The starting half of our work got cheap. The finishing half did not.
Summary: Rui Bashir discusses the impact of AI on HR, noting that while AI can simplify the initial stages of work, it can't address deeper issues like when team members lose engagement. William Redthorne agrees, extending the observation to various industries and highlighting the importance of reconnection strategies to combat silent disengagement. They reference a Gallup report on economic losses due to low engagement and mention developing tools to address these hidden disruptions. They stress that identifying the root issues early is critical to maintaining performance and operations.
Hi all.
I run people functions across borders, mostly in organizations where the stated problem turns out not to be the problem.
One thing occupies most of my thinking right now. AI will write your change plan and your rollout note by lunchtime. It still cannot tell you who in the room stopped believing you. The starting half of our work got cheap. The finishing half never was.
I write about that in a weekly newsletter called Margin. Five minutes on Tuesdays.
Mostly here to read, though. AI in HR is the category that made me join.
One question, if anyone wants to take it. Are you carrying a change right now that launched well and then quietly stopped being mentioned? Nobody calls those failures. They just stop appearing in the update. I think it is the most common unreported failure in our function and I would like to know if that matches your experience.
Rui
William Redthorne
·2 weeks agoHi Rui,
I think you've really zeroed in on something important. AI has shaken the paradigm of many industries in the same way. The industry for coding, graphic design, HR and more have seen that the first portion of their work very much can be done by artificial intelligence. But the last 10%, when a prompt turns into something tangible, remains with the professionals.
Keep doing the work you're doing in this space, a lot of people are realizing that "the finishing half" will remain the part that matters.
All my best,
William Redthorne
Rui Bashir
OP2 weeks agoThanks William, the cross-industry read is spot on. Coding and design went the exact same way.
The one thing I'd add is where that last 10% actually sits. In my experience, it's earlier than the tangible output. It's noticing someone has stopped believing in the thing before they say so, which usually shows up as a change that just stops getting mentioned.
Have you carried one of those?
William Redthorne
·2 weeks agoWe've come across this issue more times than I can count. So much in fact that our primary focus has shifted to correcting this deafening silence.
To your point, Gallup released a report saying "Last year, low engagement cost the world economy approximately $10 trillion in lost productivity, or 9% of GDP"
cited Here.
Because this has become such a major issue for most, we've developed a system that consultants and clients use as a tool to reconnect all the severed points where a process has quietly fallen into disorder.
To quote my Co-Founder's words: "Because the work continues, the strain behind it can be easy to underestimate until the effects become more visible in performance, capacity, retention, or day to day operations."
Do you have any situations that come to mind where someone told you why there was a drop-off?