AI Considerations for ‘the Next Normal’

We recently discussed some of the strategic priorities regarding artificial intelligence (AI) and other technology that leaders will need to keep in mind for the future. Whilst deciding on the best plan of action, there are many factors to consider. What is the current vs future 2–5-year climate likely to be? What will this mean for workforce reskilling and day-to-day practices? What ethical and governance issues need to be considered? These are just some of the crucial questions to consider when undertaking any digital or change programme.

The State of AI

One core message relayed in the previous blog is well worth reiterating here: artificial intelligence is no longer a distant ‘maybe.’ The time has arrived to either sink or swim, adapt or get left behind. AI is guiding decisions from crop harvesting, to bank loans, to medical and pharmaceutical testing.

The gravity of the situation is evidenced strongly in the various tech-focused initiatives included in the UK Government’s latest budget plans. Their aim is to support businesses, enabling them to come to terms with an increasingly digital climate. Two initiatives worth mentioning are a new fast-tracked visa to draw in top tech talent from around the world, as well as the £520 million Help to Grow scheme which is aimed at aiding SMEs to be more competitive while enhancing digital skills. The scheme will allow up to 130,000 SMEs to have subsidised access to university-level training, 50 hours of tuition, and one-to-one business mentoring. In order to further support digital transformation in enterprise, the scheme also includes a 50% government contribution towards productivity software up to £5,000 and delivered in vouchers.

According to a report released at the end of 2020, the UK is ranked third out of the G20 countries in terms of total implementation, innovation, and investment in AI. Britain is ranked first overall in ‘Operating Environment,’ which encompasses the regulatory context and public opinion surrounding artificial intelligence.

The UK government has been taking strides for years to secure this position, most notably through the work of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Artificial Intelligence (APPG AI), of which Rialto is a permanent board member. The group meets regularly for evidence sessions and discussions of the major issues and innovations in AI, all with the intention of supporting the adoption of the technology in enterprise. Membership of this community and access to these sessions is one of the benefits of our AI Leaders Programme, designed to help leaders stay up to date with key developments.

The Human Cost of Automation

The Help to Grow scheme itself is an acknowledgement of the government’s understanding of the necessary role which AI and other technology will play in this next chapter. The pandemic was a ‘trial by fire’ lesson in the importance of digital transformation, as even the most resistant organisations and individuals were left with no choice but to rely on technology to function. The difference now is that while most of the technology we turned to during the pandemic helped us simply stay connected and stay afloat, the technology we turn to next will be strategically focused on creating impactful and long-term change.

Much has been written about the numerous benefits that AI and automation can provide to organisations, especially in terms of productivity and cost savings. Normally, when business leaders are thinking about their AI adoption plans and their objectives, it is these benefits that they tend to focus on. But opportunity has its costs, and the change in practices that AI brings about raises some very serious questions about the impact on human staff.

The major focus we should take from the Help to Grow scheme is the emphasis on skill building, which is both intentional and necessary. It is crucial that any organisation looking at digital transformation, no matter how big or small, ensure that human staff understand the technology they are adopting as well as its uses and implications. A common misconception surrounding AI is that it is here to replace the human workforce. The reality is that AI has not yet reached a level of human intelligence that would allow it to be fully self-sufficient. Most tools that businesses will be looking to adopt tend to rely on a partnership between human and machine. Teams will be needed to oversee the technology, but more importantly they will be required to make sense of any insights and transform them into actions for the business.

That said, there will be certain cases where technology does displace human staff. In AI’s current phase, this is more likely to occur in tasks or roles that are heavily routinised, potentially dangerous, or methodical. There are many examples of this already occurring in manufacturing, agricultural, and distribution functions, amongst others.

When beginning a transformation project, it is essential that the organisation’s leadership look beyond the benefits to the business and examine the potential impacts on staff. On one hand, effort is required to ensure that the staff you have on hand are well prepared to deal with any changes. This is where upskilling initiatives such as those included in the Help to Grow scheme become crucial in terms of involving staff in the next phase of development.

On the other hand, what action is required to assist those left behind by AI? One option is reskilling and helping leaders and staff to develop skills and capabilities that differ from those required by their current role so that they may serve the business in another area. This reskilling may also focus on the human capabilities that technology (currently) cannot replicate, such as empathy, understanding, or strategy. However, if redundancies are deemed necessary, how can you provide support? It might be worth investing in executive outplacement services to help these individuals transition to a new role. Regardless of the approach you select, it is essential that you factor in the human and reputational costs when adopting AI.

Bias and Ethics

Apart from the displacement and critical reskilling needs of the human workforce, additional concerns with AI tend to focus on macros issues such as privacy, bias, and ethics. Customers are wary about the amount of personal data collected and how it is used. In Europe and the UK there are certain policies in place such as GDPR which partially govern this, but at present, AI remains largely unregulated.

Several professional bodies have begun developing their own codes of practice, and governments around the world are working to do this on both a national and global level. The work of the APPG AI community is helping to contribute to these efforts in the UK, and these issues are often discussed in the group’s evidence meetings. But until there are a set of standards or guiding principles that businesses can refer to and adhere to, how can you ensure your AI project avoids violating any ethical rules?

The past year raised some very pertinent ethical discussions, especially in regard to diversity and equality. The leadership team will need to deeply examine and make decisions about potential issues that may affect the outputs of the new technology. This will require answering some very important questions. Who do you have overseeing these systems? How do you plan to use the data you collect? What steps do you intend to take to protect this data and the customers it belongs to? What potential biases may arise from the data or how it is treated? Having answers to the tough questions will help to develop a set of standards or practices for the entire organisation to abide by to ensure any major breaches are avoided.

When adopting AI or other disruptive technologies, it is easy to become blinded by the potential benefits for the business. As we enter the next ‘normal’, it is essential that leaders deepen their understanding of what is happening with technology on a macro level, what impacts might be felt within the business, and how they can ensure that their new endeavour has both internal and external benefits. Membership of the Rialto AI Leaders Programme is a great way to accomplish this, which enabled members to take part in thought-provoking high-level evidence sessions, hearing discussions of the major macro issues first-hand. Furthermore, members are kept up to date with the latest developments, trends, innovations, ROI case studies, and investments on AI.

In the first instalment of our Personal Digital Branding series, we introduced the foundations to creating a representative ‘personal’ profile. In the second blog of the series, we delved into the ‘digital’ side of personal digital branding and provided our top tips for selecting the right social medium and using it to your advantage.

This article continues the series, exploring the ways in which you can bring your brand to life through thought leadership and the creation and curation of quality content. The right thought leadership can make the difference in positioning you as an aligned and relevant leader in the future world of work, thus ensuring you are better known and sought after in target areas.

What is Thought Leadership?

Every industry has its key players, the individuals that others turn to for insights or expertise on selected topics. These individuals are considered thought leaders and have earned that distinction through the active and strategic building of their profile within their designated space.

If executed properly, thought leadership can be a hugely beneficial tool for differentiating oneself in an increasingly crowded and competitive marketplace. This may prove helpful in an executive career transition, with securing new business, or attracting other opportunities for networking, NED roles, or further reputation-boosting publicity. Implicitly, people want to work with someone they can trust; an individual who they believe is best suited for the job. Thought leadership helps build that trust, authority, and credibility.

Thought leaders actively connect with others in their industry and attract valuable connections from outside of their immediate network, too. They are up to date with the latest developments and engaged in discussion about the issues, trends, and news impacting their space. They may be frequent commentators in the media, or active on the global keynote circuit (virtual or face-to-face). Alternatively, these individuals benefit from having a really strong and active social media presence or a great content strategy.

Our previous blog provided guidance for developing this strategy, but a key question is what should you actually be sharing in order to build your credibility? What separates good thought leadership content from average material?

What Do Thought Leaders Share?

We work very closely with our Personal Digital Branding clients, helping each Executive to perfect their thought leadership. In doing so, we help them to stand out from the crowd. Typically, once a client reaches this point in the process, they have already completed the essential work of clarifying their objective – for example, identifying the top organisations for whom they would particularly like to work and clarifying the compelling value proposition they have to share. They will understand their personal digital brand and areas of expertise. Our experts will also have helped them research the best ways to reach their target audiences and helped them to articulate key messages through different communication channels. Strong digital content is the next step for bringing those elements together to create results.

The types of content you should share as a thought leader will and should vary. Here are just a few examples:

• Blogs/Articles: The long format of this type of content allows you the space and freedom to go into depth about your key topics. You may choose to publish these directly on your personal website or your company’s site, if allowed, and share a link to the article via your chosen social platforms. Alternatively, LinkedIn allows its users to publish ‘Articles’ directly on the platform. These articles function exactly the same way a blog would and are an excellent option for executives who lack a platform for posting elsewhere.
• Personal updates: These posts provide your network with glimpses into your professional life. This may include news of any nominations or awards won, initiatives you have taken part in, promotions or new roles you have taken on, and attendance of or participation in any relevant industry events. However, do not confuse the definition of ‘personal’ here. Any updates you share about yourself should pertain to your professional developments or achievements.
• Company updates: If allowed and appropriate, you should share the projects your company is working on, relevant news or updates from your organisation, any mentions of your company in the news, case studies, or awards won.
• Third-party resources: Sharing news, articles, blogs, or other content from credible third-party sources about relevant topics is a great way of showing that you are tuned into what’s happening in your industry and the wider world around you. That said, when you share this type of content, you should always ensure that there is some sort of value add. Do not simply share a link and go. Always try to add a bit of insight, commentary, or critical thought.

As mentioned in an earlier blog, a great way to get a feel for what this content looks like in practice is to examine the profiles of the thought leaders you admire. Visit their social profiles, read their blogs, and note the things you feel that they are doing right. Take those lessons back with you and adapt them to suit your style, goals, and strategy.

Thought Leadership Content Tips:

Thought leadership takes time to cultivate. To become a thought leader, you need to remain vigilant and stay on top of your posting. Here are a few final pieces of advice to build your personal digital brand:

• Tag to build your network: Tag in posts wherever you can in order to draw more eyes to your content. Tag anyone directly related to the content, or you can even tag individuals who you think might be interested in what you have shared. Actively interacting with peers is a great way to continue growing your network and raising your name recognition in the industry.
• Add value: Reiterating our earlier point, thought leadership content should always come with a value add, no matter what the style of content. When sharing third-party content, avoid presenting it without any type of commentary or simply recapping what is there. A few brief lines of analysis will help to establish your position as a thought leader in that particular topic or area. When writing a blog, share any advice or insight you can with your readers. Do not be afraid to inject your own professional experiences in order to provide real-world context.
• Let your brand shine through: After all of the hard work you have put in up to this point, you should have a very clear idea of what your personal digital brand identity is. This should hopefully make it very easy to shape the content you create and select the topics you discuss. The time has come to let your brand shine through. Be your own champion. Do not be afraid to voice your opinions or share your insights and expertise on the topics you are experienced in and passionate about.
• Stay active: This will play into the strategy you previously devised, but in order to become a thought leader and stay that way, you do need to engage with your audience regularly. Our previous blog provided tips for determining the frequency of your activity. But a mistake that many professionals tend to make is pursuing thought leadership to achieve a specific goal, and then dropping their activity once that goal has been met. Maintain it if you can. If your thought leadership activity helped you to secure a new role, it is likely that your new employer was drawn to the idea of having a respected expert on their team. If thought leadership brought in some new connections or opportunities for you before, it will continue to do so if you maintain momentum.

Personal digital branding and thought leadership can be hard work but can also bring about some incredible and valuable opportunities for your career including internal promotion or external appointments. Once you have found your stride and determined which content works for you and your audience, keeping up with thought leadership should become a natural and effortless part of your normal professional activity. Make it part of your daily routine. Be patient, as it will take time to build trust and credibility. But with time, you are likely to find that putting in the work to pursue thought leadership was a worthwhile investment in your career and professional development.

For most, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about significant and unexpected changes to our lives, businesses and careers.  Our daily routines, our children’s lives, our jobs and our relationships have been flipped upside down.  Have we ever looked at so many graphs, charts, models and metrics unrelated to our business lives?

Workplaces and entire industries are changing.  Employees have been furloughed and a number are now being made redundant or having to rethink how their roles and careers will evolve in the emerging new world normality.

There is no doubt that this is a major re-set, and that many are faced with a significant challenge of working out how to live, work and survive this ‘new normal.’ For some, it has led to an enforced opportunity to reflect on what might have been. But be aware of backward thinking; in times of crisis, it is very easy to slip into a mindset of blame, regret or denial.

Making a career change in the midst of a global pandemic might therefore seem wild at first. Even in happier times, career change is never a perfectly linear process or without risk and challenge. It’s a necessary journey of exploration — and to do it right, you have to experiment, test and learn about a range of possibilities and options that could become a future reality.

The reasons for wishing to career pivot

When you don’t know what the future will bring, or when the path you thought you were on takes an unexpected turn, Rialto believes it makes sense to consider and explore a diverse portfolio of options rather than just sticking single-mindedly to the known.

Our discussions indicate that many people right now are considering taking a job in a different area, whether it’s because they are working in a declining industry; loss of personal drive or reaching a performance plateau; a role no longer makes them feel fulfilled; or a struggle with work-life balance is dictating that change is necessary.

The current reality, in fact, may make it easier on some levels to make a much needed pivot as the environment we find ourselves in means there is a need to change.

Whatever the motivation, individuals need to prepare to pivot and assess what actions are needed to successfully make the move. For some people, this next move is clear, for others less so which is why for some it is a good idea to seek the advice of an experienced career transition or outplacement specialist who has assisted others with similar moves.

Effective preparation needs to involve an assessment to identify any skills or experience gaps that will impede pivoting and deciding on the best intervention to address them.  Whatever the move, there must be clear purpose and intent behind it.

Working out how to pivot will involve thinking laterally and with some creativity. For instance, making a sideways move or looking for a secondment may be more beneficial and productive than more formal development. In some cases, the springboard for the pivot could be something outside of work like a hobby or voluntary work, which could be transformed into a new career or business opportunity.

Careers could span 70 years in the future so there is even greater scope for individuals to pivot multiple times during their career lifecycle

Working with clients over 28+ years, we have found that clients always benefit and gain more clarity when plotting a roadmap of where they are now, where they would like to be and what needs to happen to reach their goals.  Think about your personal risk appetite as a gauge to whether a career pivot makes sense right now for you or not. Often mapping out the best case and worse case scenarios of a given path successfully is a way to prioritise action you choose to take.  Using tools such as LinkedIn or the Rialto Accelerated Leadership Index (RALI) also allows individuals to benchmark themselves against others who have followed a similar journey or are in desired careers.

It is essential to go into pivot mode with eyes wide open and to research the role, company, sector or industry to which you aspire. A pivot in which the role or individual falls short of expectation will feel like a major career setback and a severe blow to anyone’s confidence.

But the positive effect of a career pivot can be immeasurable: it can re-invigorate; build new skills and capabilities; and provide exposure to entirely new experiences. It can also mean that you enjoy going to work and feel more rewarded for what you do.

Why pivoting is likely to increase

With the end of a job for life, work tenures becoming shorter and the shift towards a more portfolio style of working, career pivots are likely to become an even more regular aspect of the business landscape.

Surveys point to average tenure in a role as four- to five years and this figure can approximately halve for millennials. And, indeed, it has been suggested that careers could span 70 years in the future so there is even greater scope for individuals to pivot multiple times during their career lifecycle.

It is important to remember though that while some will fall into a new position in a non-linear way which then provides the opportunity to pivot into a new role, in general, such a move needs to be extremely well thought through and executed effectively.

So, for those who find themselves thinking about a career change, the pandemic may provide the opportunity to make the career pivot that has always been in the back of your mind but you’ve never managed to explore.

With the COVID 19 vaccine rollout providing hope and early promising results, it seems that we are closer to a return to a new normal than we have been for over a year. This positive outlook means that it is safer for both individuals and businesses alike to start seriously considering and planning for what comes next, what this time has meant for businesses, and what needs to change in order to suit new ways of living and working. One major topic that needs to be covered as part of the discussion is purpose.

This past year has brought out the human side of business. It has led many of us to revaluate what is truly important and presented many organisations with challenges to their purpose statements. But what does purpose truly mean for businesses, leaders, and their people in 2021 and the near future? How do you transfer it from words into a real actionable leadership strategy?

Defining Purpose

Fundamentally, many businesses exist to make a profit, but profit should not be confused with purpose. Purpose is the starting point that led to the founding of the business. Think of it as the the ‘Why’ at the centre of Simon Sinek’s ‘Golden Circle’ model. Purpose looks beyond profits to the long-term impacts you would like to have on your customers, staff, market, community and the environment.

‘Purpose’ and ‘values’ are often misunderstood, due to being used interchangeably or variably in different contexts. Your purpose is why you are in business, and your values are the guiding principles and standards for behaviour. Think of purpose as the big picture roadmap for the direction in which you would like the organisation to progress.  Values are the compass for how to get there. In the Sinek model, values sit in the ‘How’ ring. How do you behave to ensure you are living out your organisation’s purpose? How does the organisation work towards this vision each day?

Why It Matters

Purpose and vision exist on an individual level as well. Just as you have your reasons for pursuing a particular career path and have a set of moral principles that matter to you, so will the people you do business with. Millennials and Generation Z are more socially conscious than previous generations, and as they begin to make up larger portions of the workforce and consumer market, these young people want to buy from and work for companies whose purpose they resonate with and whose values they share.

Think of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. At the top of the triangle after all the basic and security needs are fulfilled, we start to look at topics such as belonging, esteem, and self-actualisation. Purpose provides unification, motivation, inspiration, and helps individuals tap into these higher level needs to get more out of their role.

Employees turn to purpose as a way of bringing meaning to their work and to understand the contribution they are making to the organisation and the world around them. Research has found that these employees who find meaning in their day-to-day work feel much more satisfied and engaged. Employees who feel connected to their organisation’s purpose have a deeper sense of belonging and are therefore more motivated in their roles and are easier to retain.

The intrinsic motivation which purpose can provide to staff has become incredibly valuable during the hardships of the past year. The changing business landscape has forced many businesses to rethink how they can incentivise their employees, especially in situations where financial rewards are not practical or possible. In some cases, the fulfilment of doing meaningful work and contributing to the bigger mission and vision may be enough to encourage staff to remain with the organisation.

Walking the Talk

For this to have any affect at all, businesses and their leaders need to ‘walk the talk.’ Your purpose is mere words on a page until there is action behind it. For example, a business can say that its purpose is to create a fairer world for all, but this means very little if its board comprises only one predominant demographic, and if its female staff are not paid the same as their male counterparts. Clearly, a lack of diversity at a senior level and unfair compensation practices are in direct conflict with the organisation’s mission of fairness.

This is a very serious and big picture example, but infractions against a company’s values and purpose can occur daily in smaller instances. Authenticity matters. If a leader is to serve as a champion for the organisation’s mission and purpose, they need to ensure that their words match their actions. If your company has outlined its values, you need to ensure that both you and your team are meeting those standards of behaviour. If you state that you value inclusion, you must ensure that you give every member of the team a voice. If you value respect, it’s important that you are respecting your team’s boundaries and opinions, and that they are showing the same respect to one another.

This sends a clear message to your team that the company is serious about what it stands for, and thereby helps to build their faith in the organisation. Staff will find it easier to buy into a purpose if they see it being lived out every day. Leading by example is critically important to build this type of trust and to reap the productivity, motivation, and retention benefits that ensue.

Putting this into practice post-COVID will be challenging for many leaders. Reinforcing purpose on an individual level and creating that sense of alignment and unity is more difficult whilst staff continue to work remotely.

While it is essential for staff to have a clear idea of where the organisation and its leadership stands in terms of values and purpose, it is equally important that each individual team member understands the role they play in that. This understanding of individual impact will help staff find their place within that bigger picture.

Operationally, this links back to the standards set by management. Leaders need to continue holding their team to those same behavioural principles even when outside of the office. Examples would include allowing everyone a chance to speak on video calls or monitoring team correspondence to ensure that teams maintain respectful for one another.

At Rialto, we work closely with teams to help staff gain an understanding of the impact they make on the organisation, and to understand where they can improve. Often, issues can be swiftly resolved through better communication from leadership. Managers need to have conversations with their staff about the purpose of the organisation, the contributions each team member makes towards furthering that purpose, and the values and standards of behaviour that every person in the organisation is held to.

One of the clearest indications of walking the talk is a company’s willingness to invest in its own people. Taking the time to ensure that everyone is aligned, on board, and motivated is the best way of ensuring that a company is living out its own purpose. Leaders should ensure that they are authentic in their words and actions and are leading by example. Hold staff to the right standards, but make sure they each understand what contributions they can be valued for, how to make those impacts, and how this all fits into the greater purpose of the organisation. That way, you build a team that truly believes in the work that they do, and who are willing to stand by the organisation, its customers, and its wider stakeholders.

During 2020, digital transformation initiatives helped businesses to stay afloat when the world was plunged into challenging and uncharted territory. 2021 is a time for businesses to build on what they put in place in order to thrive rather than simply survive. We touched on technology in our Essential Leadership Requirements for 2021, but felt it was worth highlighting some of the key artificial intelligence (AI) and workplace technologies that leaders are prioritising this year and exploring how they will impact our working lives. Here is what you need to know about AI and tech’s potential in the working world in 2021:

The AI Imperative

We have spent the past several years discussing ‘the future of work’ and the ways that technology will eventually shake up the workplace. But the fact of the matter is, developments such as COVID and constant global innovation have accelerated the timeline, and the future has now arrived. Going forward, the future we have been predicting and planning for will start to be accepted as the norm. The time has come to sink or swim, adapt or accept defeat.

At this point, the benefits of AI, Cloud, and other disruptive technologies have been discussed at length. It should no longer seem unfathomable that AI will touch every aspect of our lives in due course. We interact with it on a daily basis without even realising or thinking twice about it. The tech already lives in our phones, our smart speakers, our email, our social media feeds, our streaming platforms, and our online shopping baskets. It may already be embedded in features of the software you use at work or will likely be introduced soon.

Better Technology, Bigger Possibilities, and Buy-in Challenges

We can expect to see an even greater acceleration in the advancement and intelligence performed by technology during 2021.

What this means is that work will become ‘smarter’ as businesses adopt new technology to help enhance their practices, speed up their processes, gain in-depth insights into the needs of their customers, discover patterns, reveal anomalies, and make predictions and decisions. Given the advancement of AI and machine learning in the past year, and the developments still to come in the year ahead, AI is increasingly becoming a key driver of organisational performance. The organisations who are leading the pack in adoption are already reaping massive benefits in productivity, efficiency, cost and resource saving, and competitive advantage.

We have become a bit spoilt for choice when it comes to available tools and vendors. The benefit of this is that regardless of an organisation’s challenges or goals, there is likely to be a solution readily available to help. With automation able to handle the routinised and data-driven functions of the business, human staff are freed up from the mundane aspects of their role and able to focus on more meaningful work.  They will also have more time to focus on the creative or strategic functions that technology cannot yet perform, this being a huge benefit for businesses which need to drive more innovation.

However, even though AI will reshape rather than replace most professional roles, there will almost certainly be discomfort or pushback from staff as their jobs change. Some may cling to the status quo and reject AI’s assistance, or feel threatened. The key here is for business leaders to offer their staff adequate support and preparation throughout the transformation process. This will likely involve offering retraining or upskilling opportunities to help staff develop future-ready skills and adjust to the evolving needs of the business. It is also crucial for leaders to serve as champions of change within their organisation. By increasing their own understanding of new technologies, business leaders can better address staff concerns, which helps to inspire confidence in the future of the organisation and its leadership.

Changing Expectations

2020 was a massive turning point when it came to our level of comfort with using digital interactions in our daily lives. Customers’ priorities and expectations have shifted after a year of living through a pandemic. Businesses closed their physical doors due to restrictions, so their customers flocked to their websites. As a result, there is a greater focus on providing effective, differentiated digital experiences than ever before.

We do not know how long the current restrictions will last, but as we look ahead to when life returns to some semblance of normalcy, it is likely that customers will no longer be satisfied with distinctly physical or digital experiences. Instead, business leaders need to prepare to offer their customers a blend of the best of both. AI can be used to offer customers a personalised experience that transitions seamlessly between the digital and physical environments, when allowed. Expect forward-thinking leaders to begin planning for this over the next several months.

Customer needs, behaviours, and expectations shift quickly and often. It is crucial for business leaders to stay on top of these trends in order to provide the experiences their customers expect and the products and services that will best meet their changing needs. It can be hard to keep track of these shifts, but AI tools make it easier track changes as they happen and gain deeper insight into their customer base. This will prove critical to business leaders as they try to move their organisation forward post-pandemic, and it is a benefit which leaders should factor in when considering adopting AI.

Smarter Strategy

Every industry has its leaders and its laggards, but most businesses today fall somewhere in the middle. These organisations and their leadership most likely understand that the world of work is evolving and that they need to adapt in order to survive. But as we start 2021, most of these organisations are still struggling with where to begin.

While having many vendors and tools in the market means that businesses have plenty of options, the drawback is that it can be difficult to know who to turn to. Conversely, with so many shiny tools available, it can be tempting to adopt whatever sounds the best or makes the most promises as opposed to the most effective tool for solving the problems at hand.

That is why it is so crucial for leaders to have a strategy in place. This should be the starting point for all digital transformation processes. Businesses undoubtedly have many challenges to overcome this year, but the specifics of those problems and the outcomes you are looking to achieve need to be identified first and foremost.

We have spoken in previous years of there needing to be a greater emphasis on having tech savvy executives in the C-suite to drive the change process, and we expect to see this accelerate in 2021. The shift of technology being the responsibility of the CIO or CTO will also continue to decline as more ownership needs to be held across many levels. Given that the impacts of new technology will touch every aspect of the organisation, it is crucial that the entire board understands the impacts, benefits, risks, and so on. Whether it is the CEO or CTO who leads the change, there needs to be a team of empowered and well-informed executive leaders driving the development of the strategy. It will be the responsibility of this team to define, expand, and shape the vision through effective collaborations with the workforce that creates alignment and buy-in throughout the organisation. Having the right skills, displaying the right behaviours and understanding how and what each person and process contributes is critical.

Investing in the future of work

Last year opened our eyes to just how much more beneficial and impactful technology can be in the workplace to remain competitive, increase employee experience and customer satisfaction. This year, leaders need to further expand their thinking to focus on how AI and technology can be used to help them get ahead rather than just stay afloat. Upskilling or retraining can help leaders deepen their understanding of AI while also developing the right skills to help inform the strategy and implement it.

It will also be vitally important for leaders to understand how AI and disruptive technology are impacting businesses across their industry and other sector, as well as learning how this technology is being regulated, and what the major trends are globally*.

Attending AI courses or programmes such as the Rialto AI Leaders Programme is a great way for executives to improve their relationship with AI, deepen their understanding of it, keep up with trends, and gain actionable insights that can then be applied to their business. They can then take the insights, skills, and knowledge gained back to their boardroom to create a strategy that leverages AI to its full potential.

As many executives begin to come to grips with AI, we expect 2021 to see greater investment, shifts in priorities, a bigger focus on digital skills, and smarter and more tech-driven strategies. Just as the idea of returning to a five-day in-office work week may seem old-fashioned to many of us now, we expect that by the end of this year, we will feel the same about not using artificial intelligence in our day-to-day practice.  The fact of the matter is that the time has now come to sink or swim, and those who swim safely to shore after the major waves of the pandemic have died down will most definitely be those who leveraged AI to chart their path forward.

Typically, the start of a new year brings with it the promise of new beginnings. The financial year restarts, most have used the holiday period to rest and refresh before returning to work ready and motivated, and many businesses will begin strategising and acting on their plans for the year ahead.

But this new year began with many of the same challenges that we had hoped to leave behind in 2020. Just as most professionals switched off for a well-deserved break, it was as though the door at the end of the tunnel was suddenly slammed shut. New strains of the virus emerged in the UK, which altered Christmas plans and shook up the tier system. Now we are starting this year the way we spent a large portion of the last one: in a national lockdown. These necessary actions have dealt another unfortunate blow to many businesses across all industries, and have undoubtably impacted the way that most of us will approach 2021.

With all of this in mind, there is no better time for professionals to think about what career moves to make in the year ahead. At the start of 2020, 18% of UK adults surveyed reported making a New Year’s resolution to pursue a career ambition. Given the lessons of last year and the challenges we are still facing, we imagine that an even higher percentage of UK professionals will be considering what career decisions to take this year. The following are some key areas to consider for those making a career transition and advancing their career in the current climate.

Just as the workplace has become increasingly digital over the past year, so has the job market. Technology has influenced every stage of the career journey, from search, to the interview process, to thought leadership and establishing an industry profile. Failing to take the following factors into consideration would therefore be remiss of all those considering a career transition in 2021:

The evolution of job sites

The way that roles and opportunities are found continues to evolve and change. This largely occurs virtually, with thousands of new roles listed across sites such as LinkedIn, Exec Appointments, and aggregate sites such as Indeed and Adzuna each day. LinkedIn in particular has become a major player for job searches. 50 million companies choose to list their opportunities on the site, and there are over 14 million job listings available. The encouraging news is that these listings do result in real placements. According to LinkedIn’s statistics, 40 million people use the platform to search for jobs each week and three people are hired every minute for roles they applied for via the site.

Most sites now allow you to upload a CV, which can then be scanned for keywords and matched to available opportunities that might be a good fit for your skills and experience. Some of these opportunities may not be roles you might have initially considered yourself right for, but actually fit the criteria set by the listing recruiter. Do not discount the possibility of finding your next opportunity on these sites.  Equally these sites are a great way for you to consider whether you are promoting the skills for your most desired role or indeed what recruiters and the future market requires.

Automation in recruitment

Just as digital is influencing the process by which professionals find opportunities, it is also impacting the hiring process itself. In recent years, we have seen the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) tools in the recruitment process to automate tasks such as CV screening, answering applicant questions, conducting interviews, and onboarding new staff. More and more tools enter this space on a regular basis, and they are becoming even more of an asset as many of the population continue to work remotely.

If you are undergoing a career transition, it is possible that your CV or Executive Profile might pass through an AI-powered keyword check, or that you might interact with a chatbot as part of your screening. Ensure you are prepared for these interactions just as you would if you were dealing with a real person. With the increase in technology usage, you will want to take time to check and recheck spelling, grammar, and punctuation before sending messages. Also be sure to keep an especial eye out for autocorrect-generated errors. Read over and double-check responses to ensure you convey energy as well as professionalism in all of your communications, because much conversational nuance and emotion can be lost in the translation to digital.

Thought leadership for attracting opportunities

Depending on your industry, social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram are proving to be vital alongside the most popular platform LinkedIn in supporting you being found and selected for a new career challenge. Your online presence can be the determining factor that secures that desired role, or an asset that attracts new opportunities to you passively. Most people are found online well before a recruiter or HR manager ever sees their CV. Personal digital branding has become a huge tool for establishing your industry voice and story. Social media has created a valuable ecosystem for professionals to share insights, interact with other key opinion leaders, and engage in discussions about important industry topics. Any hiring manager who visits your profiles will be able to see the content you share and the types of subjects you express an interest in. Keeping this in mind and ensuring your profiles and content are a good reflection of who you are professionally and what you want to be known for, will help to attract new opportunities to you and enable you to remain front of mind in the candidate pool. It is therefore essential that you keep your online profile updated and current so that you are visible above the inevitable noise created by your competition.

Networking is not extinct

Whilst LinkedIn and other sites are useful, the vast majority of more senior opportunities are usually secured via referrals and recommendations. Networking is the way to establish and build those essential connections. However, the coronavirus pandemic has completely reshaped the way we do a lot of things, and networking is one of them. Instead of exchanging business cards at conferences or shaking hands at events, we now must connect with one another virtually via Zoom, Teams, and other platforms. The rollout of the vaccine provided us with a glimmer of hope that in-person events might soon resume, but the introduction of the most recent lockdown is a devastating setback. It is unclear once again when we may be able to return to in-person networking. Instead, professionals looking to build their networks should consider attending some of the many available virtual events, joining relevant LinkedIn groups, or connecting with peers or desired contacts on social media.

This continuing struggle has led some people to reach out to contacts that they hadn’t spoken to in years or share their experiences and feelings with those that they may have rarely spoken to. Don’t be afraid to reach out. A robust network of contacts can help you more readily research the market and find open positions, including those that haven’t yet been posted. The more you make others aware of your ambitions, what you have to offer, and how you can help solve future challenges, the more likely you are to stay on others’ radar and put yourself in opportunity’s path.

Virtual interviews

Interviews are arguably the most daunting part of the hiring process but are often the deciding factor. These face-to-face conversations are where your CV or online profile comes to life and you are no longer just a name on a list. As the candidate, you get to share the skills and experiences that set you apart. On the other side of the table, the hiring team is evaluating your answers, tone, demeanour, and body language to determine if you are a good fit for the role and organisation. But with the continuing restrictions from the pandemic, these conversations are largely taking place virtually, often as panel-led discussions. Approach these virtual sessions just as you would an in-person meeting. Dress and present yourself professionally, and be sure to utilise a clean, simple background with minimal distractions. Take time to prepare and practice fielding sample questions you expect to be queried about. Body language translates differently virtually, and some people’s communication styles may change. Sometimes, individuals at all levels forget to take the time to ensure pre-installed platforms are working on their device properly prior to interview sessions or fail to test that both their video camera and microphone are functioning. With most of us having operated from home for over nine months now, interviewers are expecting candidates to know how to conduct themselves professionally and competently in a virtual setting. Regardless of any past interview experiences, a candidate’s interview preparation in 2021 should take these new challenges into consideration.

Fulfilling Your 2021 Career Resolutions

Regardless of the motivation behind your career goals for this year, there are some key things to keep in mind given the trends and circumstances that have presented themselves. If you are actively seeking and applying for new opportunities, think about what values are most important to you. Remote working has changed how many candidates look for a role and has driven many companies to hire based on values fit first and culture fit second.

When looking to promote yourself, think critically about your CV or online profile. Take into consideration how it is being found and assessed. Are you using the right keywords? As mentioned previously, many HR teams have begun using automated tools to scan and filter candidates. If you use certain online job search sites, their systems do the same. If there are specific roles or companies you are interested in, your CV should be in alignment with the requirements for these. You need to ensure that your CV and online profile highlight the right skills, so that these tools will pick up on them.

However, before you can highlight these skills, you need to know which capabilities are being sought after by your target industry or company. Researching trends is one way to stay current. Seeking out learning opportunities is an even better method, as this approach helps you catch up with current trends and gain the necessary skills for future trends. Reskilling or upskilling helps to make you a more compelling candidate during a career transition. Even if you are not actively searching for a new role, reskilling or upskilling helps you stay current in your industry and helps guide your organisation into the future of work.

It is without question that COVID-19 was the defining topic of 2020 and continues to be as we enter 2021. It has presented many challenges and obstacles, and completely reshaped life as we know it. The pandemic and lockdowns continue, but the introduction of the vaccine has hopefully placed us nearer to the end of it. We are not yet out of the woods, but there is a chance we will clear the major hurdles at some point this year. When that happens, anticipate being asked to reflect. Whether it be a job interview or a thought leadership opportunity, expect people to want to know about your COVID story. What challenges did you face, how did you solve them, and what have you learned along the way? The answers to these questions will provide great insight into your capabilities as a leader and your preparedness for any future challenges.

Whether looking for a new opportunity or working to establish yourself as an industry voice, investing in your own professional development is always a good investment. Keeping an eye on the key trends impacting the job market and developing the right mindset and skillset will help you stay at the top of people’s minds or give reason for you to get onto their contact list, which will allow you to claim your place in the future of work.

We know that digital is the new normal. As Nike CEO John Dinahoe has put it, the customer today is digitally grounded and simply will not revert back.

With more aspects of our lives incorporating digital, a strategic personal digital branding programme is now an essential component of a successful career plan.  In a previous blog, we discussed the steps you should take in order to define your personal digital brand. This stage required you to think realistically and critically about your personal and professional talents, strengths, achievements, and aspirations. You took the time to determine your purpose, set out your short to mid term goals, audit yourself, and identify the key accomplishments, skills, and attributes you need to champion to align to future market needs. The next step is it to delve into the ‘digital’ element, and how you can begin to convey that personal brand online.

The ‘Digital’ Aspects of Personal Digital Branding

For many, their perception of a ‘personal digital brand’ may be limited to a social media presence. While it is arguably the area with the most opportunity for growth and experimentation, your social profiles are not the only place where your brand comes to life.

Your online presence needs to match who you are in every other setting and scenario of your professional life. Your personal digital brand identity should be felt in the text and WhatsApp messages you send to your contacts. It needs to come across in the email communications you have with partners and prospects. Is the tone consistent? Do you convey similar messages across your digital footprint? This echoes the message in the earlier blog about consistency being the key to authenticity. Your personal digital brand will only work for you if it truly reflects who you are and what you have to offer professionally and how relevant it is for the future market trends and needs.

Social media is not the only digital element of your personal digital brand, but it is definitely where it will be leveraged and showcased the most. It is a tool that is proving too vital to ignore. According to a recent report, the most social media-savvy CEOs had a 5% higher Glassdoor rating, with their companies being rated 3% higher, too. C-suite leaders from some of the world’s top brands use social media daily to advocate for their organisations, establish themselves as industry voices and thought leaders, manage reputation, and build their own personal digital brand. To see some strong examples of this in action, visit the LinkedIn profiles of Walmart Inc’s Doug McMillon, Nasdaq’s Adena Friedman, or Royal Dutch Shell’s Ben van Beurden.

Looking at how other leading executives are using their social media to leverage their personal digital brand online should provide you with inspiration for developing your own strategy. Here is some guidance from us to get you started.

Deciding which Social Medium is right for you

We recommend that you choose one platform and focus your efforts on actively engaging your shareholders, employees, prospects, partners, industry peers, and the general public there. You do not need to maintain a presence on every single site. In fact, if you allocate your efforts properly, you can usually secure better results from a single platform than you would from attempting to be everywhere at once.

Typically, LinkedIn and Twitter are the two most popular platforms for professionals. LinkedIn is the most popular platform for corporate leaders with 44% of CEOs having some sort of presence, while Twitter is second choice with 15%. The choice of which platform to use may come down to personal preference. Some executives may feel overwhelmed by the range of available features on LinkedIn, while others may find Twitter’s character limit to be a bit challenging for detailed thought leadership.

There is a vast amount of data available about social media usage, segmented by a wide range of demographic and psychographic characteristics. If you know who you want to target, you should definitely look into where you have the best chance of reaching them and how they actually use their chosen platforms. It will vary by site.

It is called social networking for a reason, so ask your peers, colleagues, and contacts what platforms they use and how they use them. Check out your competitors’ profiles to see how they exploit social media. If there is a person you particularly admire, learn from their profiles and note what you believe they are doing right.

Even if you already have a social media presence, there is always something you can learn from your peers. Social media is not static. Platforms, trends, and user behaviours change regularly, and your strategy will need to evolve.

Top Tips for Social Media Engagement

Here are some general social media guidelines to follow for those wanting to build their own personal digital branding presence

• Don’t Overwhelm Your Audience: The point of maintaining a professional social media presence is to get in front of your audiences, but there is a fine line between under sharing, oversharing, and just the right amount of frequency. You will of course want to post frequently enough to be seen and considered ‘active,’ but not so much that your posts become irritating and off-putting. If your posts clog their feeds, you risk your audience tuning out or unfollowing. A good rule of thumb is to post three to five times per week, and no more than twice in one day.
• Build an Online Community: Treat your social media community the way you would treat your wider digital or offline contacts. Follow or connect with your colleagues, stakeholders, partners, contacts, and prospects. If you attend an event or speak at a conference, connect with the other attendees or speakers. Also, be sure to follow key figures in your specific industry, news sources, or prominent companies. Interact with others’ content by liking, resharing with commentary, or leaving value-add or encouraging comments. LinkedIn has a Groups feature, which allows professionals to connect with and share insights with professionals they share interests or characteristics with. There is a group for almost everything. Start by exploring relevant groups for your industry or job function, and then look into others related to your geography, education, or other characteristics (i.e. ‘Women in Business’ groups)
• Be Personable: When reaching out to new connections on LinkedIn, be sure you always customise the invitation. These requests feel much more personal and are less likely to be ignored or denied. Your invitation should briefly introduce the contact to you, highlight any common ground you may share (i.e. attendance at a recent conference, group membership, mutual contacts), and close with a friendly message. Just as you would not lead with a sales pitch when meeting face-to-face, you should not attempt to sell overtly in these connection request messages.
• Content is Key: Ensure that your content reflects the goals you set for yourself and the personal digital brand image you defined early on in the process. Your content should not be self-promotion, and to be considered a thought leader you need to contribute to the greater conversation. Share third-party articles relevant to your industry job function, new regulations, or pertaining to other areas of interest or causes you champion. However, instead of simply sharing links, be sure to add some analysis or commentary. If allowed, keep your followers updated about the projects you are working on, the events you are attending and participating in, or the latest news from your company. Your content should reflect that you are tuned into what is going on in your industry and you have valuable insights to offer. Your followers should be able to get a good sense of your interests and positioning based on the content you curate.
• Pay Attention to Your Audience: Keep track of what’s working and what isn’t for your audience. What types of posts resonate the most or earn the most engagement? What time of day does your audience seem to be most active? Do not be afraid to experiment with different times and alternative types of content until you find what works for both you and your followers.

Your hard work in the early stages of digital personal branding will start to take a concrete shape once you begin applying the principles of your brand online. It will require trial and error, but so long as you remain authentic and stay focused on your goals, maintaining your brand will become a natural and integral part of your regular workday activity and attract opportunities you seek.

Don’t let complacency stall your career

Between a global pandemic, a double-dip recession, ongoing digital transformation and more, navigating an executive career move is proving to be both more complex and riskier across every sector. The world is changing around us, presenting new challenges and opportunities every day.

Some executives who may have been resisting digital transformation have had to quickly pivot in order to stay operational and competitive. Meanwhile, those who have been pushing for change in their organisation may suddenly find that they now have the internal support and resources needed to achieve their vision after facing periods of pushback. Some executives will unfortunately be made redundant, while others may feel bogged down by an organisation that is deeply concerned with tightening the purse strings.

Research indicates that in today’s world, the average person has five careers throughout their life which rarely follow a linear direction, instead taking diagonal or horizontal routes. This has been a growing trend, as professionals no longer feel obligated to remain in unfulfilling roles and have an abundance of opportunities for reskilling and changing course. Sometimes, these changes happen due to a desire to pursue a passion or find a more satisfying role. Alternatively, executives may change direction as a means of self-preservation, finding a new path before being made obsolete by plateauing organisations, new technology, automation or other threats. Many executives will be feeling these pressures in the current digital-driven climate, as artificial intelligence (AI) and other new technologies reshape the business landscape.

With new challenges come new opportunities and dilemmas for professionals whose current situation no longer suits their career path, organisation, or industry. These professionals must decide whether to stick it out in their current career trajectory, or to twist and change course towards something new, fulfilling and future ready. But when faced with such a massive dilemma, how do you determine your next step?

Establish Your Priorities

Circumstances are not created equal, and every executive has their own set of personal and professional considerations. When deciding your next step, it is crucial that you understand your own individual circumstances. Perhaps you have fiscal or familial obligations that you need to fulfil. Maybe your hand has been forced due to changes to your role or within your company or industry. The factors driving you to change course will absolutely play into the decision-making process and should not be an afterthought.

The most important consideration to make involves your own personal and professional fulfilment. In our recent blog on developing a personal digital brand, we discussed the importance of determining your ‘Why’ when attempting to understand who you are as a professional. The same principles apply here. Having a clear idea of who you are professionally, what skillsets you’ve gained that will add value, what is important to you, and what goals you would like to achieve will help you assess whether or not you are receiving the level of fulfilment you need from your current career path. You need to ask yourself what your objectives are in order to continue to be successful and fulfil your ambitions. What is it that will satisfy you personally? What do you need to change or find in order to achieve that goal?

Being fully aware of your personal brand and how you compare with those in the same playing field will be a major advantage here. You will have a better sense of what your skills are, what you enjoy doing, and what you bring to the table. You will also be able to shape what upskilling, reskilling or cross-skilling may be required.  This self-awareness is key for deciding your place in the evolving landscape. For example, you may lack tech savviness, but are a gifted creative or strong strategic thinker. Instead of scrambling to adapt to new technology, you may choose to seek out a role that plays to your strengths. An honest assessment of your own skills, passions, and abilities will help you to ascertain what you have to offer, what you want to do next and where the gaps might be for you to compete given prevailing market trends.

Navigating a career in the face of technological advancement

At Rialto, we advise our clients to consider all of their options when it comes to career progression, whilst being increasingly mindful of the role that technology is playing in the future world of work.

For some, a career transition involves taking a step back to reassess your skillset and what you can offer your industry. This usually means allowing automation and machines to do what they are designed for and to take over the space you previously occupied. This does not mean you are regressing or bypassing innovation. Rather, stepping in this direction involves narrowing in on your talents, skills, and passions in order to develop a specialisation that is not currently serviceable with automation. This specialisation may fall into a field where there is no feasible business case for implementing new technology, or where a human could potentially be more knowledgeable. The focus can be on a skills gap that machines cannot currently fill.  There are niche pockets within every industry that are not currently hot targets for mechanisation, and while some of these niches will stay this way, others may become targets later on. Professionals who step in this direction typically pivot to roles such as those requiring creativity, empathy, or vision. Developing a foothold in these pockets presents an interesting opportunity later down the road for professionals to help drive the development of technology and tools in their specialty.

For others, stepping forward to drive the development of future technology and tools is the answer to immediate progression. While this sounds technical, it doesn’t necessarily have to be. Technology and automation are a huge asset to businesses, but it takes human minds to understand the ways that technology benefits specific areas of the business. This direction can involve taking on more transformational, strategic or advisory roles but equally be more hands-on and require you to work directly with the solutions and technologies.  You may lend your expertise to overseeing the work carried out by automation, essentially managing the technology to ensure it runs smoothly and accomplishes what it’s meant to. Or you may need to push aside any previous hesitation or cynicism and fully embrace new tools in your existing role. Machines are incredible things, but even with all of their incredible capabilities, they still require some human involvement to ensure the outputs are right. By choosing to head in this direction you are acknowledging your acceptance of the more hybrid workforce and demonstrating an openness to embrace these tools for the success of the organisation.

As the old saying goes, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” With the amount of change that is taking place daily, we as professionals cannot possibly expect that our careers will not need to evolve as a result. The worst response is to resign ourselves to complacency. This does not always necessitate a full-on career switch. Sometimes, it’s simply a matter of thinking differently about what is happening, what is possible, and what role you would like to play in a world being reset.

Reflecting on the ways we worked 15 years ago feels like gazing into another world. If you wanted to check your emails out of hours, you didn’t have a smartphone to do it on; you used a Blackberry or a mobile made by Nokia. We had yet to truly reap the business benefits of social media, as at the time Facebook was just for students, Twitter was still a year from introduction, and we wouldn’t post to Instagram for another five years. Jobs like SEO specialist, UX designer, Cloud services manager, and more simply did not exist. We even sent faxes still – and regularly!

That was 2005, which simultaneously feels like yesterday and eons ago. If that much change can happen in the workplace within a period of 15 years, imagine what the next five, ten, or 15 years will bring.

The truth is, the future of work is already here. It’s just unevenly distributed. Certain industries and sectors have adapted quickly to new technology and have been successfully implementing it for a while now. Even in the laggard industries, there are certain companies that either had the foresight or the budget to adapt quickly, and now find themselves leagues ahead of their peers and competitors as a result. But soon enough, those laggards will be faced with a sink-or-swim ultimatum to either catch up or be left behind for good.

It can be extremely hard to prepare when you aren’t sure what lies ahead, or how to get there. Many times, it is a team and stakeholder alignment issue of getting people onto the same page quickly – and understanding all voices. In the face of so much disruption and rapid change, how can you scale top line growth at the right margin, ensure high performance, improve employee wellbeing and customer experience, or develop and successfully execute new business strategies? The answer lies in Augmented Intelligence – Consulting (AI-C).

Defining the ‘Future of Work’

Before you can prepare for what’s next, you need to understand exactly what that entails. Many people hear the term ‘future of work’ and envision a world run by robots or a scene from a science fiction film. While elements of increased automation will play a key role in the future workforce, what we’re discussing here is much less drastic as humans and robots work together to form hybrid working. As mentioned, the future of work is already here; it’s just that your organisation may not be there yet.

Essentially, the future of work involves humans and technology working together in partnership to accomplish tasks in a more agile, effective, and efficient manner than ever before. Smartphones, social media, and other technology have become commonplace not only in the office, but in our everyday lives. As a result, today’s customers and multi-generational workforce increasingly value personalised, immersive data-driven experiences.

Business leaders have access to more data than they ever have before. In fact, the total amount of data that is created, captured, copied, and consumed globally is forecast to reach 59 zettabytes in 2020 and more than double to 149 zettabytes by 2024[1]. Businesses are beginning to understand the value of the data they generate and collect, but many are struggling to use it properly. Technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) can help to make sense of and use this data in ways we never would have imagined possible previously.

New software and tools are introduced to the market daily, all of which aim to turn available data into insights or to accomplish a specific task. There are tools available that can monitor every online conversation about your brand to provide insight into customer attitudes, write content for you, handle your hiring, identify sales opportunities, and so much more.

Surely, tech-driven environments require tech-focused solutions. But there’s so much more to this than simply adopting some new tools and updating your equipment.

Securing increased Alignment with AI-C

The humans involved in the change process are far more important than the technology. Most change or transformation programmes fail because of misalignment, with research sources quoting between 50% to 84% over the last 25+ years, which negatively impacts careers and business progress. The way that leaders think and manage their teams needs to become more agile and flexible in order to keep up with the rate of change and effectively execute new growth strategies.

It’s ‘easy’ for the C-suite to decide to sign off a transformation process, but most of the implementation will happen at every level of the business. A typical team raises on average 167 opinions on a given topic and 61 barriers as to why it can’t be done. If there is discord, lack of clarity, or miscommunications throughout the business, the change process has a very high potential for failure.

This is where Augmented Intelligence – Consulting (AI-C) can be massively advantageous. This advanced method of management consulting combines concepts from Harvard academics Professor Chris Argyris (Action Science) and Professor Thomas Schelling, a Nobel Prize recipient (Game Theory), as well as SchellingPoint’s applied research into Relational Network Analysis. It has been proven in over 500 real-world business projects and applications. This breakthrough in change management and leadership methodology is also now being taught at some of the US and UK’s leading business schools including Wharton, Warwick and Cornell.

Through this ‘lean’ consulting process, AI-C helps business leaders produce a credible and complete roadmap to address today’s business, cultural and digital transformations. This can include the creation of a new target operating model, cost reduction, efficiency, productivity requirements and strategic growth. AI-C gives everyone in the organisation a voice in co-shaping change and optimises alignment to future goals. It accelerates business-focused learning, reduces bias, increases collaborative thinking and insights in relation to securing future business goals. As a result, AI-C helps leaders adapt and increase the speed of decision-making to rapidly changing marketplaces, overcome increased competition, improve processes by implementing automation or next-generation technologies, determine policies, and develop new market-winning business strategies.

One of the key benefits of AI-C is its cost-effectiveness. It is delivered predominantly through virtual dialogues without the need for in-person meetings or workshops, which is ideal in the COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 world. The average timeline for an AI-C project is 6-8 weeks but it can be completed in as little as 3 days. Therefore, the AI-C process is concluded as efficiently and effectively as possible for significantly less cost than deploying internal resources and results in a more reliable, valid and endorsed set of actions to deliver business outcomes.

Business has come a long way in recent years, and there’s more change yet to come. While some businesses thrive ahead of the curve, others risk getting left behind indefinitely if they do not adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace. It’s clear that in this face-paced and increasingly competitive space, the old tools and methods of leading will not suffice. AI-C can help business leaders undergo their transformation process as effectively as possible by ensuring organisational alignment. In a time where leaders and workplaces need to become more agile to succeed, AI-C is fit for purpose for the digital age and gives both internal/external stakeholders more of a voice in tackling any business challenge.

We invite you to join us for our Future of Work virtual seminar on 18^th November. Associate Director Russell Beck and Rialto Director Richard Chiumento will examine the global trends impacting the workplace and providing useful insights into how organisations and employees can futureproof themselves. Register here

Additionally, to learn more about our AI-C methodology, you can join Associate Directors Lesley Lindberg and George Mystkowski for our virtual seminar on 3^rd December where they will be sharing how one Company used AI-C to help shape and implement new and high performing working practices following COVID-19 challenges. Register here

[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/871513/worldwide-data-created/

A select few words accurately describe business life over the past 6 months.  Top of the list for many has to be the word “uncertainty.” Since the lockdown in March, leaders and decision-makers have faced tough choices regarding pay, staffing priorities, customer needs and propositions, and the future of their business, all while having no indication of what may lie ahead.

As we enter October 2020 and the seventh month of restrictions, there is no clear path forward for UK businesses. The Government’s existing furlough scheme ends and even with alternative schemes in place, it is likely that many more employers will have to make difficult staffing cuts, downsize their operations, or close completely in coming months.

No executive chooses to deal with such tough choices such as these, but it comes with the territory of managing and leading teams, and/or owning a business. What counts, is the way that you approach these situations, not just for the future of achieving business goals, but also for your people. During tumultuous times, management and senior executives are looked to, to be the stabilising force. It’s essential that they lead with confidence, assurance, high emotional intelligence and compassion. When this is lacking, morale and retention issues soon surface.

Battling Blowback

Making staffing cutbacks is one of the most challenging tasks for a leader. However you choose to carry out this duty will ultimately serve as one of the greatest testaments to your leadership abilities, and will shape how the rest of the organisation views you moving forward.

Delivering negative news with a cool and detached demeanour may feel like a professional and clean approach, but it can create the impression with both departing and remaining staff that you are callous with no concern for staff feelings and no appreciation for the time they invested in the organisation. Alternatively, displaying guilt, sadness, or remorse may ease the blow for departing staff, but remaining team members might then question your confidence in the future of the company, and fear for their own jobs.

It is a fine line for any business leader to walk. While supporting organisations as they develop their change management strategies, our team have found the most successful programmes are those where leaders spend as much time on their exit strategies as they do on their hiring and induction strategies. Providing support to the staff that your organisation needs to let go of due to redundancy and treating them empathetically is paramount, as is keeping a level head and optimistic outlook to inspire remaining staff’s confidence in the future of the organisation. Otherwise, you risk disengagement, lower productivity and reduced customer focus as remaining staff may no longer feel motivated to go the extra mile for a leader or organisation that they do not feel values staff or their efforts. Worst case scenario, you may even create retention issues, as employees may lose faith and seek out a leader and organisation they feel they can better rely on.

Focusing Your Attention

As a leader, you face constant scrutiny. Every decision and every tough conversation you have has the potential to impact your overall productivity and trust in both you and the organisation. Focusing your attention on the right priorities during times of difficulty and uncertainty can help you to maintain rapport and skilfully chart a stable path forward.

When planning and conducting those difficult termination discussions, remember that those individuals who may leave your organisations may still be future stakeholders – be that of your product, service or brand. For those organistions who are financially able to, providing support services to help individuals shape a new career trajectory and deal with the uncertainty that change brings will go a long way in leaving a positive feeling on exit. Equally, don’t forgot those staff who remain. These individuals will be the future of your business. This should remain front of mind throughout the entirety of the decision-making, planning and execution processes.

Your skills as a leader will play a key role here. Adaptability, empathy and compassion are three of the most important traits for a leader to have in times of difficulty. The choices you make affect real lives, and that should not be taken lightly. These two attributes will be of paramount importance for all interactions or communications regarding departing staff.

Once termination discussions have taken over, other skills will need to take over. Strong communication skills will be absolutely essential for clearly expressing your plans, goals and strategy for the business moving forward. Confidence and assurance are also key. If you seem secure in the plans for the future, it will provide your staff with valuable peace of mind. Positivity and optimism help to support this and can even help inspire motivation, creativity or deepen attachment to the organisation.

One final essential skill here will be your ability to unite your organisation. Your remaining staff have just lost teammates, colleagues, and even friends. It is likely that the company’s culture will feel fragmented. Be genuine and sincere in all of your conversations and in any speeches or written communication. Be open and honest with your staff. Acknowledge the hardships but do not dwell on negativity. Provide clear directives and outline specific plans or goals. Establish a dialogue with your staff and demonstrate a willingness to listen to any concerns. It is your duty as a leader to reassure your remaining staff that good times will eventually return, and the organisation will grow stronger from these challenging times.

Growing Together

Another great way to focus your attention on your remaining staff while also benefitting the business is to reskill or upskill your people. Regular reskilling and upskilling is now business critical given the pace of change.  There is some debate about whether this should be the responsibility of the employer or the individual employees, and our stance is that the responsibility belongs to both.

An employer who invests in their employees creates loyalty, builds confidence and increases oragnisational competitiveness. Providing training or educational opportunities shows a clear dedication to professional development. In fact, these opportunities help minimise staff turnover in both the short and long term. Employees feel valued and invested in the organisation for the long haul, while employers reap the benefits of having a highly-skilled workforce to help carry out their roles.

Alternatively, employees should be encouraged to seek their own individual learning opportunities and pursue their own interests. This allows more freedom to explore areas that may not be directly related to their role, but might provide other value. Lifelong learning is incredibly beneficial and can provide the individual with many benefits to enhance their career professionalism and role impact.

No leader wants to find themselves in the position of having to make difficult staffing choices in the face of an uncertain future, but given the unpredictability of this pandemic it is reasonable to assume that many may have to do just that in the coming months. In these situations, it is important to stay focused on the future and the team you will have by your side moving forward.