AI in the Workforce: Adapt and Thrive or Risk Falling Behind

To our listening viewing audience, this is Ron Safanski with part two with the very engaging doctor Keith Keady who's been talking to us about the world of learning as the chief learning officer for Archwell and the author of the trusted learning advisor, which just came out. And Keith, you can hold it up so all of our friends and disruptive family members can see it. So it's a really cool accomplishment, and I hope you get a chance to, read it and find out some of the things Keith's been talking about. What I love about where this conversation is going, Keith, is on the topic of AI because I don't think there's anything more, upsetting anxiety producing concerning to the average employee than how AI is gonna be the the silent killer. It's all of a sudden someone's gonna be using it. Something's gonna be happening. And then I'm gonna get that call into the office where they say, your jobs have been eliminated. So I think it would be really helpful to for you to kind of talk through that because you've had to consider this as a learning exact in your own organization as you're thinking about where do these role where are these roles evolving? Where are they going? And what I find interesting is your steadfast focus around agency, employee agency, having the wherewithal to say, you know what? I can benefit from what the the company gives me in terms of training and learning, but I also have to take ownership of that myself. I have to become a lifelong learner if I wanna stay ahead of this, and I wanna reduce my anxiety, but also increase my opportunities. You know, I think the example you were using off camera a really worthwhile place for us to jump back in is the person who on their own uses AI when it's prohibited at their at at their place of employment by just picking up their phone and using chatuchie and getting familiar with it. And then suddenly, they're looking in a mirror and saying, you know what? I could do this for you know, more efficiently, that's almost, you know, that's an inherent upskilling opportunity, actually, isn't it? It is. It is. And as they kind of alluded to earlier, My passion is empowering enabling and encouraging talent to take control over their future through the power of learning. So to your point, every single worker right now should be exploring how might AI disrupt my job? And there is initially fear associated to it, but you've gotta get past that fear because it's happening. It's absolutely happening whether or not you're gonna take control over this narrative or not, your organization is. So what I encourage every listener to do is start looking at research. What does the World Economic Forum say? What does McKinsey Global Institute say? These are two free research based organizations that are intending to support you, especially the world economic forum. All their research is free. I can't agree with you more. I, you know, I participated in the launch of a the world economic forum initiative here in Detroit, at automation alley, and I had the opportunity to meet and become friends and colleagues with a number of people at at the World Economic Forum. And a lot of times it gets plugged as an elitist organization because bringing all these executives together, but they're producing a lot of research, and they're producing a lot of gatherings and convenings of people who are wrestling to the ground, these bigger issues. And why is that? It's because one company, one entity, can't solve it alone. The government can't solve the dropout problem alone. The the companies can't solve the education problem alone. You were talking earlier about the scourge that your father insisted you would become a fast food worker, but in point of fact, there are millions of people who are in those jobs. And now because of what those companies are doing over the last ten years, We've unleashed an education as benefit programs in all those organizations, and I think they're doing in effect what you're saying. And that is they're saying, you know what? We can't guarantee you lifelong employment. We can't guarantee you a job. But what we do feel obligated to do and the good companies are doing this, we can make sure you're better educated than when you came in the door. And you have better experiences so that when you leave here, you're better equipped to take advantage of your opportunity and use those superpowers that you're acquiring and developing to take on new responsibilities and new opportunities. Lisa Schumacher, who's the head of education strategy at McDonald's is a great one for this. You know, she's not only helped a lot of people at McDonald's get their high school education, but what she talks about is that You know, it's a they are positioning McDonald's completely differently now. They're not saying, oh, we're gonna keep you employed for your lifelong. They're saying, We're America's best first job because we're going to give you soft skills, power skills, really. I like that term better than soft skills, and those are leadership communication, working with different people. We're also gonna give you, you know, QSR, you know, quick service hospitality skills. And then we're also gonna give you some pathways to learning. You can get your high school diploma here. You can get your college degree here and we'll support that. That's the best equipment for success is saying to an employee, you know what? We can't guarantee your future, but we can guarantee you the tools to help you build it. And no one can guarantee your future. You know, it it really bothers me when I see people say things like, oh, we can future proof. There is no such thing as future proof. You can future ready and you can future prepare. And every employee needs to be thinking along those same lines that This is my job for today. As a leader, what I love is when my team members leave me when they leave me for that next, that next job, whatever it is. Job that you didn't have in your organization. Right? Exactly. Or in the organization, but it means that I've helped care them, help them develop those skills and capabilities to move on to something else. I don't wanna keep anybody on my team in that role for life. And no one should have that mindset anymore because there's really nothing for life besides taxes. Beyond that, going back to you know, what what employees can do. You could even if if you're not comfortable yet with World Economic Forum, McKinsey Global Institute, just go to Google and type is my job gonna be impacted by AI or how is my job gonna be impacted by AI? But to use your term agency, you've gotta take agency and start doing this research yourself. Now what I what I hope for and the reason that I wrote the trusted learning advisor is to inspire the talent development industry, the learning development industry to recognize this. And that is it is our job as L and D practitioners to take control over the situation in organizations and be the voice, be the advocates for their talent. No one else in the organization is looking at them to say, Are you gonna have a job here in six, twelve, eighteen months? I know today that I could reduce we could reduce up to twenty to thirty percent of my workforce right now as a result of AI. Now we're not doing that, but I know that we could. And in a couple years, that maybe where we're headed. So today, I need to be looking forward to figure out what are those roles that could be at risk so that I'm creating opportunities for them to build new skills or transferable skills in the organization so that when that time comes, they do have a future. So it's both a talent, learning development industry, but really it's up to us individually to take a look at how might we be impacted and start planning for that? Yeah. It's almost as if we've written a new employee contract you know, in my father's day and at the beginning of my career, you know, the contract was you come to work, if you wanted a personal life, they'll issue you. You want otherwise you, you know, you owe your your best hours to the organization. And in in in exchange, you're gonna have a lifelong, job and employment. And at the end of it, you'll have a retirement dinner and a and a gold watch. You know, that that evaporated him yet. Many of us who saw our parents doing that, you know, sort of pine for that. Before we went through that first reorg or before we went through that first dislocation of many of our friends and colleagues as our organizations pivoted and changed and reduced force, the workforce. So I think you're right. I think that agency has to shift our new employment contract is, I'm going to deliver skills benefit and value to you, and you in turn are going to give me a productive environment, one that's free from toxicity, one where I can learn and benefit from interacting and collaborating with with colleagues, and I can enhance my contributions by enhancing my skills. And that's that seems to me to be the formula, if you will, or the the kernel of truth, that operates this new employee contract that we're seeing from individuals with their com the companies that they are working with. I would say some companies. I don't think all companies are there yet. For me, and and and I don't I don't mean to reduce it to this, but I'm gonna be very transparent. The employee contract to me is every two weeks. Every two weeks from that or every month when you get paid. Whatever your pay cycle is, that's our contract because many people aren't aware that we live. The US is an at will country. You can be terminated at will for any reason or no reason. There doesn't have to be a reason. And and I don't think that there's enough discussion or awareness about this because so many employees seem to be shocked. You know, we've gone through the last twelve months has been horrific in the tech industry with the layoffs. Just hundreds of thousands of jobs shed And every time I see somebody responding when they've lost their job, the comment is I never thought this would happen to me. I never thought this would happen to me. And what I want employees to realize is it absolutely can happen to you. And most likely statistically, it will happen to you at least twice in your entire career. So if it hasn't happened yet, that is fantastic and be thankful for that. But don't sit by idly and think I am safe. I need to just continue doing my job and I'm gonna be okay. My philosophy is I'm not don't wanna take that content mindset, that safe mindset. I wanna be learning and growing so that I can fill that next organizational gap, whatever it is. So that if I am made redundant, I have the skill set to go to any other organization and close that gap. Regardless of my job title, essentially what I am as a problem solver, and every organization has problems. And so if you can figure out how to identify gaps that exist and go and close look to close those gaps, Yeah. Barack Obama, was recently talking about, skills and what it takes to be successful. When he said be that person who takes on a problem that no one else is willing to solve and goes and figures it out. There you go. Seth Goughton Lynch pen. The book is entirely about that. It is it has been next to me for years. And that's also what I want for every employee. Be that linchpin. You know, don't don't say comments like, that's not my job or that's not my job title. You know, you put yourself in a box when you do that. As humans, we are so much more than our job titles, and it can be so limiting. Don't then use that limit in your favor It's, yes, let me figure out how to do this for you. That's how I made my career was looking for gaps, figuring out how to solve it, I'm not a know it all. I don't know a lot of things, but I'm a learn it all. So if I see a gap, I'm gonna figure out how do I close that gap and help myself grow and help your organization continue to be pro continue to evolve. So Keith, let me ask you this. You've you've brought a lot of insights to this conversation, and I think anyone listening in our viewing audience, we've been talking with Keith Kating here about being a trusted learning adviser and about taking agency over your your learning. And I think the question I have is you know, if you were king for a day and you were able to, build the ideal learning and development environment for employees, what would the curriculum or what would the, call to action or the playbook look like regarding AI in terms of everyone in the organization. I would keep it fairly simple. So let let let me answer it this way. It is all about the culture in the organization. Are you creating a culture that embraces the idea of learning? And that's more than just a mouthpiece. We can't just say, oh, yeah. Learning is important. Are you giving time and space and accessibility to the employees? I'll give you one basic example. Tuition reimbursement versus tuition. I'm totally drawing a blank. Reimbursement. Assistant. Thank you. Your tuition reimbursement means that the employee has to pay that money out of their pocket. They have to carry that cost most likely they're paying on a credit card, and most likely they can't afford to pay that credit card off. So not only are they carrying that cost for six months. They're carrying the interest rates for six months and you're only paying them back for the tuition costs. So it's actually not a break even. They're losing money, assuming they have a credit card available to support that. Versus tuition assistance, which means you're paying for that upfront. You're creating accessibility and equality to all employees. That's one small, differentiator. The other is creating the space and time in the organization, actually giving employees time during their work day to learn so that it's supported by composers. That's really important. And a lot of companies don't do that. No. You know? And it's hard. It's hard to especially when you might be a client driven. You know, you have these hours that you bill for, but it's an investment. It's an investment from the organization side into the employee growth and development. You can on one side say, yes. We believe in learning that's so important and then not actually follow through with the actions that are needed, which is time, space, and accessibility to learning. Right. So if you were an employee starting out, how would you embrace AI and how would you start using it or where would you go to start, investing in your own learning about AI in the workforce. First thing I would do is, on my personal laptop and phone, I would just get chatgy T. Of course, there are thousands of other tools that are available now. This is the one however that continues to evolve so rapidly. I mean, the updates are amazing. Can't I can't even keep up anymore. I would just start playing with it. Start to understand it. Figure it out yourself. You know, there's a ton of free courses that are available out there. But here's the thing, you know, I remember the first month that I was seeing things on LinkedIn about chat, GPT. It felt scary in a way because I'm seeing all these posts about how to be a prompt engineer. It's fancy speak for think about what you are wanting to accomplish and then work your way backwards to ask the right questions so that you are very specific about what you're looking for. That's really what prompt engineering is. It's specific specific. Can you say the word for me? Sophicity. Thank you. It's that. So it's that. Right. You can take the free courses, but just play around with it, get experience with it so that you understand what it is and how you would use it. And you can start small and think about your personal life But the great thing about chat GPT now is it actually gives you the prompts already of, hey, you know, you might ask this, you might ask this, even ask chat GPT, how can I use you and build a relationship with it to understand the functionality? There are also a ton of other tools, that are available out there. But I would say start with that one as easiest. Great one because I remember reading that one of the ways you can enhance even the output from JVT is to say I want you to think about a really great answer. Are there any questions you wanna ask me to better inform your response? And ChatGPT will will create a more robust response when you do that. It's it's really truly remarkable in that respect. It is. Absolutely. So I think to your the answer to your question is take agency and start learning. It doesn't need to be complicated. You do not need to pay anything for this education. And I kinda wanna jump back a minute to our our conversation at the beginning. And I feel like I have to say this disclaimer sometimes because of where I am now. As, you know, a doctor. I'm a professor. I'm, also a teacher in in organizations, but I'm professor at the University of Pennsylvania. And I I sometimes hear statements like, yeah, it's easy for you to say all this now, you know, because of where you are. But the message is I accomplished what I've accomplished and I achieved my doctorate so that I could get this platform to talk about it. I'm not successful today because of my doctorate. I was successful before that. I didn't need it. I did it because I wanted to create a platform where I could look, I was able to achieve this, which is I'm very proud of myself, the monumental achievement, but I did it without a high school degree. Have my GED. I'm not smart. I am, again, a learn it all. I'm not a know it all. I can't take a test worth anything. And thank goodness The education system has changed where it's not test driven anymore because I will absolutely fail. I just have test anxiety. So my my my point is that I'm now not standing on this side saying, hey, you don't need education, even though I have it, what I'm saying is I was able to achieve this without a degree. So don't let your lack of degree define your potential future. There are so many options available to you At this point, there are so many different ways to learn. I'm proud of the degrees, but the degrees did not make me did not create the opportunities that I have today. I created them based on my work experience and based on my work ethic. And by the way, one of the challenging aspects of the degrees these days is the cost. So my other recommendation is Find every avenue to not pay the money yourself, to not go in debt yourself. It took me fifteen years to finish my bachelor's degree. Why? Because I didn't wanna pay a dime for it. I used the tuition reimbursement at years of different companies to slowly build that up. Same with my masters, tuition reimbursement, same with my doctor, tuition reimbursement. So I'm just sharing all that as as a best practice that don't feel like you have to go out and get in debt because of the astronomical costs. Community colleges are great. Local colleges are also great. You know, education is education unless it's a top three university. No one really cares anymore. The name of I think one of the natural outcomes of what you're talking about though for the students starting out is to recognize that it's in your hands. And you can decide how to acquire the skills, knowledge, experience, and education for the life you wanna live. And I think it's about becoming, a more active learner, not a passive learner, you know, it used to be. You could go to school. You would, you know, slough your way through, college, get the degree, and that degree was your, your life your opening ticket to getting a job. Now that it's not, I think in some respects, it's freeing because you're not going to school for the sake of going to school. You're going to school because you want to, improve yourself and you want to avail yourselves of as many opportunities as possible. And the work experience is more important. I, honestly, as a leader, I don't look at your education. I look at your work experience. I wanna know that you're able to bring in that knowledge preferably elsewhere. Now if it's a new entry level job, then yes, I'm gonna look at at the degree, but when you get to more see middle senior level roles, I'm not looking at degree. I'm looking at your experience. And a lot of organizations are moving in that direction, which is a fantastic trend because for many people, that degree requirement has been a barrier, an entry to barrier for for many years. Okay. I just have to hand it to you. You have been a source of inspiration since we first cooked up a friendship several years ago. It is great to have gone to Sean. Glad we're finally able to schedule it to our listening and viewing audience. This has been part two of an amazing conversation with the ever engaging doctor Keith Keating. Not only about new book, the trusted learning adviser, which he's very proud of and rightfully so. But because he's brought a lot of insights to those of you who are thinking about disruption, and getting a pit in your stomach. Listen to this episode with the idea that you have a lot of resources and they don't necessarily cost a lot to get the education, the skills, the experience you want, and you covet to tap into the opportunities for your lifetime as you define it. And I think that's really the power of the inspiration that I continue to take from Doctor. Keating, so thank you, Keith. I'm looking forward to seeing you in a few weeks. We're gonna be getting together in the motor city. In the meantime, I wanna invite you back to another show. We've gotta have you back in a few months to follow-up on this conversation. It's been really great. Thank you so much for joining us today. Absolutely. And thank you for creating the space for this discussion. And any last thoughts you wanna share with our audience before we sign off here? I would say we didn't really talk about who the intended audience is for the book. So what I would say is any learning and development practitioner talent development practitioner, this book is for you. Even if you're thinking about joining the industry or you're a CLO level, the book is for you. The intention is we are treated like order takers today. Somebody else in our organization and sometimes even in our schools, they decide who, what, where, when, and why a learning intervention should occur. And then they tell us, and they want us to execute that order. In order for us to be relevant and to stay in the game, we have to evolve from being just order takers to being trusted learning advisors. And what I mean by that is being a strategic business partner that is embedded in the business that is sought after, listened to, and respected. And so this book is a guide and a manifesto of how we can evolve from being order takers filled with case studies, best practices, and everything that I apply in my real world. Fantastic. So get a copy of it. But in the meantime, also get engaged with us. In this disrupted community, we're growing by leaps and bounds, and it's because all of you come to it and bring to it your best so engage with us. Give us your comments, give us your feedback, share this episode with others, and get disrupted with us. Until next time, thank you all, and we'll see you again on another episode of disrupt ed.