Fit For the Future

Unfortunately, most of the media stories about AI are negative, and if that’s all somebody sees, it's not surprising they might be hesitant, reluctant, or even scared of using AI at work. And that's a problem for you if you're a leader who wants to use AI effectively in your teams. There's one key thing you can do to overcome this fear - and it doesn't take much.https://swiy.co/go-overcoming-fear-of-aiI’ve noticed a change in the last year in the attitude of leaders to AI. A year ago, many leaders were yet to be convinced about the value of AI. They were saying things like:“I’ll wait and see.”“I’m not quite sure what value it brings.”“I’ve got too many other things on my plate now.”It wasn’t true of everyone, of course. Many leaders and managers saw its potential and were keen to use it - but many didn’t. In fact, some of their team members were more excited and enthusiastic about it, and were trying to drag the rest of the team, including their boss, along into this AI future.But now I’ve noticed most leaders are convinced of the value of AI. Now it’s about using AI effectively so it generates value - in improving productivity, enhancing the customer experience, and helping you and your team make better decisions.But are there still people on your team who are dragging their feet? They’re not yet convinced, they don’t see its value, and they might even be scared by it.If everything they hear about AI is what they hear through the media, unfortunately, most of that is negative. They hear stories about how AI will destroy jobs, how it will disrupt whole industries, and how it will slash wages because people aren’t going to be as valuable in the future. And if that’s all they hear, it’s not surprising they’re scared!Unless you engage their minds - and hearts - your AI efforts will fail.So how do you get them on board?There’s one key thing that will help you bring people on the AI journey. I’ll explain ...You might be convinced of its value. But some people are fearful. To bridge that gap, a simple thing you can do is to help people actually use AI themselves.Many people have still never actually used AI, even though ChatGPT has been available (free!) for almost two years. So they have no practical experience with using it to create real value.Fortunately, this is easy to fix: Give them the basic skills to start using AI themselves - to get quick wins.Even if this is only in their personal life - like writing a wedding speech, planning a holiday to Italy, or generating ideas for a child’s birthday party - it doesn’t take much for people to start seeing AI in a more positive light.The more they see examples of AI creating value - for them - the less they’re likely to be influenced by all the negative stories.So, if you want to create value from AI and bring your people on the journey, educate them - by showing them how to get value from it themselves.For more, join my coming presentation about people-powered AI. It’s free and open to all, so register and share it with other leaders in your team and network.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-overcoming-fear-of-ai

What decisions are you making with AI? It's a powerful tool for enhancing your decision-making process, leading to more informed, accurate, and effective outcomes. It’s not about AI replacing your human judgment but augmenting and informing it, so you can make better choices to shape your future.https://swiy.co/go-ai-better-decisionsWhat decisions are you making with AI? I don’t mean decisions about whether or not to use AI. Instead, think about how you’re using AI to improve and enhance your decision-making process.This is one of the three big areas where almost everyone can use AI to elevate their work:1. Boosting productivity2. Enhancing the customer or client experience3. Making better decisions, fasterI spoke recently at a conference for OpenText in Melbourne, where they invited many of their customers and wider network to share some important conversations about AI.OpenText is an IT company, highly tech-oriented, and they do a lot of work in AI. But I was so pleased to hear everybody talking about putting people first and AI second. My keynote presentation emphasised this, the senior leaders at OpenText discussed it, the panelists echoed it, and even the customer representatives touched on it.This is especially important with decision-making. You don’t want AI to make decisions for you, but AI can help, augment, and inform your decisions.Of course, there are some areas where AI will make all the decisions – such as fully self-driving cars, where eventually these cars will have no steering wheel or brakes! But for most of what we’re using AI for – especially now – use it to augment and assist your decision-making process.The technology is there to support the people. And it’s about people and AI working better together.If you’d like to explore this further, I’m running an online presentation soon about people-powered AI, especially in the workplace. Please register, and feel free to share it with others in your team and network.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-ai-better-decisions

How much should you integrate AI into your workplace? One company went too far, and faced a backlash from employees - and everybody else who heard the story. It's important to treat as a tool to help people. It must be about people first, technology second.https://swiy.co/go-human-or-machineHow much should you integrate AI into your workplace? AI is a powerful tool, but one company went too far with it.The company – a sofware company called Lattice – decided to embrace AI (good!) in their work. But they went too far and announced they were creating “digital employees” (bad!). These AI-based “employees” would have managers, performance metrics, a place in the organisational chart, and so on.You might see where this is heading ... !Predictably, there was a backlash from employees. They were upset, not because AI was being elevated to the same level as humans, but because people might end up being treated like AI – just a “resource” to be plugged in, pushed around, and valued only for their productivity output.Faced with this backlash, the company backed down and said they are putting the idea of digital employees on the back burner. Personally, I think they’re setting fire to it and never touching it again!This story has an important lesson for all leaders.Most leaders aren’t elevating AI to the level of people, but they don’t always know exactly how AI will fit into their team. The answer will be different for everybody, but start with this principle:People first, technology second.This has always been true with any technology integration or digital transformation – AI just happens to be the big hot topic now.Many leaders and organisations are thinking about AI now, and in my opinion they are focussing too much on the technology and not enough on the people.If you want this to work, you must bring your people on that journey. And that means treating AI as a tool to serve people.If you get it right, it makes the journey so much better – for you, for everybody in your team, and for your organisation. But if you get it wrong, it can go very badly wrong – as it did with Lattice.For more about bringing your people on the AI journey, join my online presentation soon about people-powered AI. It’s free, public, and open to everybody.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-human-or-machine

In today's fast-paced world, you can't just keep pushing your team to change unless you create the space for them to adapt, change, and innovate. Unless you do this, even the people who want to change will get frustrated that they keep bumping into obstacles.https://swiy.co/go-create-space-for-changeI’ve been doing a lot of work with leaders recently about building their AI capability because, of course, many leaders and teams recognise AI is an important change they need to embrace. Of course, AI is not the only big change now, and many other external changes are affecting everybody - in their professional and personal lives.You might want your team to change - and change faster - but you might be making it difficult for them. If you don’t create the space for your people to change, it’s very difficult for them.It’s like them running as fast as they can in a narrow tunnel, and you’re yelling at them to change direction, but they can’t. Even if they want to, they don’t have the space to change.How do you create space for change and innovation?You must give them three things:Permission: They need to know change is allowed, encouraged, and even something to embrace.Focus: You give them some direction, so they can channel their energy into creating value, which motivates them now and motivates them even more when the change succeeds.Time: Most people are running as fast as they can now - and still falling behind - they can’t even think about anything new.Those three things – permission, focus, and time – work together to create space for change in your team.For specific activities, in these three areas, download my worksheet, which will give you 15 ways to create space for change. You won’t use them all, but I’m sure you will find a few that will work for you and your team.And if you’d like me to help you build that culture of change in your team, especially in this fast-changing world, I’d love to have a chat!Download the worksheet:https://swiy.co/go-create-space-for-change

Change can be challenging, especially with a resistant team. As a leader, you can help your team embrace change through simple, low-risk strategies that gradually make a difference over time. Start small and watch your team's mindset shift gradually.https://swiy.co/go-navigating-resistanceIs your team resistant to change or more open to embracing it? There’s a lot of change in the world outside, and if your team is resistant or slow to change, it’s difficult to navigate those external changes.This question came up recently when I was speaking at a senior leaders forum. We were discussing what it takes to be a future-ready leader, and a participant asked me about change. She has inherited a team that is resistant to change, and it’s been difficult for her to get them to think and act differently. She asked me for help.I told her there’s bad news and good news!The bad news is you can’t just snap your fingers and expect everything to change overnight. But the good news is that you can facilitate that change in a low-risk way by taking small steps that get people to change their mindset.One of the examples I gave her is an activity I call “Teach Me”, where a team member volunteers to teach something simple to the rest of the team. For example, at your regular staff meetings, you could set aside 5-10 minutes for this activity.What they teach could be from their professional role – such as:designing a better PowerPoint slidelearning how to spot fake emailsstarting a difficult conversation with a colleagueOr it could be something from their personal life – such as:making an origami cranelearning a magic trick they can show to friends and familyunderstanding nutritional labels on food packagingWhat they teach isn’t important! Your goal is to get everyone in the team learning something new. Learning is about change, especially if they can actually do the activity during the session. For example, if someone teaches a magic trick, have everyone try it out right there.Could you use “Teach Me” with your team? If so, great! Go ahead and try it.For more ideas, download my worksheet with twelve activities you might consider for your team. You won’t use them all, but you might find a few that resonate.Don’t make a big deal of these activities when you introduce them. You DON’T start by saying "We need to be more change-ready" or "We need to be more open to change". Instead, just do it! If you find an activity doesn’t work, just move on and try another. These are all low risk, but with potential high return.If you’d like to find out how we can work together to help your team be more future-ready and open to change, I’d love to chat!Download the worksheet:https://swiy.co/go-navigating-resistance

Some people are surprised when AI tools like ChatGPT fabricate facts and information. But the problem isn't that AI can "make up" stuff; it's that people don't realise that's possible. When you understand this, you can blend human intelligence and machine creativity to get better results.https://swiy.co/go-creative-aiI was running an AI workshop last week with a business, demonstrating how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools.Some people in the room were surprised (shocked, even!) to discover that ChatGPT sometimes completely makes up information. I explained that’s why you always need to double-check and triple-check its facts.But some people think that’s a fault in the AI. Surely (they said) if it doesn’t know the answer, it’s better to say that rather than giving a false answer!That might be true, but there are some times when you want AI to "make things up". For example, if you’re:- an author asking AI to help you continue the action in a chapter- a screenwriter writing a screenplay asking AI to help with stage directions- an artists asking AI to crete an image that’s never been created beforeBut it’s not only in the creative industries.In any organisation, sometimes you want to be more creative, and AI can help. For example:- You’re sending an email newsletter to your clients, and you want a creative subject line that encourages people to open the email.- You’re creating a new product, and you want a creative name for the product.- You’re doing your strategic planning, and you ask AI to act like a time traveller from 2040 looking back at now and describing the future.The problem isn’t that AI "makes things up". The problem is that people don’t realise it!Sometimes you want it to be completely fact-based, sometimes you want it to be creative, and sometimes it’s somewhere in the middle.These AI tools like ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity are just tools. And like other tools, we use them for a particular purpose, but always with our human intelligence.That’s why education is such an important part of building your AI capability.It’s about humans and machines working together, which means people need a basic understanding of what AI tools can do. Again, just like any other tool, if you don’t know how to use it, you’ll use it badly!If you’re a leader or a manager, come along to my next online presentation, which is all about putting AI into action. I’ll talk about the three levels of building your AI capability - and the first of these is giving your people this basic understanding of the potential of AI.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-creative-ai

AI is already here, but many organisations are holding back to ensure safe, ethical, and responsible use. That's fair enough, but what are you doing in the meantime to get your people comfortable, confident, and optimistic about using it? Be proactive, so your people are ready when you're ready.https://swiy.co/go-ai-early-adoptionMany organisations are holding back on letting their people loose on AI – and sometimes for good reasons. They want their people to use it, but are still planning on how they can use it safely, ethically, and responsibly.Fair enough.But are you getting your people ready for that point?Let's contrast two healthcare companies.Company A is building their AI policy and strategy before they let their employees start using it. Healthcare is highly regulated, so they need to be careful about it. Also, so much healthcare technology and infrastructure is outdated, so it’s not as simple as just flicking a switch and turning AI on. So they are telling their people to wait.Company B is in a similar situation. They’re also going through the same process to get ready for using AI, but they’re doing something extra: They are investing in some basic AI training for all their people, to encourage them to start using AI even before the organisation is ready.Of course, they are warning people not to use AI on confidential and private information (such as patient data!). But they are encouraging them to learn how to use AI for other things – such as:* planning a six-year-old’s birthday party* finding out more about a travel destination* having a difficult conversation with a manager* (for a manager) having a difficult conversation with a team memberBoth approaches can work, but Company B’s approach is better. When the organisation is ready for AI, their people are also ready – and with a positive attitude.Unfortunately, most of the media news about AI is negative: AI is going to destroy jobs, destroy humanity, it’s bad for education, and so on. By the time Company A shows their how to use AI professionally, they might be fighting an uphill battle. But Company B is helping people add value to their own lives and get ready for AI.So, what are YOU doing to get your people ready for AI?Are you doing basic education to get people to that base level?I’m always surprised when I run presentations for clients and their general staff about using AI that many people still have never used a tool like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot.They don’t know what they don’t know.And they don’t know what’s possible.Imagine if you’d never used Google and were still doing all your research at the library. Then somebody showed you Google – it would be mind-blowing!Many people find the same with AI. There are AI tools at their fingertips, but they’ve never used them because they didn’t realise what was possible.I’m running a free public online presentation soon about putting AI into action. I’ll talk about three ways you as a leader and an organisation can do that, and one of them is to get this base level of awareness. If you’re interested, register and invite other leaders in your team as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-ai-early-adoption

If you're not already using AI actively in your team, it's time to take the leap. Don't wait until you have the perfect strategy and policy. Take small steps now to get quick wins, then move to small-scale projects, and eventually tackle the big initiatives.https://swiy.co/go-take-the-leapI was in Sydney last week, speaking at an international conference about thinking like a futurist.Of course, the topic of AI came up, as it always does. After my presentation, one of the attendees asked me,"In terms of AI globally, how ready is Australia for AI? How advanced are we as a country?"There are two parts to the answer.The first is that, on a global scale, we're not really doing that well. One report puts Australia at #31 in AI readiness - behind Malaysia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Belarus.But the second part is that this doesn’t really matter! Instead of asking how ready Australia is for AI, a better question is,"How ready are YOU for AI?"For most organisations, our national readiness for AI isn't relevant. We're ready enough as a country. The real question is, what are YOU doing in your team or organisation to be ready for AI? Most of the practical things you can do with AI, you can start right now.There are three ways to take the leap:1. Quick wins you can achieve immediately2. Small-scale projects you can implement in a few months3. Bigger projects that need more dedicated time and resourcesSo, how ready are you for AI?For more, join my free public online presentation where we'll be looking at putting AI into action at these three levels. You'll find the link to register here, and please invite others in your team and network.And if you’d like to talk about putting these ideas into action, I'd love to have a conversation with you as well.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-take-the-leap

There are two quick and easy ways to get value from AI: boosting your productivity and enhancing your creativity. AI can efficiently handle repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more strategic work. It can also spark creativity by giving you more ideas for you to choose from.https://swiy.co/go-fast-and-looseAre you playing fast and loose with AI?Whenever somebody engages me to speak at their conference about AI, I also include in the presentation package a follow-up online session that shows them how to use AI in a practical way. So they get the high-level strategies at the conference and the practical tools and techniques in this follow-up online session.At one of those recent follow-up sessions, we had covered many practical examples of using AI. Towards the end, one of the participants asked me,“What are the top two things that you use AI for in your business? What are the must-haves that give you the biggest leverage and value?”I said,“AI helps me in two big areas: productivity and creativity.”This is what I mean by “fast and loose”.Your first big gain is in your productivity. AI helps with the heavy lifting in many repetitive tasks throughout your day. Regardless of your job or role, AI can boost your productivity and help you get things done faster.The second benefit is creativity. Some people think AI can’t be creative, but that’s simply not true. Tools like ChatGPT can be more creative than I in many situations.For example, do you need- titles for a blog post?- ideas for having a difficult conversation with a team member?- innovative methods to meet a challenging goal?Ask ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, or your AI tool of choice for help, and it will give you many things you wouldn’t have considered.You still need to apply your human intelligence to these suggestions, but AI often helps loosen up your thinking and provides new ideas, enhancing your creativity.So, be “fast and loose” with AI: fast for productivity and loose for creativity.Consider these benefits for yourself as a leader and for your team and organisation.For more ideas, join my next online presentation about putting AI into action in your team. I’ll share ideas about using AI to be more productive, more creative, and to enhance your customer experience.Register for the virtual masterclass:https://swiy.co/go-fast-and-loose