<\/p>\n
When it comes to staying relevant in today’s workforce, let\u2019s get to the heart of the matter \u2013 YOU have a simple choice to make:<\/p>\n
Once you decide which of these two categories which you wish to belong, then make sure you\u2019re in the right company to execute your survival plan\u2026 otherwise, leave and find one that is.<\/p>\n
Because the data from the recent World Economic Forum jobs study shows half of enterprises are being held back because their staff fails to understand the disruptive changes in their industry, and an alarming 37% of enterprise leaders do not feel their current workforce\u00a0is aligned to their innovation strategy:<\/p>\n
There are no half-measures<\/em> here, folks – you can\u2019t dip in and out<\/em> when it comes to driving automation and AI solutions \u2013 people are quickly getting found out for having a veneer of understanding.\u00a0 Either you decide to focus on really understanding how to apply these solutions to your business, or decide you can\u2019t be bothered and focus on maintaining the old way of keeping your business\u2019s operations lights on.<\/p>\n Assuming more people who visit this lovely blog are in category (2), then let\u2019s review what we can do to actually become an AI change-driver\u2026.<\/p>\n Saving our jobs when they become “AI-able”<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n So the automation\/AI marketing spiel is firmly espousing that our jobs will be so much richer when we offload as many of our \u201coperational\u201d activities to RPA loops and self-learning algorithms. Isn\u2019t it so cool that all these new un-computerizable activities<\/em> will just magically appear to fill our job voids to make our lives so much more enriched and fulfilling?<\/p>\n The truth is that people will only truly buy-in to AI and automation when they are secure<\/em> enough to hand off a lot of the tasks they currently do, with the transition to the new work already in place to maintain their relevance and value to their employer.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s identify how to learn the new stuff so we can offload the AI-able activities<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s be direct \u2013 in today\u2019s swirl of constant shiny new things, it’s becoming overwhelming for many of us who got by on a traditional education and an ability to deliver routine tasks, handle the usual game of corporate politics and command an ability to \u201cknow enough to be dangerous\u201d to stay relevant to our colleagues and management.<\/p>\n Sadly, everyone is now being scrutinized whether they have certain \u201cskills\u201d that will make them worthy of employment as more and more of their job can be replaced by algorithms and automation loops.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at these skills that came top in the recent World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report<\/a>, where 100 of the leading firms within each industry were interviewed:<\/p>\n So this means you need to know your audience<\/em> and adapt your ideas to suit their needs. You can\u2019t just repeat the same things to everyone \u2013 you need to be great at listening<\/em> and communicating<\/em>, so you can pull together common threads and continually adapt.\u00a0 Plus, people need to know you listen<\/em> to them \u2013 there\u2019s nothing worse than being that old windbag who just spouts off the same old guff because they love the sound of their voice.\u00a0 For example, if you are convincing your HR head about your firm investing in an AI platform, they are likely to focus on the ethics and regulatory\/data privacy issues.\u00a0 Your CFO, on the other hand, will probably want to focus more on the cost\/benefit and ease of use. Your CIO will want to understand why your firm can\u2019t use existing tools they already have invested in. There are three sets of conversations you need to find common threads across if you are going to get a consensus to invest.<\/p>\n Creativity is so important, especially in markets where differentiation points are wafer-thin.\u00a0 Take our beloved IT services providers, for example.\u00a0 Most of them today are offering an identical solution and their pricing is usually similar, and each of them can churn our analyst reports which portray them as the best.\u00a0 Big fancy business terms, cardboard stories of transformation won\u2019t cut it anymore\u2026\u00a0 So the differentiation is increasingly shifting to \u201cwho do you want to work with\u201d at a people level, so the onus must shift to really listening <\/em>and understanding your client needs and proving to them you really get them.\u00a0 Hence, creativity and emotional intelligence are so closely aligned here.<\/p>\n My least favorite phrase these days is \u201cfail fast\u201d, as this is usually a term people use in hindsight after they screwed up.\u00a0 But in fast-moving industries such as consumer goods or online travel, it is often not critical is you launched a poorly thought-out product or service.\u00a0 In slow-moving industries, such as process manufacturing, a poor decision could affect a single process that takes years to get right, and could be fatal (hence \u201cfail fast\u201d only works in pilot phases, not in real business).\u00a0 For example, your firm could be launching a recruiting campaign that you realize could be accused of discriminating candidates by age or gender, which would have been par for the course a couple of years ago.\u00a0 You realize this could have serious implications for your firm in today\u2019s hyper-sensitive data privacy environment, and alert you management asap to change course.\u00a0 You may not have the solution, but you were sensitive to the problem.\u00a0 Here, your ability to think laterally and other variables is so important.<\/p>\n The ability to assess performance for your firm – and pinpoint improvements – is incredibly valuable to your management. As the WEF data emphasizes, two-thirds of financial services firms (for example) see an insufficient understanding of disruptive changes as a significant barrier to change.\u00a0 At the same time, half of them see a poor alignment between their workforce strategies and their firms’ innovation strategies.\u00a0 This indicates that staff who can pinpoint how to test their own understanding of the changes within their industries, and also the awareness\u00a0of their colleagues, and then suggest ways to work together<\/em> as teams to train themselves how to close these knowledge gaps, will be highly appreciated.<\/p>\n So if you work in a traditional bank, for example, and you recognize several digital startup banks that could really hurt your business as they target millennials\u00a0who are prepared to switch banks because they have a better app experience, you need to make sure you are ahead of the game and your team is also.\u00a0 Being able to bring in experts to educate you and your team, or forge enlightening discussions with disruptive startups willing to share their business model ideas are great examples of how you can be a great performance evaluator<\/em>. This is where we see a lot of cognitive flexibility and creativity aligned with emotional intelligence \u2013 and a willingness to put your ego to one side.<\/p>\n The Bottom-Line: When times are good is the time to hone your skills and get ready for when times get tough.\u00a0 You have an amazing opportunity to rise to the change, so please don’t waste it<\/span><\/p>\n Remember all the discussion about the carnage automation and AI were going to bring to the market place?\u00a0 Forrester claimed 1 million US B2B sales jobs\u00a0will go away by 2020<\/a>;\u00a0Gartner predicted\u00a0one in three jobs<\/a>\u00a0will be converted to software, robots and smart machines by 2025;\u00a0an Oxford University Study claimed about\u00a047\u00a0percent of total US employment<\/a>\u00a0is at risk;\u00a0Stephen Hawking (may he rest in peace) warned us that\u00a0AI would be the biggest – and possibly the last –\u00a0event in human history.<\/a>\u00a0At HFS, we have bleak predictions too about the future of job as most modern ambitious companies are simply stopping creating the jobs we’re doing today, and refocuses on the additive needs they have in the future, that technology cannot deliver them.<\/p>\n The simple truth is that change that necessitates the fundamental retraining and learning of new ways of working, new attitudes and collaborative cultures is much slower moving that analysts, academics and pundits can predict.\u00a0 Merely slamming in new tech kit and expecting change to happen is the ultimate recipe for failure in today’s market. Remember it took enterprises two decades to adapt to ERP\u00a0solutions (many still are)… it even took accountants a decade to adapt from Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel.\u00a0 Why would we expect today’s business and IT professionals to adapt much faster to new tools and solutions that actually require real training – and all that coupled with making real changes to processes that have been operating exactly the same way as they did 20\/30\/40 years ago, with the only \u201cinnovation\u201d being models like offshore outsourcing and shared service centers, cloud and digital technologies enabling those same processes to be conducted steadily faster and cheaper?\u00a0 Let’s be honest, most companies still operate with their major functions such as customer service, marketing, finance, HR and supply chain operating in individual silos, with IT operating as a non-strategic vehicle to maintain the status quo and keep the lights on.<\/p>\n Coupled with the pain and pace of change and the lethargy of enterprises to do anything fundamentally\u00a0different, is the fact that it’s been over a decade since we experience a real economic downturn.\u00a0 We’re operating at a time where it’s challenging for firms even to populate the call centers and find junior staff willing to perform mundane routine activities.\u00a0 And talk to any C-Suite executive and they will tell you finding leadership talent and managers with “transformational” skills is nigh-on impossible – and incredibly expensive.<\/p>\n We are lucky to live at a time where we have a multitude of established and emerging change agents at our disposal: global sourcing, Design Thinking, Robotic Transformation Software, AI, Analytics, IoT, blockchain among others. So use this time to learn-up and take advantage of the demand for talent, as one day the climate isn’t going to be so rosy for talent, and jobs that can be automated \/ AI-ed will never resurface.\u00a0 The time to challenge yourself\u00a0and make this crucial choice is now, please don’t sit on the fence and wait until it’s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to staying relevant in today’s workforce, let\u2019s get to the heart of the matter \u2013 YOU have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5645,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[867,959,1092,833,858],"tags":[968,303,1052],"ppma_author":[19],"yoast_head":"\n![](\"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/storage\/app\/media\/MAY%202019\/Barriers-change.png\")
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