Frank Wander

CEO and Founder of People Productive

What did you think about Frank comparing all of us to pieces of technology infrastructure? On the surface, it can seem dehumanizing. Like we’re just parts of a machine.

But the reality is much more powerful. Frank does see people as the human infrastructure that powers every organization. He believes, in fact, that people are every organization’s most important asset – and that we don’t pay nearly enough attention to those assets.

He challenged us with the question that if a piece of our technical infrastructure was failing and was unable to do the job, we’d pay attention and we’d take immediate action. And yet when part of our human infrastructure is in the state, we either don’t notice or don’t care. And that’s the problem.

In order to maintain our human infrastructure, we have to treat people as humans – NOT cogs in a machine. We must understand their emotional makeup and how that drives them. Treating our teams as “human infrastructure” is actually the least dehumanizing thing we can do.

Frank’s challenge to us was to prepare for the massive changes that are coming and build high performing, highly innovative environments. To do that you need to be prepared to be in a state of perpetual learning and become a student of both culture and the emotions that drive us as humans.

That might not sound like doing much, but educating yourself in these crucial areas is an important first step.

About The TransformIT Show

Each episode explores the questions:

What does the future hold for IT organizations?
And what will that mean for their future leaders?

Host Charles Araujo interviews business executives, IT leaders, futurists and industry experts to understand how their career and experiences shed light on what the future holds for business and the IT organizations that power them. Most importantly, our guests share their advice for all future leaders about how to survive and thrive in the Digital Era.

NOTE:  Shows were filmed when we were know as the IT Transformation Institute. The series is available on our YouTube channel.

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