I’m super excited to launch this third season with no one other than the one and only Josh Bersin.
Josh is an Industry Analyst and Thought Leader in the HR, leadership, and technology space. He speaks at major conferences and his thinking can be found in all of the prominent magazines. Josh also authored three books, most recently the bestseller Irristable, The Seven Secrets Of The World’s Most Enduring, Employee-Focused Organizations.
Today, we discuss The modern company, Technology, AI, people, and playing the infinite game. Here are a few takeaways to apply as a leader:
1. Taking Care of People: Josh reminds us that our people are the company. While our financial system sees people as an expense, companies should look at people as their most valuable asset and invest in them, which in turn strengthens your company.
2. Keep People Connected: Happiness is dropping significantly, especially in the UK and the US, and especially amongst young people. Some of the causes include a lack of trust, a sense of corruption, and a loss of social connections.
Companies have to create connections between people and operate as a community, not just a business. This may be harder in remote settings, which is why it’s an effort we all have to take.
We have to give them a great development plan. Give them opportunities to meet other people, like how Josh brings all of his 50 remote team members together twice a year.
3. Becoming an Irrisitable, Enduring Company by Playing the Infinite Game: We often talk about employee value propositions and employer brand but what actually makes for an irresistible company? Josh wrote the book on it based on Glassdoor data.
He found that the best companies are enduring companies that play an infinite game.
Those companies start with a clear mission and a problem to solve, and adapt with the market. They don’t fixate on a product, but on a problem, usually an enduring one like like engineering of flight and transportation or healthcare.
He points to companies like Unilever, Nestle, and Microsoft under Satya Nadella, which are very mission-driven companies in competitive markets. These companies don't necessarily get into totally new businesses, but they adapt all the time so it isn't difficult for them to change.
It helps them engage and retain their best people because they continue to be committed to the core mission, like Boeing with multiple generations of engineers working there.
4. Transforming to a Dynamic Organization. Companies always had transformations but now those have to happen much faster. Listening to employees and customers, who will tell you where change is needed and then adapt products and services
But it also means you need to adapt internally, focusing on goals versus titles and budgets. And to focus on every person as the unique individual that they are. Our skills and our relationships and our experiences can be used in multiple ways.
And this will pay off: the Bersin research shows that dynamic organizations like Telstra, ING bank, unilever. Bayer have seven times better business performance.
5. A new Generation of Work Tech: Traditional HR systems were not designed for dynamic organizations.
The organization of the future needs to know who works in them. What are they good at. What will they be good at, what’s their potential.
So a new category of software is called Talent Intelligence is on the rise, and this includes platforms like Eightfold and Beamery.
Josh recommends any company to have a conversation with vendors like these and see where the opportunity is.
6. AI and the Future of Work:
While it’s clear that AI has the potential to transform companies, for example through use cases like skills marketplaces, Josh reminds us that AI is really about data, and that the power and value are in the trustedness and accuracy of your data. And that you’ll continuously train your LLM on new data.
Josh also remarks that AI marks a huge oppporuntity for HR people to lead the agenda . Can really buy AI systems without the IT function being involved, so include them, but lead with the functional agenda – what do we want these systems to do?
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