I talk about the Human Edge a lot: on stages, in workshops, even in this newsletter. So you can imagine the irony for me, yesterday, sitting on the phone to a government agency, slowly losing my mind.

You know the drill, afterall, we’ve all been there. The automated menu where you are asked to press 1 for this, press 2 for that, or say a few words that describe your enquiry. So often though, none of the options fit the reason we are ringing and this is exactly what happened to me. Every path ended with a polite recorded voice telling me I could find the answer on the website.

I'd been on the website, I had searched with no luck. That's why I was calling.

So I did what so many of us do. I kept pressing, kept rephrasing, kept refusing the digital off-ramp, and quietly pulling my hair out until I finally heard the words every frustrated customer is waiting for: "Please hold while I connect you."

And there was Sam*.