From AI Alarmist to AI Wrangler

The potential impact of AI leads to excitement for some but fear and instability for others.

Working with teams to equip them with a more open mindset towards change and engaging positively with it is central to solving the challenge of AI.

What

Technology moves quickly and, right now, it feels like it’s marching across our desks, our jobs, and our identities. Most of us will be touched, in some way, by the AI revolution. But, for many, there is an existential fear that there is no place for them – their jobs, their roles – in this brave new world. This is a fear which impacts everyone. It raises questions such as will my role be needed? If AI can do half the work, will I have a job? What happens to me if AI does my job better than I do? This fear can be paralysing, and has the potential to disrupt teams as individuals compete against each other. 

Why

Fear is a human response to the unknown. While some of us are change seekers, most of us prefer stability, and for change to be moderate and, as far as possible, under our control. AI is developing rapidly at present. It’s centre stage in main stream media, and our experience of social media means that we have all seen some of the almost magical effects it can create. This is exciting, but it’s also terrifying.

The fears which result foster insecurity, instability, and uncertainty. And these fears affect everyone. The central issue is change – AI is incidental – and we work with your teams to help them build creativity, adaptability and resilience to navigate the future. 

How

Grounded in emotional intelligence, our approach focuses on creating understanding about what we fear and what that means for us individually, as well as within the context of the team. We focus on empathy, and build psychological safety by developing resilience. When we know ourselves better – and can understand our insecurities, and recognise where they are valid and where they are the manifestation of our innermost fears of not being needed or wanted – we are better able to be positive about change, to channel our creativity and productivity in ways which are beneficial, to us, our teams and our organisations. We are better positioned to risk trying new things, and to adapt and adopt new ways of working.

Recent Engagement

Supporting a central HR function through an AI transition

Getting explicit about fears and developing a shared sense of the potential able to be unlocked ended the frictions which were getting in the way of a successful roll-out

An HR team had tasked a new joiner with exploring ways of automating elements of the operational tasks of the team. The individual met significant resistance from peers and some of their management-level colleagues. The team needed help understanding what automation might mean and what its impact could be.

The aim of the work was to help all colleagues get on board with the automation project, feel included and understand what it was trying to achieve. A listening exercise revealed that colleagues were obstructing changes because of fears, which came from lack of confidence in their ability to use the technology, belief that they were going to either lose their job or it was going to change to something they did not want to do, and concern that automation meant that they lost creative input, impacting job satisfaction.

The listening exercise enabled us to identify the blockers to implementing the necessary changes, and it also allowed for the realisation among senior management that changes of this nature needed more openness in the team. Once the team understood that the aim was not to reduce headcount, but to free them up to do more interesting, challenging and rewarding work – in short, automate the boring bits so that new projects could be developed – their openness and willingness to learn new technical skills shifted.

A useful secondary benefit of this exercise was significantly increased levels of trust between team members, resulting from the open conversations, expression of deep-rooted fears and hopes. A stronger bond between members and with management facilitated greater psychological safety meaning that future changes can be met with more openness and positivity.