0:11 yes we've all that was Darryl
0:13 West agreeing with me he's the VP of
0:16 governance and director at the Brookings
0:19 Institution in Washington DC you might
0:23 be wondering why on earth we were being
0:25 so negative why won't we be more
0:29 optimistic we were talking about AI we
0:31 were talking about machine learning we
0:33 were talking about all the amazing
0:35 changes that are happening in technology
0:38 today and how they will be impacting us
0:42 I have been fascinated in the role of
0:46 Technology and human advancement and the
0:47 organizational changes in the environment
0:48 environment
0:52 ever since let me think now
0:57 1989 when I was at college doing my
1:00 organization in the environment and at
1:03 that time I was very much focused on
1:06 looking at what changes were happening
1:09 and how things were going I then moved
1:11 to work for a very small company called
1:14 Sony working on the PlayStation launch
1:18 back in 1995 and at that time again I
1:20 was able to witness firsthand how
1:23 rapidly everything was evolving and how
1:25 exciting it was so now we're in a
1:27 situation where things are very very
1:29 different we now have a situation
1:32 whereby we are no longer in the
1:34 environment whereby we've gone from
1:36 email through the internet through to
1:38 the mobile technology we're now talking
1:41 about AI where the robots are coming
1:44 really it is the new electricity this is
1:45 how it's been described and it's the
1:48 most exciting thing but basically what
1:49 that means is that things are going to
1:52 be changing significantly and when
1:54 things change significantly we know that
1:56 we also need to change significantly
1:59 with it ai is going to be seen as a
2:01 phenomenal opportunity for so many
2:04 industries for so many people but it
2:07 also is going to be quite damaging to a
2:10 lot of others the NGO world champion
2:13 Lisa Dahl retired in the face of AI
2:16 he was very very focused on being the
2:17 champion of the world of the go world
2:21 game and Google had created a AI
2:23 algorithm which enabled him to which
2:25 enable them to actually beat him he now
2:28 considers himself out of a job so
2:31 rewinding back again to 1989 there were
2:33 the heady days of being the first people
2:35 in the world to have a computer that was
2:38 absolutely gigantic on CD players and
2:41 all of those wonderful things and this
2:43 was just before email before the
2:45 internet that came with things that came
2:48 about and we were hearing about this
2:53 amazing new ideal called the information
3:02 so there was a really big opportunity
3:05 there email came along and you know the
3:07 rest is history but this time it is
3:11 different IDC has reported that this
3:16 year alone in 2019 thirty seven point
3:17 five billion dollars has been spent on
3:19 AI globally and it's going to be
3:22 doubling year-on-year I believe
3:24 according to Brookings we mentioned
3:26 Darryl West at the Brookings Institution
3:30 just earlier he in particular his
3:32 organization publishes various articles
3:34 and there's one that actually states
3:35 white collar workers are going to be
3:39 losing their jobs due to AI it's gonna
3:42 be a really challenging time so I want
3:43 to be able to give everybody the
3:44 opportunity just sitting for a second
3:46 and think about how this is going to
3:49 affect you your colleagues your teams
3:53 your bosses the people that report to
3:54 you your family your friends your
3:56 neighbors and all of these different
3:57 people that are in the environment with
4:02 you and how that's going to how a I and
4:04 the machine learning age etcetera is
4:06 going to actually be impacting you and
4:09 then next I'd like to invite you to
4:12 consider how a AI is going to impact and
4:17 improve your work environment and then
4:20 I'd like you to actually think about how
4:23 you need to adapt in this new
4:24 environment but I have a really good
4:26 news well guys let you know right now
4:29 according to Charles Darwin 19th century
4:35 guy we are all able to adapt I knew
4:38 you'd love that and it's the people that
4:40 are able to adapt who are most likely to
4:43 be able to survive and thrive and he
4:46 little do people know that he was one of
4:48 the very first founders of emotional
4:50 intelligence of course they didn't call
4:52 it that back in that day he'll but he
4:54 was the Godfather if I can call it off
4:57 being able to research or researchers
4:59 actually focusing on emotional behaviors
5:01 which I only found out quite recently
5:04 when discussing this so the good thing
5:07 is that we all have emotional
5:09 intelligence every single one of us even
5:11 the people that you think don't have
5:13 emotional intelligence they have
5:17 emotional intelligence and what's really
5:18 going to be important for us is that we
5:21 advance as much as we can and to have a
5:24 learning mindset very much on how we can
5:26 adapt how we can be curious how we can
5:29 listen how we can learn what we can do
5:31 to actually make this change and you
5:33 have a decision to make right now and
5:35 it's it's it's gonna be a hard one to be
5:37 able to make because it is pretty binary
5:39 it's yes or no but you have the
5:41 opportunity right now to make a decision
5:44 do I want to learn to evolve in this
5:47 environment or do I not want to either
5:49 either way you have made a decision to
5:52 progress forward and to and to make
5:53 yourself successful but in this
5:55 environment but I also have some Morgan
5:57 news it's not just you that needs to
5:59 adapt organizations need to adapt and
6:02 this is the cornerstone of the work that
6:04 I do as well as the coaching work what I
6:07 do which is that we live in a world of
6:09 chaotic organizations that go that
6:12 create this very merry dance there which
6:14 I'm sure you're all aware of and have
6:15 experienced it or you've heard about it
6:18 or read about it or seen news flashes
6:20 about it and it goes something like this
6:26 hire fire hire again and then layoffs
6:28 and it takes that dance that dance keeps coming
6:29 coming
6:31 it could happen every two years it could
6:32 happen every five years it's whenever
6:34 there's new technology that comes in and
6:36 when that happens how disruptive is that
6:39 for you and everybody else your family
6:40 your friends your name
6:43 etc and then being able to find work and
6:46 that dance that is created is hugely
6:49 disruptive to organizations and the
6:51 people that are that are there because
6:53 they're not planning ahead what I would
6:59 like to see is a brand new paradigm
7:02 which is an emotionally intelligent
7:05 organization an emotionally intelligent
7:07 organization understands what is
7:10 necessary to be able to advance in the
7:13 AI age and is able to think very
7:15 strategically with great thoughts with
7:17 great empathy with great decision-making
7:19 skills about where they need to go how
7:21 they're going to get there and include
7:23 their people a lot on the ride because
7:25 one of the fundamental beliefs that I
7:27 have and I'm gonna read this straight
7:30 out is that without insight support or
7:31 guidance on the behaviors that
7:34 organizations currently have it will put
7:35 strain and stress on the people running
7:37 the organization which impacts the
7:40 company's productivity culture employer
7:43 brand profitability and employee
7:46 happiness which then impacts the way the
7:48 customers and clients work with you so
7:51 you have that glorious although I say
7:54 not so glorious vicious cycle and these
7:56 are what I call the elephants in the
7:58 room where organizations will go through
8:00 this never-ending cycle time and time
8:03 again without just stopping and taking
8:06 that moment to identify exactly what the
8:08 issue is all the issues are and to be
8:09 able to move forward in that particular
8:12 way so I want to check in and have it
8:14 have a moment here to be able to
8:16 identify where you are on this this
8:20 scale because our emotions are really
8:22 important there's gonna be some people
8:23 here in this room that are gonna be
8:25 thinking oh no the AI age will never
8:27 happen to me or that there's something
8:28 well you know I don't need to worry
8:32 about thank you very much I'm sure
8:33 there's a couple in the room thinking
8:35 that right now well I have amazing news
8:43 this is a situation that we find
8:45 ourselves in with all sorts of
8:47 environments or were all sorts of
8:49 situations in our lives where we are
8:51 unable to handle the change that happens
8:53 and you know so I very much see that
8:55 this is okay
8:57 if you have that sensation if you have
8:59 that feeling and that impulse that is
9:00 okay that is your brain protecting
9:03 itself from actually wanting to make
9:05 that very painful change you know when
9:07 you can feel that you're learning
9:09 something new that is painful change for
9:11 your brain to start getting used to it
9:14 start enjoying it stop relishing it even
9:17 if it is hard to deal with it so one of
9:18 the ways to shorten that entire process
9:21 is to be able to become immediately
9:23 curious and to start talking about the
9:25 possibilities so you can normalize
9:27 things swiftly and then you're able to
9:31 move on so let's talk about the
9:33 emotional intelligent organization so
9:35 moving on from an internal lens and
9:39 looking at the external lens we are all
9:42 people leaders not just leaders we're
9:44 all people leaders and what do I mean by
9:48 that we are all mini activists in our
9:49 organizations and in life
9:51 you know even when we go on the subway
9:53 we are many activists on how we're able
9:55 to behave and work with others and
9:57 communicate with others and I believe
9:58 very strongly that we are able to do
10:01 that as well within an organization what
10:02 I would like to see from the people
10:04 leaders in an organization is that they
10:06 are able to seek out AI solutions with
10:08 the team in the organization be open to change
10:09 change
10:11 move it move everything forward in the
10:14 best possible way the next aspect that
10:16 I'd like to be able to talk about is the
10:17 war for talent
10:19 the war for talent is very real and it's
10:22 been getting worse and worse even now
10:26 with AI technical engineering analytics
10:27 finance creative and production roles
10:30 are going to be even harder to find if
10:32 you focus on the the dance that we
10:34 talked about earlier of the hire fire
10:36 lay off and so on you're in this
10:39 situation whereby you're not allowing
10:41 the people to actually become engaged
10:43 within an organization fast enough so
10:46 when you've got this this this barren
10:47 wasteland of talent that have these
10:49 really rare hard to find skills that I
10:53 call unicorns what do you need to do
10:58 I strongly believe and I'm this is
11:00 pretty radical idea here that I'm
11:02 throwing out to you because I don't
11:04 often hear of organizations doing it
11:08 which is that organizations take up the
11:12 great hairy audacious opportunity to
11:14 Reese kill or UPS kill their people at
11:18 ten times speed I know isn't that crazy
11:20 who would think about that because this
11:23 is the scenario right now you lay off
11:25 the people it takes six months to go
11:27 through that process you're identifying
11:29 in the organization from a senior level
11:31 who are you gonna lay off in that time
11:32 when you're laying those people off
11:34 those people are committed the majority
11:36 muscle there's a usually I'll have very
11:38 high disengagement level within an
11:40 organization but it's up to the
11:42 organization to understand who really
11:43 wants to move forward so this is where
11:45 the mini activists in the organization
11:48 can really rise up so you've got the
11:49 six-month situation where an
11:51 organization is laying people off then
11:53 there's six to 12 months to actually
11:56 search for those magical unicorns in the
11:58 creative analytical finance whichever it
12:00 is environments to try and find those
12:02 people that will become a culture fit
12:05 only to them find that they are hard to
12:06 find because guess what everyone else is
12:12 searching for them as well and that's
12:14 the reality it's a really tough
12:17 incredibly competitive market so then
12:18 you hire this amazing unicorn you've got
12:20 this person on maybe they're not your
12:21 first choice maybe they're not your
12:23 second choice but you're filling that
12:26 seat they take six to 18 months to ramp
12:28 up and actually develop their ability to
12:32 you know be productive that's twenty
12:34 four months maybe a little bit more
12:35 depending you know I don't know who's
12:37 math is gonna be really good here in
12:38 this room but you've got this situation
12:41 whereby that's twenty four months to get
12:44 to that situation how much faster would
12:45 it have been if you had trained the
12:47 people up or up skill the people with
12:49 those hype the high potential people to
12:51 that particular position what would have
12:54 happened then I believe upskilling is an
12:55 emotionally intelligent thing to do for
12:59 organizations and what else have you
13:03 considered that an employer brand is
13:08 actually part of emotional intelligence
13:10 yes indeed do you think it's all about
13:13 smiley faces and you know on social
13:18 media and and and foosball tables no it
13:21 is not no it is not I strongly believe
13:23 an emotionally intelligent organization
13:25 and focusing on the brand side of things
13:27 is whether they are able to meet a
13:30 talents aspirations and expectations in
13:32 the environment and what do I mean by
13:34 that when you're bringing somebody on
13:36 that really is driven to move your
13:38 company forward they're going to have a
13:40 far more incredible range of beliefs and
13:42 values and understandings and
13:44 experiences than the people that you
13:46 currently have in the organization so
13:48 that means you need to upskill that
13:50 organization you need to uptrend that's
13:52 that that organization you need to
13:54 ensure that everyone is rising to that
13:57 level that you want people to join with
14:00 you so that means evolving your culture
14:02 as fast as candidate expectations do in
14:04 the realms of purpose decision-making
14:06 interpersonal relationships stress
14:11 management inclusivity and leadership so
14:14 what exactly is an emotionally
14:16 intelligent organization an emotionally
14:18 intelligent organization knows that its
14:22 behaviors form its culture its culture
14:25 impacts its product it's a corporate
14:27 brand its employer brand and its
14:30 employee experience an emotionally
14:32 intelligent organization is a place
14:34 where everyone is a mini activist for
14:37 managing their agreed upon culture to
14:39 inspire a virtuous employee and
14:43 organizational journey it's my belief
14:45 that we are in this situation where we
14:47 have to make these dramatic changes to
14:51 ensure that organizations our country's
14:56 our economy is able to thrive as my
14:58 coach once said to me if nothing changes
15:02 nothing changes thank you [Applause]
15:05 [Applause] [Music]
