Skills-based hiring is becoming the norm. Research from TestGorilla shows that skills-based hiring surged in 2025, with 85% of organisations surveyed adopting this approach (up from 81% last year). And the impact is clear, with hiring mistakes down 66% and recruitment costs falling by 57%.

That’s huge progress. But let’s be honest – skills alone won’t win the future. Real results come from people who bring energy, resilience, and ethics to the unpredictable. As AI picks up the routine, it’s the human state and mindset that turn skills into true value. 

The skills-based revolution we’re all celebrating

Skills now matter more than degrees, we’re told. Focus on what people can do, not what certificates they hold.

And I agree. This shift was necessary. We needed to stop filtering talent through arbitrary credential requirements. But that’s not the full truth. By the time we all jumped on the skills bandwagon, AI had already sprinted ahead. Now, we need to focus boldly on the human experience – an essential component of work that conventional frameworks fail to capture.

The android and the human

Many scientists and philosophers (such as Hiroshi Ishigur at Osaka University) have long explored the fault line between human and machine consciousness – especially the “machine-like” part of the human mind that mirrors AI. In creating artificial intelligence, we’re effectively externalising this inner module and turning it into a separate tool. 

Today, some strands of innovative psychology are also working directly with this split. 

Here is how I see it. Within every person there are two distinct parts: the android and the human.     

The android part operates in binary: can/can’t, have skill/don’t have skill, complete/incomplete. This is our functional, executing side. It works with clear logic – if this, then that.

The human part lives in states: feeling, sensing, being present, connecting, finding meaning, and experiencing energy. This part doesn’t run in binary. It exists in shades, nuance, and the messiness of life.

AI has taken over the android part of us. We built our binary logic and execution outside our bodies. Now AI is steadily absorbing more and more functional work – anything driven by binary logic is becoming almost trivial to automate.

That means our attention must turn to our human side – it’s all we have left that matters.

Skills alone miss the mark: The recipe is not the dish

Last year, I worked with two managers. Both had the same training and expertise in feedback. One lifted her people, sparked insights, and caused growth. The other deflated spirits and slowed progress, even using the same approach. What made the difference wasn’t skill, but the attitude and state each manager embodied. This is what checklists always miss.

What science won’t let us ignore

Leading neuroscientists and psychologists like Antonio Damasio, Candace Pert, and Eugene Gendlin have long argued that body, emotions, and mind are inseparable. Damasio’s “somatic marker hypothesis” shows that feelings guide our decisions – they don’t block them. Candace Pert discovered that emotions move through the whole body, not just the brain, sending signals that everyone senses. Gendlin introduced “felt sense” – the body’s knowledge that often comes before words. 

In short, we can’t train humans the same way we train machines. Skills are never run in isolation; we embody them.

The value creation state is about presence, not just skill

So what actually powers real value? In any moment, value creation depends on a person’s state. That state includes:

• Bodily presence: Are you grounded, energised and alive, or drained and tense?
• Emotional resonance: Do you care about what’s happening right now, or are you checked out?
• Mental clarity: Are you open, focused and curious, or rigid and distracted?
• Energetic flow: Are you forcing outcomes, struggling, or moving in rhythm with what’s needed?
• Relational attunement: Can you sense the mood and needs around you, or are you shut off?
• Temporal awareness: Are you in sync with the pace or lagging?

It takes little time to teach “active listening.” But if the listener is exhausted, resentful, or disconnected from meaning, their listening will fall flat. No checklist will fix that. 

The real crisis in workplaces is that we teach skills and forget about a person’s state.

Six domains for value-creating states

To solve this, I teach six key domains of value-creating states. These are not just skills or capabilities. They include both practical skills and lived experience.

Steering consciousness

Help people access flow states, direct their attention, and avoid burnout. Recommend at least eight minutes of meditation twice daily for inner calm and anxiety reduction. Working on your own cognitive distortions, fears, trust, and ingrained habits is also essential. Resilience starts with clarity of mind and emotion.

Meaning-making

Connect work to a purpose beyond profit. You can do this by setting up “meaning circles” for teams – forty-five minutes once a month to talk about why their work matters. In a recent meaning circle, one financial analyst told me: “When I connect with the why behind my work, I find my greatest energy and momentum.”

Trans-context thinking

To develop the ability to move between value systems and cultures effectively in any context, introduce workshops on Spiral Dynamics and Ken Wilber’s Integral approach. This helps people develop the ability to understand different value paradigms, see how values evolve from one stage to another, build relationships with very different contexts, and, importantly, support the transition of a context from one value system to another.

Additionally, support people to hold conflicting truths and translate insights across silos. For example, our paradox workshops force managers to use “both/and” thinking. It’s uncomfortable, but it sharpens decisions.

Working with energy

Encourage somatic awareness. Each person must identify their source of energy and make it a non-negotiable part of their daily routine– a walk, dancing, music, drawing – something regular that recharges them.

Embodiment and aesthetics

Turning ideas and energy into something concrete is how teams create real value. When this step gets skipped, we lose touch with what’s vital, and motivation weakens.

Every fortnight, we run a Minimum Valuable Results (MVR) check-in. There is no pressure, no strain. Just a steady rhythm of moving ideas into action. This approach is sharper and more effective than any annual review.

Statecraft: building fields of trust

This is the ability to generate states for others where value appears: trust, support, freedom, curiosity, and creativity. True leadership is the ability to create this for a team.

For example, we organise “post-project sharing”– open sessions for debriefing and reflection, where trust can build. It’s also important as a leader to talk honestly about your fears. Nothing builds trust faster than the courage to share where you feel vulnerable.

What changes when you focus on states, not skills

The impact is immediate. A manager with great delegation skills will only succeed if they trust, not fear. We don’t abandon skills, but skills must run through a state. The state is the vessel; without it, skills cannot take hold.

The practical way forward

Start small. Teams make the fastest progress by starting with “working with energy” – a simple somatic check-in before meetings. Thirty seconds to notice your own body and track the change. People become present, focused, and connected. Over time, add meaning-making conversations, flow time, and honest debriefs. Gradually, the team’s capacity for value-creating states will rise.

Skills inventories are no longer enough. HR’s real job now is to nurture the human states that drive value.

Try this with one team, or just add one new practice. Watch how value comes not from what people know, but from how they show up.