A few weeks ago, a senior leader said something to me in a keynote briefing call that stopped me in my tracks.

“Our team has redesigned everything.
Our systems.
Our workflows.
Our tech stack.

Our ways of working.

And yet… everyone feels flat.”

Not chaotic.
Not disengaged.

Just… depleted.

And that’s the quiet crisis unfolding inside many high-performing organisations right now.Many businesses are investing heavily in AI and digital infrastructure, but they’re not simultaneously investing with the same intent, rigour or urgency in their human capital.

And no organisation, or tech stack, can outperform the humans inside it (yet). As I often say, “We simply cannot outperform our biological blueprint.”

We Have Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World

AI is advancing at speed. Automation is accelerating the pace and volume of work. Work is changing faster than most people can biologically adapt to.

But our Human Operating System (hOS) hasn’t had an upgrade in 40 000 years.

We still have ancient, Paleolithic brains and biology.

Our (hOS) was designed for nervous systems that pulse, not remain permanently activated; brains built for focus, not fragmentation; and bodies that require recovery, not constant output.

And yet we’re asking people to operate as if they are machines. And they’re not. Our hOS was never designed to be:

Always on.
Rarely focused.
Never recovered.

This Isn’t a Digital Problem. It’s a Biology Problem

Most high-performing professionals I work with aren’t disengaged. They’re not uncommitted. They’re not “bad at boundaries”.

They are stretched.

Their nervous systems are overloaded. Their sleep is compromised. Their attention is fractured. Their recovery is reactive, not proactive.

And we’ve normalised it. We call it “the pace of modern work”. We badge exhaustion as dedication. We mistake stress for significance. But chronic stress, distraction and exhaustion will not provide you with the human capital to drive your digital transformation.

Your Human Capital Is Your Competitive Advantage

This is where the conversation needs to shift. Your digital execution and innovation rests off the humans driving it. As Deloitte (2024) suggests, “When your people thrive, your business thrives.”

Deloitte’s human capital work reinforces what research has shown: organisational performance is inseparable from human capacity. When organisations invest in people not just as resources, but as biological systems with limits, performance becomes more resilient, adaptive and sustainable.

Human capital is no longer a “people and culture” conversation. It’s not a token “Lunch and Learn Wellbeing” workshop. It’s a business strategy.

Because your competitive advantage isn’t AI. It isn’t automation. It isn’t the next digital transformation.

It’s how well your people can think, decide, focus and recover inside increasingly complex, dynamic, ever-changing environments.

You Can’t Drive Digital Innovation from a Depleted State

There’s an assumption baked into many modern organisations that people can simply adapt to new technologies, new systems, new expectations indefinitely.

But humans don’t innovate, learn or lead well from a state of depletion.

Future-thinking organisations are starting to recognise this. They’re investing not only in digital capability, but in the human capacity required to use it well.

Because no technology, no matter how advanced or sophisticated, can compensate for an exhausted, chronically distracted and stressed workforce.

In an exhausted state, change feels threatening, not energising. Innovation becomes effortful instead of expansive. New tools create friction instead of leverage.

Depleted, distracted humans cannot effectively deploy new technologies or capitalise on their advantages. Performance and innovation stall not because the tools are flawed, but because the humans using them are operating beyond biological limits.

Performance Is Biological

This is the shift I’m seeing in the most future-ready organisations.

They’re no longer asking, “How do we get people to do more?” Nor are they starting with,”How/where can we embed AI?”

Instead, they’re asking, “How do we support people to operate in alignment with how they’re designed? How can we drive sustainable human performance.”

Because you cannot outperform your biology. You cannot outrun or ignore your hOS.

That principle sits at the heart of my Flourishing Formula, a brain-based, biology-led approach to sustainable peak-performance that I share in my keynotes and workshops and is the basis for my group performance coaching program called Optimised.

Not hustle.
Not hacks.
Not heroics.

The Flourishing Formula is based on cutting-edge research and neuroscience that suggests that there are three pillars for sustainable performance in a digitally-demanding world:

• Stress adaptability: leveraging the science of stress to catalyse, not constrain performance
• Focus optimisation: protecting attention in a distracted world
• Recovery reframed: as a performance strategy, not a reward

When these pillars are in place, performance stops being fragile. When organisations invest in human optimisation alongside digital investment, people gain:

• Practical ways to regulate stress during demanding workdays
• Tools to protect focus and decision quality
• Recovery strategies that restore capacity,
• A shared language for energy, load and limits

This equips teams with the cognitive bandwidth to solve problems and continue to drive innovation over time. This isn’t wellness theatre. It’s human infrastructure.

It’s the difference between people surviving inside systems and people flourishing within them.

Your Human Capital Will Drive Your Digital Innovation

The leaders and teams who will thrive in the next decade are the ones willing to ask:

• Are we designing work that works with our hOS, or against it?
• Do our people understand how to manage and leverage stress, focus and recovery, so we can get the best from our people?
• Are we optimising performance, or accelerating depletion?

The real competitive advantage isn’t AI. It’s not. Your competitive advantage is a healthy, focused, well-regulated team who can adapt to change, drive innovation and lead effectively over time.

You can invest endlessly in technology.

But if you don’t also invest in upgrading and supporting your people’s hOS, you won’t sustain these digital investments. Your people will become an innovation bottleneck. Leaders and teams need to to manage their energy, focus and recovery to drive and sustain digital transformation.

And organisations that invest in their human capital will be the ones best equipped to navigate change, leverage new technologies and sustain high-performance without burning out their people. That is how you can scale AI and reap the rewards it offers us.

If this resonates, this is the work I explore in my signature keynote, Powered-Up Performers: Decoding the neuroscience of sustainable peak performance in the age of AI, designed to help leaders and teams perform at a high level in a digitally-demanding world.

References

Deloitte. (2024). Global human capital trends: The new fundamentals for a boundaryless world. Deloitte Insights.
https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/insights/focus/human-capital-trends.html

Deloitte. (2023). From human capital to human sustainability. Deloitte Insights.
https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/insights/topics/human-capital-trends/2023/from-human-capital-to-human-sustainability.html

Deloitte Australia. (2024). Human capital consulting: Reimagining work, workforce and workplace. Deloitte.
https://www.deloitte.com/au/en/services/consulting/services/human-capital.html

McEwen, B. S. (2017). Neurobiological and systemic effects of chronic stress. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1391(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13379