AI use is exponentially up. Cognition measurement in schools is already down. Knowledge is now via subscription. What is the strategic impact on learning and development in the workplace and our industry?
Let’s go beyond the overreported doom and gloom of a gutted job market. Let’s focus on people, leverage, and opportunity shift.
AI use in schools (driven in large measure by Google) is already showing a tangible reduction in cognitive function. And let’s make the likely assumption that this will increase and continue. We are giving people a “mental exoskeleton” or maybe the equivalent of the e-bike boost. But what comes easily does not build capacity and breeds dependence. Inadvertent dumbing down seems the path we are on.
Knowledge is now billable. We now buy it like electricity. So subject matter experts aren’t worth anything anymore. If the model of “school creates knowledge creates opportunity creates career” is broken. If basic to advanced-level knowledge is available at your fingertips, then what will differentiate the value of our employees? If the combination of reduced mental challenges and readily available answers and resources makes people less capable/qualified/valuable – what takes its place?
What takes its place is Initiative.
The future of the workplace, the highest-valued asset and the thing that is both expected and elusive, is initiative.
As reported recently in the Wall Street Journal, KPMG has begun a discretionary bonus system that recognizes and rewards initiative. Serious money and visionary strategy. Although agentic AI is being designed to take initiative (with some damn sketchy results lately), there will be no substitute for characteristics and skills that leverage initiative.
So is initiative a skill, an inherent characteristic, or some of both? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that it becomes a part of the value system, operational ethos, and employee expectations of the future.
What are the issues, challenges, and opportunities?
- Shifting training and development from knowledge and policy to thought processes and behaviors. And to be honest, I think someone is going to make a lot of money by reinventing primary up to collegiate-level education by doing this, as well. Critical thinking, independent judgment and analysis, team building and alignment, and emotional intelligence are examples of my suggested shift. Knowledge is no longer the path to secure employment and relevance – it is going to be knowing how, when, and why to take action.
- Addressing what barriers are standing in the way of many Gen Z employees embracing initiative. Another significant report in the WSJ indicated that there are some clear gaps in younger workers related to initiative and problem-solving. 43% of corporate employers report serious challenges for them in regard to independent thinking, difficult conversations & feedback, clarity of priorities, and related issues. And AI is only going to make this tendency (dependency) even more challenging. Let’s start thinking about how to give them the tools they need to excel.
- Training and retraining older leaders to empower and engage through leading by inquiry. Compelling independent action, risk-taking, and experiential learning is not just organic but cultivated. Leaders need to think of the promotion of initiative (and accepting it might not be perfect or done their way) is a desired outcome, not just a trade-off.
- Like KPMG, we need to recognize and tangibly reward the activity and practice of initiative as much as possible. From hiring to promotion to evaluations and compensation/bonuses – initiative needs to rise as high as emotional intelligence, work ethic, and integrity as drivers of advancement.
As a CEO for some decades, my number one identifier of potential was initiative. It was the one thing I intentionally praised and recognized (and promoted for). It was the key driver of our organizational success. I may have stumbled into it then, but embracing it now is not optional; it is essential.
In closing, really, my greatest worry about our immediate future is not that technology is going to kill us (although, if it does and I don’t get to spend my 401(k), I’m going to be pissed). It is that we will inadvertently dumb ourselves down and someone else will monetize our decline. In the workplace, the cost savings impact of tech is clearly going to be a primary driver of change, but an offset is necessary. And that offset is the cultivation, encouragement, and prioritization of initiative as an organizational value and individual strategy for keeping the blade sharp.
Anything less is a disservice to our businesses, our country, and ourselves.