It goes like this:
"There are no smokestacks here, only people!"
We can't treat "human capital" in our organizations the way we treat industrial/capital assets in our factories.
The industrial revolution--along with the sweatshops and smokestacks--have been overtaken by the service and information age.
G-d has blessed us with an abundance of wonderful material things that can now be largely produced by automation and robotization--letting us focus more than ever on developing our people, nurturing their ideas, and realizing their innovations.
In our organizations, the human assembly line has given way to thinkers and innovators.
Sure, we have to build things and sustain ourselves, but the people behind the things are what counts and not just the things themselves.
We've grown from heartless slave labor and sweatshops to emotionally intelligent, compassionate, and thriving humans beings in the workspace--or so we strive for it to be. ;-)
(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)