Acceptance, embracing, agreement, endorsement…these are some of the synonyms of the word adoption. These words point toward a shift in thinking. However, when conversations about adopting technology happen in the manufacturing realm, the general meaning seems to always be related to application or implementation. The adoption of technology involves more than just getting a bunch of new machines though. Adopting tech has other important implications.
Manufacturing has embraced the use of technology for years. Known widely as Industry 4.0, a lot of the emphasis has been on robots, sensors, and data analytics. Though now, AI is quickly making its presence felt in this important sector too.
Typically, operations and production systems come to mind when considering how to apply technology in manufacturing. This is due in large part to the fact that engineers and tech pros tend to focus on the technology itself. The machines are cool. They do cool things.
Last year McKinsey & Co. conducted a survey around the use of AI . They found that employees are taking the initiative and learning about it and using it at an ever-increasing speed. More so than many of the organizations that employ them. Apparently much more.
This survey was aimed specifically at generative AI use across multiple industries. Obviously, in most industries, people will be impacted when technology solutions are deployed. The same is true for manufacturing. Maybe to a greater extent than in other industries.
For this reason, it is important to look past the shiny robots and the slick AI generated solutions to ask some very important questions. What about your people? How will technology change the culture of an organization? How will the organization need to change to take advantage of technology? What does becoming a tech savvy team actually look like?
McKinsey’s Relyea et al cautioned that, “Technology adoption for its own sake has never created value, which is also true with gen AI. Whether technology is itself the core strategy (for example, developing gen-AI-based products) or supports other business strategies, its deployment should link to value creation opportunities and measurable outcomes.” The people development strategy should certainly be included.
The report clearly makes the connection between deploying technology and preparing/supporting the teams that use the technology. This is where a higher level of tech savviness is needed.
In the future, being technologically savvy will mean more than just knowing how to create a prompt or program a robot. It will be more than just learning how the hardware and machinery works. It will also include thinking. How to think about technology. How to think with technology. Thinking about data and thinking about problem solving from a new angle.
It is more than just training savvy people to do certain technical things with automation. It will be about learning to imagine where technology can be placed, uncovering the data that can help determine whether the change has been successful, learning how to tap into the strengths of generative AI when it is appropriate, and learning to properly evaluate the answers and suggestions given by an AI assistant.
It will require tech savvy leaders learning how to coach their team to a higher level of tech savviness. Embracing new solutions influenced by technology as opposed to being rigidly connected to traditional ways of doing things.
The implications will stretch across the organization’s people development system as people learn to harness the full potential of technology. The culture of the organization will need to adapt to these new realities. Developing leaders will include helping to instill this new thinking paradigm. Learning organizations will thrive in this new environment.
Today employees are learning about and using AI on their own. They might be seriously trying to use it to make work easier and more efficient. Many may just be using it for entertainment. Recent studies have shown that they are also concerned about the impacts of automation, and they recognize that they must learn to work with these new tech tools. Technology has everyone’s attention.
Workplaces that help people attain a holistic understanding of technology can create and promote a culture of acceptance and endorsement of these new methods and tools. These workplaces can help people embrace technology in the workplace and perhaps understand how to use it constructively beyond their workplace. These types of workplaces can bring team members to an agreement that becoming technology savvy requires that everyone involved must learn to think and apply these concepts together.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The Optimized People Development System 