Leaders and the AI Organization
For decades, business writers and experts have provided business leaders with a variety of ideas, theories, and processes to help them manage and lead change in their organizations. These prescriptions, while invaluable at the time, may challenge leaders planning and implementing AI changes today. The difference is that business leaders need to be able to not only implement change, even if constantly, but to look for ways to transform their organizations.
The Merriam-Webster definition of transformation is:
… change in composition or structure; to change the outward form or appearance of; change character or condition: convert.
For leaders, this means significantly changing the way their organization works. Strategic transformation is necessary in a workplace where AI applications serve as deployment tools alongside human skills. As Fast Future authors Rohit Talwar, Steve Wells, and Alexandra Whittington state,
As AI becomes commonplace, employee soft skills will become even more important. As rule-based thinking and automation proliferate in business, skills like sensitivity, creativity, verbal reasoning and communication, empathy, and spontaneity may become increasingly desirable. Human Resources or a new Humanities Department can facilitate this aspect of personal development to ensure that companies take full advantage of the interaction between personal and artificial intelligence.
If these authors are right, what behaviors should we expect from leaders when their organizations embark on this journey?
Motivated to continuously learn.
In Deloitte’s 2019 Insights report, Leading the Social Enterprise: Reinventing with a Human Focus, the authors found that,
With the relentless acceleration of artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive technologies, and automation, 86% of respondents to this year’s Global Human Capital Trends survey believe they need to reinvent their ability to learn. After nearly 10 years of economic growth, and despite a widespread corporate focus on digital transformation, 84 percent of respondents told us they need to rethink their workforce experience to improve productivity. And faced with new pressures to move faster and adapt to a much more diverse workforce, 80 percent believe they need to develop leaders differently.
As the demographic composition of the workforce evolves and the boomer generation departs, there is considerable need for transfer of leadership skills. Add in the advent of AI and the challenge of the leader’s skills is multiplied. Leaders must continue to improve their own skills while exposing their teams to ongoing training and development.
Being exposed to challenge-based learning will provide leaders with innovative experience opportunities to enhance their capabilities and increase flexibility and adaptability.
Leaders must continue to network, invest in courses, and do research to stay abreast of trends and new developments in their areas of expertise. Reverse mentoring by trusting that the younger members of the team can know more than they do is key. All of these practices are critical to building relationships within the organization, as well as with external AI contacts and colleagues.
Will to share.
Dynamic leaders understand the value of teamwork, knowing that as the skills of some team members diminish, others increase. This happens in the world of AI. Technical skills once considered critical may disappear, but the need for emotional intelligence skills will be the strength of the leader and the team. AI lacks empathy and compassion, but human skills mean leaders care about their teams and colleagues.
Chatbots will need to be accepted as new team members and can be used to orient and train new team members and help them with some of their processes and activities. This will provide more time for human team members to tackle more complex problems with critical thinking, creativity, and innovation.
Leaders must share their passion for AI, demonstrating commitment to new processes and practices, communicating effectively with all stakeholders so that everyone moves forward together. Being a courageous change agent, they trust and lean on each other and continue to support team members as well as their colleagues in other disciplines. These leaders expand their team to include a broader range of skills and participants, reducing the silos that currently exist in the organization.
Eager to create and innovate.
To foster an innovative environment, leaders must be flexible, adaptable, and agile. Adaptable leaders are not afraid to commit to a new course of action when the situation calls for it, and their adaptability enables them to meet challenges. This is what is needed when strategies include AI applications. Leaders must stay engaged, not only with their teams, but also with other members of the organization, customers, and the communities in which they live and work.
As leaders develop their innovation skills and experience, they ensure that their team develops theirs as well.
Agile organizations need adaptable leaders. When leaders stay informed about changes in the competitive landscape and community, trends in the value chain, and trends in customers or customer bases, they also train their teams on how to be agile.
The confidence to challenge current assumptions.
To succeed in the world of AI, leaders must continually question/change their mental models, challenging assumptions about the business, customers, and the future. By focusing on purpose and strengths, they accelerate performance. They must focus on those actions and processes that unleash the creative potential of the team and therefore the power of AI. This will aid in decision making and problem solving skills for challenging situations driven by the needs and desires of the client.
Ability to identify and overcome barriers.
It’s about keeping everyone engaged. Keeping the talents and strengths of the team connected to the vision and purpose of the company is key. Involving them in collective decision making, exploring creative tools like brainstorming, or implementing pilot groups, project teams, and member rotation will give teams opportunities to contribute in other ways. The use of chatbots and virtual feedback platforms reduces the amount of time humans spend on repetitive and non-value-added tasks.
What does not change with the introduction of AI is the importance of having clear goals. Leaders and their teams must work together to develop performance goals and then free themselves to meet or exceed them.
Without the right environment, the effect of this leadership development will be minimal. The right environment is needed for transformative actions; organizations also need to ‘change in composition or structure’.
Organizations must be filled with diverse teams; multidisciplinary, cross-functional and cross-functional teams. No silos. All members of these teams must be engaged, involved in designing new processes, procedures, and practices in a culture that supports frontline decision making and problem solving. These teams are encouraged to be creative and innovative by applying a continuous test-test-measure-review-learn cycle. Organizations filled with leaders who appreciate and accept the value of AI will be able to transform the culture of their organizations; a culture built on a foundation of complementary AI applications and strategic human expertise.
