When I finished law school, I almost took a job as a consultant at McKinsey. In any other decade, it would have been a dream job but this was the nineties, and in the end, the allure of joining a dotcom startup was just too seductive to ignore. But I will always remember my last interview with the company.

Most of us are familiar with Google’s moonshot projects that span everything from self-driving cars to AIs that can beat world champion GO players. Less well known are the ways that Google is re-inventing how it designs and optimizes its own internal operations.

When Tim Cook introduced the Apple Watch, many hoped it might do for wearable computers what the iPhone did for smartphones. And yet, great design aside — our ever expanding armoury of smart watches, smart rings, augmented eyewear, wireless earbuds, connected bracelets and fitness trackers — all seem to scream for a more elegant solution. We have hit Peak Tech, while somehow missing peak productivity along the way.

Now that robots look like they are in fact serious about taking some of our jobs, us humans can at least reassure ourselves that we are better at creative tasks like design. But is that, in fact true?

Some of the biggest sources of stress inside organizations are secrets. When a new boss is appointed, merger talks begin or layoffs are rumored, everyone goes into threat response mode. Personal survival is paramount, and people lose focus and stop creating valuable work.