhaustion that the opposition will be put and behaviour of everyone involved. Consider the way that humans traditionally through as they attempt to get the ball. ‘It’s working together towards shared make decisions. One way of deciding objectives, and as such is an immediately something, is to do a quick cost/benefit To achieve 70% possession, Barcelona identifiable part of a group’s identity,’ analysis. We ask, ‘Is this a situation where started using a radar display in all of their said Guardiola. I should intervene and invest my time, training and all of their drills. This instant energy and effort?’ If the answer is yes then feedback loop improved their possession This type of culture is known as you might take action, if it’s no then you immensely, and their whole reputation ‘commitment culture’ – it’s one of five might turn a blind eye to it. became built on the idea that they were recognised team cultures: the best team at never losing the ball. The second way we make decisions is 1 Star – bring in your best people, pay based on our identity. We ask, ‘What sort The combination of a commitment culture them the most money, provide them of person am I? What is this situation? paired with effective use of data, turned with great resources and hope that What would someone like me do in this Barcelona into one of the most successful they deliver. The evidence for these situation?’ If it offended your principles football clubs in the world, and in the cultures shows that when it works it’s you would address it regardless of whether four years that Guardiola was in charge spectacular, but far more frequently it was to your advantage or not. they won fourteen of a possible nineteen the failure will be just as spectacular. trophies – a success rate never matched. 2 Autocratic – it becomes driven by one or Barcelona wanted to recruit players who And it’s not just in Barcelona that he’s two individuals. The problem with this is operate from a sense of identity, not effective. Guardiola is considered to be that if their decision-making is flawed or from a place of cost vs benefit. So one of one of the most successful managers if they’re removed for some reason, the the decisions that Guardiola made while of all time, holding the record for the vacuum created can lead to dysfunction. recruiting three new players was that most consecutive league wins in La Liga, 3 Bureaucratic – dominated by middle they couldn’t have tattoos, earrings or Bundesliga and Premier League – including managers, decisions are made by ‘ridiculous haircuts’. What he was looking his current team Manchester City winning policies and procedures, rules and for at that time was people that identified the Premiership the last two years. regulations. It’s all about compromise. with wanting to be a part of a group, rather These cultures are quite slow moving. than coming in and shaking things up within AI will never be able to motivate a team 4 Engineering – bring people in with a group. They had a lot of people that were the way another human being can. That’s technical expertise; you have people with already doing that. They needed more because AI has never had to overcome a deep knowledge in a relatively narrow foot-soldiers than Generals. pride, greed or laziness to give its best domain. What you find in this culture is to the team; it simply can’t relate to what that people make excuses for talent. That doesn’t mean that they weren’t holds our people back. So while AI may be 5 Commitment – in ‘commitment culture’ looking for excellence. One of the Directors in our future, it’s the character and drive there is a clear purpose; people know the at Barcelona said to me: ‘your talent of each team member that will shape it. answer to the company’s ‘why’ and have gets you in the dressing room door. Your a defined set of behaviours related to the behaviour determines if we’ll keep you The opinions expressed by contributors represent those of the Leesman individual authors and unless clearly labelled as such do not 91 Wimpole Street purpose. People have to make a choice in the room or not.’ Their point was that represent the opinions of Leesman Ltd. The Leesman Review is London to join the organisation, and they’re very talent is a prerequisite. It’s not an either/or the journal of Leesman, the world’s leading independent assessor W1G 0EF of workplace effectiveness. We welcome contributions on the +44 (0)20 3239 5980 clear about what the expectations are – you’re either talented or you’re behaving subjects that you think should interest us. Leesman is a registered [email protected] and why they are what they are. the right way. It’s both/and – you’re trademark and all Leesman Review content is copyright June 2019. leesmanindex.com