Note: This article on Workplace Culture is an excerpt from Chapter 2 of our book, Courageous Culture: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates. And, for grins and remarkably accurate insights, ChatGPT weighs in with commentary at the end.

Thoughts on AI and Workplace Culture

If your business includes work that is repetitive, routine, or structured in a predictable setting, you face competitive pressure to automate that work—if you haven’t already. Technology is commoditizing many products and services, and “easy” jobs are going away.  According to a Pew Research study experts predict robots and digital agents powered by artificial intelligence will significantly displace blue-collar and white-collar jobs by 2025.

More restaurants are moving toward tablet-based ordering; banks are closing branches as consumers prefer to do easy transactions online; and even healthcare visits are being reduced by remote monitoring. In some circumstances, your customers may be delighted at the efficiency while you’re also saving time and money. With so much being automated and quality service and products becoming the default price of admission, how do you differentiate your business from your competition?

The secret to surviving and thriving in the automation revolution is in what computers can’t replace: human creativity, empathy, and critical thinking—especially in unpredictable environments. Leading in the automation revolution isn’t about what you can control; it’s about what you can create and contribute. How often are your employees speaking up with creativity, empathy, and problem-solving? In too many businesses, the answer is “not nearly enough.” If you want a competitive edge, you’ve got to tap into your team’s human potential to do what humans do best—connect and create.

Connect

Computers may be able to “think,” but we’ve never met one who can feel. Empathy can’t be outsourced to computers.

It’s the humans who can pay close attention to the frustration points and figure out how to make it better.

What ticks off your customers?

What’s annoying your team?

Why are your peers so demoralized?

And what really needs to be done to fix all that?

The impact of AI isn’t limited to employees. AI is changing how workers trust and engage with their managers—and connection is at the heart of these changes.

Some workers prefer AI (think voice-assistant chatbots) to get information on topics like company policies, health insurance, and their remaining vacation days. These are areas where machines excel: providing accurate information quickly. But people still turn to human managers who can understand how they feel, coach them in their careers, and build culture.

When connection matters, there’s no substitute for a human being.

Create

Let’s say your AI system tells you thirty-seven thousand of your customers used profanity to describe a recent transaction.

Ouch. That’s really important data, but what do you do next? It’s the humans who can understand what’s going on from a human perspective and work to solve the problem. Do your teams have the skills they need to contribute at that level?

When the easy work is automated, will your managers know how to draw out the best solutions from their teams? Do your front-line employees feel encouraged to speak up and share solutions? Do employees at all levels have the critical thinking skills to get to the root cause? If you’re not sure, you’re not alone. According to a recent Price Waterhouse Cooper CEO survey, 77 percent of CEOs say they struggle to find the creativity and innovation they need.

When you build a dynamic culture that leverages humanity to solve problems, respond to customers, and adapt to change, you build a strong foundation to survive—and thrive—in the automation revolution.

ChatGPT’s Thoughts on AI, Empathy, and Innovation in Workplace Culture

So here’s what we asked ChatGPT about AI, empathy, and innovation when building a workplace culture.

We asked:

“One challenge we see with an over-reliance on AI in the workplace is that it can’t replace the uniquely human qualities of empathy and innovation. What’s your perspective on that?”

As an AI language model, I can certainly understand the potential limitations of over-reliance on AI in the workplace. While AI can be incredibly useful for automating repetitive or routine tasks, it can’t replace the uniquely human qualities of empathy and innovation.

Empathy is a fundamental human quality that allows us to connect with and understand others’ emotions and perspectives. It enables us to build relationships, solve problems collaboratively, and create meaningful work. While AI can analyze data and provide insights, it can’t replicate the emotional intelligence required to truly empathize with others.

Similarly, innovation is driven by human creativity, imagination, and the ability to think outside the box. While AI can be programmed to identify patterns and generate new ideas based on existing data, it can’t replicate the unique human ability to see possibilities that don’t yet exist.

That said, I don’t believe that AI is inherently in conflict with empathy and innovation. In fact, AI can be a powerful tool to augment these qualities by providing insights and freeing up time for humans to focus on more creative and empathetic work. It’s all about finding the right balance between the strengths of AI and the strengths of human workers.

Ultimately, the best approach is likely to be a collaborative one, where AI and humans work together to achieve shared goals. By combining the strengths of both, we can create a more effective and efficient workplace that values both empathy and innovation.

Your Perspective?

We would love to hear from you. What are the vital human qualities AI can’t replace? What are your best practices for building a human-centered workplace culture?

The post Workplace Culture: How to Leverage Innovation No AI Bot Can Replace appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

In this week’s Asking For a Friend, I interview Dr. Bob Nelson. author of Work Made Fun Gets Done, and discuss how to have more fun at work!

Do’s and Dont’s For Fun at Work

Do…

1.  Be playful; choose to have fun.
2.  Be open & flexible.
3.  Experiment; try new things.
4.  Learn, refine & reapply.
5. Be patient.

1. :55 the importance of doing this right – do’s and don’ts
2. 1:25 Don’t wait around for someone else to do the fun thing. Give yourself permission to have fun at work.
3. 2:21 Don’t put someone on the spot or have fun at someone else’s expense.
4. 2:41 Forced fun doesn’t tend to work.
5. 4:00 What if Your Boss is Anti-Fun?
6. 4:00 What if your boss is anti-fun? Sometimes just do it. “Best places to work” designations usually include a high percentage of employees thinking it’s a fun place to work.
7. 7:00 Specific ways you can make your own fun at work include music, chatting with someone else, etc.
8. 12:05 Getting a team who feels their job is so stressful to get into an attitude of fun i.e. praise barrage – name people and have others call out positive things they like about that person
9. 15:25 Avoid the boring, typical, repetitive stuff (i.e. just the birthday cake in the break room)
10. 15:55 Bringing “Eeyores” into the fun; showing concern and attention to mental health.
11. 18:20 Ideas to mix things up to have fun at work in the virtual environment – house tour, pet introductions, send happy hour kits, sharing what is going well
12. 22:10 Favorite fun at work moments
13. 26:03 Make it a process
14. 28:55 It is contagious and it does not need to cost a lot of money.
15. 30:28 More about Dr. Nelson’s book.

Your turn. What would you add? How do you create a more fun workplace culture?

The post How Can I Have More Fun at Work? Asking For a Friend Video – Dr. Bob Nelson appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.

Want to build more innovation into your culture, but don’t know where to start? Today we offer a few quick ways to get started on building a courageous culture.

1. Start small to Build a More Courageous Culture

There’s no need to run out and tell your team, “We’re going to build a courageous culture!”

Start by being clear with your team about two key messages.

First that you really do want their ideas and contributions. That it’s not only safe to speak up, but that it’s expected.

And second, go ask your team for ideas in one specific area.

For example, “Can you give me one idea that would help make your life easier and more productive as you’re working from home?”

2. Answer their unspoken questions

Any time you start working on culture, your team will have questions of their own. Work the answers into your communication, BEFORE they have to ask.

1. What do you actually mean?
2. Why does it matter?
3. Can I trust you?
4. What is expected of me?

Karin dives a bit deeper into these questions here.

4 Steps to Get Started Building an Innovative Culture

3. Get started reading Courageous Cultures Together

Click Here to Get the IDEA Model and other tools in our FREE Idea Incubator Guide

We’ve made it easy to get started reading the book and sharing the tools with your team.

The first tracks section of Courageous Cultures makes it easy to get started on your courageous culture journey. These are tools, best practices, and approaches you can use to build a courageous culture within your team. We designed these tools to build on one another, so we encourage you to do them sequentially. We’re deliberate about inviting you to start small and build momentum as you go—picking a few key areas to work on before thinking more broadly about your entire organization.

We’ve also built a fillable PDF Executive Strategy Guide you can use to record your ideas as you use the tools and reflect on your progress.

4. Discuss what you’re learning

In our Courageous Cultures Live-Online programs, we often use our Let’s Grow Leaders Learning Lab to invite participants to share their biggest takeaways from the book.

Here are a few that have come in recently.

On FOSU (Fear of Speaking Up)

• There are lots of reasons why people have FOSU and the best way to eliminate their fears is to lead by example and create a safe environment for all ideas.
• Clarity and curiosity!   I need to get over my FOSU.  I also enjoyed the honey crisp story!
• My biggest take away so far is the psychology behind safe silence. Overestimating current risk and underestimating the future benefit really struck a chord. It makes it easier to understand why I fear speaking up but also allows me to break through that and speak up anyway.
• Reading the descriptions of toxic cultures has let me release a huge weight of feeling I failed in past situations. It wasn’t just my fault that the problems existed; I was fighting against culture and managers not willing to change.

Balancing Clarity and Curiosity

• The balance between clarity and curiosity is an ongoing effort and that we have to all be in together from the top down for it to be most effective.
• I think my biggest take away is the importance of constant and consistent focus on clarity both from the individual and the team to ensure aligned success.
• The balance of clarity and curiosity is one of the most important takeaways I got from the book. You need to have a healthy dose of both to foster a Courageous Culture. The “Curiosity Chapter” is one of my favorites in the book. There are a lot of great examples throughout the book of different businesses creating Courageous Cultures but the example about Laura the IT Vice President sitting down with the customer service rep is a great one. Laura thought everything was going great with the new systems they implemented because she hadn’t heard anything from her team. Turns out the system was failing their team in multiple ways but the team wasn’t speaking up and sharing their thoughts on the new system. This example really drove the point home for me that there are many great ideas that aren’t shared because people don’t think leadership wants their ideas, no one asks, they lack confidence, they lack the skills to share effectively, or they don’t think anything will happen. Creating a culture that allows employees to speak up is vital to professional growth and development not only for the employee but for the company as well. We do a good job of allowing all employees the chance to be “curious” but it’s important for our company to continue building clarity so that we can use both clarity and curiosity in harmony to grow and become more efficient.

How to Encourage Courage

• That we need to foster an environment that encourages people to feel rewarded and respected when they speak up.
• Realizing that thinking you create a culture of openness, but then learning that maybe it’s not an open environment. The need for psychological safeness takes more than an assumption.
• The practical tools and techniques to make this happen.
• The I.D.E.A. model
• The importance of asking courageous questions.

The Importance of Tapping into Everyone’s Ideas

• My biggest takeaway from the book is how important speaking up is. No matter the perceived importance of an issue, suggestion, or idea, it’s typically better to speak your mind rather than stay quiet. A lot of that comes down to the environment that upper management has created but if there is a less than ideal space for sharing, it’s better to bring that to people’s attention and attempt to foster a more open environment.
• Glad that we’re all reading. Interested to hear how we can tailor some of these ideas to our company to keep improving in a high growth environment with constant change.
• “Your concern matters. We need to care enough to speak the truth.” from page 66 and the story of George and the Humvee! In past jobs, I’ve been hesitant to speak up because I felt as though I wasn’t high up enough in the company to have a voice that mattered. My opinion does matter, and I should always speak my mind with my team!
• All voices must be heard to make an organization function at it’s highest level.
• Company culture is intentional. No matter our level in the organization it is our responsibility to take an active role in the culture. That means speaking up and not accepting the status quo as the only path forward.

Ready to Get Started?

Courageous Cultures is available in hardback, kindle, or audio (read by us).  Or, in quantity discounts from BookPal.

The post How to Get Started Building a More Courageous Culture (Video) appeared first on Let's Grow Leaders.