Preparing Employees for Super-Suit Thinking

You may have read about the Education Department’s floundered rollout of the new Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Meant to simplify the aid application, the new FAFSA instead fell on its face. Multiple issues during the conversion project — and with the form itself — caused students and schools to miss deadlines considered important to making financial aid decisions. Some students even received incorrect aid offers.

Many of us have been in the Education Department’s shoes and groan just thinking about those flops. Complex projects are both thrilling and terrifying. Unknown unknowns appear out of nowhere to disrupt project plans. Even so, stakeholders can forgive bumps in the project road and sing the praises of a new product if the project is planned well. But poor planning, and everyone starts screaming like a brood of cicadas.

GenAI is a complex project that begins for an organization well before the investment contract is executed. Long-haul planning for an AI investment can mean the difference between singing and screaming. Yes, workflows, data, and procedures should be reviewed and prepared. But so should organizational beliefs and practices around human limitation.

How does an organization uncover what it believes about human limitation? By asking, “What is the best use of AI in this organization?” If the only answer is, “Automation to replace human labor”, then ask why human limitation is considered a liability. Viewing human limitation as a liability can blind an organization to AI’s stratosphere-breaking potential, which is, making humans fly.

You know, like Tony Stark in Iron Man. After Stark tests his Hot-Rod-Red flying suit, he lands upright on both feet and pronounces, “Yeah, I can fly.” Stark didn’t do it by himself, though. He needed his AI cohort, Jarvis, to supercharge his own human intellect to make the super suit possible, and he trusted Jarvis. And Stark, despite the smarty pants that he was, seemed good with his own limitations.

Viewing AI as a “sidekick that can supercharge any employee” is a strategy being employed by Hartford insurance company, according to a report in the May 8, 2024, issue of Forbes CIO Intelligence. In that same issue, Sheila Jordan, Honeywell’s Chief Digital Technology Officer, was reported to say it’s an employer’s responsibility to provide employees with AI training opportunities. And Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was quoted as saying during an earnings call that AI adoption “requires not just technology, but, in fact, companies to go do the hard work of culturally changing how they adopt technology.”

Human limitation is a starting point, not an ending. Creating a culture that views human limitation as an existing asset, while providing AI education and training to employees, can pave the way for employees who are ready to engage in super-suit-thinking and innovation.

Effective Continuous Improvement begins with clarity on workflows, procedures, and training plans.

This blog was written and edited by a human!

© 2024 Lori K. Barbeau