People reward those who fight for a better world. This can be seen in the popularity of human-oriented leaders, writes Tiitta Vaulos in her new book Ihminen 2030, Ihmislähtöisyyden uusi aika (Human 2030, the new era of human-centricity). However, she states that in politics this can be seen as the growth of populist promises and cult-like phenomena. This is not a human-centric production of genuine, more permanent value, but quick benefits that lead to chaos in the long term.
Human orientation, in its simplest form, is focusing on people. It is services and work culture that meet people’s genuine needs, humane organisations and leadership that empowers people.
The values and needs that guide people’s behaviour change slowly. Therefore, it’s important to understand the broader picture based on different studies. Tiitta, whom I had the pleasure of working with for the first time fifteen years ago, highlights development trends in human-oriented research over the years. Her book is written as a story, where research findings are part of the flow of the text. It makes the reading experience very pleasant.
Tiitta writes about ecological and technical turning points and their effects on people’s thinking. We know that polarisation is a big threat and disinformation increases it. On the other hand, individual people can influence big things, such as raising awareness about climate change, when people change their behaviour based on the actions of a person they admire. There is this change of power in trust from experts to other people going on. People’s trust in business leaders as problem solvers has also grown. Individuals look to companies, expecting them to change the world for the better.
Without an understanding of different people, it is impossible to be human-centric. There are a lot of demographic changes on our hands related to the year 2030. Tiitta explains major chances, for example, that every fourth will be retired, worldwide attention is turning from the Western world to Asia and Africa, and the world has become more feminine. Tiitta also dives into different generations and insightfully leaves some generations unaddressed, because e.g. Generation X understands the world of both baby boomers and millennials as an in-between generation. The pensioners and the Zetas get much more attention, as they should. A diverse population, different genders, different family forms and economic status also brighten the picture of individual diversity.
Tiitta’s long background in the research of socio-cultural values, attitudes and needs produces a smooth, progressing analysis and a model for examining differences in values. Data and demographics aren’t enough, we need deeper human understanding. Tiitta also points out that brave visionaries are important for the success of Finland. The least we can do, she says, is to give space in all organisations to those who stand out and see things from a new angle.
According to forecasts, more than one hundred billion devices will be connected to the internet in 2030. Our perception of time has changed to 24/7 and our impatience with waiting and queuing has changed. An employee in a large company changes the application or view 1200 times a day, writes Tiitta, and that makes me believe even more that stopping reading and sending e-mails has saved me a lot! At the same time, we shouldn’t be in a hurry, because statistically the amount of free time has increased all the time.
The book’s fourth chapter of part two, human needs as the basis of value creation, is the best part in my mind. Tiitta opens up interestingly about why Maslow’s hierarchy of needs should be updated with Kaufman’s sailboat of needs, and she creates a new level of the needs pyramid 2030. The new needs pyramid resonates a lot, also when I think about my work with software development teams: Safety 2.0, Connection to others, Appreciation, Discovery, Caring and Meaning. These values lead to success much better than others.
The chapter on Caring is a great verbalisation of the most important skill, the ability to empathise and care for yourself and others. Tiitta states that Kaufman’s original theory is talking about love, and I would have chosen to do so as well, but I understand Tiitta’s choice to talk about caring. The need broadly covers the phenomena of “equality, justice, benevolence, humility, authenticity, kindness, social intelligence, teamwork and even joy and humour”. There couldn’t be a better list to describe people’s qualities in successful software development teams! I’ve written about joy and trust in dev teams if you want to read more.
“As a person develops and grows, he directs his attention more and more to others, but also cares about himself more widely”, Tiitta refers to Kaufman and tells an example where people in psychotherapy may suffer from their loneliness and lack of love, when “our most important growth direction is often found in another direction: the ability to love and care for ourselves.” The same applies to workplaces, they are more enjoyable when the leader is caring and builds a humane work culture. Happiness comes from good relationships and caring increases happiness.
At the top of the pyramid of needs, a person finds a direction, a goal, a meaning, something bigger than himself, writes Tiitta. As a result of the fulfilment of growth needs, a person can experience momentary peak experiences. These can be feelings of wholeness, happiness, fulfilment or, for example, inspiration.
In the third and last part of the book, Tiitta introduces the CX Futurizer – Customer experience compass, where knowledge of people is brought to the development of customer experience through different perspectives. With the model, we can meet the growing expectations of customers. The model has four areas through which the return of value to customers can be increased: 1) be simple, 2) be approachable, 3) help the individual and 4) connect more deeply. At each one Tiitta explains what it can concretely mean, for example, for the second area of approachability to be more unified, transparent and a trusted partner.
The first two areas of the compass, simplicity and approachability, are already enough in many domains, claims Tiitta. However, the risk is that the customer experience will remain at a very basic level. To be better, you have to go towards a stronger emotional relationship, to which areas three and four of the compass lead. The most successful companies cover all four corners. Every company must identify a vision of what they want to be and prioritise the development of the customer experience based on that.
Tiitta has helped a wide variety of companies to be human-centric and worked with brilliant people developing customer experience. Experts from Outotec, Kesko and Solita, were in a panel discussion at the book launch event, and the conversation pointed out the importance of human-centricity on both the B2C and B2B sides. It is often thought that in the consumer business, people are more easily put in the centre, but today the same applies to B2B operations. The learnings and models in this book about enhancing human-centricity and customer experience lead to better understanding, a brighter future and success.
Tiitta Vaulos. Ihminen 2030. Ihmislähtöisyyden uusi aika. Alma Insight 2024.
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