Learn and let others learn in the age of gen-AI upskilling
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As business leaders, it’s difficult to know which way AI is going right now. As business leaders, it can be difficult to determine the direction AI is going. We have to think forward while staying firmly grounded in the present — and in the reality of what the emerging technology means for our business models, employee experience and customers.
It’s a tall order. It will require us to learn and adapt. But being honest about our need to learn — a need that can be tough for leaders to admit — offers our best path forward.
Because we’re not alone. The rapid adoption of generative AI across industries has created a skills gap that is not just affecting leaders but also employees. This puts pressure on us all to quickly upgrade our knowledge and keep up with the times. There’s a lot we can do to guide our organizations through disruptions, including what we’re facing right now with gen AI. We can do a lot to help our organizations navigate disruptions. This includes the current gen AI. This process has taught us a lot, including the importance of prioritizing AI roadmaps to overcome common obstacles to upskilling. These include time constraints for employees and AI’s rapid evolution. As technology continues to evolve, it is important to have dedicated educational paths that are supported by financial resources and continuous learning. These resources must be accessible to all employees, no matter what their day-to-day roles are. It is important to create and promote communication channels that encourage employees to give feedback, share knowledge and identify potential roadblocks. Encouraging a healthy dialogue around learning, and contributing to these conversations yourself, often leads to greater innovation across your organization.
At my company, we tend to blend the learning and sharing together. We provide, for example, a monthly campaign of learning on relevant topics that the entire company is encouraged to go through. Our topic last month was AI. Employees could choose from courses to learn new AI skills relevant to their individual roles, while also joining “Learning Lounges” to share insights and challenges with colleagues.
Lead and learn by example
Invest the time to understand emerging gen AI solutions and the impact they have on your organization. As you spend time to improve your skills, consider mentoring others to make AI a regular part of the workplace. Consider hosting solution-focused hackathons and other innovation challenges to foster creativity, cross-functional problem solving and collaboration.
Where possible, inspire action directly through on-the-job exercises for real projects. No matter how vital upskilling is, your employees are juggling multiple responsibilities. Injecting new learning initiatives into existing workloads can chip away at both needs at once, especially for employees with demanding schedules.
Check-in with your employees as well. We ask for feedback regularly from our teams in order to meet their changing professional development needs. A candid conversation with a company leader holds significance that might be difficult to achieve in more standard meetings, such as an employee’s regular one-on-ones with their manager.
Support upskilling with the right data and technology investments
The best way to prepare employees to improve their AI skills is by equipping them with the required technologies, data and infrastructure. Working with your leaders, make the necessary changes to your data practices, hygiene, and tech stack in order to achieve your AI goals. Do not let a lack in clean data, security or capacity concerns dampen the enthusiasm of employees to improve their skills and drive innovation. Industries heavily dependent on data and computing — such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing, network infrastructure and education — should take swift action.
Iterate over time and work diligently to make sure your technology infrastructure is always up to the task. Gen AI is constantly evolving, and keeping pace with these changes requires a multifaceted approach to upskilling in which technology and data work with your employees, not against them.
- Let the learning begin, starting with you
Gen AI solutions could end up being bigger than the cloud — having a wider and longer-lasting impact on our organizational operations and growth.
However, this future will only materialize if we’re up to speed on the technology and prepare to make gen AI part of the everyday routine for all of our employees. Effective, sustainable use of gen AI solutions is an inevitability for your organization, so support your ambition with a flexible training program nurtured within a company culture that values collective, continuous learning.
AI upskilling may feel far removed from your daily responsibilities, but it’s a lift you must start championing — and an important one given gen AI’s potential to revolutionize work as we know it.
Steve Smith is CEO of Zayo.
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