Things are changing faster is by now a cliché. The rise of generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) is the poster child for this development: at the time of writing, Open AI has been around for less than 2 years but has changed the competitive landscape for organizational performance.
Some changes are predictable, others not. What matters is being prepared for the former and being able to adapt to the latter. That requires some skills on behalf of the learning and development (L&D) team that may not currently be extant.
Changing Landscape
A given is that the rate of change is increasing. This is true not just for AI, but in many areas. Battery technology, for instance, is rapidly advancing, as are renewable technologies overall. So, too for chemical advances and many if not most technology areas.
That rate of change provides several outcomes. For one, it means that staying on top of the technology being used for products or services will need to be continually tracked and appropriate new skills sourced.
It also provides for the unexpected. Just as the rapid rate of capability growth in Gen AI was unprecedented, other such revolutions are likely. Competitive pressures mean there are advantages to not announcing new capabilities until they’re ready for the market. When technologies emerge, there’s little time to take advantage of them.
Barriers
The rate of change also means that the source of people may be limited, and acquisition may be hard. Consequently, there’s pressure on internal development. When you can’t buy what you need, you’ll have to build.
Information about the new capabilities may be hard to find. Inferences may be necessary from limited sources. Reverse engineering may also be a necessity.
New technologies are likely, increasingly, to require teams with complementary capabilities. As new technologies typically leverage interactions, those interactions require skills in different domains as well as their intersection.
Success: Track and Experiment
First, success is about tracking new developments in underlying areas. The analysts in key fields of the organization should be continually monitored. Internally, there’s a need to listen to those who are paying attention.
Tracking what others are saying needs to be coupled with controlled experimentation. Trying out new things is a necessity, and innovation is the key. The organizational key is to accept a moderate risk of mistakes, at least intelligent failure, as Amy Edmonson lets us know in her book Right Kind of Wrong. Testing out possibilities through prototypes and pilots is a valuable way to learn lessons that can be shared internally, but also identify skills or gaps in being able to execute or interpret these outcomes.
Part of at least the initial skill development comes from participating in such endeavors. Learnings from those experiments should be shared, but so should any indications of the skills needed and how to determine them.
Similarly, those involved in experimentation should be regularly surveyed to discern what skills they anticipate becoming important. While not definitive, even indicative information is useful in being prepared.
For the unexpected, there is a two-pronged approach. One is to immediately look to those who do know, and find out what they suggest are key skills. Another is to do more ad hoc experimentation than the planned ones, just to gather information as a preliminary source of skill information.
Innovation can come internally from these experiments. It can be difficult, particularly if risk is avoided and lessons can’t be shared, but increasingly the barriers are recognized and the culture needed is identifiable. Change is hard, but is particularly important, going forward.
In conclusion, companies must not only keep up with new developments in technology but also cultivate the abilities required for innovation and adaptation due to the rapid rate of technological change. Keeping up with changing advancements and embracing controlled experimentation will help L&D teams stay ahead of the curve. Organizations may improve their capacity to implement and utilize new technologies efficiently while also ensuring they are ready for any eventuality by cultivating a culture of innovation and ongoing learning.
Download our eBook, Skilling for Performance: A Strategic Imperative for Organizations, to find out more about how to match skill development with organizational goals.
