AI, honesty, rudeness, curiosity, and Bank of Dave
- Sort of didn’t want to include this in the list as I feel AI inundated these days (do you?), but this from CTV News, “With AI, workplace surveillance has ‘skyrocketed’—leaving Canadian laws behind”, is in many ways not about AI, it is about leadership, or more on the nose, about lack of courageous leadership. If we say that trust, trust in the leadership of the organization, trust amongst the employees, and trust from the people the organization serves is important, then the leadership team, including the CEO, needs to know how AI is being used in their organization from being used to provide draft marketing copy through to how relationships are built with employees from recruitment to monitoring work.
It isn’t enough to own up to using AI, we also need to ask “why are we using AI?”. We need to mind the ethical gap between using AI for efficiencies and using AI to monitor human beings. - How to Get the Honest Input You Need from Your Employees. I could just leave this sitting here as the title of this December 2023 article from HBR is enough to get you to read it. But … I want to give an extra nudge to all of us who saw it and said “We’re already good on that”. Perhaps you are, but we can all do better with practicing curiosity over certainty, understanding and leading a culture of psychological safety, asking quality questions, listening to learn, and reflecting and reconnecting?”
- And speaking of curiosity, in the February 13th List, I shared the work that Scott Shigeoka is doing on curiosity and now I gleefully dive in any time I see something about curiosity. On one of my recent dives led me to the BBC archived (September 2022) “Curiosity: The neglected trait that drives success”.
- I hear that some of you are weary of TED Talks, I get it. And yet here’s one from 2018 that given what I am hearing from clients may need to part of everyone’s orientation or development days. “Why being respectful to your co-workers is good for business”. Even if we are not rude, if as a leader we tolerate rudeness or lack of civility in our organizations, then we are undermining the success of the organization, the well-being of people in the organization, and the value that we say we are bringing to the communities we serve.
- I’m a push-over for feel-good movie and Bank of Dave hits all the expected feel goods (admittedly there are flaws, but this isn’t a film review). The underdogs are familiar and likeable, there’s a bit of romance, and just the right mix of easy smiles, quick tears, and comfortable tension to bring you to the expected ending. And while at times it may feel a little didactic and potentially cheesy, there is a lovely courageous leaders theme – oh and it might matter to some of you that there is music from Def Leppard.