Driving Productivity Whilst Staying Human

We’re busier than ever.

We’re struggling to keep up with our workloads and we’re feeling more and more stressed because of it.

• 64% of people say that they don’t have enough time or energy to do their work.
• 70% of people say that they would delegate as much of their workload as possible to AI.

In this week’s episode of with INTENT: we delve into the challenges of this drive for productivity and the impact that it could be having on employee engagement.

As this drive intensifies, how do we ensure that we keep what’s essentially human, brilliant and life-affirming at the core of our organisations?

How do we make empowered, value based decisions about AI?

How do we ensure that we don’t delegate our essential meaning and connection to each other in service to a rather narrow definition of productivity - more, more quickly?

With INTENT: our 5 minute deconstructions of the current trends to inspire healthy rethinking and reconstructive action.

by Chris Wickenden, Chief Creative Officer at FROM:TODAY

Transcript

[00:00:00] Hi, Chris here from FROM:TODAY. 49 percent of workers say that they fear AI will eventually replace them in their work. But at the same time, 70 percent of those workers say that they would delegate as much as possible of their workload to AI. And it's an interesting juxtaposition under the pressure to be productive.

Are we essentially signing off our eventual redundancy? So last week we spoke about the importance of setting really clear human based value driven boundaries when it comes to our AI strategies. But are we just way too busy to uphold such lofty ideals? We have three times as many online meetings and calls as we ever have before.

64 percent of workers are saying that they don't have time or energy to actually complete their workloads. And at the same time, leaders are showing a concern, 60 percent of them, a concern that [00:01:00] workers are not being innovative enough. So last year in the UK, we were one of the most emotionally distressed workforces And if you add all of that together, along with the demand to be innovative, it's easy to see how we're struggling.

These are not the conditions where creativity is likely to thrive. But at the same time, there is that demand for us to be productive with our creativity. And of course, that's That creates a temptation to make more and more use of the pretty brilliant generative AI tools that are out there. However, when we start delegating more and more of what's essentially human about our work, so that ability to communicate authentically, to be creative and to innovate, To AI, are we starting to delegate our essential relevance?

All in service to quite a narrow definition of productivity, more [00:02:00] or less. More quickly, and I'll use the example of producing a piece of content. There's a huge demand for businesses to produce more and more content. And trust is a key element within business. And one important component of trust is.

Intimacy. And part of the impact of a piece of content is not just what it says, but it's the intimacy created by the fact that you know that these are the words of the author. They have thought about it deeply, they care about it, and they've endeavored to articulate it in their own imperfect words. It creates a relationship.

Now, that impact is lost when you know or suspect that 95 percent of a piece of content has been generated, from source even, by AI. And maybe the only contribution of the writer has been that they've edited it at the end. And you end up with this real saturation of lots and lots of content for content's sake.

And it [00:03:00] begs the question, but what's the point though? And operating in spaces like this, whether it's the faux writer or the reader, is Is bound to lead to a greater sense of disconnect. And the more that this approach infuses more of our channels of communication, whether it's simply. writing an email, producing a deck for a presentation, um, producing an agenda for a meeting, um, uh, producing your, your content marketing strategy.

The more and more that this happens, I think the more and more disengaged the workforce will become. And we know that this is a problem worldwide right now. So this in no way is intended as an anti AI piece. Clearly there are some fantastic opportunities represented by using various automation technologies.

And there's some really creative ways that we can Create more space and time for ourselves. They've given [00:04:00] us about that gift of time to focus on the things that we are really great at, that we love doing. And let's face it where we are actually more productive. Those are absolutely to be embraced.

However, I do think that there are areas, particularly in relation to generative AI, that we have to be more selective and boundaried because the more that we delegate. What's essentially human and brilliant about ourselves and our teams to AI, all in service to quite a narrow definition of productivity more, more quickly.

We run the risk of delegating our essential connection, meaning and purpose. And when we lose that, We lose everything. So I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts on this. Please do check out our blog on it where we delve into it in a bit more detail. And as always, I'd love to hear from you. Get in touch with me at chris@fromtoday.com or on LinkedIn. I'll speak to you soon.