Tag Archive for: AI

Gaining Buy-in for AI in Your Workplace

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Explore how to get employee buy-in and unlock AI’s potential in the workplace.

Would you like to get more employee support and reduce resistance to changes like bringing AI into the workplace? 

We arrived in Afghanistan and saw a damaged school. Insurgents bombed and shot up the building, so no kids went to school there. I believe that people across cultures and religions want what’s best for their kids, so supporting education was one of our top priorities to build bridges to the people in that corner of the country. 

“We’ve got funding to repair the school,” Captain John Page informed the Kamu village council, “If we repair it, will you use the school?” 

“Absolutely not.”

“Why not? Don’t you want your kids to go to school?”

“Of course we do, but we’re not sending our kids to school with children from Mirdish (a nearby village).”

John went to the Mirdish village council and got the same reply.

“Help me understand this situation,” he pleaded.

According to the elders, over a year ago, Americans asked what projects people wanted. Both villages replied that they wanted a school. Since the villages were about two miles apart, the Americans decided to kill two birds with one stone and put the school in between. They brought in an outside construction firm to build the school.

These actions outraged the elders. The villages were in a decades-long blood feud. They believed the Americans promised them a school for their village, not a joint venture. Bringing in outside labor and management affronted their pride and undermined economic opportunity.

Militants from both villages took turns attacking the school as well as John’s outpost.

John was genuinely curious about their views and how to improve relationships. He worked with them on a game plan to build trust and bring a school to each village. The attacks stopped. Co-creation created buy-in that turned angry villagers into allies. 

People Won’t Buy Into Change That Leaves Them Worse Off

Just as the villagers rejected a school that didn’t meet their expectations and needs, employees will resist AI if they perceive it as imposed upon them or as a threat to their roles.

The Economist ran a recent story about AI confirming this truism. Researchers determined that two variables highly correlated with buy-in for workplace AI. People who felt that AI enhanced the quality and meaning of their work saw the machine as a partner. Those who felt their roles diminished had a dim view. 

People involved in co-creating AI’s role naturally discovered ways to boost the job-enhancing aspects; employees viewed top-down imposed AI as job-diminishing or threatening.

AI will disrupt your workplace. For example, people doing repetitive knowledge work and white-collar information brokers will likely see AI do their work cheaper and better. High-trust, high-touch roles like consulting and those that require leadership won’t be replaced by machines. 

Co-creation and job enhancement are the keys to gaining buy-in for a human-AI partnership in your company. Even job-enhancing AI is likely to gain resistance if people do not believe their fingerprints are on it. Like the Afghans from Kamu and Mirdish, they have keen ideas on what’s likely to work and want to shape events to serve their interests.

Imagine your marketing team using AI to analyze consumer data more effectively. The AI provides insights your team uses to craft more personalized campaigns, leading to increased engagement. Instead of feeling replaced, your team sees AI as a tool that amplifies their creativity and impact while your company benefits.

Co-creation is not enough, especially if people believe their views are ignored and the change will do more harm than good. People can sense the illusion of consultation and grow cynical. They need to believe they are better off.

Lectures from you about that won’t convince them. They need to come to the conclusion themselves.

Your Role in Fostering Co-Creation

You play a crucial role in fostering co-creation by actively involving your teams in the AI integration process. This could include workshops, feedback sessions, and pilot programs where your employees experiment with AI tools and provide input on how to tailor them to enhance their work.

One common concern is that AI will make specific jobs obsolete. Addressing these fears openly and providing retraining opportunities or new roles can help alleviate your employees’ anxiety and build trust. Be transparent about AI’s impact and actively work to find solutions that benefit both the company and your employees.

Sometimes, people’s jobs become obsolete. Working with them to identify new ways they can contribute to your company’s success and their own growth will help you retain great talent. With this approach, even the ones better off moving on will become ambassadors for you. 

Just as Captain Page’s collaboration with the Afghan villages turned adversaries into allies, your efforts to co-create AI solutions with your team can transform potential resistance into enthusiastic support. The key to success is ensuring everyone feels better off in this new AI-enhanced environment.

Yes, I am an AI enthusiast. My chatbot helped me strengthen this article.  

I’m keen to hear your views on how you are using a Human – AI partnership to create a 1+1=5 outcome. Please reply with your successful practices.

If you want to explore more ideas on building trust in an AI-infused workplace, let’s have a meaningful conversation. You can schedule it here.

3 Ways AI will transform the construction and manufacturing industries

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The New York Times says that articles on AI are among 2023’s most popular. It’s no wonder – this revolutionary capability will transform business and life. Are you wondering how AI will affect your business? If you’re like most leaders I’ve been talking to, you want to get ahead of the curve, not left behind.

I have several construction and manufacturing clients, so I asked my Chatbot to help me identify some of the most important ways artificial intelligence will affect them. These three stood out to me.

  1. Predictive Maintenance: Why wait for the wheel to break? AI-powered sensors can alert you before a machine or component fails, reducing downtime and saving costs.

Preventative maintenance will remain essential in prolonging the life of components. Combined with AI-powered predictive maintenance, you can avoid the massive costs of corrective and remedial action. 

  1. Supply Chain Simplification: AI can streamline your supply chain, making it transparent and efficient while uncovering hidden costs.

Complicated, hyper-efficient, cheap supply chains were the gold standard until the fragile system crashed. Many CEOs still complain about supply chain disruptions, clinging to a system that no longer works. 

The wise ones are simplifying their supply chains to reduce the system’s friction. Fewer transactions mean less opportunity for things to go wrong. AI can help you build resilience by reducing complexity.

I just finished visiting with a CEO who simplified their supply chain. Their business grew 38% in the past two years by acquiring new business from competitors who couldn’t deliver. 

  1. 3D Visualization, Testing, and Building: Expect 3D printed structures designed by AI, reducing cost and time.

The most successful companies will rethink what ‘building’ and manufacturing means when machines weave structures and components “like spiders spin webs” (Chatbot).

AI will load-test your products and structures before you build them. How well will that building stand up to a hurricane? How long can you expect these components to last under adverse conditions? What are the likely risks of harm to people, animals, and the environment, and what are the most effective ways to reduce the probability of problems arising and their seriousness?

Much of the AI conversation centers on the potential risks of rogue bots. These discussions are vital, and policymakers need to develop sensible safety protocols. 

Closer to home, AI will have a transformative effect on your business. Daniel Burrus calls it a Hard Trend – something that will happen (like the sun rising tomorrow). Will you ride the crest of the wave or get pulled under it?

Here’s a massive implication that transcends industries. Workplace trust will rise in importance as AI reshapes and replaces traditional roles. Higher trust leads to stronger innovation, lower anxiety, and better teamwork and productivity. Low-trust environments, by contrast, arouse suspicion, heighten dysfunctional stress, impede innovation, and damage performance. 

Will AI strengthen trust in your company or diminish it? The answer is 100% up to you.

You face a dynamic hybrid workplace that includes disruptive advances like AI, four generations of employees, varied viewpoints within a polarized polity, and unprecedented social pressures. 

My newest program, Building an Inspiring Culture®, is ideal for companies who want to strengthen how their leaders build trust, gain buy-in, and create productive accountability. You need a strong foundation to build a tall building.

Schedule a call to learn more about the program and see if it’s a good fit.  

Leading in an AI World: 4 Ways to Repair the Trust Crisis

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Have you considered how AI will affect relationships in your workplace?

If not, it’s time to get ahead of the curve. Information technology provides massive benefits to society and your business, but its misuse has damaged relationships and created a trust crisis. 

Is that person really working all of those hours?

Is that “Hey Chris” email for me or personalized spam? 

Why do my employees make more than I do? 

Will a bot take my job?

Why does the CEO, who gets mega-millions, say she cares about us but can’t afford to give us raises or training?

It’s not that our company’s leaders won’t keep their promises; it’s just that they haven’t.

AI can widen the breach; it can also repair it. 

We live in an era where AI isn’t just a tool—it’s becoming a co-worker. 

AI exposes contradictions, say-do gaps, and potential unfairness while creating deep anxiety and uncertainty. This trust crisis corrodes relationships, impedes performance, and sours your company’s culture.

Why should you care? High-trust companies reportedly outperform their rivals by nearly 300%. 

And yet, how do you sustain trust as AI takes on more roles while raising troubling questions about credibility, agency, and employee value?

Here are four behaviors that will inspire employees to contribute their best even as AI’s role expands (my chatbot helped me craft these ideas after I gave it suitable prompts).

  1. Be Transparent with AI Integration: Remove the enigma surrounding AI. Educate your team on extracting the best from AI while recognizing its limitations. Your employees’ ability to provide actionable prompts will make AI an ally in your mission, not a mystery.
  2. Boosting Human-AI Innovation: AI can crunch numbers but can’t think outside the box. AI’s efficiency plus human creativity reduces risk and improves innovation. Leaders who promote critical thinking will get the best from AI while limiting garbage-in-garbage-out problems, drift, and look-a-like challenges.
  1. Creating Ever-Better Personal Interaction: Relationships become more important with remote work and distributed teams. You have a reduced margin for error, making every human touchpoint critical for building trust and unity. Face-to-face interactions in high-quality and innovative off-sites accelerate belief in you and each other.  
  1. Gaining Buy-In & Proactive Accountability: Move away from AI as a surveillance tool. Build a culture where leaders use AI to help employees improve future performance and spark their discretionary effort. 

You can anticipate AI’s effects on workplace relationships and develop behaviors that maximize its capabilities while limiting the downsides.

Anticipatory action on your part becomes compounding interest as trust increases performance, which enhances confidence in your company’s future. Wait, and you’ll regret the bill for corrective action.

Are you ready to get ahead of the curve? Schedule a call or email me for information about my keynotes and workshops on building trust in an AI world.