The Optimized People Development System

Tag: ai

  • A New Kind of Savvy for Middle Managers

    A New Kind of Savvy for Middle Managers

    Savviness is always a moving target. After all, it is an exercise of continuous learning requiring time, effort, and a determined focus. The dictionary defines savvy as having or showing perception, comprehension, or shrewdness especially in practical matters. For frontline supervisors and managers in manufacturing, artificial intelligence and automation are demanding the ability to exercise these powers in a fast-moving convergence.

    Savvy Times Two

    Knowing people, how they behave, navigate change, absorb information, etc., has always been a necessary capability of successful leaders. They utilize their understanding of people, their comprehension of situations, and their communication skills to guide the team to success.

    For manufacturing managers, being technically savvy has also been a requirement. They should understand the product, the processes, the tools, and the equipment, to help the team achieve its goals. Add to this the urgency to acquire knowledge of AI and automation and how these technologies can impact operations.

    Now, in this new era of AI, tech savviness has a new people component. A new leadership challenge that encompasses comprehending not only how people interact with technology, but how they react to it as well. Envisioning how to protect them while encouraging them to use technology to its fullest. And being shrewd enough to manage the team when new “superstars” arise as AI champions.

    Successful AI implementation and ROI have eluded many organizations because they failed to see the necessary combination of tech savviness along with people savviness. Jay Titus, in a recent article for Industry Week, made the case for retaining middle managers and augmenting their training in the age of AI. The article highlighted that adoption and scaling of AI have technical aspects, cultural aspects, and structural aspects. As he rightly concludes, “…something that executives can mandate from above, but middle management is ideally positioned to carry out.”

    Leaders at all levels should be prepared for the fact that there will be significant changes to the behaviors of organizational systems as these two disciplines evolve and combine. Changes that are crucial to effective technology adoption. Ripe opportunities for a new approach to savvy leadership and opportunities to optimize the most important of organizational systems, the people development system.

    Guiding Change

    To carry out this mandate, this new savviness requires mid-level management to become proficient in important skills that may well include some new topics for many of them.

    They should be well versed in systems thinking so that they can understand how AI and automation will impact operations and the people involved in those operations. There is also trust building. These managers can nurture trust in two directions – trust in the technology and trust between team members as new AI powered agents and assistants join the team.

    Consider the case for middle managers with well-developed AI fluency. Imagine a machine operator who is interested in AI. That operator goes and learns about AI and wants to use it to improve their work, so they talk with their supervisor. At a minimum, the supervisor, to be effective in this scenario, would need to understand what is being discussed. The supervisor would also need to understand the implications to the operation if AI tools or decision-making support were deployed.

    That same supervisor would need to know how to lead in other nuanced ways. For example, if someone’s identity is threatened by an AI agent that suddenly makes knowledge and information available to everyone, the tech+people savvy manager will need to understand these implications and armed with sound training as a coach, be able to help this team member with the transition.

    Savvy Orchestrators

    Titus portrays middle managers differently, encouraging organizations to consider their role as evolving with technology. “When middle managers have the skills to understand the technology, to redesign workflows to take advantage of it, and to coach their teams toward higher-quality outputs, AI stops being a question mark and becomes a powerful strategic asset.”

    The organization’s people development system is the vehicle for helping these leaders evolve into this new era of technology and ensuring that the culture is people centered. The PDS can enhance a new type of savviness for these managers while helping them understand the impacts on people when adopting technology. Increasing the probability of benefiting from technology adoption.

    Organizations that are able to look past the cool parts of AI and automation adoption – the tools and capabilities – and see the effects on people and organizational systems will recognize the value of developing a new set of leadership competencies in their mid-level management ranks. Abilities that will create a new kind of tech+people savvy leader.

    Image AI generated.

  • Successful AI Adoption and Motivated People Both Require This

    Successful AI Adoption and Motivated People Both Require This

    It is a complex endeavor, hard to quantify, easily destroyed, and we have been unable to improve it for 30 years. And now, it’s getting more difficult to manage, even as it continues to be one of the most vital elements of the success of our systems. Sustaining employee engagement has proven to be tough, and in the era of AI it is increasingly essential that we figure it out.

    The irony is that successful adoption of AI and employee engagement share similar requirements. Both need more human centricity – better connections between people, ensuring that people find their place, and effective ways to align purposes (both the individual’s purposes and the organization’s). Fortunately, most organizations already have a system to help with these. The key is to optimize that system to the mutual benefit of the organization and the team.

    Connecting

    Relationships are the currency of employee engagement. Yet, this idea often gets lost in the AI discussion. In most of the conversations I’ve had recently with manufacturing leaders and AI proponents, they are laser focused on the new tools, applications, and capabilities of the technology.

    When I ask about their team and how adopting technologies might affect their people, many tend to hesitate, some are genuinely surprised by the question. They are thinking deeply about how AI will impact production systems, logistics, engineering, and other vital systems. But the system that gets very little attention is the most important one.

    Morag Barrett penned a recent article for Fast Company addressing the impact of AI on relationship where he made this observation, “The quality of connection between human beings is the single most important variable in every system we’re worried about, and it’s the one we’re all still treating as optional.”

    An organization’s people development system encompasses their internal workforce development efforts. It’s the system that promotes relationships, communicates to system stakeholders, and helps create culture, among many other functions. Importantly, it is a system that can be improved upon. This is the premise of the OPDS framework.

    After improving system functionality, the second level of optimization for the OPDS is People Centeredness where stakeholders explore and improve the system’s capacity for developing people, where learning organization concepts are applied, and where the work of relationships is emphasized.

    Graphic by ChatGPT

    This is the level of improvement where leaders consider if the PDS is supporting the uniquely human work that is required to make the most of AI and automation. The key questions here are: does our PDS really serve people well? Does it foster engagement on multiple levels? Does it promote the human in the loop aspects required by AI adoption?

    Belonging

    Being engaged at work has many facets. This is part of the complexity involved. Some would say that the relationship between employer and employee is a type of social contract. But it’s more than that. Engagement is an emotional decision that drives commitment and investments of time, energy, and dedication. It’s more than just an agreement of you pay me; I give you this.

    Addressing the fear that AI could potentially disrupt the work-for-wages balance, Barrett asked, “What happens to dignity, purpose, and identity when contribution is decoupled from compensation? Work has never been just about money. It’s been about belonging to a team, a mission, a community of people who need what you bring. What happens when that belonging is no longer guaranteed?”

    Being mutually committed and relationally connected underpins belonging. The optimized PDS intentionally fosters a culture where people know they are valued and know they share some responsibility for the wellbeing of the organization and for the people they work alongside. Everyone makes sure everyone belongs. That takes strong leadership, great communication, and a shared determination.

    Purpose

    The pursuit of purpose and meaning is an age-old search; it has never been owned by one generation. However, what has changed is how the search for these has moved up the ranks of priorities in the realm of work.

    Mark Twain famously said, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” It seems that work has always played an outsized role in defining one’s purpose and in the age of AI, purpose is one of many constructs under threat.

    The optimized PDS comprehends that both the organization and the individual team members are motivated by purpose, so the system strives to know what those purposes are and help every team member in their journey toward their purpose.

    System stakeholders have frequent conversations with members and track their progress to ensure the connection to purpose. There are structured learning opportunities, for example through a personalized individual development plan. Retention efforts and performance management efforts help support the journey as relationships within the team provide encouragement and accountability.

    Being connected, having a sense of belonging, and understanding one’s purpose helps to create a virtuous cycle. Interestingly, both the organization and the individual value this cycle. Each is encouraged and strengthened by this same reenforcing loop.

    Employee engagement has always been a challenge. AI will not make this easier, it will make it more challenging, and it will do so at a faster pace. The organization’s people development system is a vital part of the solution to greater employee engagement. It is the vehicle that ensures that humans are always at the center of the organization’s strategy, even when that strategy is heavy on the tech side.

    Feature Image generated by ChatGPT

  • Patience is a Virtue, and Soon, a Crucial Leadership Skill

    Patience is a Virtue, and Soon, a Crucial Leadership Skill

    It’s ironic that a technology that drastically speeds things up will require people to slow down in many areas of their work. Leaders in the AI era will have to develop something that we’re not typically known for…patience. In a sped-up world, the ability to play the long game will be a needed leadership trait.

    This Fast Company article is a great read for leaders, highlighting the need for different ways of thinking in the fast paced world of artificial intelligence. This new approach to leadership will also require ways of measuring certain outcomes differently. Outcomes that may take some time to materialize.

    Most business leaders have been conditioned to chase short term measures – this week’s production numbers, this month’s sales, this quarter’s financials. Generations of managers have been trained this way, and this has filtered down and out across the workforce.

    McDearmid captures the frenetic tension quite well. “For years, we filled our calendars, stayed visible, and kept the machine moving. Our worth was measured in hours, output, and presence. It had to be. Humans were the system, and the system required us to keep it running. We didn’t question it because that was how things got done.”

    The repetitive stuff was the work, and the measures by which the work would be gauged. Fueled by numbers relatively easy to get, requiring minimal patience. However, the human work of curiosity, collaboration, and changing mental models can be slow to unfold. Exploration can take time. Intentionality too.

    The article describes the directional change that leaders will need to make. How their focus must change from tasks to direction setting, seeking clarity for the initiative, and clarifying vision with the team, to name a few. It also points to the fact that leaders will need to be able to think differently about how long it will take to see some important deliverables.

    “AI has taken the repetitive pieces off our plates and has given us back the chance to think, create, and build with intention. It gives us room to lead.” In this new, redesigned space for leadership the ability to ponder and contemplate could be useful skills. Leaders with imagination and a gardener’s mindset will have an advantage. Systems thinking will be highly prized. Because ushering slow moving change through a system previously built for speed will require a shift at the system level.

    It may seem counterintuitive to work on the skill of slowing down in a sped-up world. However, learning to wait calmly for important and often subtle changes is a skill that itself takes time to develop. The sooner we start training leaders to slow down and wait, the faster we can realize the advantages of AI.

    Image by Annette from Pixabay