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The world of work is being rewritten before our eyes. Artificial intelligence is taking over tasks once reserved for humans, and employees expect more meaning, growth, and genuine belonging. That has put HR leaders at a crossroads as they are expected to adopt new technologies while protecting what makes work deeply human.
But Novartis is skipping the tug-of-war. Chief People and Organization Officer Rob Kowalski and his team decided not to view technology and humanity as opposites but as partners in building a better workplace.
In this episode of Future Ready Leadership, Rob Kowalski shares how Novartis is reimagining HR through what he calls human-centered experiences—a philosophy that places people at the heart of every decision, process, and technology layer.
So, how do we design organizations that are just as human as they are high-performing?
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Culture isn’t a Statement, It’s a “Living System”
Most companies have culture statements, but Novartis actually lives theirs. Novartis transformed its culture into what Rob describes as a “living system”—something you can tangibly feel and measure in the day-to-day work, not just read about in an employee onboarding deck. The company’s framework, built around being Inspired, Curious, and Unbossed, isn’t a set of slogans but a daily guide for how work gets done.
- Inspired means connecting everything back to patient impact.
- Curious means learning continuously, across functions and roles.
- Unbossed means trusting people to take ownership rather than managing through control.
To make those values concrete, Novartis created behaviors in action—specific examples that help employees discuss, observe, and measure how culture shows up. As Rob puts it, these behaviors turn abstract ideas like empowerment or accountability into visible moments you can practice and refine.
Growth is a Lattice, Not a Climb
The outdated “career ladder” is a choke point for modern talent mobility. Novartis replaced it with what Rob calls a career lattice. Growth at Novartis no longer means a slow, vertical climb—it means strategic expansion outward across functions, projects, and skills. Employees are encouraged to explore new experiences, develop new skills, and redefine what progress looks like for them.
With Novartis’ Future Me program, instead of focusing on titles or promotions, it helps employees design personal growth paths aligned with their purpose. “It’s not just about why people join, but why they stay,” Rob explains. This builds a workforce that’s engaged because it’s constantly evolving.
It also changes how you think about retention. If you’re truly human-centered, keeping talent isn’t about holding them back; it’s about helping them grow so much that they might outgrow their original job description.
Listen to the episode here on Apple Podcast & leave a review!
Unbossed Leadership: Trust is the New Control
Perhaps the most radical part of Novartis’s transformation is the redefinition of leadership. Unbossed doesn’t mean no leaders—it means leaders’ main job is to create conditions for others to thrive.
As Rob explains, “Let your team do their work because they know their work better than everybody.” Leadership at Novartis now centers on three expectations:
- Lead and develop people.
- Navigate complexity.
- Deliver collective impact.
These aren’t competencies on a passive checklist—they are daily, high-priority commitments to empowerment. Every people leader is reminded that leadership is a mandatory part of their job description, not an optional extra. “Thirty percent of what you do should be leading your people,” Rob says. Today, it’s not about how much you control, but by how much you enable.
Data Starts the Conversation
While AI tools are making leadership analytics more sophisticated, Rob warns CHROs against letting data replace human judgment. Metrics should start the conversation, not end it. That’s why Novartis uses 360 feedback, team effectiveness scores, and AI-driven insights to spot trends. But the real value comes from what happens next: dialogue, reflection, and action.
When data reveals a pattern—say, a consistent dip in engagement in a specific team—leaders are coached to ask better, reflective questions, not assign blame. “Maybe you’re not listening to your team,” Rob suggests. The goal isn’t to cold-quantify humanity but to gain the strategic context necessary to understand it better.
Why Human-Centered HR Is the Future
The Novartis story is a blueprint for where HR is heading: not toward automation for its own sake, but toward augmentation—where technology amplifies empathy, not replaces it. Building a human-centered organization doesn’t mean being soft on performance. It means recognizing that growth, trust, and accountability are deeply human forces that drive results.
For HR leaders navigating AI, hybrid work, and generational change, Rob’s message is clear: the future of leadership belongs to those who make work more human, not less.
If you want to understand what this looks like in action—from AI coaching tools to rethinking growth and retention—listen to the full conversation with Rob Kowalski, CHRO of Novartis, on the Future Ready Leadership podcast.