Here’s How Accenture is Adapting Their People to the Digital Age

The key points from Chandran's speech

It took us humans a couple of million years to get to where we are. The evolutionary process has been long and painstaking. Compared to this the development of technology has been incredibly fast. Most of the current innovative tech like smartphones, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning came to fruition after 2006.

The problem with this is we haven’t been able to identify how to use all this innovation for the benefit of humans. We are walking with Stone Age minds in a digital age. This is where the concept of mindfulness comes into play.

We can use mindfulness to speed up our adoption of technology and make sure we are developing this tech in a way to benefit humans.

So how is Accenture getting ready for the digital age?

1. Let’s rethink how to build leaders at a fundamental level. In addition to developing new skills Accenture is also focusing on expanding the mental capacity of their workforce.

2. More to this point of expanding mental capacity – think of the human mind as a flexible object that expands and retracts. Mindfulness practices can help expand and grow your existing capacity to absorb new information and to create. People of the IT age must be adaptable to a fast changing world.

3. The mindful programs Accenture have created are simple and effective. It’s about how to manage sleep better, how to write emails, lead a conference meeting, one on one meetings to practice mindfulness, meditation. Simple things.

If Rajiv Chandran the head for all this change is to believed, then the feedback from the people appreciating the shift to a more mindful existence has been ‘mind blowing’.