Bridging the Knowledge Gap is all Down to Leadership

A few months ago, my son had a homework assignment.

Pretty standard, right? The assignment was partly to create some imagery for a PowerPoint, which at first read, I thought sounded pretty doable.?

The assignment had to be done using AI.?

He found this simple. He opened up his computer, went to his AI site of choice, and created an image within 30 seconds.?

If I’m honest with you, I didn’t realize how advanced the lessons were at schools for him to be able to use AI like he would Google.

And it got me thinking about the technology gap.?

Because the tech industry is at a turning point. What we knew yesterday has provided a solid foundation for our advancements for tomorrow. With innovations like AI becoming a homework task for our kids, it’s clear that tomorrow it will be a key factor of every technological blueprint.?

But as with any rapid advancement, people must keep up — with tech, or anything else.?

And it’s up to us as leaders to facilitate that growth, learning, and innovation. A knowledge gap within organizations at this critical phase will mean our customers don’t get the solutions they deserve, and we won’t achieve the progress we need.?

Learning to Fail, Learning from Failure

Sometimes, things don’t go right. That’s okay.?

I actually dislike the term “rewarding failure”, because in my eyes - if you’ve learned something from an unexpected result, then it’s not a failure. It’s a lesson learned.?

Creating a culture that prioritizes continuous improvement is essential for closing the knowledge gap. I believe that learning from failure falls into this. Particularly in tech, not everything we work on every day is going to be an instant success — but it’s this constant evaluation, practice, and improvement that creates products and solutions that work. And from this growth, we not only have short-term success, but long-term success through learning.?

This links with curiosity, which I believe every successful leader and team should have, particularly in technology. I hope to create an environment where employees feel safe exploring new ideas and learning from their experiments.

This moves onto my next point: learning never stops.?

I have been at Lenovo for nearly 25 years. You’d think I’m an expert. I’m not. But, I want to learn. So, I surround myself with experts to learn from.

I am constantly training and learning to become a better leader, innovator, and mentor. I want the same for my team: their learning is not only an asset to them, but also to my team, the company as a whole, and also the industry we work in.?

Learn from A Mentor, Be a Mentor to Who Wants to Learn

I have had some phenomenal mentors in my career. In truth, I was only meant to be here in North Carolina for a few years. I moved to Lenovo early in my career and had planned to do my time before moving onwards and upwards.?

But I sit writing this after nearly 25 years at an incredible company, and a lot of that is due to the people and mentors I have had while here.?

They were vital to my early career and growth.?

Now I want to pass that on. It’s interesting to me that 76% of people think that mentors are important, but only 37% have one. How do we encourage people to reach out and begin that mentoring relationship??

I love it when people reach out informally to ask a question or have a discussion with me. I love to see that curiosity for growth and learning. It not only helps the next generation of leaders, but it also helps me reflect, learn and grow.?

It’s a two-way street and one that I am proud to be a part of.

The Foundation of Any Team is in its Diversity

I used AI as an example to show that the adoption of new technologies is critical for an innovative team. But my thinking can be applied to any new process, invention, technology, or practice.?

As leaders, we want to drive continuous improvement and have a high-performing team that delivers the best solutions to our customers.?

One way we do this is through diversity.?

Lenovo follows this approach to having diverse teams in our hiring practices: we understand that teams need a varied structure to create dynamic teams that can encounter problems head-on, using their backgrounds to bring different perspectives that create better solutions. Lenovo aims to have 27% global female executive representation by 2025, and 35% executive representation for US underrepresented ethnic and racial groups, enhancing our leadership team.?

Diversity of thought, background, experience, and culture all enable teams to encounter issues differently, approach conversations differently, and come up with solutions that have deeper, more complex approaches, thoughts, and better practices. Diverse leaders can take this even further.?

The knowledge gap will always be there. That’s a part of being in an industry that’s constantly innovating, growing, and changing.?

But, as leaders, what we need to focus on is how we bridge that gap — how we encourage an experience for teams that allows for curiosity, failure, and learning to enable our teams to continually want to learn.?

We never stop learning, so creating space for that is what will set us apart.