Are you engaging your team in open and honest conversations about AI? There’s no doubt AI is here to stay, and people have different opinions about it – from fear to excitement, and everywhere in between. Create a space for open conversations with your team about the the benefits, their concerns, and anything else. In this way, you’re building a culture that’s ready for change.
I was in beautiful Brisbane last week to deliver the closing keynote presentation for an allied healthcare group, Healthia.
I was talking about the mix between people and technology, with my core message around “people first, technology second”. It was a pretty easy sell to Healthia because they’ve always made that part of their philosophy and mission. In fact, they’ve already started using AI in their organisation, rolling out tools that practitioners can use with their patients to improve clinical outcomes and make their work more efficient.
It’s great to see a forward-thinking organisation on the front foot about AI.
This is a large group, so of course, people are at different levels of comfort with AI. Some are engaging actively with it, others are just starting to use it, and others haven’t started yet. This is true for any organisation and might be true for yours as well.
What I admire about Healthia and other organisations who are serious about AI adoption is they are starting to have conversations about AI. And I wonder: Is this true for you and your team?
Are you having open, transparent, and honest conversations about AI?
I know other organisations with big plans to launch AI projects, so they are holding back from AI conversations with their team. They are waiting to get everything right in terms of policy, governance, software and infrastructure first.
This can work, and it is important to get things right with any AI projects. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start conversation about AI! The risk is that, in the meantime, your team are already hearing about AI, using it at home, and maybe even using it secretly at work. You lose control of the conversation, which makes it much more difficult when you eventually roll out your AI projects.
Unfortunately, most of the public perception of AI – driven by the media – is negative. So, some of your people might think AI will take their jobs, or worry about having to learn new technology, or think they will fall behind.
On the other hand, if you start having conversations about AI now, you help to create an environment where they see AI as a tool rather than a threat.
So, what are you doing to have conversations with your people about AI?
For help with these conversations, download my worksheet of questions and discussion points for open conversations with your team.
