The Changing Nature of Work

A big question I get these days has to do with what impact Artificial Intelligence and Globalization will have on business??A question that we must start thinking about and plan for.

Globalization & AI

Globalization is a real threat, however it has been a threat that a lot of leaders have ignored for a long time.?Wireless communications infrastructure has largely penetrated into developing countries (and in some cases, with better infrastructure than a lot of ‘Westernized’ economies).?This, as well as the availability of the internet via WIFI virtually everywhere, has given close to eight billion on the planet access to communication, information, education and transportation.?This has been a real threat to status quo thinking for 20 years now.

And now we are waking up to the question around how AI is going to impact businesses that deliver value based on their Intellectual Capital (Brain Power).?Automation and AI are still in their infancy, however we need to be thinking about how they’re going to impact you today. For sure it is a significant threat to any business or person that makes a living using their brains (like myself).?You might be sitting there thinking that your business is immune to potential impacts because you have a labor based organization and AI can’t do plumbing.?Well, I hate to break it to you however, there are many examples of buildings be manufactured 12 time zones away, broken down and packed into containers and shipped to site where ever you are today to be assembled like Lego blocks (including the plumbing).

So, What Now?

The way I see it, you have two choices.?You can go for coffee and pretend that your world is not going to change, or you can face the challenge by:

1. Thinking of ways to?enhance the value that you deliver?to your customers. Customers make, for the most part, emotional decisions on who they do business with and why.?It is when they feel that you do not have their best interest in mind, they look for alternatives.?Discover?why?customers buy from you and get WAY better at whatever that is.
2. Investing and developing your people. AI and Globalization are going to pit your team against computers and talent 12 time zones away.?The only way to compete is to have better people.
3. Building a culture of inclusion.?Building a team and an environment where people feel inextricably connected to your values and purpose, will create a place where people bring their hearts to work (not just their hands working for a paycheck).?When team members have a cause to work for, they work harder for that cause than they do for their paycheck.
4. Being flexible.?Today is different than it was yesterday (if COVID taught us anything, it is the need to be open to change and doing things differently, and that is a silver lining in the three years we just crawled out of) and it will be different again tomorrow than today.?Be open to doing things differently.?Be open to even newer ways of working than before.?Be open to what your people are asking for and talking about.

At the end of the day, my crystal ball is still not showing a clear picture of how it is all going to shake out other than it is telling me that we have to think and do different or we will be left in the dust wondering what happened.

Robert Murray is a Vancouver, BC based?Business Strategy Consultant,?#1 Best Selling Author,?International Keynote Speaker,?and TEC Top Speaker of the Year for 2018. For further advice, insight and inspiration on how to unlock your inner leader, connect with Robert on?LinkedIn.

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