Future Ready Digest Vol 1. No. 10
Jim Hamill (Dr)
Director at The Future Ready Hub - supporting organisations in becoming future ready for an increasingly volatile, digital and AI world.
Welcome to Vol.1 No.10 of Future Ready Digest - keeping you up-to-date with the latest research and thinking on building future ready organisations. Please register to receive notifications of future Digests.
Summary:?-?ensuring future readiness not digital transformation is the main challenge facing organisations today; a new era in healthcare; developing next-gen C-Suite leaders; soft skills; building micro-credentials to survive uncertainty; working under surveillance; organisational cynicism; management burnout; sustaining transformation long-term; AI-related updates - AI strategy; impact on productivity; associated risks; it's all in the prompt - the Tree of Thoughts Framework; employment and labour market impact; benefits etc.
We argued the same in a blog post last September - see Goodbye Digital Transformation. Digital transformation is no longer the main challenge facing leaders today. Ensuring the future readiness of your organisation is. The September paper listed ten main reasons why the term digital transformation had reached its sell-by date and why we should stop using it. Our recently developed Future Ready Toolkits allow you to undertake an honest self-evaluation of your own organisation's readiness for a volatile digital world.
If only!!! Are we really standing on the brink of a new era in healthcare, an era where treatments are tailored to the individual, where diseases are predicted before they manifest, and where drug discovery is accelerated to unprecedented speeds? "This is the future of personalized medicine, and it’s being shaped by AI. From the discovery of new antibiotics to the development of targeted therapies, AI is not just a tool; it’s a game-changer. It’s transforming the way we approach healthcare, making it more effective, efficient, and personalized."
Via HBR. "What’s needed now is nothing short of a total overhaul of how organizations develop and prepare their leaders to move their company into the future." Fully agree, but the solutions recommended are far from being a total overhaul. Tinkering when a scorched earth approach is urgently required for a volatile, digital world.
Future skills. "New technology has already disrupted how we think about the skills we possess as workers and the skills we require as employers. Let’s disrupt our thinking again, and move away from the idea of one type of skill having greater value than another. In the 21st-century economy, competitive advantage will go to employers who value critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication - and the employees who can adapt, shift mindsets, and bring these skills to an ever-changing future of work."
Are micro-credentials the future of learning and development in a volatile world? “The economic downturn and surge in new workplace technologies are exacerbating an already significant skills gap within organisations. Businesses realise that effective learning and development can help them compete in this market. Micro-credentialing, the acquisition of short, skills-based certifications, is arguably one of the most instrumental tools businesses can use to upskill employees quickly and get them up to speed with new technologies.
Taylorism in a digital age. "Our ‘performance’ is counted by the minute. I have found myself having to explain the reasons for a longer toilet break.”
Is your organisation suffering from cynicism? Possible symptoms include “negative or inappropriate attitude toward clients, customers, or your job; irritability at work; a loss of idealism; and withdrawal or detachment from your job. As cynicism sets in, it can look like demotivation, pessimism, giving up, disengagement, indifference, hopelessness, anger, numbness, underperformance, feeling stuck, or a loss of trust.”
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More than 50% of managers feel burned out; a number slightly higher than employees more broadly. The causes include “the challenges of the pandemic combined with experiencing three hallmarks of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism, and a perceived lack of professional accomplishment. How can organizations better support these employees? Research from Microsoft on their own workforce explores the different ways burnout can be harmful to managers, and suggests five strategies for combatting it.”
McKinsey on the challenge of sustaining transformations medium-to-longer term. "Many organizations embark on large-scale transformations, only to end with frustrated leaders and worse-than-expected long-term results. These efforts typically start with high aspirations and significant energy then lose an average of 42 percent of their expected value in the later phases of the transformation program, where the focus shifts to executing and sustaining change." Recognise that?
AI-RELATED NEWS
Does your organisation have "a well-defined strategy for implementing AI to remain competitive in the future of work?" If not, here are some recommendations for developing one.
A useful summary of the latest research and thinking regarding the potential impact of generative AI. "These early findings indicate the vast potential of generative AI to reshape industries and unlock unprecedented efficiency. While skepticism remains, the tangible benefits observed thus far pave the way for a future where AI collaborates with human professionals, elevating their capabilities and productivity to new heights. The impact of generative AI is poised to be far-reaching, with implications spanning a multitude of sectors. As the technology continues to evolve, further research and real-world implementations will shed light on its true transformative power."
Have a nice day ?? "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war."
This a useful read for anyone planning serious rather than trivial use of Generative AI. According to the authors, the Tree of Thoughts Framework provides a "fundamentally different way of guiding AI’s thinking process, one that could revolutionize how we use language models for everything from creative writing to strategic decision-making."
The latest research on the impact of generative AI on jobs and the future of work, from KPMG.
Will AI-empowered productivity improvements exacerbate income inequalities? "Productivity growth, or the ability to produce more per hour, is supposed to make everyone richer. The idea is that greater productivity allows companies to make more money, which workers and owners share through higher wages and more valuable businesses. But since the 1980s, productivity gains have gone almost exclusively to executives and owners of companies, leaving average workers behind and fueling the widest wage and wealth gaps on record."
Please participate in our recently launched?Future Ready Global Executive Survey and Roundtable
Take care and thank you for your interest in the Future Ready Digest.
Jim H