Upskilling – An AI Survival Strategy

In today’s environment, those who say “That’s not my job” are likely to find themselves without one. Job security belongs to the fastest and most flexible learners.

Likewise, learning agility is critical to navigating the AI revolution. While the full impact of AI is unknowable, we can posit that fixed roles are largely a thing of the past. Instead, companies will increasingly rely on more fluid, skills-based models, expecting their workforce to flex as the available technology and unmet needs evolve.

As a result, knowledge work will become less about what you know, and more about how quickly you can learn. The most successful teams will shift capability-building from a “nice to have” to an integral part of how they do business.

We’ve helped organizations build capability development plans for large scale transformations and for more acute, team-based interventions. Here’s a few things we’ve learned:

Start with the why

Establishing a common goal is critical for any change initiative, but it may be even more important here. There’s a lot of excitement and promise around a future driven by AI, but there is also a lot of fear.

Shifting to a skills-based model and helping your teams build the capabilities needed to do so is all about prioritizing the human element. Making this clear at the outset will help to engender trust and commitment. AI shouldn’t be a competitor – it should be a collaborator. Upskilling your team puts them in the driver’s seat where they belong.

Growth mindset is key

Many of us were brought up being assigned to boxes, such as ‘Gifted and Talented” or “college-track.” Those categorizations reinforced the fixed mindset – the idea that we’ve got a finite set of talents and intelligence that is assigned at birth. Artificial Intelligence challenges that notion. I mean, if the machines can learn, why can’t we?

The growth mindset is the belief that ability and intelligence can be built with time and effort, regardless of age or past experiences. While we may have resistance to learning yet another new thing, we’re all capable of it. One way to role-model the growth mindset is to be transparent about your own learning journey, e.g., “I just learned how to fast-track my data analysis leveraging AI. It took a few tries, but here’s what I learned…”

Make learning a team sport

If you continually reinforce that “we’re all in this together” you’re more likely to get authentic engagement in the practice of learning. Suggest experiments for the team to try and create a public forum such as a Teams or Slack channel for the team to share insights, suggestions, and interesting articles with one another. Encourage peer-to-peer learning as a core component of your AI adoption strategy and make it a point to celebrate the small wins.

In one way or another, AI is forcing us all out of our comfort zones. Supporting your team in developing new skills will help ensure that what lies outside of their comfort zone is opportunity.