No really, if your company doesn’t have this attitude, they’re bound to be replaced by someone leaner.

Automation Kills

Farming

Real farming, like dirt and stuff. In 1790 90% of the labor force worked on farms. Through the industrial revolution that number was down to 38% in 1900, 12.2% in 1950 and today stands close to 2%. Can I see a show of hands from the people that want to go back to 1790?

Don’t work too hard now

The notion that you can automate yourself out of a job is a faclicy. If you really do find a way to automate your job away, then your employer will either find something of higher value for someone like you who’s shown aptitude, or if you’re the owner you can now afford the time and energy elsewhere and increase profits. If your company fails to see your value and lets you go because of your success, you’ll readily find another employer who’s interested in what you’ve just done.

Protect your peers

This isn’t to say you can’t automate someone else out of a job. This is certainly happening all the time with every cycle of improvement in all industries. The challenge is to accept the historic evidence though, that in the long run, we as people are better off. We’re not living higher standards of living today than 1790 because of magically having more money in the economy, or having better systems of government or better laws. It’s ingenuity, creativity, and competition that drives these changes. If you come up with a creative solution that automates 100 people out of a job where you work, there’s a good chance that most of them will change careers. Some of them might take early retirement. Other might not ever bounce back. A couple might find another job doing something similar, but virtually all of the ones that improve their lot in life will take this opportunity to learn or improve upon a skill that they can find marketable.

The Push

Looking at the history, it’s easy to see why all markets have this constant weight leaning on people to find ways to automate what they can. They’ll purchase expensive products if they know it could either replace an employee or take significant work load off those they find valuable. The history says if you do automation better than your competition, you’ll likely keep your doors open longer. Don’t be upset, it’s just business, and that busiess is likely feeding a lot of families.

The Push Back

The danger here then, is that individuals are far more likely to buckle than the company/organization, and they know that. The ones that don’t buckle? They find themselves looking at a box on their desk, wondering if it’ll fit all their stuff. What does one gain from pushing back against “the machine” who’s trying to force them to do something a new way, likely the “wrong way” in one’s mind. Sure, management might be wrong. So why worry about the failure? Who’s head is that on? Be the one who sees what they see, and if you know it’s flawed, prove to them a better vision. You’ll likely make them look good, which is good for you, and if they’re truly as inept as you likely think, you’ll have their job soon enouhg.

The Release

The challenge here, is to stop trying to stand your ground. Let yourself and others fail in the name of experimentation. It took a lot of failures to make the first lightbulb, and look at how that’s changed the world. History is full of successful people, that failed a lot before making it big. Don’t be afraid to get it wrong, we likely do before we learn to get it more right than others before us.

Conclution

Automate all the things