https://swiy.co/go-tiny-levers

What small changes are you making that could make a big difference in your workplace?

I was recently participating in a panel discussion about the future-ready skills we need for our workforce now and in the future. The discussion turned to the need to embrace diversity in our teams, especially generational diversity. Younger people often bring fresh perspectives and expertise, but we also don’t want to lose the experience, good judgement, and wisdom of more experienced team members.

The moderator of the panel, Keith, asked the audience,

“Can anybody in the room share an example of bridging the generational gap?”

One participant, Isabella, shared a story from a previous workplace.

As part of a digital transformation process, they introduced online dashboards to show performance of various technical processes. These dashboards improved the visibility of data, but two of the old, more experienced managers struggled to immediately grasp what a dashboard was showing. So, in a meeting, when they saw a series of dashboards, they missed the first few results, and thus lost important information. As a result, they couldn’t make well-informed comments and discussions about overall performance.

So what could you do?

Do you send those people off to digital training courses?

Do you give them mentoring from younger people?

Do you get them to do job shadowing?

Do you give them some other form of professional development?

Well, yes, all of those things are useful.

But Isabella said they did something much simpler.

In a meeting, when they switched to the new dashboard, they stopped ... just for a few seconds ... to give everybody the chance to see, understand, and absorb the information. And then they moved on.

Those five seconds were enough. That’s all it took to get everybody on board.

I love this story because it shows that sometimes, it only takes a few seconds to help somebody.

Sometimes, to bring people along on any change journey, you do need to invest a lot of time, effort, resources, and money. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But sometimes you don’t.

Sometimes all it takes is a small change.

So, look for the small changes — the quick wins — that can make a big difference.

For more, join my free online presentation next week, called “Keep the Change”, which is all about building a culture of change in your team and your organisation. I’m sure you’ll get some really practical things you can take away and put into place immediately.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-tiny-levers

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Are you getting in the way of your team being more open, flexible, and innovative?

I was working with a group of about twenty senior leaders a few years ago, running my two-day “Future Scenarios” program. Everybody was fully immersed for the full two days, except for the CEO, who stepped in for a while at the start of day one and then returned partway through day two for another few hours.

It was interesting for me to see the dynamics of the group when he was in the room and when he wasn’t (Some of you are way ahead of me!) ...

When he was in the room, he was open, took part enthusiastically in the activities, didn’t talk over anybody else or try to push his opinion forcefully.

But ... other people subtly changed their behaviour because he was there.

If he said something, others made sure they didn’t contradict it, even in small ways.

They didn’t say things that might contradict organisational policy.

They didn’t criticise anything that had been imposed “from above”.

I had said at the start of the session,

“Think big, and even consider impossible things over these two days. It’s easier to think big now and walk it back later than to do it the other way around.”

But when the CEO was in the room, they had already mentally “walked it back”.

Like ducklings that stay close to their mother just after they’re born, they don’t want to stray too far from the CEO.

Now this wasn’t really the CEO’s fault – and he would have been horrified if he had known.

It was actually the fault of his title: “CEO”. Because of his status, others modified and tempered their behaviour. They changed what they said, what they did, and how they behaved – simply because somebody at that level was in the room.

Jeffrey Pruitt, the CEO of Telus Internationa, called this the “Jeff said” game.

He noticed that whenever he was in meetings, people would temper their conversations and their decisions. Even later, if someone questioned a decision, instead of explaining the reason for the decision, they would say things like:

“Jeff said it’s a good idea.”

“Jeff said we should do this.”

“Jeff said we shouldn’t do that.”

Even if he hadn’t exactly said those things, they abdicated their responsibility and decision-making to the CEO.

Pruitt was smart enough to realise the best way to solve that problem was not to attend those meetings.

He empowered his team and built their judgement so they could make good, well-informed decisions themselves. They would make a decision, and he would still accept accountability and responsibility for it.

Does the same thing happen in your team? You might not even realise people are playing the “Jeff said” game, but they are!

So what can you do?

The answer is simple – but not easy.

It’s simple because all you have to do is stay out of those meetings! Give others the space to discuss, debate, and decide without your influence. But you still take responsibility and accountability.

As a bonus, you also get more time for your other work (and who wouldn’t like a bit less time in meetings!).

But the reason it’s not easy is because you have to trust your people. And that means giving them the skills they need, and help them build good judgement so they can make well-informed decisions.

But it’s worth it.

This is just one of the things you can do to build a culture of change agents in your organisation. I’m talking about this in my next free, public online presentation “Keep The Change”. It’s for leaders and managers everywhere, at every level of the organisation. Register here, and please share it with others in your team and your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-get-out-of-the-way

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https://swiy.co/go-change-is-contagious

How are you creating a culture of change in your team?

I spoke at a conference recently, and somebody came up to me after my presentation, and said:

“You might not remember me, but you worked with our extended leadership team a few years ago, and gave us an idea about innovation and change that has worked really well for us.”

Well, of course, the only thing better than hearing people say nice things about me is to tell you about it!

So, I’ll do that here ...

I do remember this client. They were going through a major change initiative, with a focus on innovation and being customer-centric. One of their ideas was to create an online “suggestion board”. Anybody in the organisation could post a suggestion about something they would like changed. Then somebody else who could tackle that, maybe even from a different department, would take that on board and put it into action to create the change.

Good idea, but ... You might be able to guess the flaw.

Many people were submitting ideas and requests, but very few people would take them. Not surprising, because everybody is already overloaded with their own work, and just don’t have time to do somebody else’s work as well!

So this team was planning to ditch the suggestion board. But I told them to keep it, but change it.

Instead of using it to make requests, I suggested they use it as a place for people to share their innovation success stories — things that they did, or tried, that went well. Even failures were OK if they shared the process.

I checked in a few months later and asked how it was going, and it was ticking along. Then this conference attendee told me it’s working really well now. People are sharing ideas, they get lots of positive feedback on them, and everybody feels good about it.

More importantly, sometimes other people say,

“That’s a great idea. We can do that as well.”

And that’s the point.

Share your success stories, so others learn from them – and are inspired and motivated by them.

When you’re creating a culture of change, you can’t expect to bring everybody on the journey at the same pace.

A few people are keen. A few will hang back and wait to see what happens. And others won’t change unless you drag them kicking and screaming.

But you can’t force people to change. And sometimes you can’t even gently cajole the nervous starters.

What you CAN do is share the success stories of the keen, enthusiastic, early innovators.

This is one of the nine ideas from the book “Switch”, by Chip and Dan Heath. They describe this as “finding the bright spots”.

Instead of trying to force people to change, find examples, stories, anecdotes, and stories of people doing the right thing. Share them, highlight them, showcase, them, and celebrate them.

For more practical ideas about creating a culture of change with your team, register for my next free, public, online presentation, “Keep The Change”. It’s open to everybody, so please invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-change-is-contagious

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https://swiy.co/go-attention-first

When you’re sharing an idea with somebody for the first time, how do you grab their attention so they listen to your message?

I’ve been doing a lot of work recently with teams and organisations about the skill of sense-making, which is one of the most important future-ready skills we all need.

Sense-making is about making sense (surprise!) in three areas:

* Intel: Making sense of the world around you and filtering what’s important and relevant to you, your team, your organisation, and your community.

* Insights: Using that intel to gain insights into what you need to change, adapt, or keep the same.

* Influence: Sharing those insights with others so they take action and make a difference.

Some teams want help in all three areas; others choose one or two. Most commonly, I’m asked to help with the third part: Influence.

Clients say something like this to me:

“Our leaders know what’s going on in the world. They know what action we need to take. But they need to be better at communicating that message.”

This could be in any context: standing on stage in front of a large group, speaking up in a team meeting, having a sales conversation with a prospect, or many other interactions.

In all those situations, you have a message to share and you want to get their attention quickly.

The most important thing to understand is they don’t care about you!

They have many other things competing for their attention, and they aren’t in the right frame of mind to listen to your message. If they are, that’s lucky, but you can’t rely on it.

So it’s your job to shift and create the right frame of mind for YOUR message.

Before your listener will be ready for your message, they are asking four questions in their head:

* Why you (authority)? Why should I listen to YOU?

* Why me (relevance)? Why does this matter to me?

* Why this (benefits)? Why is this idea worth my attention?

* Why now (urgency)? Why is this important to me right now?

Let’s look at the first (Why you), which is about your authority and credibility in delivering this message. Even for people who know you, you need to answer this question for THIS particular message.

To answer this, consider three E’s: education, expertise, and experience:

* Education is about your qualifications, which could include school, TAFE, university, your professional organisation, or professional development.

* Expertise refers to your areas of expertise.

* Experience is usually about numbers – for example, “You’ve been doing this for thirty years”, “I’ve worked with 100 clients in 20 countries”, “I’ve been on the board of six companies in this sector”.

Together, these three things answer the “Why you?” question in your listener’s mind.

The other three questions (Why me? Why this? Why now?) are just as important. I won’t go through them here, but download my worksheet that covers all four questions. Whenever you’re delivering a message, use this to answer those four framing questions for your listener, so they’re in the right frame of mind before you deliver the message.

And if you’d like to talk about how we can implement some of the skills of sense-making for you, your team, and your organisation, let’s have a chat!

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-attention-first

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https://swiy.co/go-the-invisible-shift

Do you know how your customers are using AI?

I had a minor twinge in my back recently, which caused a bit of discomfort for a few days. So I made an appointment to see a physiotherapist a few days later. I also asked ChatGPT for some guidance. ChatGPT first checked whether there was pain elsewhere – in my legs or headaches. I said no, so it then told me this was a common problem, gave me two exercises to do, and reassured me it would resolve in 7 to 10 days.

When I saw the physio a few days later, she gave me exactly the same advice: checked for pain elsewhere, gave me the same two exercises, and reassured me it would resolve in 7 to 10 days.

What will I do next time? Well, personally, because I know not to trust AI with health advice, I will still see a physio, and trust her advice first, especially if it contradicts AI.

But that’s not true of everybody else. And that’s my point.

Look at it from her perspective. Regardless of how she and her practice are using AI – for scheduling appointments, transcribing meetings, getting advice with complex cases, reviewing x-rays, and so on – her customers are ALREADY using AI.

They might ask AI for initial advice (as I did) to be sure it wasn’t an urgent issue. Or they could ask AI what to say, or what question to ask, in the physio appointment. Or use their phone to record the appointment and then ask AI to summarise the conversation later. Or use it for follow-up advice.

And some might choose not to go to the physio at all!

This applies to your customers as well.

Regardless of how you’re using AI internally, think about how your customers are using AI

... before they engage with you

... when they engage with you

... and after they engage with you.

This is not just how YOU are using AI to engage with your customers – with things like chatbots on your website, AI voice assistants, personalised marketing, tailored offers, and so on. All of that’s part of your AI strategy, but it’s only one part. Don’t forget how your customers are using AI as well – in their own lives.

All of this is part of your AI strategy, which also means it’s part of your business strategy.

If you don’t have an AI strategy, you don’t have a business strategy.

For more, join my free public online presentation this week about AI for leaders in 2026 and beyond. One of my key messages is understanding how customers (and employees and others) are using AI. It’s free and open to everybody, so register and invite others in your team and network, too.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-the-invisible-shift

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https://swiy.co/go-dashboards-not-decisions

As a leader, how are you planning to use AI in 2026, and how are you planning not to use AI? AI is evolving so quickly you need to keep both of those things in mind.

My very first job was as a software developer, working for a small company in Perth that was subcontracted to large companies – for example, in the mining industry. Our software monitored their equipment, reported faults, and transferred data into their databases.

My first work trip was to a cable station in a remote corner of Hong Kong Island, overseeing the installation of our system to monitor the lasers in an undersea optical fibre cable between Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Every day at that cable station, I saw our customer do the same thing when he walked in: He greeted us, then walked over to the printout of the error report over the last 24 hours, hoping there would be zero errors from all the lasers.

Why? Because even a single error was a signal to alert his boss, and the team would then keep watch for a few days for more errors. The worst case scenario was a laser that was likely to fail, because it meant sending a ship out to sea, dragging for the cable from the ocean floor, pulling it up, breaking it, replacing the laser, and then dropping it down again. This could cost thousands – or hundreds of thousands – of dollars.

That error report was just a big matrix of errors from all the lasers over the last 24 hours (think of it like printing an Excel spreadsheet).

So what does this have to do with AI now?

That report, which thirty five years ago was just a paper printout on a dot matrix printer, is what we would now call a dashboard. And with AI, somebody without much technical skill can use AI to create a dashboard from their data.

They don’t have to hire a tech company.

They don’t have to ask their IT team.

They don’t have to wait weeks, months, or years for it to be ready.

They can do it NOW. With AI, they might even be able to do it themselves.

It could be equipment error data.

Or site safety data.

Or sentiment feedback on social media.

Or patient data from medical devices.

Or ongoing equipment monitoring.

Or workplace data showing employee engagement or office use.

I want to make two points about this use of AI.

First, AI has reached the point where even non-technical people (like you!) can create those sorts of reports and dashboards.

And you should.

Second, you’re using AI to create a dashboard to help you make better decisions. It’s NOT to use AI to make those decisions FOR you.

I’m emphasising this because AI HAS evolved to the point where an AI autonomous agent could make decisions for you based on data. It doesn’t need the dashboard; it just monitors the data, gathers the results, and makes the decision.

But this is not the way to use AI now. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

And in this case, you shouldn’t.

Thirty five years ago, when my customer and his bosses examined the report, THEY made the decision about when to bite the bullet and send out a ship. In theory, now AI could make that decision, but it shouldn’t.

Use AI for dashboards, not decisions.

For more about AI do’s and don’ts for 2026, join my online presentation about AI for leaders in 2026. It’s free, public, and open to all.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-dashboards-not-decisions

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-power-ups

As a leader, how are you and your people using AI?

Just in the last week, I’ve worked with three organisations using AI at very different levels.

One is a large Australian company that’s not using AI much yet, but planning to roll it out soon, across their workforce. But before they do, they want people to get comfortable with AI. So they brought me in to show people how to use AI in their personal lives – using ChatGPT for things like recipes, planning trips, and other personal tasks.

The second has departments spread around Western Australia, who brought their teams together for a conference. They want to use AI better in their professional roles – for things like drafting emails, writing newsletters, and dealing with people issues. You probably have people using AI in a similar way.

The third is more high-tech, with an IT team actively building AI into every aspect of their operations. They work in an industrial sector, and they’re building AI platforms that integrate with their core work and workflows.

All three uses of AI are valuable, and they sit at very different levels.

Consider your use of AI at four (not just three) levels:

1. Personal: Using AI in your personal life.

2. Professional: Using AI to improve, enhance, or optimise your day-to-day work.

3. Projects: A small group of people build some AI workflow or process that adds value to their team – such as adding a chatbot to HR documents so it’s easier for people to find information.

4. Platforms: The highest level, where you either build or buy AI platforms to support your core operations.

What levels are YOU working at?

What levels are your team working at?

Now, in 2026, more than three years after generative AI became widely available, people are still spread across all these levels. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as you understand where people are, what they’re ready to learn, and where AI can add more value to their role.

For more about this, join my online presentation about AI for leaders in 2026 – including the do’s and (especially) don’ts in continuing to use AI in your workplace.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-power-ups

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https://swiy.co/go-beyond-chatgpt

What are you doing – or planning to do – with AI in 2026?

People and organisations are at different levels of the AI journey: some still haven’t started, most have a reasonably good grasp of generative AI, and a few are racing ahead and looking at what else AI can do now.

Right now, AI agents – which can act autonomously on your behalf – are all the rage.

A few years ago, when clients asked me about what’s coming after generative AI, I told them about AI agents, which weren’t a thing at the time, but were the obvious next phase of AI. With an AI agent, instead of you sitting there typing away and getting a response, you instruct your AI agent to go off and do work behind your back – autonomously, automatically, and without your intervention.

Now, in 2026, AI agents are a reality. They’re at your fingertips – literally in ChatGPT and Copilot.

A client recently asked me about this:

“Well, what you said back then is true. Should we go all in on this?”

The simple answer is: No, you shouldn’t! You should be very, very careful.

At least with generative AI, when you type something in, you get a response, and can then apply your human intelligence to assess that response, to edit it, to tailor it, and then use it. In other words, AI is an intelligent assistant, not an autonomous agent.

But with AI agents operating independently of you, you face potential risks.

Security risks.

Privacy risks.

Data risks.

It’s like letting untrained staff loose on your files, database, and customer experience.

Even worse, these AI agents can operate faster and in more complex ways than humans can. And in “unintelligent” ways - like placing a million orders in a second, agreeing to sell high-value items for a few dollars, or being tricked into exposing private medical data.

So, yes, AI agents are powerful – but their power can also be dangerous.

This is just one of the ways that AI has changed in the last year. Because of these changes, I’m running an online presentation soon about what’s new for AI in 2026 – the do’s and don’ts. It’s free, public, and open to all, so please register and invite others in your team and network.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-beyond-chatgpt

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https://swiy.co/go-skills-that-matter-now

As a leader, how are you developing the skills you and your team need to be ready for the future?

I was approached recently to be a guest on a business podcast, and the host asked me to talk about building a future-ready workforce. One of her questions will be:

“What skills are essential for the future, and which ones do we not need anymore?”

I always think most skills have value in specific circumstances and certain situations, but some are lower priority now.

For example, “doing maths in your head” and “learning times tables” used to be highly valuable skills, but they aren’t anymore – because we all have access to calculators, Google, spreadsheets, and AI.

One friend argued that as a skilled business negotiator, he still valued doing mental maths because he was perceived as more competent. Fair enough – for THAT particular narrow role, times tables and mental maths are important. But we don’t need to teach them to everybody.

And that’s the point. Every job, profession, role, and area of expertise has its own need for “deep expertise”.

I mean, if you need brain surgery, would you rather have the crotchety old surgeon who’s very successful with decades of experience behind them, or the less-skilled surgeon who’s a great “people person” who gets along well with the rest of their team?

Of course, you’d rather have the first one, right?

Well, that’s a bit of a trick question!

The research shows that deep expertise is important (naturally!), but medical mishaps and mistakes are reduced when the whole operating team gets along well. And that starts with the surgeon engaging the rest of her team.

The same is true of airline safety. Again, research shows that when pilots treat co-pilots as equals, it reduces the incidence of problems.

So, even with deep expertise, you need wide skills. These wide, broad skills apply across different areas, jobs, and professions.

I’m sure you know some of the usual suspects: collaboration, embracing diversity, AI literacy, managing information overload, and adaptability.

These skills MATTER!

For yourself.

For your team.

And for your organisation, community, and family.

For more, download my new report about future-ready skills for 2026 and beyond. I have identified twelve key skills for you to be future-ready.

If you have any comments or questions after you read it, please drop me a line. I’d love to have a chat!

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-skills-that-matter-now

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https://swiy.co/go-internal-sensemaking

I’ve been working with the leadership team of an organisation that’s looking ahead to 2030 and beyond. They invited me to kick off their strategic leadership offsite with half a day getting them to expand their thinking and look bigger, broader, and wider.

I love working with groups like this, who know they need to do things differently. They were motivated, excited, and eagerly looking forward to understanding what’s happening outside their organisation and industry.

But I started with an exercise that wasn’t about the future.

In fact, it was very much about the past.

I call it “First Job”. In a nutshell, it goes like this:

1. Each person recalls their very first paid job – often a casual job they did after school to earn a bit of money. It could be a babysitter, working at a checkout in a supermarket, mowing the lawn for neighbours, or whatever.

2. They then identify the skills they learned from that job.

3. They then pair up, each share a real problem or challenge they’re facing right now, and the other person shares advice they learned from their first job that could help.

So, for example, person A says:

“One of the board members is constantly asking us to write unnecessary reports about XYZ, and it’s taking up way too much of my time.”

And B replies:

“Hmmm ... When I was a babysitter, I had one couple who kept phoning me every few minutes to check on their daughter. What I did was ...”

Try this with your team!

It’s a fun exercise, it gets people laughing, reminiscing about their career, thinking creatively, and often they find – to their surprise – some practical, useful ideas they can use in their job now.

But that’s not the real reason I do this exercise.

In fact, when I asked the group what value they got from the exercise, the CEO said,

“The thing I learned is that when I’m talking to ANYBODY in the organisation, I should listen more because they could have something valuable I could use.”

Yep, she nailed it!

All the other reasons are valid. But THAT’S my goal.

Because often, when people – especially senior leaders – are looking at the future, they look outside.

They ask customers.

They do scenario planning.

They (gasp!) engage a futurist.

All good things (especially the last, ha ha), but sometimes you’ll get the most valuable insights from people within your organisation.

That’s why diversity matters – with different generations, genders, ages, ethnicity, nationality, and more. Everybody brings their own experience, expertise, insights, and perspective.

So when you’re looking at the future, don’t only look outside.

This is all part of the skill of sense-making, which is an essential skill for the future. Join my online presentation to find out more, and invite others in your team and network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-internal-sensemaking

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https://swiy.co/go-make-the-first-move

As a leader, what CERTAINTY are you facing in the next year?

You might think that’s an odd question!

I often ask, “What uncertainty might you be facing?” And, of course, we’re all facing uncertainty, disruption, change, and sometimes total chaos. But also, some disruption is comes from certainty, not uncertainty.

I’m working with the senior leadership team of an organisation in this situation. They work in an industry that’s very heavily regulated (like many others). The federal government has already flagged major changes coming in the near future.

The leaders in this organisation, rather than waiting for that regulation, are already thinking ahead, proactively planning for the change before it’s forced on them.

That’s exactly what they should be doing, but I see many leaders and organisations who don’t think this way. They KNOW the change is coming, they know it will cause stress and disruption, and they know it will be much easier if they started changing now. But, too often, they just sit on their hands and do nothing – waiting for the inevitable tsunami of change.

I often say disruption and innovation the same, because they are both about change. It’s just disruption when the change happens to you, and innovation when you make the change yourself.

Some disruption is difficult to predict, so you have to make changes based on what MIGHT happen. But there are many other situations where you can reliably predict the change.

It’s not just government regulation, which is often flagged months or years in advance. It could be ...

the growth of AI and its impact on work and the workplace

customers demanding digital and online communication channels

Generation Z employees expecting different things from work

Even if you don’t know exactly how these scenarios will play out, if you know they will have a big impact, start thinking about them now.

What are YOU doing to manage the certainty that will create uncertainty?

This is part of the skill of sense making, which is about understanding what’s happening in the world, figuring out how to respond, and being able to communicate that with others.

I’m running an online presentation soon about sense making, where I’ll give you some practical things you can do to build and strengthen that skill for yourself and your team. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. So, if you’re interested, please register – and invite others in your team and your network.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-make-the-first-move

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://swiy.co/go-leadership-is-sense-making

As we start a new year, and you reflect on your role as a leader, what do you think is your most important role?

I’m not talking about making New Year’s Resolutions, setting goals for the year ahead, or creating a 2026 strategic plan. What about YOUR role as a leader?

As a futurist, I know one of my most important roles is to be a sense-maker.

Whether I’m speaking on a conference stage to a large audience, running a workshop with a smaller group, or facilitating a group of senior leaders in a boardroom, everybody’s looking to me to help them make more sense of the world.

They want to understand what’s going on, and want me to help them filter it and choose what’s most relevant for them. Then, they figure out how they can learn, adapt, and adjust what they do to fit with what’s happening externally. And finally, they want me to share that in engaging and meaningful ways — for themselves, the team, and the organisation.

And you know what?

This is not just a crucial role for me. This role — which is the skill of sense-making — is essential for everybody. Especially for leaders and managers, but for everybody else as well.

To summarise the three parts:

1. Choose: Understand what’s happening in the world and filter it to choose what matters most.

2. Learn: Based on what’s happening externally, determine what we need to do internally to be able to operate effectively in that world.

3. Share: Communicate what you have learned in meaningful and engaging ways, so that they inspire action.

If you want to know more about this, I’m running an online presentation very soon. It’s my first one for the year, and it’s about sense-making. I’ll share with you some practical, useful things you can do to understand more about the world, to learn how to adapt, and most importantly, to share it with your team and other stakeholders.

If you’re interested, it’s free, it’s public, it’s open to everybody — so you’ll find a link to register here. And feel free to share it with your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-leadership-is-sense-making

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https://swiy.co/go-learning-out-loud

What does your learning plan for the future look like?

I was speaking recently at the Financial Advisers Association of Australia National Congress, helping advisers remain relevant and fit for the future.

In the Q&A segment, somebody asked me a question about podcasting:

“I want to start a podcast, but I’m really new to it. How can I get over that fear of thinking that other people will dismiss it, and how can I build confidence – and then go on to build an audience?”

In the moment, I gave a response along the lines of:

“Just get started! Everybody starts off from that place, and with practice, you’ll gain confidence and build that audience.”

I still stand by that, but let’s take that a bit further.

If you plan to turn your podcast into an income stream, then, yes, focus on building your audience. But if you’re not, use your podcast as part of your professional learning network.

In other words, whether you’re podcasting, blogging, publishing a YouTube channel, or regularly posting valuable content on LinkedIn, these are valuable activities in their own right. Not just to share learning and ideas with others, but for your own learning as well.

When you start to invest in these activities, you’re making a commitment – even if just to yourself – to learn.

You have to:

absorb information

ask questions

filter what’s relevant

package it for others

make it relevant and engaging

and share it with others.

All of that makes you a better learner, not just a better content creator.

This is part of the future-ready skill of sense-making.

Sense-making is about examining our complex world, choosing what’s important, absorbing it, and sharing it. It’s once of the most valuable future-ready skills you can have – at work, at home, and in your community.

So what are YOU going to do?

To be a sense-maker, you don’t need a podcast, blog, YouTube channel, or other outlet. It might just be sharing regularly on a Slack channel at work or presenting regularly at staff meetings. Whatever you choose, commit to doing it now

And to REALLY get value from it, commit to doing it regularly. That’s because you’re investing not only in the content, but the platform. And that makes it easier to do it next time. And the next time. And the next time.

It’s like building a railway. You make a big commitment to get the first train on the track (because you first have to build the track!), but then every other train takes less effort.

If you don’t have a platform like this already, set that as a goal for 2026.

And if you’d like to know more about sense-making and other future-ready skills, join my free online presentation TOMORROW.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-learning-out-loud

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https://swiy.co/go-letting-go

As we're coming up to the end of the year and looking ahead to 2026, can you truly say your business or organisation — maybe even your industry or sector — is fit for purpose for the future?

I was in Melbourne last week, running a workshop for a group of libraries about how to build a culture of change and innovation.

I told somebody about this a few weeks ago, and he said,

“Libraries? Why do libraries have to be innovative?”

And I said,

“Have you been to your local library recently?”

Libraries are so different from the way they were when I was at school and uni! You might remember those days, when you had to be completely silent in a library. Even a whisper earned you an angry “Shhh!” from a librarian or another patron.

Now, libraries have completely transformed into community hubs. People can speak, shout, and run around. Students go in for study groups. Pre-school kids have fun activities and sing-songs. Guest speakers run presentation for the community. My local library recently invited students from a local school to sing Christmas carols.

So, yes, libraries have changed. But not just because they felt like it. It's because the world changed.

In the past, when libraries – and books – were a key source of information and knowledge for their community, it was important to be quiet so you respected other patrons.

Now, books are still relevant, but they are no longer the main source of information for most people. So, libraries have evolved to provide other services for the community. Because of that change, libraries today are still relevant, valuable, and attractive to their customers.

Is that true of YOU as well?

I see so many organisations – and even entire sectors – still operating in a way that worked in the past, but is no longer fit for purpose for the future.

When the world was changing more slowly, what you knew in the past would serve you well going forward. But increasingly, that’s no longer true.

I’m not saying everything in the past is irrelevant, but everything in the past is not AUTOMATICALLY relevant.

One of the most important future-ready skills we need is the skill of letting go. It's not just about learning, but “unlearning” as well. In your personal life, in your professional role, and in your workplace.

I’m going to talk more about this in my upcoming online presentation about future-ready skills. It’s free, it’s public, and it’s open to everybody. Please register, and invite others in your team and network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-letting-go

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https://swiy.co/go-snakes-under-rocks

Last week, I was speaking at the Financial Advisers Association of Australia National Congress, talking about being fit for the future – especially about being able to manage uncertainty and still perform well.

It’s obvious that people do worry about their future, and also that it affects their performance. But you might be surprised to know what contributes most that stress.

In 2016, researchers conducted an experiment to measure the relationship between stress and uncertainty. They designed a computer game where participants were asked to turn over rocks on the screen, and were given a mild electric shock if there was a snake under a rock. The researchers could change the game in two ways: Increase the danger by placing snakes under more rocks, or increase the uncertainty by moving the snakes between each turn.

As you would expect, participants felt more stressed when there were more snakes. But they felt even more stressed if they didn’t know whether a “safe” rock might have a snake under it next time. They would rather face a dangerous environment with more snakes, as long as they felt confident they could eventually determine their location.

In other words, they were more stressed by uncertain outcomes than predictable negative outcomes.

This is true for all of us. We’ve been through a lot of disruption and change – five years ago, it was COVID, now it’s AI. Tomorrow? Who knows?

One of the key skills for the future is the ability to be adaptable and flexible. Like it or not, that IS our future. And we need to manage a world full of change, uncertainty, crisis, and chaos.

I’ll be talking about that, and other future-ready skills, in my upcoming online presentation. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. So please register – and invite your team and network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-snakes-under-rocks

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https://swiy.co/go-education-before-automation

As we’re nearing the end of 2025, I wonder whether you feel you and your team have the right skills to be ready for 2026 – and beyond?

The ABC website recently published an article about ACM – Australian Community Media – using AI to assist their journalists – in writing and editing stories, checking them for legal issues, and so on. The story led with this headline:

“Staff in regional ACM newsrooms concerned about rollout of generative AI model”

The article quoted a journalist who had used AI (Google Gemini) to help write an article (nothing wrong with that), reviewed it (good!), but was shocked to find it contained factual errors. The article goes on to quote her union representative, who stood up for her, saying:

“That journalist caught it, by doing the fact checking, but had they not, it obviously would have been a disaster. Not only for the journalist, but also for the person who had been wrongly accused.”

As I was reading that, I thought, “Well, d’uh! Journalists being asked to do fact-checking? Isn’t that what they are SUPPOSED to do???”

Whether they ask somebody on the street, interview a politician, or ask AI, fact-checking is a basic part of journalism. It should be just part of the automatic response to any information before publishing.

The problem here is not with the journo – who in fact did the right thing.

The problem is with her union rep, who was outraged by AI’s (lack of) “intelligence”.

And the problem is also with the ABC, who considered it newsworthy to report on somebody doing their job!

And obviously, the REAL problem is the lack of basic understanding about AI – from employees, managers, and our national broadcaster.

This is a problem not only in the media, but in organisations everywhere. People are being given access to AI without appropriate education and training on what it can do, what it can’t do, and how to use if effectively, safely, and responsibly.

Whether you call it AI literacy or digital literacy, this is a key skill for the future. Young people get it, but many others don’t.

There are many people in roles now who knew how to operate effectively in the past, but the world has moved on, and they might no longer be fit for the future. That’s why it is up to all of us – especially leaders and managers – to educate and provide appropriate professional development, so we develop the skills for the future.

For more about this, join my online presentation soon about future-ready skills.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-education-before-automation

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https://swiy.co/go-make-it-make-sense

How good are you at making sense of the world for yourself and others?

A few weeks ago, I was in Byron Bay, speaking at a sales conference for a large tech company, and this client wanted me to help their top salespeople engage more with their customers through stories. They were particularly interested in stories about AI, but they were happy for me to share some storytelling skills more broadly.

I love the fact they were focusing on storytelling, because that’s still one of the best ways to engage with people and enhance customer relationships. As a salesperson, it’s too easy to obsess about products, benefits, and features; but it’s the stories that capture, captivate, and remain memorable long after you leave the room.

Storytelling is part of the future-ready skill of sense-making.

The Institute for the Future and other futurist organisations have identified sense-making as a key skill for being future-ready. It has two parts.

First, sense-making is about being aware of what’s happening in your world – full of data, information, overwhelm, limited time and attention – and “making sense” of it, so you can absorb, filter, and prioritise what’s relevant and meaningful.

The second part of sense-making is then sharing that with others – through stories, data, facts, research, and other methods – in a way that doesn’t overwhelm them, but is meaningful, relevant, and engaging.

Either of these components is valuable in its own right. Together, they make sense-making a superpower for the future.

For more about this and other skills for the future, join my final public presentation for the year, which is coming soon. It’s for everybody – not just leaders – so please register and extend the link to others in your team and community.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-make-it-make-sense

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https://swiy.co/go-future-signals

Are you listening to what your customers are telling you about the future?

I was in beautiful Hobart last week, speaking to a retail franchise group about what the customer of the future looks like, what they should be doing to engage more with them, and how to stay competitive in a crowded market.

I love that they are very customer-focused – and truly customer-centric. Their slogan is, “Make your customer’s day”. So they are always looking outwards to see what they can do to enhance their customer experience and improve their customers’ lives.

When I finished my presentation and was waiting for my ride to the airport, I was sitting in a little cafe and I saw a sign that said:

“This is the sign you’ve been looking for”

How appropriate!

When I was talking about the customer of the future, I made the point that you should always be looking for the signs your customers are giving you about what they want. And then look beyond your current customer to explore what other customers you might attract in the future.

As a futurist, I’m often asked: What’s the number one, most important thing we should be doing to be future-ready?

And I always say this:

Solve your customer’s problems.

It’s easy to get caught up in everyday work, the crisis of the day, operational stuff, and other internal issues. But if you’re not solving your customer’s problems, they’ll find somebody else who is.

So make this your number one goal: Ask your customers what matters to them. Look for the signs. Listen to what they’re saying. Then do whatever you need to do to help them get where they want to go.

For more, download my worksheet about solving your customers’ problems. Your customers HAVE changed – but have you?

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-future-signals

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https://swiy.co/go-the-ai-readiness-gap

Are you willing to risk it all for AI?

I’m not talking about falling in love with an AI chatbot! I’m talking about your role as a leader.

I recently ran a small-group workshop about AI for leaders – from different industries, sectors, sizes, and roles. You might think the bigger organisations would be way ahead, but the opposite is true.

The larger organisations – with deep pockets, dedicated IT teams, and many, many more resources – were lagging.

Why? Because they were taking a slow, cautious approach.

Why? Because they think they have more to lose.

Market share.

Reputation.

External regulation.

Internal status and power.

On the other hand, the smaller businesses tend to be much more proactive with adopting AI. They’ll try an AI tool and, if they don’t like it, they’ll drop it and try something else.

They have some informal guidelines, and build policy on the fly.

There’s no question a smaller business is more fragile. They might rely on a few products, a few key staff, a few important customers, or one business model.

But when you’re fragile, you can also be more agile.

Larger organisations, on the other hand, have much more buffer against problems. Even when things change a bit, they can stay steady.

But if you’re too steady, you won’t be ready.

Especially with something like AI.

You can’t wait for the perfect tech.

Or the perfect policy.

Or the perfect training.

You can’t policy your way into AI!

AI is so new and moving so quickly you must be willing to be a bit more fragile.

Don’t be reckless, but don’t get stuck either.

Be more agile, like a small business or a startup, but also leverage your assets and resources to accelerate the experience curve.

For more, join my free public online presentation this week, where we look at this and some other issues for leaders as you’re looking at leveraging and embracing AI.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-the-ai-readiness-gap

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https://swiy.co/go-the-deloitte-ai-scandal

You might have seen the recent story about Deloitte caught cheating in a half-a-millon-dollar consulting report it created for an Australian government department.

Deloitte’s consultants used AI to research and generate some of the report. Nothing wrong with that. But then it didn’t do even the most basic fact-checking about the AI-generated content, and released the report riddled with errors. Specifically, some of the references cited in the report simply didn’t exist, and others did exist but didn’t say what Deloitte claimed they said.

When they were caught out, Deloitte claimed these AI “hallucinations” didn’t change the report’s recommendations.

But that’s no excuse!

The fact that some of the references didn’t even exist shows Deloitte didn’t even bother reading those references. They weren’t using AI as a research tool. It’s hard not conclude they they were just using this AI-generated content to bulk up the report and make it look more authoritative.

Deloitte has apologised, and apparently they are returning some undisclosed portion of their fee. We don’t know how much, even though as taxpayers, we should be told. But the government is refusing to say.

This is not just a Deloitte problem.

It’s a major problem for many leaders and organisations trying to use AI now.

You absolutely SHOULD be using AI as a research assistant. I do that all the time, and it saves me hours of Google searches and other research.

But it’s only a starting point. It’s an assistant. You then need to apply your own human expertise to the artificial intelligence.

That might sound obvious, and yet many people in many workplaces don’t get it.

And it’s not their fault.

Many organisations and leaders are giving their people access to AI without anywhere near enough education and professional development. Sometimes there’s none at all!

I’m stunned at how few organisations are providing the appropriate level of education for one of the most powerful tools available in workplaces now! AI is not just the future – it’s with us right now! So, that education is crucial.

If you’d like to know more about this, join my free public online presentation next week about AI for leaders – for 2026 and beyond. And please invite other leaders in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-the-deloitte-ai-scandal

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https://swiy.co/go-your-ai-narrative

As a leader, what stories are you telling about AI in your team?

I was speaking recently at a sales conference for a large technology company in Australia. My client wanted me to talk to their salespeople about AI – and in particular, they wanted me to share interesting stories about AI they could share with customers.

I was impressed they were looking at AI this way. These top-performing salespeople already have the technical knowledge to talk about AI from a tech perspective. And they have the sales skills to craft good sales conversation. But they also realised the value of stories in capturing attention and delivering key messages.

This is true not only in sales conversations but in every conversation happening with your team right now. They are already talking about AI between themselves, to their peers, to friends and family, and even to customers and other external stakeholders. And they are not talking directly about the AI technology, but sharing stories about its impact.

So, what stories are YOU telling about AI?

With this group of salespeople and account managers, I shared many AI stories – across many industries and sectors – and coached them on how to use these stories in their conversations.

Some were about the positive impacts of AI – for example, robotic dogs helping residents in aged care homes by giving them additional companionship. Or stories of AI stopping cyber-hackers. Or AI alerting bank customers of scanners. Or AI in the public sector improving communication between government and the public.

There are also stories about the dangers and risks of AI – such as AI “hallucinating” to make up case studies in consultants’ reports. Or the impact of AI use on climate change. Or cyber-hackers using AI to infiltrate secure systems.

Whether positive or negative,these stories shape the way people think about AI.

What stories are you telling about AI? Choose stories that reinforce the messages you want to share, so you can bring your people along on the AI journey.

For more about bringing people on the AI journey, join my next free public online leadership presentation about rethinking AI for 2026 and beyond.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-your-ai-narrative

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https://swiy.co/go-999-jobs-in-1000

Are you worried about AI taking over your job?

Are your employees worried about AI taking over their jobs?

As a leader, you should be thinking seriously about the impact of AI in your work and in your workplace.

A recent report from investment bank Barronjoey said only one job in 1000 – in Australian workplaces – won’t be affected by AI and automation. That means 999 jobs out of every thousand will be affected – including most in your team and organisation.

That doesn’t mean all those jobs will be replaced by AI – in fact, the report goes on to say that about 10% will. So that’s good news for most jobs and most employees, because AI will augment and help them in their job, not replace them altogether.

But it also puts the responsibility back on you to help those people work with AI.

I feel that I shouldn’t even need to be saying this!

But most employees are just not using AI well – because their employers haven’t invested in that education.

That’s crazy, right?

I mean, you do provide sales training to your salespeople, don’t you?

And customer service training to your front-line staff?

And leadership training to your leaders?

So why aren’t you investing in training, coaching, mentoring, and other professional development in something that’s already affecting 999 out of 1000 jobs???

It’s good for you, it’s good for your team, and it’s good for the organisation.

That’s part of your responsibility as a leader. And if you don’t provide that education, make no mistake – they will find somebody else who does.

If you’re interested in more about this and other issues you should think about as a leader in the AI age, join my next online presentation – and invite others in your team and network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-999-jobs-in-1000

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https://swiy.co/go-should-you-be-using-ai-for-this

As a leader, where could you use AI more in your organisation? More importantly, where SHOULD you use AI more? And even more importantly, where should you NOT use AI?

I recently attended a digital transformation event, with guest speaker Bobby Patel, the GM of Data & Analytics at RAC WA. They are a strongly data-centric organisation, and now use AI extensively, for almost every function.

In the Q&A section, somebody asked him,

“Will you use AI to replace your local call centre staff?”

And he said No.

The reason is their call centre is based locally, and part of RAC’s mission is to serve the community – and firing call centre staff to replace them with AI goes against that mission.

In fact, they do use AI in their call centres – but to assist the staff, not to replace them. So, if a customer calls with a question or problem, the staff member can use AI in the background to find the correct answer faster.

This is a really good use of AI, and it’s all based on ensuring AI doesn’t contradict the organisation’s value.

You should do the same.

Align your AI strategy with your mission, vision, values, and principles.

It’s part of the “people first, technology second” approach to AI.

Use this whenever you’re planning to introduce AI (or any other initiative) in your team and organisation. To find the right balance, start by checking what you stand for, and make sure that remains front and centre at all times.

If you’d like to know more, join my online presentation soon about AI for leaders, where we will look at this kind of issue. Some of the issues are internal (leading your team) and others are external (enhancing customer experience). It’s free, public, and open to all – so you’re welcome to share it with others as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-should-you-be-using-ai-for-this

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https://swiy.co/go-beyond-the-now

As a leader, are you spending enough time thinking about the future?

I was in Melbourne last week, speaking at a conference to a group of senior leaders about seeing into the future. This is an important part of any leader’s role – whatever level or role you have in your organisation.

Leaders have to manage two competing priorities.

One, as a leader of a team or an organisation, you’re responsible for that team and organisation. So you’re looking down and having an internal focus to ensure you’re meeting your goals.

But you also have a responsibility is to look up and out – to see what’s coming in the future. You won’t be able to predict the future exactly – nobody can – but you can gain some valuable insights that help you make better, more well-informed decisions now.

It’s not always easy to do that, but the more senior you are, the more of your salary is being paid for that role.

This is a crucial part of our role. It’s doesn’t have to be 100% of your day job, but you can’t ignore it. After all, if you don’t do it, who will?

In my presentation last week, I shared with those leaders some of the tools we futurists use to see into the future. And now that we have the power of AI at our fingertips, you can use it to do much of the heavy lifting, so you can focus on applying your own human intelligence to it.

For more on using AI for this part of your role, download my worksheet here, share it with your team, and use it!

I’ll see you in the future.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-beyond-the-now

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Coincidentally, just in the last week, three seemingly unrelated things happened, but they are all connected.

First, according to some research published by MIT Media Lab, where they surveyed leaders across many organisations and industries, a staggering 95% of AI projects failed. They didn’t meet their goals – whether they were for productivity gains, bottom-line results, customer enagement, or whatever.

Second, I was speaking last week at a conference for school principals in Wellington, New Zealand, and one principal asked me:

“Are we responsible for creating the AI policy for our school? It seems like a lot of work!”

And third, the group Thinkers360 recently listed me among their Top 50 Thought Leaders in Change Management this year, which of course I was chuffed about.

So what’s the common thread between those three things?

Well, it’s about people.

And AI.

And people working with AI.

So, my question is: Are YOU doing enough to bring your people along on the AI journey?

Let’s look at those three things.

First, the MIT Media Lab survey:

The leaders surveyed said the reason for the failure was because AI just isn’t good enough yet.

But the researchers found that wasn’t the real problem. When they dug a little deeper, they found the real problem was the leaders hadn’t done enough to engage their people.

They had just thrown the Bright Shiny Object at them.

Told them to make it work.

Expected to get instant results.

And of course it didn’t work – because the people weren’t on board.

The solution is similar for those school principals.

I said to that principal – and this applies to all leaders – Yes, the AI policy IS your responsibility. But you don’t have to do all the work.

In fact, the best thing you can do is identify AI champions in your team to lead the AI journey for you. They are already keen and enthusiastic about AI. You need to give them a framework, some guardrails, and resources – but let them take the lead. And help them bring the rest of the team on the journey.

And what about change management?

Change management seems like something from the 1990s, right? But it’s still just as relevant today, especially in a new area like AI.

If you have ever been in – or led – any sort of change management, digital transformation, or the like, you know it will only ever work if people are engaged first.

It’s always about people firist, technology second.

If you don’t have the hearts and minds of your people, then the process is doomed to fail.

So how do you do that?

Of course, there’s no simple solution or sure-fire formula. But a good first step is to have an open, honest, and transparent conversation with your team about AI. Not about the technology, but about how they FEEL about AI. The good, the bad, and the ugly.

Win their hearts over first. Engage them at a heart level before you think about engaging them at a head level.

For help with this, download my worksheet about facilitating this conversation with your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-most-ai-projects-fail

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https://swiy.co/go-intelligent-assistants

How do you think about AI in your professional role? Some see it as a great opportunity, a great possibility, and an accelerator. Others see it as a threat, a risk, and a burden that adds more work to what they are already doing.

Let me give you an interesting perspective from a conversation about AI I had with my dad two years ago.

My dad – who was eighty-six at the time – had really invested a lot of time learning about AI. Not just because he knew I knew about it, but because he was genuinely interested.

Once, when I was driving him home, and we were stopped at traffic lights, he said to me, “You know, I think AI would be really good at managing traffic lights.”

He’s right, of course, and when I asked him why, he said it’s because AI can see all the traffic flow in the city, and can make decisions to adjust the timing of lights at each intersection to make traffic flow more smoothly everywhere.

He’s exactly right. AI is really good for traffic management – for three reasons.

First, for that reason (having a macro view to make micro decisions).

Second, because it can process large amounts of data fast to make quick decisions.

And third, because it can learn – so it reviews what it did today, and fine-tunes it to make better decisions tomorrow.

As I was thinking about this conversation later, I also realised it’s a good analogy for the way we use AI in general.

Treat AI as your intelligent assistant.

In the traffic lights analogy: You choose your destination, you get into the driving seat, and you control the car. Along the way, AI helps you get there faster, safer, and more efficiently.

This perspective on AI – as an assistant, not a replacement – gives you a powerful tool to set better goals, make more insightful decisions, and reach better outcomes.

Even in the future, when AI is driving all our autonomous cars, it’s still up to us to choose our destination.

For more about rethinking AI, join my online presentation soon – especially if you’re a leader. I’ll show you what’s changed in AI in the last year, and what that means for yourself, your team, and your organisation.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-intelligent-assistants

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-hype-or-hope

Of course, there’s a lot of news – and noise – about AI, and that’s not going away. Some people say it will save the world, others say it will destroy it.

For example, when it comes to the environmental impact of AI, you will hear many dire warnings. But how much of it is true?

I did the maths!

Here are some rough figures about the climate impact of AI at an individual level.

Let’s look at three areas:

1. The of water needed to cool all the servers running AI

2. The electricity needed to run all these computers

3. the CO2 emissions to generate that energy

Water:

If you do ten average ChatGPT queries a day for a whole year, it uses as much water as it takes to make one hamburger.

Yep, that’s ONE hamburger!

Electricity:

If you do 25 ChatGPT queries a day, it uses as much electricity as it takes to heat up the water in one hot shower.

Carbon emissions:

And if you do ONE HUNDRED ChatGPT queries a day for a whole year, that creates about as many carbon emissions as taking one domestic flight in Australia.

OK, so these are average figures, but it gives you some idea of the scale of the climate impact of AI.

That doesn’t mean we should ignore the climate impact. But it’s all relative – especially for us rich Westerners (because, let’s face it, that’s who we are) when you compare it to many other activities in our daily lives.

I’m sharing this because it’s just one example of how some of the AI news is just not true. And this applies to everything – not just this one climate change example.

Nobody has time to check and double-check every “fact” like this, but for things that matter, don’t just assume what somebody says is true.

This is good advice in general, but especially when it comes to AI.

And this makes a difference.

Not just for you personally.

But for your professional role.

And your team.

And your organisation.

I’m running a free public online presentation soon about rethinking AI – and I’ll share some of the facts, changes, and misconceptions about AI – and what it means for you as a leader.

You can register here, and invite others in your team and your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-hype-or-hope

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-coming-for-your-job

As a leader, do you know whether your people in your team are worried about AI taking their job? You should be!

In the last few months, you might have seen stories about organisations – of different sizes and in different sectors – who fired people and replaced them with AI. So yes, AI is replacing jobs – or at least, replacing enough of a person’s role that makes it unprofitable to keep them.

Some of these stories are about high-profile organisations – such as Australian company Atlassian, well known for its positive attitudes to work, workers, and the workplace. Even they recently let some of their staff go because they could use AI instead.

We’re not seeing mass layoffs yet. But for your team members who have seen these stories, they might be looking over their shoulder nervously, wondering whether they will be next to lose their job. Not from an AI robot, but from their boss telling them, “Sorry. We can’t afford to keep you anymore”.

In the last three years, some AI commentators have said something like this:

“You won’t lose your job to AI – you will lose it to somebody else using AI better than you.”

I’ve never said that – because I don’t think it’s true.

Well, it’s partly true – the second part, which urges you to keep learning about AI, so you can use it as part of your job. I firmly believe that.

But the first part – about not losing your job to AI – is not true.

The reality is: AI is already taking jobs, and will continue to take jobs.

Whether or not you think it’s true, there might be people in your team who are worried about the prospect of AI taking their job.

So what can you do about it?

Keep learning about AI, learning how to use it, and ensuring you education your team as well.

It’s even more important to have open, meaningful conversations with your team about the impact of AI.

Understand their feelings and fears – whether you think they are well-founded or not – so you know they issues they are facing. Remember, this is about their job, their livelihood, their family, and their future.

Also, register for my free online presentation soon, where I will share what has changed in the AI space in the last 6-12 months, and explain what that means for you as a leader. The changes are not just about the technology; they are also about the impact on people.

And feel free to invite other leaders and other team members in your organisation and in your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-coming-for-your-job

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-agents-are-here

Are you ready for AI agents? This is the next level of AI, and it creates both opportunities and risks.

We all know generative AI now, where you type in a prompt or question, and AI spits out a response. AI agents take it to the next level, where they can act on your behalf. That creates great opportunities, but also creates new potential risks. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to understand both.

For example, I recently used an AI agent to plan a trip to the Gold Coast, where I was speaking at a conference a few weeks ago. The “standard” way to fly from Perth to the Gold Coast is via Sydney or Melbourne, but that’s a long flight, especially because I have to allow extra time in transit so I don’t miss my connection. What I prefer instead is to fly to Brisbane and then organise a car to take me to the Gold Coast. That’s faster, simpler, and more reliable.

For my recent journey, I decided to experiment by asking ChatGPT’s new AI agent option to plan this trip. I simply gave it dates and venues, without any guidance about choosing options. I was hoping it would be clever enough to consider the flight-and-drive option.

Sure enough, it did!

That alone isn’t the “agent” part. You could have asked older versions of ChatGPT or Copilot to do that research to get the same result. So that’s nothing new.

But after showing me the options, the AI agent asked me:

“Would you now like me to book this trip for you?”

If I had given it my personal details, frequent flyer number, and credit card information, it would have made those bookings for me!

This is the power of AI agents: They don’t just give you a response; they can act on your behalf.

AI agents have huge potential for boosting productivity and efficiency, freeing you up for more high-level work, and even doing work that wouldn’t otherwise be feasible or practical.

But because you give them the power to DO things, you’re also opening up new potential risks.

This applies to everybody in your team - including yourself. Unless you all have the appropriate education, AI policy, guardrails, and governance in place, it’s easy for an AI agent to make decisions that could damage your organisation.

Because AI agents are more powerful than just generative AI, you might need to upgrade your policies, guardrails, and education to keep up.

AI agents are just one of the new features in AI over the last year, and that means you should also adapt now-outdated policies and education.

For more, join my coming online presentation “Rethinking AI”, where I will share how AI has advanced in the last year - and what it means to you. It’s free, public, and open to all, so register here and invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-agents-are-here

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Are your AI guardrails, policies, and guidelines up to date or out of date?

In 2022, Jake Moffatt needed to fly to Toronto for the funeral of a family member. Before booking a flight with Air Canada, he checked their rules to qualify for a bereavement fare. The helpful Air Canada chatbot assured him he could buy a ticket, fly, then request a partial refund. But when he returned home and applied for the refund, Air Canada refused to honour the request, referring to their website policy that clearly stated he had to make the request before travel.

Fortunately, Moffatt had taken a screenshot of the chatbot conversation, which he showed to Air Canada, but the airline still refused his claim, telling Moffatt he should have referred to the website, and then bizarrely claiming the chatbot was “responsible for its own actions”. Not surprisingly, the British Columbia Civil Resolution Tribunal rejected that argument, and ruled that Air Canada had to honour the bereavement refund and pay costs. But the reputational damage to the company- which could have been avoided by simply honouring the claim – was much bigger than those costs.

From a customer experience viewpoint, Air Canada should have just given him the discount anyway, right? It was only about $150, and that would have been much better for the company than the reputational damage when the story made international news!

But from an AI viewpoint, the problem is the chatbot was acting independently. Like other chatbots, it learned from the training data it was given - and advised the customer based on that data - but gave that advice without a human reviewing or overseeing it.

This is more relevant now than ever. People are building AI systems that act autonomously. This is known as “agentic AI”.

You might hear people talking about “AI agents”. It’s a buzzword right now, and is the next step in AI systems.

This is fundamentally different from earlier generative AI, where you could prompt ChatGPT or Copilot, review its response, check it, and then act. Now, AI agents no longer have a human in the loop.

You don’t need much technical expertise to build an AI agent, either. In fact, it’s available right now in ChatGPT and other common AI tools.

That means you can create it yourself.

Or a team member can.

Or you can choose from a list of AI agents others have created.

Make no mistake - AI agents create new opportunities for improving productivity and enhancing your customer experience.

But if you don’t do it the right way, they also create new risks and potential problems for you, your business, and your organisation.

Imagine creating an AI agent that’s “empowered” to give a customer advice - as with Air Canada.

Or asking an AI agent to book a business trip – giving it your credit card details so it can book flights and accommodation.

Or building an AI agent that reviews employee records and automatically send them email or WhatsApp messages about their performance.

It might be very efficient, and it might let people do their work faster.

But it also means you can make mistakes faster!

Is YOUR governance up to date? If not, you’re at risk. I’m running an online presentation soon about what’s new in AI - and what it means for you as a leader to put the right governance in place. You’re welcome to register, and please share this with your colleagues as well.

https://swiy.co/go-from-chatbots-to-chaos

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Broadly, AI can help in three areas: Interface, insights, and infrastructure. And all of them are to do with enhancing – not eliminating – the human touch.

Let’s look at that with an analogy of the old-style deli owner, who knew everybody who came into their shop. I knew somebody like that, way back when I was a kid.

1. Interface

I would sometimes go to the deli after school, and the owner knew me. He remembered what I liked, asked me how school was, and sometimes suggested something new. It felt personal and warm – and it was also good business. He ran his business well by knowing his customers, managing his stock, and responding to what was happening around him.

Now, AI can help us do the same – on a bigger scale. You can use AI first at the customer interface – through your website, contact centre, app, and in person.

If you think I’m talking about chatbots, you’re right. It’s the fastest way to add AI. The earliest chatbots were very basic – only able to respond with simple scripts. But they are now much better, and can hold reasonable conversations with people – both with written text and voice.

AI chatbots also help human customer service agents. A customer might be speaking to a person, and behind the scenes, that person uses AI to pull up the customer history, past issues they have faced, business policies to help the customer, and so on.

2. Insights

The deli owner from my youth wasn’t just able to recognise me and talk to me when I walked into the deli. Based on what he knew about me, he could also recommend things that I might be interested in in the future.

In the same way, AI helps you understand your customers by analysing their past behaviour – and the behaviour of others just like them. It draws on everything from individual purchase history to wider behavioural trends, letting you personalise messages, offers, and interactions.

We know this when interacting with platforms like Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify – who have been doing this for years. The result is more precise targeting and better recommendations. Instead of making generic offers, AI uses real data to be more relevant, more helpful, and more likely to connect in a meaningful way.

3. Infrastructure

A business is only as good as its back-end infrastructure. This isn’t as visible to customers, but it still affects them. For example, the deli owner knew to stock up on ice cream in summer and hot pies in winter!

AI can do the same – and in even more sophisticated ways. It can help manage inventory by forecasting demand, adjusting stock levels, or even suggesting product placement based on customer flow. It can also help you adapt to external factors like seasons, weather, or local events.

You can also apply AI to workforce management – like rostering staff based on expected foot traffic, customer demand, or past patterns. Or use it to optimise delivery routes, monitor supply chains, or improve internal systems. A better infrastructure supports a better customer experience.

How are you managing these three areas with AI?

If you’re getting started with AI, explore opportunities in each of these three aareas. You don’t need to do everything at once. But even starting in one of these areas can make a big difference.

For more, download my free report, "AI-Powered Customer Experience":

https://swiy.co/go-human-touch-ai-brain

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https://swiy.co/go-the-process-is-the-point

I’m preparing to deliver my Future Scenarios program soon for the leadership team of a organisation, and it’s the fourth year in a row I’ve been working with them.

Of course, the outcome of the program will have changed, because 2022 was so different from 2025. But the process has changed as well.

What has changed in that time that could influence the planning process?

Here are a few things ...

* COVID restrictions meant participants weren’t out interacting with the world as much

* Hybrid work now means particpipants spend more time in their local communities

* Some Gen Z employees are now moving into management roles

* We have more generations in the workplace

* Online meetings have become more common

And then, of course, there’s the growth of AI.

Over the last three years, we have used AI differently in this program:

* Three years ago, in early 2022, we talked about the potential growth of AI as a significant external pressure, but we didn’t have ChatGPT and generative AI to use during the program itself.

* In 2023, we had seen the growth of generative AI, but this organisation was fairly restrictive in allowing their people to use it. So I could show them how to use it, and do some AI education, but they couldn’t directly use it in the program.

* Last year — the third year we ran it — they all had access to AI, so I asked them to do some pre-work using AI, and they could use that as a starting point for their future planning.

They year, I’ll ask them to go even deeper and further with the pre-work – because AI has come a long way, even in the last twelve months. Now they can do deep research into their area of responsibilities to understand the future challenges and opportunties they are facing. With AI doing a lot of the heavy lifting for them even before they arrive, they can dedicate more time in the two-day program to make it even more practical, useful, and customised for their needs.

So how has YOUR future planning changing?

Are you taking advantage of these tools that are available now?

Are you leveraging the unique perspective and insights of your team – with up to five generations in your workplace?

Are you using the hybrid work opportunity to bring in external perspectives?

It’s not only that the future has changed — and will continue to change — but the way you THINK about the future should change as well.

I’ll be talking more about this in my online presentation “Seeing Into the Future”, where I will share some of the tools we futurists use — and how those tools are evolving. It’s free, public, and open to everyone — so please register, and invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-the-process-is-the-point

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https://swiy.co/go-yes-theres-an-i-in-team

I had an interesting conversation recently with a client I’ve worked with for many years, and we were re-engaging working together with him and his senior leadership team, to help them understand the future. We’ve done this work in the past, but the world keeps changing (so inconvenient, ha ha)!

During our conversation, he asked me:

“Gihan, it’s really good to be working with you again. But where ELSE should we turn to learn about the future?”

It’s a great question! Because understanding the future doesn’t always mean going outside. Don’t get me wrong – I’m very happy to be working with him. But it takes more than one meeting, conference, or strategic leadership off-site.

You need to be continuously learning about the future.

And one of the best sources – which you have at hand already – is engaging your team.

I told him about another client, who again had engaged me to work with her leadership team. I ran two sessions for them to discuss their future initiatives, and I was so impressed with the way she participated in those sessions.

She wasn’t just "the hot-shot CEO" who had brought in the futurist to work with her team. Instead, she went all in herself and participated fully – just like everybody else in the room. She did the pre-work, engaged in all the discussions, didn’t talk over others, and took part in all activities.

This is exactly what a leader should do.

Many leaders and managers think they know more than the people they lead. Oh, sure, they might defer to their role expertise, but don’t forget their broader expertise.

We used to say “There’s no ‘I’ in team”, but that’s exactly wrong now. There IS an “I” in team – in fact, it’s all there is.

Everybody in your team brings different perspectives and different lived experiences. And it’s that individuality, unique, and diverse perspectives that help you understand the future. They see, hear, feel, notice, and care about different things. And in a complex, inter-connected world, they all bring new, valuable insights for you.

So listen to your team, enable them to share their ideas and perspsectives, and use their contributions to create the future.

For more, join my online presentation “Seeing Into The Future”, where I will share more of the things that futurists do to help you understand more about the future. And – spoiler alert – one of those things is listening to the people in your team.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-yes-theres-an-i-in-team

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https://swiy.co/go-foresight-first

When you see change coming, do you view it as an opportunity, a threat – or maybe a bit of both?

I’ll be speaking soon at a conference for an association whose members are cultural organisations – think museums and art galleries – and we’ll consider what lies ahead in that sector. One significant shift is the growth of tech that lets people immersive themselves in experiencex without visiting these places.

Take virtual reality (VR), for example. You can strap on a headset and (virtually) visit the Louvre, walk with dinosaurs, explore outer space, or fight alongside Anzacs. All without leaving the comfort of your home, school, or local library.

How can a museum or art gallery compete with those experiences?

Well, of course VR can’t fully replicate the physical experience. Being there in person is richer, more immersive, and more visceral. But for many people, especially those limited by geography or budget, the virtual experience is “good enough” – and sometimes, even more informative. With VR, you can access deep context, background stories, and interactive insights that may not be available on-site.

So is VR a threat or an opportunity for these organisations?

The answer, of course, is that it could be either – or both. It seems like a threat, but there’s also the opportunity to integrate digital and physical experiences. For example, a museum website might have a VR "teaser" that’s more effective than words or pictures. And then add a VR option when visitors arrive. And perhaps an online follow-up after they leave.

But before you can assess whether something like VR is an opportunity or a threat, you first need to notice it!

If you didn’t even think about VR as a possible external influence, you can’t make these sort of decisions.

That’s a critical step leaders often overlook.

It’s easy to react to what’s already obvious. But go further to scan the horizon and look for other signals that aren’t as obvious.

This is the skill of foresight, and it’s an important first step in being future-ready.

Whether you’re doing formal strategic planning session or just looking informally at what’s next, take some time to understand what’s changing in – and outside – your world.

That’s why leadership teams bring me in before they begin strategic planning – not to build the plan itself, but to help them understand what’s coming. When they know the most important external pressures and influences, they can then incorporate them into their plan and make smarter decisions about priorities and actions.

If you want to know more about developing this skill of foresight, join my coming free public online presentation. I’ll share some of the tools I and other futurists use to help you see what’s coming and prepare for it.

Oh, and of course, if you’d like me to work with your leadership team, let’s chat!

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-foresight-first

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https://swiy.co/go-deep-wide-and-far

In October, I’m speaking at the Bus Industry Confederation’s annual conference, and a few weeks ago I had the briefing call with the association’s CEO and the conference organiser. I was so pleased by the way they are thinking about the future of the industry — and what they would like me to contribute.

This association represents owners and operators of buses and coaches, and others involved in that industry, from all around Australia.

This is a specific part of the overall transport business. But what does it look like from their customer’s (passenger’s) point of view?

For us, a bus might be just one of the ways to get from A to B. That journey might involve a combination of buses, trains, ferries, and trams — and that’s just public transport. Add ride-sharing services, e-bikes, and private cars into the mix as well.

For a passenger, it would be ideal to have a single, simpless, seamless way to plan and take that journey. No juggling fares, no separate payments, no dealing with different organisations with different pricing, ticketing, and rules.

That’s what this association sees as the future – not just the future of buses, but the future of transport more broadly. Some people call this “mobility as a service”: the full end-to-end experience of getting from A to B.

That’s what impressed me. They are not only looking at their own sector, but the broader picture.

As leaders, that’s an important part of our future planning as well.

As a futurist, I’m often asked to help leaders look ahead — to see what’s coming. But we should also look more broadly — at what’s happening around your industry. The world is more interconnected than ever, and disruptors and influencers often come from outside your own domain.

In fact, I think we need to use three perspectives:

* Deep: What’s happening inside your industry now?

* Wide: what’s happening outside that will impact your sector?

* Far: What’s coming in the future?

So, I’m really looking forward to speaking at this conference — for two reasons.

First, I’m looking forward to sharing these ideas. For many of my conference clients, I now research and prepare a detailed report about their industry, outlining key trends and external influences. In my keynote presentation, I share some highlights, and then delegates can download the report for the detail.

The other reason I’m looking forward to it is I’m delivering the opening keynote on the final day of the event — the morning after the gala dinner! So part of my job is to bring the energy back in the room and prepare the audience for the rest of the day. Some speakers don’t like that spot in the program, but I do!

If you’re a leader interested in learning how to see the future through those three lenses — deep, wide, and far — I’m running an online presentation soon about this topic. It’s free, public, and open to all, and it’s designed for leaders to learn how to know what’s coming in the future, not just for your organisation but for your entire sector.

I’d love to have you join, and feel free to share with others in your team as well.

https://swiy.co/go-deep-wide-and-far

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My first experience with them was more than thirty years ago, when studying AI at university and we had ELIZA on our university computers. I remember once, one of my uni friends, who intensely disliked one of our lecturers, spent hours on ELIZA taking out his anger and frustration in fake conversations with it (her?). Little did he know all the ELIZA conversations where saved on the university servers! He spent the next few days frantically running around looking for an IT person to delete those chats.

Oh, how we laughed!

Anyway ...

Sixty years on from the first ELIZA, chatbots have come a long way. And if you want to use AI to enhance your customer experience, a chatbot is one of the fastest ways to do it.

You still need to do it with appropriate guardrails to make sure it works correctly. But in terms of technology, it’s one of the easiest things to do.

And, surprisingly, many people actually like talking to chatbots.

Or maybe not so surprisingly, if the alternative is waiting on hold for hours or being passed around to different people and having to start from scratch each time.

Ideally, many happy customers don’t want to engage with you at all – because it’s usually because they have a problem, complaint, or issue they can’t resolve any other way. But if they do, many prefer using a chatbot.

A chatbot, if it’s deployed well, can handle initial enquiries, answer common questions, and solve routine issues – instantly and around the clock.

Unlike ELIZA sixty years ago, which was pre-programmed with a set of responses, the AI-based chatbots now are much more powerful. They are better at interpreting the customer’s problem, and even assessing the sentiment and urgency behind the question. And of course, if they can’t respond appropriately, they know to escalate that to a person in the call centre.

For more complex issues, sure, they might prefer speaking with a person. But even in these cases, customer service agents might use chatbots themselves to improve their responses.

For example, Telstra uses two chatbots in its call centres for their customer service agents.

One, called “One Sentence Summary”, quickly gives the agent a summary about the customer, based on their history, products, and past interactinos.

The other, called “Ask Telstra”, lets an agent quickly search the internal Telstra knowledge database so they can respond more quickly to the customer.

So, whether it’s customer-facing or agent-assisting, a chatbot is one of the best things you can do to enhance your customer experience.

I’ll be talking about this – and more – in my online presentation, coming up soon, about AI for customer experience. We’ll explore these and other CX tools, and also look at some of the guardrails you need to put in place for good governance.

It’s free, public, and open to all, so register here and invite others in your team as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-dont-fear-the-bot

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-boosts-cx-innovation

I was recently speaking at a conference on the Gold Coast, staying overnight at a hotel before my closing keynote presentation the next day. The hotel check-in time was 2pm, but I only arrived at 8pm. But they didn’t give me a later check-out to make up for those six hours I “missed out”, even though I told them in advance I would be arriving late.

Of course, this is how hotels work everywhere. They have a fixed check-in time and a fixed check-out time, regardless of when you arrive or leave. You might be lucky and get an early check-in or a late check-out. But apart from that flexibility, you’re only entitled to the hotel’s hours.

Wouldn’t it be great if I could have told the hotel my later arrival time (which I did), and they would have extended the check-out time to still give me the same overall time?

I’m not the first person to ask this question, and in fact some hotels have experimented with this in the past. You get, say, 20 hours, starting from time you arrive, as long as you nominate that time in advance (so they can manage occupancy, cleaning, and so on).

This is called the “day-based” or “rolling stay” model, but it’s far from common - and mostly used by a few boutique hotels or some special hotels (like airport hotels). And it’s not hard to see why: It’s a huge logistical challenge. You need to manage every room’s occupancy and availability individually, coordinate cleaning staff schedules, manage reception staff numbers, and much, much more.

But it’s not impossible.

Especially with AI.

In fact, this is a perfect job for AI.

AI can easily take all of these things into account. It can assign available rooms, coordinate staff rosters, and manage complex logistics at scale. It can even use past behaviour of customers to predict their likely future bookings, or predict occupancy based on seasons or weather predictions.

Of course, even if AI can create the schedules, there are still challenges implementing that schedule - for example, scheduling staff. But the point is that something which was previously “impossible” not at least becomes plausible.

I don’t expect many hotels to start adopting this model anytime soon. But that’s because the industry as a whole is quite happy to preserve the status quo and force this imperfect experience on their customers.

And this is just one example of applying AI to go beyond just making your existing processes more efficient, but to create new opportunities.

Stop thinking:

“That’s the way we’ve always done it.”

“That’s the way everybody else does it.”

and start thinking:

“How could we use AI to do it differently?”

If you did, you could create a huge competitive advantage for your business.

For more ideas like this, join my online presentation next week about using AI for better customer experience. It’s free, public, and open to all.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-boosts-cx-innovation

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https://swiy.co/go-cx-reimagined

Customer experience - or CX - matters. In fact, according to Salesforce, an astounding 80% of customers say the experience they have working with a business is just as important as the products and services they buy. So your CX makes a huge difference to whether they buy – and, just as importantly, whether they’ll buy again.

And many businesses now are using AI to improve their customer experience.

You might not be doing it in your own business, but you probably experience it yourself in your life.

Take supermarket shopping, where the big retailers like Coles, Woolworths, and Aldi have been using AI for years.

For instance, if you shop at Coles or Woolies and use your FlyBuys card or Everyday Rewards card, you scan the card to earn points, discounts, and other rewards. In return, these companies collect vast amounts of data about you, your behaviour, and your habits. They then use AI to process this data to send you personalised emails tailored to that behaviour - and even your likely future behaviour.

This is one simple example of AI enhancing the customer experience. The AI itself is complex, but the outcome is simple.

Another example is with self-service checkouts, where overhead cameras watch you putting items on the scale, identify the products, and use AI to assist in the next steps. For example, it can detect fruit or vegetables, which don’t have barcodes, and automatically suggest that first when asking you to tell the checkout what it is. It can also detect potential fraud if a customer tries to record it as a cheaper product!

Another example, which is less well-known because it’s not immediately visible to customers, is the way Coles uses cameras at the deli counters.

Coles research shows that when people are waiting to be served at the deli counter, they will wait on average 30-40 seconds before being impatient and giving up - which means less income for Coles. So they use cameras and AI to watch the deli counter, detect when customers are approaching, and alert a team member so they can serve that customer promptly.

These are just a few examples of AI being used to enhance the supermarket customer’s experience.

What about YOU? How are you using AI in your business to enhance the experience with your customers, clients, or patients?

If you would like to know more about AI and CX, join my online presentation soon. I’ll share the latest research, give you more examples of businesses doing it already, and alert you to the traps and pitfalls to avoid when you’re applying AI to your customer experience. It’s a free, public, online presentation, so register here and invite others in your team and your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-cx-reimagined

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https://swiy.co/go-from-service-to-intention

Many years ago, long before the recent boom in AI awareness and adoption, Target – the USA retail chain – made news about the way it used AI.

An angry man turned up at his local Target store, and demanded to speak to the manager because Target had sent his teenage daughter a catalogue full of baby products for new parents. The man yelled at the manager, “Are you trying to get my daughter pregnant?”

It turned out she WAS pregnant – but she hadn’t told her parents yet!

Target’s internal systems had guessed, based on changes to her buying habits, that she might be pregnant, and therefore a good candidate for baby product marketing. It wasn’t because she was buying nappies or baby clothes. Rather, changes in her eating habits triggered the algorithm. These were subtle clues that, when taken as a whole, created a likely profile.

This was an early – and very public – example of AI in retail. Even in a much simpler form than we have now, the AI was able to predict a customer’s future behaviour based on changes to her past behaviour and habits.

That power is now available to all businesses – at a much larger and more sophisticated scale – with today’s AI.

The customer experience has changed.

For decades, the gold standard was superior customer service: what happened in every customer touchpoint.

Then we broadened our view to look at the customer experience, taking account of every stage of the buying process, and how customers feel and interact with a brand over time.

Now, thanks to the predictive power of AI and data analytics, we’re moving into the era of customer intention. The key question becomes: What are our customers likely to want in the future? And how can we tailor our marketing, messaging, and services for them?

This matters because it cuts through the clutter. It makes life easier for your customers when you’re showing them only what matters to them. And it’s better for your business because you’re putting all your effort into those things that do matter to them.

Do YOU know what your customers will want?

And if you don’t know, how are you planning to find out?

Make no mistake; your competitors are already using these tools. If you don’t act now, your customers could easily become their customers.

If you would like to explore this further, I’m running an online presentation soon. It’s free and open to everyone. We will look at this whole journey – from customer service to customer experience, and now to customer intention. Feel free to register, and invite others in your team or network. I’m sure you’ll find it valuable.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-from-service-to-intention

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-savvy-employees

I recently delivered the closing keynote presentation at the AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institute) conference in Perth, talking about leading through disruption and the future of work. One of the biggest topics throughout the day was (surprise!) AI. I was pleased to see so many HR professionals seeing AI in a positive and optimistic way, as a powerful tool they can use in their professional roles.

In contrast, there are many negative stories about recruiters and employers using AI, especially when they suspect or detect candidates using AI to help them in the recruitment process. Things like using AI to draft their cover letters, adjust their CVs to match the position, and even using it as a "coach" during online interviews.

Some employers and recruiters take a dim view of these candidates. But that’s a mistake. You WANT people who are open to AI, excited and enthusiastic about it, and using it to solve real problems. They are exactly the sort of employee you want in your organisation.

In fact, if you see somebody using, say, an AI coach in an online interview, that might be not their first use of AI in the process. It might be the first time YOU see them using AI, but smart and savvy employees are now using AI at many stages of their career development.

For example, they might have already used:

* LinkedIn Career Explorer or JobGether Career Coach to plan their future careers

* Lightcast AI to analyse and review the current labour market

* Jobscan and Adzuna to do AI searches for their preferred jobs

* Work180 to check whether future employers match their personal values

* Rezi Resume Builder to build and adapt their CV

* CoverDoc AI to draft their job application response

* Yoodli AI to coach them before an interview

These – and other – AI-based tools can help candidates on their journey, even before they engage with you.

Aren’t those the sort of people you want in your organisation?

If you want to be a talent magnet and attract the best people, you want people with AI skills. If you reject them, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.

And this is not just about AI. It’s about finding, attracting, and building an employee value proposition that reflects what you offer.

For more, join my free public online presentation about being a talent magnet. I’m looking at the future of work, what employees want, and how you can attract the best people.

It’s free, public, and open to all, so register now.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-savvy-employees

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https://swiy.co/go-talent-chooses-you

I recently bought a book about cricket (Why? Because I’m a cricket tragic – and that’s what we do!)

I’ve never been any good at playing cricket, but for almost fifty years now, I’ve followed cricket – going to see it live, watching it on TV, listening on the radio, subscribing to dozens of cricket podcasts, and occasionally buying a cricket book.

When I heard Jarrod Kimber had written this book about cricket, I bought it. Not because I buy every book about cricket – I don’t – but because it was written by Jarrod Kimber. I have followed him for a while, I like the way he thinks, what he thinks about, and what other people say about him. Even without reading a sample of his book, Jarrod has a strong enough reputation I’m willing to buy it.

That’s what a business calls its customer value proposition (CVP): the reason people should buy from you.

The same applies to future employees, and that’s called your employee value proposition, or EVP. Why should they work with you?

The best people have a choice of where they can work. As they are looking around, they assess organisations by their EVP. They don’t use that phrase, but that’s effectively what they do.

So what do you project from the outside? What do the best people see that makes them even want to apply to work with you – and then to accept what you offer them?

Your EVP is hugely important, and the way you create it has changed.

In the past – pre-digital days – it used to be based on your premises, where you were located, what the office looked like, how they felt when they went in for an interview.

Then, as we became more online, your EVP was defined by your website, your LinkedIn company page, the job ads you put out on SEEK, and your other public, outward-facing channels.

Now, those things are still important, but it’s also what other people – your current and past employees – say about you. People share their experiences in online forums, employer review sites like Glassdoor, Reddit threads, and so many other channels.

If you don’t have a strong EVP, it becomes much more difficult to attract the best people.

Your EVP has three components:

1. Culture: Do you even offer what the best people want in a workplace culture?

2. Promise: How do you promote that culture to future employees?

3. Reputation: How do they KNOW you keep that promise?

That third part – which is largely driven by your employees, not by you – is just as important as the other two.

When you get all three right, you become a talent magnet – especially to attract the best people.

I’m running a public online presentation soon about your employee value proposition and becoming a talent magnet. It’s free, it’s public, and it’s open to everybody. So register here, and feel free to invite other leaders in your team and your network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-talent-chooses-you

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I was speaking recently at a leadership forum about the future of work, for leaders across many industries and sectors. At the networking drinks after my keynote presentation, one attendee asked me some AI software he had seen recently.

He said one of their challenges is candidates using AI in the recruitment process. And he wasn’t talking about them using ChatGPT to reply to job advertisements ("That’s so 2024!"). This is more sophisticated: AI software that candidates are using in online interviews to coach them during the interview itself.

But that wasn’t the AI software he was referring to. He was talking about a new AI tool to help employers fight back against these employees "cheating". This AI silently joins the Zoom or Teams meeting, and uses the candidate’s language, eye movements, and tone of voice to determine whether they are being coached by AI in the background!

He asked me for my opinion about using this "AI cheating detection" software.

What do YOU think about using this in your recruitment process?

Is this a problem for you?

And are you using software like this to combat this problem?

I said to him, "Frankly, I reckon the the best way for you to get a competitive advantage from that software is send it anonymously to all your competitors, and hope that they’re dumb enough to use it to employ only people who aren’t using AI – and perhaps even don’t know how to use AI. That will cull the talent pool, so you get to choose from the best!"

We had a bit of a laugh about that, but it highlights a serious point.

Some employers are looking at AI use by candidates as a negative, but that’s not smart. After all, why wouldn’t you want to hire people who are already using AI to solve real problems in their life?

This is not even about AI.

This isn’t just a rant against anti-AI employers. I’m talking more broadly about your employer brand – and your employee value proposition (EVP).

Just as your Customer Value Proposition (CVP) describes why people should choose to buy from you, your EVP describes why people should choose to work with you.

The best people can choose where they work, they have their own criteria for what they want, and they will narrow their choices well before you advertise.

Just like the rest of your brand, some of your EVP is created and some of it is earned. You can carefully construct and curate it through channels you control – such as your website, LinkedIn page, job advertisements on SEEK, and media appearances. Those things still matter, but they are not enough.

Today, potential employees want authenticity. They trust what they hear from insiders more than your slick website or beautiful office. They look at online reviews, forums, social media, and online influencers.

So, what’s in your EVP?

Are you offering something the best people want? More importantly, can potential employees SEE that you’re offering these things – before they even apply?

The future of work has four elements, and this is one of them: The "Attract" element.

I’m running a free public online presentation soon about exactly this – how to attract the best people with your EVP. Register here, and invite others in your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-attracting-the-best

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https://swiy.co/go-drowning-in-data

Are you making data-based decisions?

I was speaking last week at a conference of CIOs - Chief Information Officers - from a broad range of industries and sectors all around Australia. The conference was not about their technical role - managing an organisation’s data and information - but about their leadership role.

But when you think about it: Aren’t these two things related?

Leadership requires good decision-making, and good data drive good decisions - if you do it right.

The problem isn’t having access to data. We all have access to more data than ever before. You might even say we’re drowning in data!

But data alone won’t help you be a better leader - unless you can leverage that data to inform your decisions. Not to MAKE your decisions, but to inform them.

Think of data-driven decisions at four levels:

1. Data: Collecting, cleaning, and storing data from the world.

2. Information: Combining, choosing, and communicating meaning from the data.

3. Insights: Understanding what that information means in context.

4. Decisions: Using those insights to inform your decisions.

It’s one thing to collect data – and that’s a good thing, especially with AI, which gorges itself on data. But it’s another level altogether when you use that data to drive and inform better decisions.

This is for you, whatever your role in the organisation. You don’t have to be a CIO, a CTO, Chief AI Officer, or Chief Data Officer. We need to use data to help make better decisions.

For more, download my worksheet here about data-driven decisions, and use it for yourself and your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-drowning-in-data

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https://swiy.co/go-leading-learning

Do you have a learning mindset in your team?

Most leaders say, “Yes, of course!”

They say:

We’re open to change.

We understand we can’t stay still.

We encourage everybody to adapt to change,

We’re always open to new ideas from our team.

Great! That’s the right mindset. But how are you putting that into practice?

A key part of building a future-ready culture is nurturing a learning mindset. We need to be constantly learning, relearning, and even unlearning things that used to be true but aren’t true anymore.

Whenever I talk to leaders about building a culture of change agents, this is an important feature. Sadly, it’s often forgotten.

I spoke about this last week in Brisbane at a large conference of schools teaching VET (vocational and educational training): many of the essential skills we will need in the future.

Two weeks before that, I spoke to employees of a large company that was running their annual “Careers Week”, helping employees map out their career plan and use the company’s resources to roll out that plan.

And in a few weeks from now, I’m speaking at the Australian Human Resource Institute (AHRI) conference, discussing the future of work and leading through change and disruption for HR professionals and other leaders.

All of this is about change, and a key part of that is having a learning mindset – for you as a leader and for your organisation to actively and proactively help people learn.

Offer three kinds of learning.

Broadly, think about learning at three levels: deep, wide, and far.

* Deep learning is understanding more about your area of expertise - staying up to date with ongoing professional development.

* Then go wide, developing broad skills we all need that are not tied to a particular role, job, or area of expertise. This includes innovation, problem solving, digital literacy, AI literacy, emotional intelligence, resilience, well-being, and critical thinking. These wide, transferable, skills apply in any role and job, and will be vital as jobs change in the future.

* Finally, develop skills that help people look “far”. These are the skills of a futurist: anticipating what’s coming in the future, dealing with uncertainty and amiguity, and understanding the impact of current and future trends.

As a leader, provide opportunities for your team members to develop in all three areas. And don’t forget your own learning, too!

That might sound like a lot of time-consuming and expensive work, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The traditional training course still has value, of course, but you also have many other options now for learning and development. In fact, there are many ways to incorporate learning in on-the-job activities.

For some examples, download my worksheet with a list of these activities, and choose which might be suitable for yourself and your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-leading-learning

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-secrets

Somebody recently asked me whether I thought there’s too much hype about AI. I said yes, and he immediately jumped on that and said,

“So you admit AI is all hype!”

No! That’s not what I said.

Yes, there’s too much hype about AI. But there’s also real value you can get from AI. Both of those things can be right – there’s no contradiction.

It’s like Katy Perry going into space and then claiming it as a milestone for feminism. That’s hype! But equally, you could praise Amanda Nguyen – a real scientist, advocate for women’s rights, and nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize – who also went on that same trip to space.

Hype and value aren’t necessarily contradictory.

A lot of technology is over-hyped – especially something like AI, which pushes a lot of emotional buttons. It’s also hyped by the American tech bros (or “broligarchs”) trying to talk up the value of AI to push up the value of their own companies.

At the same time, millions of people are rolling up their sleeves, using AI, and getting real value from it.

And this is true of your employees, too.

Some recent research from Google and Ipsos found that in Australia, 74% of people – that’s three out of four – are using AI at work. But some other research from Slack done at about the same time found 42% of them don’t want to admit it to their manager!

Why? You can guess at the reasons – the top three were:

1. Their manager might think they are lazy

2. Their manager might think they are incompetent

3. Their manager might think they are cheating

So what are YOU like as a leader?

Are you open to AI? And more importantly, are you publicly open to it?

Do you make it clear to your team they can use AI and should be using it? And are you giving them the tools, resources, environment, and guidelines on using it well?

As you bring your people on the AI journey, it’s more important than ever that you have clear, open, transparent conversations with them – about how they feel, what they want from AI, what they are already doing with it, and what worries them about it.

AI is here. It’s not going away. And you might already be in a lucky position with your people embracing it.

Just be sure you support it, facilitate it, and help them go further with it.

Download my worksheet here for some questions you can ask in these AI conversations with your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-secrets

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https://swiy.co/go-be-like-iceland

I’m speaking soon at the AHRI (Australian Human Resources Institute) conference in Perth, talking about the future of work. One of the four key elements of the future of work is attracting the best people, and one of your most important levers in that area is offering more flexible work options.

During the pandemic, flexible work meant mostly working from home. And that (often in the form of hybrid work – some days in the office, some from home) is still one kind of flexible work. But it’s not the only form of flexibility.

For example, in Iceland, about 90% of workers who enjoy a four-day work week. They work four days a week rather than five, and still get paid 100% of their wages or salary. In return, they are expected to deliver 100% of their productivity.

This started with a small pilot project in 2015, which worked so well they extended and expanded it in 2019. And now, it’s spread to the whole country. This is not mandated by law, but rather encouraged through workplace agreements. And now it’s part of their workplace culture.

Strictly speaking, they don’t get a full day off each week. Their 40-hour week is now 36 hours, so they work four 9-hour days rather than five 8-hour days. So each day is a bit longer, but they still work fewer hours, for the same money and the same productivity.

In fact, the research shows productivity has either stayed steady or, in some cases, even improved. In addition, this arrangement has dramatically improved mental health and well-being, work-life balance, and gender equality.

This has been a huge success for Iceland, and is just one of the many models for flexible work.

Could you do the same?

Iceland is a small country, with only about half a million people, so we can’t necessarily extrapolate it to larger nations.

But that’s not my point.

We don’t have to do it as a country.

YOU could do it for your organisation.

Or maybe even just for your team.

In the war for talent, money is not the only driver. Flexible work is one of the most in-demand requirements for employees.

Esepcially for Generation Z, who will be 30% of the workforce by 2030.

Some managers and leaders will push back and say Gen Z are entitled, privileged, unrealistic, and need to pay their dues before they can start demanding these "perks".

In return, many Gen Z’s are saying, "We don’t care! If you don’t provide that, we’ll find somebody else who does". And they will.

Just because others in your industry aren’t doing it, that’s no reason for you not to do it. In fact, that’s exactly why you SHOULD be doing it, as a competitive advantage for attracting the best people.

Why not be a pilot project for your industry?

Just an idea. Have a go. Be the Iceland for your industry, and it will put you ahead of the game in the future of work.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-be-like-iceland

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https://swiy.co/go-workfluencers

In a nutshell, a workfluencer is an employee who talks about their work in online communities.

Of course, we’ve been doing this for a long time even before the online world – with friends and family at parties, with other parents at your children’s school events, in your local community or church community.

A workfluencer is the 2025 version of that, and it expands and amplifies the concept because of the power and reach of online networks. Typically, it’s a younger person – a Gen Z or maybe a younger Gen Y (Millennial). They work in your team, and are also active on social media and other online networks, sharing the good, the bad, and even the ugly about work. Exactly as you do when talking to friends at a barbie, but on a much larger scale.

If you don’t have workfluencers in your team, maybe you should. Not by forcing it, but by creating a culture people feel proud to boast about.

If you like the people in your team, you want them to talk to their friends and community, because you want to attract more people like them. And you want those people to know about you before they join – not through the traditional hierarchical interview and recruitment process, but by knowing somebody "on the inside". Those people will be a good fit for your team, because they already know your values.

This is an important element of the future of work.

Generation Z (roughly in their mid-twenties now) will be a significant part of our future. By 2030, they will be 30% of our population. That means

30% of your customers,

30% of your community,

and 30% of your employees.

Of course, it will vary across industries and sectors, but broadly one in three employees will be Gen Z. That means they will also be your future leaders.

So you want the best of them, and you want to leverage all their skills and talents – including their ability to influence others online.

Now, some people will push back, saying it’s too much of a risk to let employees talk publicly about you.

It could damage your reputation.

Breach confidentiality.

Create security issues.

And so on. And on. And on.

And you know what? You’re right ... to some extent.

But that shouldn’t stop you. Yes, you need some coaching, mentoring, and guardails in place. Do it reponsibly, but do it!

You might also NOT be proud of your work culture. In that case, this advice is not for you (I might have some other advice for you, but that’s a different topic!).

But if you have the sort of workplace culture and team you’re proud of, you have nothing to be afraid of. Encourage and nurture workfluencers to share their experiences online, far and wide.

This becomes part of your employee value proposition (EVP), which is a key element of the future of work.

I’m running an online presentation soon about the future of work, and this is one of the four key elements for all leaders to understand. It’s free, public, and open to all. So please register, and invite others in your team and organisation as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-workfluencers

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://swiy.co/go-from-planning-to-progress

You might have big ideas and a clear strategy (good!), but what are you doing to engage your people to execute and implement that strategy?

I work with a lot of leaders – especially senior leaders – who want me to help them understand the future. They can then feed that into their strategic planning. That’s good, because it gives them more confidence and clarity about their plan and decision making.

For example, here are three leadership teams I’m helping now:

• A high school that’s looking at extending what they do by teaching students about skills beyond the curriculum – that is, the broad skills that will help them to be more future-ready.
• A local council that wants to make sure they are planning for changes in their city and and for their residents.
• A financial services organisation that’s facing a lot of disruption from technology, and want to first leverage the technology themselves and also be disrupters themselves.

With all three leadership teams, I’m helping them understand what’s coming up in the future, so it can feed into their strategic planning.

But there’s a third crucial element to a successful strategy: engaging, inspiring, and motivating your people to implement and execute that strategy. Even with the best strategy in the world, if your people aren’t on board to implement it, it will fail.

Many leaders are good at the first two elements, but not as good on the third. Or, even worse, they forget about the third.

It’s like trying to drive a car where you have control of the steering wheel, and maybe even the accelerator, but there’s no petrol in the tank!

One of my speaker colleagues, Stef du Plessis, an international leadership expert based in South Africa, puts it well. He says your people aren’t there to execute your strategy. You might think they are – after all, you’re paying them – but that doesn’t engage, motivate, or excite them.

So what DO they want?

They want meaningful work.

They want to feel fulfilled at work.

They want to know they are making a difference.

Yes, of course, they want the money as well. But more than ever, your people want their work to be about more than money.

So, if you want them to engage with your strategy, make it meaningful – to THEM, not to you! Align it with what people care about. Find the pieces that will motivate people, and prioritise those pieces. Then find the people who want to make that happen.

Whenever leaders ask me about the future of work, I talk about four key elements. And only one of them is about the work itself – what needs to be done. The other three are about the people doing the work.

If you can’t get your people on board, your strategy will fail.

I’m running a free, public online presentation soon about the future of work – and especially what you can do to engage your people at work. Please register here, and invite others in your team and network as well.

I’ll see you in the future.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-from-planning-to-progress

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

https://swiy.co/go-strategy-to-action

How do you turn strategy into action?

Next month, I’m running a workshop at a strategic leadership forum for an organisation in Melbourne. They bring together their top 100 leaders every six months to work on the big issues facing their organisation. The CEO told me everybody loves those sessions, and they walk out energised and motivated.

But ... Very little changes in practice. The leaders walk out with the best of intentions, ready to roll up their sleeves and put the big ideas into practice. But then life gets in the way. They get caught up in the everyday operational work, so those big ideas get forgotten.

And it’s not surprising. Because those big ideas are new.

And challenging.

And ... well, big!

So it’s easy to put them off until things get quieter, or easier, or less chaotic.

Of course, that never happens!

So how do you turn strategy into action? How do you stop all that great thinking go to waste?

The big mistake leaders make is they try to do too much at once.

They might be excited by the idea. And why not? After all, it was probably their idea! And they can’t see why everybody else is not as excited.

And that’s the problem. For others in their teams - and often even for the leaders themselves - implementing big ideas takes time.

And effort.

And courage.

And a willingness to be uncomfortable.

So it’s not surprising they don’t jump at the chance!

If you don’t have a culture of change agents - where your people are open, willing, or even excited about change - you’ll be fighting an uphill battle.

So what can you do?

First, don’t give up on that big idea! It might be crucial part of your strategy.

But also work on building your culture of change. And that happens one step at a time.

So give them the big picture, but also give them things they can put into action - right now. And ideally, those small actions don’t add to their workload, but slip in as part of their work.

Your goal is not to get other people to do the work for you, but to build a culture where people are open to change.

And there are some really specific things you can do as a leader to start building that culture.

I won’t go into the details here, but I want you to start thinking that way. If your people are slow to change, think first that it might be YOUR fault. Which means you can fix it. You can’t force people to change, but you can create an environment that supports and even rewards them for having that change mindset.

I’m running an online presentation soon. We’ll look at the future of work in four specific areas. And in each, I will give you a practical action you can use to build that culture of change. And of course, in the spirit of this topic, they are things YOU can do easily as well!

It’s free, public, and open to all. So please join us, and invite others in your team and network as well.

https://swiy.co/go-strategy-to-action

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Specifically, do you have a bad attitude about AI at work?

If you’re a leader or a manager, having a bad attitude about AI is not just bad for yourself – it’s bad for your team as well. Those bad attitudes are contagious.

We should be excited and curious about AI.

We should be appropriately cautious about using AI.

And we should be unsure about AI because we don’t know what it will look like in the next five years (let alone two years).

If anybody tells you they know exactly where AI is headed, they’re either lying or deluded.

So, if you say, “I’m excited about AI, I’m cautious about AI, and I’m unsure about AI”, that’s a really good start.

But be careful!

One thing I’ve noticed is that some people who admit to being unsure about AI turn that uncertainty into a roadblock. They say, “I don’t know enough about AI, so let’s wait until we get it exactly right before we do anything”.

And then … nothing happens!

Not only do YOU do nothing, but more importantly, you stop your team – or even your entire organisation – from doing anything.

That’s the bad attitude I meant.

Be unsure about AI (that’s health), but channel that uncertainty into education, practice, and professional development. That way, you can understand the risks, challenges, and opportunities – so you and your team can make informed decisions.

The real danger is when leaders take a passive stance: “We don’t know enough, so let’s just wait”. That attitude spreads, and suddenly, an entire team holds back, even when some are eager to explore AI.

A recent global survey by Slack revealed some interesting insights about AI in the workplace. In Australia, the results were largely positive: three-quarters of knowledge workers are using AI at work.

BUT ... Almost half (42%) of those who use AI at work feel uncomfortable telling their manager about it!

Why?

When asked, employees gave three main reasons:

1. Their boss might think they are less competent because they relied on AI.

2. Their boss might think they are lazy for using AI instead of doing the work themselves.

3. Their boss might see AI as cheating.

This is an outdated mindset.

Imagine if someone said, “Instead of spending 10 minutes with Google, I spent 10 hours in the library”.

That might have been reasonable 25 years ago, when search engines were new. But it would be bizarre now.

AI is heading in the same direction. In some organisations, it’s already as natural as using Google. In the next year or so, that will be the norm, not the exception.

As a leader, your attitude matters!

If you haven’t started integrating AI into your team, now is the time.

And the first step is simply to talk about it.

Ask your team how they feel about AI.

Are they excited? Cautious? Unsure?

How do they think AI could help their work?

What concerns do they have?

What opportunities do they see?

By starting the conversation, you set the tone.

And if you already have people in your team who are keen to use AI, identify them, support them, and let them be your AI champions.

AI isn’t just on the way – it’s already here. The real question is: Are you embracing it, or are you holding your team back?

Download my worksheet here to help craft some initial conversations about AI with your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-attitudes

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-in-your-team

Do you have hidden AI talent in your teams?

In the last week, I had two very interesting conversations with senior leadership teams from two very different organisations in completely different sectors. Despite their differences, they had one key thing in common: they were both thinking about how to integrate AI into their organisations.

What struck me was I had almost identical conversations with both teams.

At first, they were talking about what they needed to do was understand AI, craft an organisation-wide AI policy, create strict rules about using AI, engaging IT in creating a safe environment, and so on.

And then came the turning point.

In the middle of this discussion, one person - let’s call her Mikaela - spoke up. In both cases, “Mikaela” wasn’t the Chief Technology Officer, The Chief Information Officer, the Head of IT, or anyone formally responsible for AI. She was a senior leader, but in a non-technical role.

She shared that she had uses AI regularly in her day-to-day work: Experimenting with ChatGPT to draft emails, analyse spreadsheets, conduct competitor analysis, and explore how her team could use AI in their roles. She had even paid for her own subscription to access advanced features and had taken the time to dig deep into the technology.

So when these leadership teams asked me how they should approach AI adoption, my response was clear:

Find and support AI champions in your organisation.

For those senior leadership teams, “Mikaela” is their AI champion! She isn’t formally responsible for AI strategy, but she is curious, proactive, and already using AI to solve real problems. And every organisation has people like her.

The role of senior leadership is not to dictate how AI should be used from the top down. Instead, it’s about helping leaders and managers throughout the organisation to find, facilitate, and support their own AI champions.

This is where many organisations go wrong. The traditional approach is to impose new initiatives from the top down. But that usually takes a long, long time. And with AI, which is moving so fast, it’s difficult to get it right.

A faster, more effective approach is to focus on culture, and start using AI everywhere. Adopting AI is not about the technology. Well it IS, but it’s really about people and technology working together.

And that starts with your people.

For more, join my online presentation about people-powered AI. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. And feel free to invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-in-your-team

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-in-2030

A few weeks ago, I was speaking at two conferences in the Northern Territory – one in Alice Springs and one in Darwin – for tourism and hospitality operators in those towns to understand what’s coming in the future and how they can take advantage of those changes.

During the Q&A segment of my presentation, a tour operator in the audience asked me:

"What will be the biggest impact of AI in the tourism sector in the next five years?"

This is a smart question – not just for tourism, but for any industry. You probably should ask the same thing about your own sector.

But wait ... To be more precise: This is a smart question NOW – in 2025. But in the next five years – by 2030 – this would be a dumb question!

Why? Because by 2030, AI will be a standard part of how we work, just like smartphones, laptops, workplace culture, innovation, and change management. We don’t ask, “What will be the impact of computers in our industry?” because we already know they are an essential part of doing business.

The same will be true for AI.

Even now, forward-thinking businesses and leaders are using AI to enhance their customer experience, build marketing campaigns, analyse data and reports, record meetings and automate follow-ups, and much, much more.

Some organisations are already integrating AI into almost everything they do.

But many are still hesitant. Right now, that’s OK – because your competitors and customers might not be doing it.

But by 2030, AI won’t be optional.

Where do YOU stand with AI?

If you’re hesitating – waiting until the tech is better, you’ve crafted the perfect policy, or have recruited the best IT people – you’re falling behind!

The good news is it’s not too late. But you need to start now.

Most importantly, you need to bring your people along on the journey. AI adoption isn’t just about technology; it’s about people. If you introduce AI before your people are confident, comfortable, and competent with it, they won’t use it. Or worse, they will use it badly.

I’m running an online presentation soon called "People-Powered AI", where I will focus on how leaders can bring their teams along on the AI journey. It’s not about the technology – it’s about your role as a leader. It’s free, open to everybody, and I’d love to see you there. Feel free to share it with your team and network too.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-in-2030

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https://swiy.co/go-driving-ai

Are you taking too long to get your people started on the AI journey?

My niece Abbey just turned 20 last week. I remember four years ago, when she was sixteen, I taught her how to drive. I didn’t do all the lessons, but I took her through the first ten or twelve hours of driving, and helped her become a competent driver.

The process of getting a licence now is rigorous, structured, and time-consuming. And it should be, because we’re letting teenagers operate heavy machinery in public for the first time! By the time Abbey had done her 50 hours of supervised driving, she was more than ready to take her test - which she passed first time - and then drive independently. When she then bought her first car, she was more than capable behind the wheel.

But imagine another scenario: if her parents had made her wait until she bought her first car before she could start driving lessons. Of course, that would be bizarre! And yet, I reckon that’s how many leaders use AI with their teams.

Almost every week, I get enquiries from leaders and teams asking me to come in and teach them about AI: what it means for them, their organisations, and their leadership.

But one mistake I see many leaders making is wanting to get everything right from a management, governance, and policy perspective before they let their people start using AI.

I think that’s a mistake - for two reasons.

First, like it or not, your people are already using AI! Some use it at home for personal tasks.If they are not allowed to use it at work, some are still using it to solve work problems, but without telling you! And of course, that creates risks.

Second, if you go back to the driving analogy, you don’t want to wait until you buy someone a car before they learn how to drive. You want them to learn first so that when they finally get behind the wheel, they are already a competent driver.

It’s the same with AI. You must bring your people along on the AI journey - even while you’re working on policy, investing in technology, and building your AI strategy. Don’t wait until this is perfect (whatever that means anyway!). Give them the confidence to use AI, feel comfortable using AI, and secure in knowing AI won’t replace them.

If you want to explore this further, I’m running an online presentation soon called People-Powered AI, where we will talk about bringing people along on this journey. The session is free, public, and open to everybody. I’ll see you there!

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-driving-ai

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https://swiy.co/go-the-two-sides-of-ai

Is your organisation an AI-driven organisation? And what does that even mean?

About a year ago, Amazon in Australia surveyed CEOs and other leaders across different industries and sectors, asking about AI’s impact. One key question was whether they expected their organisation to be AI-driven by 2028. The result was 90% of leaders said yes!

That’s only three years from now. But what does it really mean to be AI-driven?

You organisation can use AI in two key ways - but it might be using only one.

First, AI might be built into your core processes - for example:

* Banks use AI to assess loan applications.

* Insurance companies use AI to determine premiums and process claims.

* Healthcare providers use AI to analyse scans and diagnose diseases.

* HR teams use AI to screen job applications.

In these cases, AI works in the background, supporting decision-making or automating processes that would otherwise be too complex or time-consuming for humans. Your people might not even be aware they’re using AI, because it’s just part of how things work.

This is a valuable use of AI, but it’s only half the picture.

The second side of AI is what we’ve seen explode in the last few years: generative AI, like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot. Instead of AI running in the background, people use it directly to enhance their work. This is extremely powerful for boosting productivity, enhancing your customer experience, and improving decision making.

But many organisations are still hesitant to embrace this use of AI. Some organisations still ban tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Copilot, despite their value. And AI capabilities are evolving fast - with agents and deep research tools that can automate, summarise, and proactively deliver insights.

For example, OpenAI recently launched its Deep Research tool, allowing users to conduct detailed investigations with AI. Right now, it’s only available to premium ChatGPT users for about $300 per month. But Perplexity, a ChatGPT rival, introduced a similar feature - available free!

This shift from passive AI (behind the scenes) to active AI is where AI and people are really working together. But many organisations are missing this opportunity.

And that’s a mistake.

If you’re only using AI in your core operations but not equipping your people with AI-powered tools, you’re not fully AI-driven. You’re missing out on a huge opportunity for productivity, innovation, and competitive advantage.

The longer you wait, the further behind you’ll fall. But it’s never too late to start.

I’m running a free, public online presentation soon about people-powered AI. Register now, and learn how to bring your people on the AI journey.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-the-two-sides-of-ai

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https://swiy.co/go-find-the-bright-spots

Whenever a client engages me to speak at their conference, we always have a presentation briefing call beforehand, so I can learn more about their organisation, the people attending their event, the outcomes they want from my presentation, and how my presentation fits in with the rest of the conference program.

In this meeting, I always ask this important question:

“How receptive are your people to change?”

We all know there’s a lot of external change right now (you don’t need a futurist to tell you that!), and the pace of change is increasing. As a leader, your job is to create a culture that supports, encourages, and embraces change, so you can remain relevant and valuable in the work you do.

In any team, you will have a mix of attitudes toward change - for example:

- Some people embrace it enthusiastically, and will gladly lead change in the team.

- Some aren’t as excited, but accept change as part of their life.

- A few might even actively resist change or fight change.

To build a culture of change - and change agents - you can’t click your fingers and expect everybody to magically change their attitude immediately. It takes time, but there are simple things you can do to facilitate the process.

In their book “Switch”, brothers Chip and Dan Heath describe nine strategies fofr creating change in challenging circumstances. In fact, the subtitle of the book is “How to Change Things When Change Is Hard”.

When I work with leaders and eams about building change, I share some of these ideas (and others from other sources). In my experience, the most useful and practical technique is from this book, and it’s called “Find the Bright Spots”.

In a nutshell, this means seeking and highlighting individual success stories.

For example, a bright spot might be:

- A small change a team member tried (and succeeded)

- A team success story

- An example of successful change from outside the team

Your goal is to highlight these success stories - for example, by sharing one or two at the start of every staff meeting.

By doing this, you help people see examples of change that worked, frequently remind them that change is possible, encourage them to try small change projects themselves, and bring change closer to them in a low-risk way.

This isn’t a magic bullet. Just finding bright spots won’t be enough to bring everybody on the change journey. But it’s a low-risk, high-value first step on the path to building a culture of change agents.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-find-the-bright-spots

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https://swiy.co/go-ai-champion

AI Champion: The Role Every Team Needs to Navigate AI

I run regular AI Leaders Labs for clients and others in my close network to help leaders share their ideas and experiences about using AI. These leaders are interested in AI, both for themselves and their teams, and want to bring their people on the AI journey.

In my most recent Leaders Lab, three participants asked the same question:

“AI is moving so fast - how can we keep up with what’s new?”

I have two answers ...

First, of course, if you want an external perspective, engage me! I can run a masterclass for your team or deliver a keynote presentation at your next conference. It’s part of my regular “day job” to know what’s new in AI and make it relevant and meaningful for you.

The other option I recommend - which I also recommended to my group - is to find an AI champion for your team.

If you work in a larger organisation, you might be tempted to wait until somebody “higher up” creates rules, frameworks, policies, and tools for everybody to use AI.

But that’s too slow!

Sure, there are some things that need careful thought and strategic insight. But you can still get a lot of value from AI right now. That’s where an AI champion can help.

You want somebody who is excited and enthusiastic about AI, and also keen for everybody else in the team to start using it. She might be the person who’s always testing the edges of what’s possible, and willing to extend the team’s capabilities.

Your first step is to find the right person (or people, if you’re lucky enough to have more than one in your team). Your role is to nurture them and create an environment where they can excel as an AI champion for your team.

They don’t need to be a senior person who understands all the policy implications and the bigger picture. It’s better to have someone who’s excited about AI, even if they don’t have the experience to make big-picture judgment calls (that’s YOUR role in this partnership).

It’s not all plain sailing, though.

Often, your AI champion is a more junior team member (although not necessarily a young person). This can create friction - for example:

* Other team members might be jealous of this person’s special status.

* Your peers, managers, or senior leaders might not respect this “junior” person when they speak up.

* The IT department might be wary of allowing your AI champion freedom to test new tech.

These are all valid concerns, and they are challenges you and your AI champion will need to navigate together.

For help in this process, download my worksheet about finding, nurturing, and working with an AI champion in your team.

This process takes a bit of effort - especially at first. But by investing in this effort, you will ensure your team stays informed, adapts quickly, and makes the most of AI’s opportunities.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-ai-champion

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DeepSeek, a new app similar to ChatGPT, became the #1 downloaded app on the App Store when it was launched recently. You might have heard about it in technology news, but it’s also in the mainstream media.

But how can we separate the hype from the reality?

Let’s talk about three things about DeepSeek, and also what it means for you as a leader.

1. China’s Growing AI Capabilities

The common wisdom was that China was lagging behind the USA in AI expertise and development. So it caught most people by surprise to see something as good as DeepSeek coming out of China.

But that assumption was wrong. China has been a leading force in AI for years - for example:

* Last year, they created the world’s first virtual AI hospital to advance medical procedures.

* They have been using AI to tackle climate change for many years.

* As far back as 2016, China set out to make an entire city that only allowed driverless cars.

2. Bias and Censorship Concerns

Another issue with DeepSeek is the possibility of bias and government censorship in DeepSeek’s results.

This is true! For example:

* If you ask it about Tiananmen Square, it doesn’t know (although some reports say that has changed).

* If you ask it about the sovereignty of Taiwan, it gives you the stock standard government response.

* If you ask it to make a joke about Xi Jinping, it says that would be rude.

So yes, DeepSeek has bias and censorship. But so do other AI tools!

For example, US president Donald Trump recently declared that the Gulf of Mexico was now going to be called the Gulf of America. For most of the world, that makes no difference (no one country can unilaterally rename an international body of water). But in the USA, Google has adjusted Google Maps so that - for US users only - it will apear as the Gulf of America.

3. DeepSeek Is Faster And Cheaper

DeepSeek was developed with fewer resources than its competitors, and that surprised many people. It was cheaper to build, cheaper to train, and uses less energy to run. (In the ultimate irony, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, claims it has inappropriately used some of ChatGPT’s material in its training!)

But this is just a natural evolution of technology. All the other AI platforms and tools are also becoming cheaper and faster. DeepSeek isn’t leapfrogging other platforms; it just happens to be new.

What This Means for You as a Leader

When you hear news about DeepSeek, take it with a grain of salt. Some of the hype doesn’t match reality.

More importantly, what does this mean for you as a leader? In general, not much at all!

You should definitely know what’s around the corner, over the horizon, and maybe even just landed on your doorstep. But also assess it carefully, because not everything needs immediate action.

If you’re already using ChatGPT, Copilot, or some other AI tools, keep going! There’s no immediate need to switch to DeepSeek.

If you haven’t already started using AI, you should. And you should be having regular conversations with your team about using AI in the workplace – to help improve productivity, enhance the customer experience, and make better decisions faster.

Download my worksheet about having AI conversations with your team.

https://swiy.co/go-deepseek-disruption

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https://swiy.co/go-leading-in-2025

As a leader, what are you expecting in 2025? You might have done your initial planning for the year, but we all know that our plans will change! Whatever we can foresee now, we will face a lot of change, uncertainty, and disruption before the end of the year.

For example, you might have already heard rumours about the Next Big Thing in AI: AI agents, which can scurry around doing things on our behalf. How can you plan for that now when you don’t know exactly what they will look like?

It’s easy to use AI as an example because it’s obvious to us all that it will change. But this applies to many other things in our world as well - including workplaces, hybrid work, Federal and State elections, cybersecurity, sustainability, and more!

The most thing to keep in mind as that it’s about people first.

Your path to success depends on how well you can lead yourself and navigate your team. It’s not about predicting the future but staying flexible and bringing people on the journey.

I recently published some research about the key leadership trends for 2025. Even those that are about technology - like AI and cybersecurity - are about how people engage with the technology, not the tech itself.

For more about these trends, join my online presentation very soon, where we’ll look at three in more detail. I’ve chosen three directly related to important groups of people in your organisation: your customers, your employees, and of course yourself.

It’s free, public, and open to all. So feel free to invite others in your team as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-leading-in-2025

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https://swiy.co/go-bridging-the-gap

How many generations are working in your organisation? It might be up to five – and in rare cases, there could even be six generations working together.

From the oldest to the youngest:

1. Baby Boomers, who are usually the most senior people in the organisation
2. Generation X (my generation), in their fifties and sixties, often in senior roles and some close to retirement
3. Generation Y, or the Millennials, many now in management positions
4. Generation Z, roughly up to the age of 25, who are new to the workforce
5. Generation Alpha are even younger workers, often apprentices or in their first "real job"

With so many generations working together, you have people with different worldviews, different attitudes to work, and very different experience and expertise. This creates some interesting dynamics.

On the positive side, if you have the kind of culture that values and embraces diversity, it gives you great opportunities for collaboration, innovation, and different perspectives.

But sometimes, it doesn’t work so well. Often, you get these generations butting heads against each other.

For example, the pandemic forced organisations to provide working from home for their office workers, and now many – especially older managers – are trying to drag their people back full-time into the office. But younger workers want to hold on to that flexibility. In fact, they have always wanted it, even before the pandemic. They don’t necessarily want to work from home all the time, but they also don’t want the drudgery of the Monday to Friday nine-to-five commute their parents endured.

Other things like rising costs of living and rising inflation create pressure at both ends of the generational scale.

For younger workers, facing high costs of living and high inflation, it’s more difficult to save for investments – for example, in the property market that created financial security for their bosses.

At the other end, many older workers who were planning to retire are being forced to delay their retirement because rising living costs. So, they stay at work for longer. That’s good for the organisation because it retains their wisdom and expertise. But it’s also bad for the organisation because it creates a bottleneck at the top, which hurts the career path for younger employees.

Younger people also care more about an organisation’s values, purpose, and ESG commitments. They holding their managers and organisation responsible for things like climate change, sustainability, diversity, and equity. If you don’t provide that, they will often choose to move.

I’m running an online prsentation soon about these challenges and other leadership issues for 2025. It’s free, public, and open to all. So register now, and invite other leaders in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-bridging-the-gap

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https://swiy.co/go-cross-industry-collaboration

How are you coping – and planning to cope – with our fast-changing world in 2025?

You don’t need a futurist to tell you our world is changing faster than ever before, and we’re going to face a lot more change, uncertainty, and disruption in the future.

We’re all experiencing this every day. But as a leader, how are you managing and navigating your team through that?

Leaders have a dual responsibility now. On one hand, you have to navigate this change and lead your team through it. And on the other hand, you must keep an eye on the future so you can take advantage of the opportunities that change brings.

The problem is people expect more.

• Customers are more demanding.
• Our employees are more demanding.
• Other stakeholders are more demanding.

It’s not enough to simply try to pedal faster and faster to keep up. It’s tempting to try, but you will burn out. And even if you don’t, it’s impossible to keep up.

So, what can you do instead?

Instead of trying to solve all your problems internally, partner and collaborate with other organisations. It doesn’t even need to involve people within your industry. You just need people who can help you solve problems you’re not equipped to solve.

This idea is called cross-industry collaboration, and it’s rapidly gaining steam.

I’m sure you have seen examples of it aready – for example:

• Woolworths partners with OzHarvest to provide surplus food to charities so that they don’t waste it.
• Telstra and the Royal Flying Doctor Service are collaborating to increase the number of telehealth services for people in regional areas.
• The National Australia Bank (NAB) is partnering with Good Shepherd Microfinance to provide small micro-loans to customers who NAB isn’t equipped to serve.

This idea of cross-industry collaboration is one of ten key trends I’ve identified for leaders in 2025. I’m running an online presentation soon about these trends.

I won’t cover them all, but instead will focus on three key trends: one about customers, one about employees, and the other focused on you as a leader.

This presentation is free and open to everybody. So please register and feel free to invite others in your team, especially leaders.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-cross-industry-collaboration

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https://swiy.co/go-10-trends-2025

1. Human-Machine Collaboration: Leaders must foster environments where technology amplifies human strengths, so AI serves as a trusted partner, working alongside humans for greater productivity and innovation.
2. Sustainability: Customers and employees prioritise businesses that value sustainability, and leaders who authentically embrace sustainability initiatives will be rewarded, while those who don’t will be penalised.
3. Cybersecurity: As cyber threats escalate, leaders across all areas and at levels are expected to champion a culture of vigilance and accountability in their teams.
4. Transparent and Authentic Leadership: As the world becomes more digital and automated, customers and employees are demanding transparent, values-driven, and authentic leadership.
5. Future-Ready Skills: Leaders must promote and endorse a spectrum of emerging skills, such as digital literacy, cognitive flexibility, creative thinking, and emotional intelligence.
6. Continuous Learning: Leaders must cultivate a culture of learning where people can upskill, reskill, and even “un-learn” outdated practices - using AI, microlearning, and immersive technology.
7. Cross-Industry Collaboration: In an interconnected world, organisations are investing in collaboration and partnerships to help them solve problems they can’t tackle alone.
8. Employee Experience: In a competitive talent market, where employees expect more, organisations must provide empathetic leadership and dynamic work cultures that prioritise the individual’s journey.
9. Workforce Demographics: With up to five generations working side by side, leaders must navigate diverse expectations, communication styles, and priorities.
10. Crisis Leadership: Organisations everywhere are more vulnerable to external shocks, and leaders need to manage these shocks, balancing decisiveness with empathy and risk with opportunity.
11. (BONUS) Quantum Computing: Quantum computing is still in its early stages, but its impact will be rapid and massive, and has the potential to revolutionise entire industries.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-10-trends-2025

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https://swiy.co/go-maybe-youre-the-problem

Are you, as a leader, getting in the way of making progress for your team and maybe even for your organisation? You might be doing it unintentionally, but it still stops and slows down change.

In a recent online presentation about the future of AI, I asked people to share their biggest questions and challenges about AI. Some were about the future of AI and what’s ahead, but by far the biggest obstacle that many people are facing is slow adoption of AI at work.

They said things like:

“We’re blocked from using AI.”

“I feel like I’m the only one who’s interested in it.”

"It’s not part of our policy."

"It’s not your job.”

These are common frustrations - not only with AI, but with change in general.

The problem is, many leaders and managers are unintentionally saying things that stop or hold back change in their teams.

Have you ever said anything like this to your team members?

“It’s not part of your job.”

“We tried that once, but it didn’t work.”

“It’s against our policy.”

“Our customers won’t like it.”

When you say these things, it’s for a good reason: You want to protect your team, keep the organisation safe, ensure projects stay on track, and so on.

But you might also be creating a culture that resists change.

If someone comes to you with an idea and you say, “It’s not part of your job”, they might feel discouraged. They might try again and get a different objection. After a while, they will stop.

As a leader, it’s a tough balance to strike. On one hand, you have a responsibility to the organisation to stay on track, protect its reputation, and remain productive. On the other hand, you also have a responsbitiliy to create a culture of change. With so much change happening in the world, your team needs to be ready to embrace it.

So, how do you remove obstacles to change while still meeting goals, KPIs, and customer expectations?

Of course, I can tell you to just stop saying these things! But it’s not as easy as that. Instead, look for reasons why those things - while they might have been true in the past - might not be as appropriate now.

In other words, find objections to the objections.

To help you with this, download my worksheet about creating obstacles to change - and how to overcome them. It’s a useful and fun activity to use with your team to tackle these objections - even before you raise them.

This is especially useful right now, as many leaders are planning for the year ahead. As you plan for the future, don’t only think about strategies and goals. Also consider the behaviours you want to encourage in your team - and yourself!

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-maybe-youre-the-problem

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https://swiy.co/go-flying-the-ai-flag

Do you sometimes feel like you’re the only person in your team - and maybe even your organisation - flying the flag for AI? It’s not easy, especially if others are not interested, actively pushing back, or even banning it.

This is one of the most common responses when I ask people about the biggest challenges they have with AI right now. They say things like:

“I love using it and there is lots we could do with it. But our organisation is just slow to catch on to new technologies.”

“Fear, lack of trust and lack of education make AI an uncomfortable space…. It’s like you are doing something wrong!”

“I feel like I’m fighting this battle alone. My team is not really interested in trying to use it.”

Do you feel the same way? Are you excited and eager to use AI more, but you’re constantly being blocked or banned?

The solution is to smart small.

First, of course, everything you do must be within your organisation’s AI policy. Don’t go outside those rules - that would be risky, unsafe, and potentially a career-limiting move!

But within those rules, there’s often still a lot you could do.

Ideally, everybody is moving fast to becoming an AI-driven organisation. But that kind of change takes time - a lot of time. But even if you’re not there yet, look for things you can do right now.

For example:

• Use AI yourself for admin tasks like email, meetings, draft reports, and data analysis.
• Identify other AI champions in your team who can help and support each other.
• Engage your teams in running small-scale AI projects that create value just for the team.

Start small, set a good example for others, and demonstrate AI’s value in low-risk, highly visible ways. Over time, these small wins help to spread the message through your organisation.

I’ll be discussing this in my next online presentation coming up very soon - about AI in 2025 and beyond. It’s free, public, and open to everybody. Register now, and and share the link with your team and others in your organisation - especially those who are wary of AI now!

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-flying-the-ai-flag

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Whenever I deliver my Leveraging AI keynote presentation at a conference, I always include an extra “hands-on” AI masterclass afterwards - run over Zoom within three months of the conference. The keynote gives them the big picture, and the masterclass shows them how to get immediate value from AI - whatever their role and familiarity with AI.

I always start these masterclasses by asking participants to rate - on a scale of 1 to 10 - how much they are using AI. Typically, the average is in the 4-6 range, with a few below or above those middle numbers.

When we dig a bit deeper, I find the main reason they don’t have a higher score is something like:

“I just don’t know how else to use it.”

That’s a reasonable response, especially for something as new as AI.

If you’re wondering the same thing, here’s a useful framework. Think of people in your team using AI at four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.

Level 1: Personal

Are you using AI in your personal life? Tools like ChatGPT can be incredibly useful, even for tasks unrelated to work. I suggest you encourage everybody on your team to exploring AI at home to help in their personal life.

Level 2: Professional

Next, use AI to enhance your professional role. This isn’t about your core job, but rather the surrounding tasks like managing emails, running meetings, or interacting with people. These tasks are essential but often time-consuming and stressful. AI can reduce the burden and make you more efficient and effective in your professional life.

Level 3: Projects

At this level, AI becomes a tool for your team. These are short-term projects - no more than three to four months - that deliver real value to the team without needing full organisational buy-in. For example, you could use AI to streamline a process or tackle a specific challenge. Of course, you do them within your organisation’s AI policy, but you can still do them independently.

Level 4: Platform

This is the highest level, where AI becomes integral to your organisation’s operations. Think of banks using AI to assess loan applications, insurers using it to calculate premiums, or HR departments designing personalised learning journeys for employees, or IT teams using AI to enhance cybersecurity. Initiatives at this level typically need a strategic decision at the organisational level, and it’s where you get the biggest overall benefits.

Broadly, those are the four levels: personal, professional, projects, and platform.

If you’re a senior leader responsible for a department, division, or the whole organisation, you might start thinking about AI at the platform level. But if you’re not, don’t wait until the organisation does something. Look at the other three levels. Encourage people to use it in their personal life first, then in their professional roles, and then create projects as a team.

If you want to know more, I’m running a free public online presentation soon about AI in 2025. This will help you use AI strategically and practically to solve business problems and achieve goals, including organisational and people goals. If you’re interested, register here and invite others in your team and network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-scaling-ai

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https://swiy.co/go-the-human-touch-amplified

For example, all four baristas at my local cafe know exactly what coffee I want because I’m a regular, and they don’t need to ask every time. With a few dozen regular customers or even a few hundred, they can remember the regaulrs and treat them personally.

But when you’re trying to scale that – with thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of customers – that’s not possible for humans to do just by themselves.

That’s where AI comes in. AI lets you personalise at scale.

For example, I regularly shop at Woolworths, and every week Woolies emails me my weekly specials. These are literally MY weekly specials because the email is crafted for me, based on my buying habits.

It’s very different from the old days when everybody got the same Woolies catalogue in the post because it wasn’t possible to personalise it for every single customer. But now it is, and AI enables it.

I recently delivered a keynote presentation to a large member association in Australia, who wanted me to talk about the future of member engagement. I shared some technology, trends, and innovations this association could use to improve, enhance, and deepen their engagement with their members.

We shared a number of ideas, but those that resonated the most were about personalisation. Here are three examples I shared:

1. Individual memberships

Instead of having a few groups of memberships – like student member, affiliate member, and full member – what if every member could completely personalise the services they wanted? The association would then only offer those services to that member, and it would be different for everybody. It’s like knowing every member’s coffee order and only giving them that every time.

2. Learning journeys

The association provides individual learning journeys for every member (and the same applies to you and your employees). After a member completes a learning module, AI reviews and assesses it, and suggests the next module for them - with the appropriate content, format, and time frame for that particular member.

3. Member engagement

AI could also monitor and assess member engagement with the association’s services. If it sees engagement waning, it first reaches out to the member with additional services (again, tailored to that member’s likely preferences). And if that fails, it alerts member engagement staff to intervene.

These three examples demonstrate personalisation at scale. It was the way the corner store worked in a small town, and the way a local coffee shop works now. We lost it as population expanded and companies grew. We’re getting it back now with AI.

Personalisation at scale is just one of the ways you can use AI to enhance experience. It applies to both your external customer experience (and part of your customer value proposition, or CVP) and your employee engagement (part of your employee value proposition, or EVP).

I’ll talk about this in my next public and free online presentation, which is all about AI in 2025 and beyond. This is a free public online presentation, so please register, and invite others as well.

https://swiy.co/go-the-human-touch-amplified

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https://swiy.co/go-constructive-disruption

Would you like more disruption in your life? That might seem like a silly question, and you might be thinking you want less disruption, not more! But it depends on how you think about disruption.

I was in Adelaide last week, speaking to an association of leaders from large organisations around Australia. Their event theme was "constructive disruption", which I love because it turns the common idea of disruption on its head.

We often think of disruption as something that happens to us. But I often say disruption and innovation are the same thing: They are both about change, and the difference is that disruption happens when change happens to you, and innovation is when you create that change yourself. So, constructive disruption is about being proactive and creating disruption - or change - before the world forces you to change.

We have to expect more disruption, more change, more uncertainty, and more more chaos in the future. But we also have more opportunity - if we are willing to embrace constructive disruption.

There are three key things you can do - and these should become habits in your leadership journey.

Think ahead.

Reach out

Lean in.

1. Think Ahead

We need to think more about the future. The more senior you are, the more of your salary is being paid for you to think about the future. But that’s not easy because we often get bogged down in operational, day-to-day things. Those are important, but if that takes up all your time, who’s thinking about the future? Thinking ahead is about understanding what’s coming so you can make better decisions now.

2. Reach Out

In times of change and uncertainty, people re-evaluate their goals and desires, and often re-assess the "suppliers" who currently help them achieve those goals. Make sure everything you do is aligned with solving customer problems or helping them achieve their goals. If you’re not doing that, then you’re vulnerable to a competitor who will come along and do it better.

3. Lean In

You have a talented, diverse team with different skills and perspectives. Tap into their experience and expertise, which may extend beyond their job description. Lean in to your team, so you can access a wealth of insights that can help drive constructive disruption.

Those are the three keys to constructive disruption.

If you’re not doing them already, you can’t just snap your fingers and start disrupting from today. But you can start! And then make them habits in your leadership, in your team, and in your organisation.

AI, of course, is a big part of the future, and can help you with constructive disruption. I’m running a free public online presentation soon to help you understand how AI will affect you in 2025 and beyond. So, please register and invite other leaders in your team and network to join us.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-constructive-disruption

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https://swiy.co/go-unlocking-ai-in-2025

Do you know how you will be using AI in 2025?

Last week, I delivered the closing keynote presentation for the Local Government Professionals Association of Western Australia. I was talking about leveraging AI, which of course is a popular topic right now.

The presentation went well, and was well-received, but I want to highlight something that happened a few weeks earlier, as I was preparing for it.

As usual, I had a briefing call with the client and other people in the program committee to discuss what they want from me and to ensure my presentation aligns with their theme.

In the briefing call, I shared an example of some AI software I wanted to demonstrate at the conference. For this example, I used an example from one of the local government councils whose CEO was in the briefing call. Let’s call her Steph (because that’s her name).

The people in the briefing call liked my little demo and were happy for me to present it. But the reason I’m sharing this is because Steph took this a bit further.

A week later, she emailed me, saying she had

- tried the software herself,

- shared it with her Marketing and Comms team, and

- they are now planning on using it

I love that!

What Steph did, even though I didn’t say this to her, were exactly the three things I recommend for exploring everything new - and especially with AI.

Learn.

Share.

Act.

In brief:

1. When you first become aware of it, learn what it can do, what problems it can solve for you, and how it can add value.

2. Then share it with other relevant people in your team - partly because they have a stake in it and partly because they will bring different perspectives to it.

3. Finally, plan how you will act on it to integrate it into your workflows.

If you’re interested in more about this, join my next free online masterclass, "AI 2025", where I’ll help you put your plan in place for learning about AI, sharing AI with your team, and then integrating it in the work you do.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-unlocking-ai-in-2025

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But change isn’t easy, and different people respond differently.

🙅 Some are resistant to change.

🚫 Some actively reject it.

😬 Some reluctantly take a few steps, then fall away.

It’s worse if your team is already overworked and overwhelmed. Even with the best of intentions, people get excited about a change initiative at first, but then fall back into their old ways.

So how do you start the change - and keep the change?

We address this in my leadership programs. Broadly, there are two parts to the program.

First, I show you how to look into the future and scan wider, so you understand more about what’s over the horizon and around the corner. That lets you make better-informed decisions about what to do now.

Second - and more importantly - I show you how to take those ideas back to your teams and foster a culture that encourages them to change.

And many leaders struggle with that second part.

The biggest mistake they make is to make change a big deal. When people hear about a new change initiative, they often get a sinking feeling of:

😒 “Here we go again”

🙄 “Just another thing that won’t make any difference”

📋 “Here’s something extra I need to add to my big to-do list”

😟 “I’m frightened by this change”

So, instead of making change such a big deal, start small. In fact, I often say (tongue in cheek!),

“If you want to be more successful, lower your standards”

Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m not suggesting we should have low standards!

But if you make the change initiative such a big deal, you’re setting yourself up to fail. If it succeeds, great! Or if your team culture loves change, wonderful! But most workplaces aren’t at that stage yet.

So, to build this culture of change, start small.

Here’s an example: Reverse mentoring.

Ask somebody more junior in your team to be your mentor (instead of the other way around). That’s “reverse mentoring”. You invite somebody to meet you for a coffee every week for, say, three months, and your job is to just listen and learn.

That’s already easy to do: You don’t need an organisation-wide mentoring program, you don’t need to announce it to everybody, and you don’t need anybody else’s permission.

But you can start even smaller, to make it even safer. When you invite the person, don’t talk about a three-month “mentoring program”; just ask them for a quick coffee meeting because you value their input. That way, you’re making a bigger commitment - unless you both want to, at the end of the meeting.

The key is to set the bar so low at first that it’s impossible to “fail“. You just keep trying things, keep what works, and ignore the rest.

For more ideas like this, download my worksheet about everyday innovation. These are all small things you can do to help build a culture of change agents. Choose one, try it, and if it works well, keep doing it. If it doesn’t, quietly stop doing it and try something else.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-small-steps-big-change

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https://swiy.co/go-more-ai-conversations

I was in beautiful Brisbane last week to deliver the closing keynote presentation for an allied healthcare group, Healthia.

I was talking about the mix between people and technology, with my core message around “people first, technology second”. It was a pretty easy sell to Healthia because they’ve always made that part of their philosophy and mission. In fact, they’ve already started using AI in their organisation, rolling out tools that practitioners can use with their patients to improve clinical outcomes and make their work more efficient.

It’s great to see a forward-thinking organisation on the front foot about AI.

This is a larg group, so of course, people are at different levels of comfort with AI. Some are engaging actively with it, others are just starting to use it, and others haven’t started yet. This is true for any organisation and might be true for yours as well.

What I admire about Healthia and other organisations who are serious about AI adoption is they are starting to have conversations about AI. And I wonder: Is this true for you and your team?

Are you having open, transparent, and honest conversations about AI?

I know other organisations with big plans to launch AI projects, so they are holding back from AI conversations with their team. They are waiting to get everything right in terms of policy, governance, software and infrastructure first.

This can work, and it is important to get things right with any AI projects. But that doesn’t mean you can’t start conversation about AI! The risk is that, in the meantime, your team are already hearing about AI, using it at home, and maybe even using it secretly at work. You lose control of the conversation, which makes it much more difficult when you eventually roll out your AI projects.

Unfortunately, most of the public perception of AI - driven by the media - is negative. So, some of your people might think AI will take their jobs, or worry about having to learn new technology, or think they will fall behind.

On the other hand, if you start having conversations about AI now, you help to create an environment where they see AI as a tool rather than a threat.

So, what are you doing to have conversations with your people about AI?

For help with these conversations, download my worksheet of questions and discussion points for open conversations with your team.

Download the worksheet:

https://swiy.co/go-more-ai-conversations

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https://swiy.co/go-future-focus

Are you focusing on the right things when you’re thinking about your work and workplace in the year ahead?

I was reflecting on three conversations I had with clients and audience members last week - one in the insurance sector, one in mining and resources, and the third in a large state government department. In all of those conversations, people asked me essentially the same question:

What’s the most important thing we should be thinking about when planning for 2025?

If you’ve been following me, you know I have many answers to that, including flexible work, more diversity to tackle complex problems, and of course AI. These ARE important, of course, but they are also all issues you’re facing internally.

The one thing that trumps them all is to focus on your customer. Think external first! Whether you call them customers, clients, members, patients, or constituents, it doesn’t matter.

Always keep asking: What problems are we solving for them now and in the future?

This has two components:

1. Be sure your customers, and their problems and goals, right now.

2. Understand the needs of your future customers.

As a leader, you have this two-fold responsibility: to keep your team focussed on what your customers need right now, and also understand what’s coming up over the horizon and around the corner.

You might think you do really understand your customers because of your experience, long-term connections, and strong loyalty. But it’s also easy to get so caught up in internal things that you forget about your customers. Maybe you were solving their problems in the past, but if they have drifted or you have drifted, you might not be as closely aligned anymore.

This is one of the four pillars of the future of work: What I call “Assess”. This is about assessing future trends, knowing what they mean for your customers, and adapting your work to match.

I’m running a free public online presentation about the future of work very soon. It’s open to everybody, particularly leaders who want to understand how to be fit for the future, especially in 2025 and beyond. I’ll share some ideas around each of these four pillars, and also give you practical things you can do right now in each area. It’s open to everybody, so please register and invite others to join as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-future-focus

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https://swiy.co/go-employee-led-development

What are you doing to really engage the people in your team?

Last week, I delivered a keynote presentation for one of my favourite clients. They have engaged me before, and this time, they asked me to deliver my “Fit for the Future” presentation to their employees. And the brief wasn’t about how to be fit for the future in the workplace, but for them as individuals to be fit for the future.

It’s a great group of people, and I like working with this client. But this time, I enjoyed it even more - for two reasons.

First, this company recognises the importance of having happy, contented, and satisfied employees, not only in their work but in their personal lives as well. They’re willing to invest money, time, and other resources for people to become better people, not just better employees.

Second, it wasn’t the senior leaders or managers who engaged me for this presentation; it was the employees themselves. This company encourages their team members and employees to create networks of their own around areas of common interest, and they provide resources for these networks to help them with professional development in those areas.

I like both of those things: the fact that the company values their employees and that they have empowered their employees to find the professional development that’s most valuable for them.

Especially now, when there’s a war for talent and many employers are wondering how to attract and keep the best people, this is one of the best things you can do. Empower your employees, and trust they will do the right thing by themselves and by the organisation.

If you’d like to know more about this, I’m running an online presentation very soon about the future of work. This idea about attracting the best people is one of the four pillars to the future of work. This presentation is free, public, and it’s open to everybody. So please register, and share the link with others in your network as well.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-employee-led-development

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https://swiy.co/go-teams-without-boundaries

If you're a leader, what do you think your future team will look like?

I've seen a lot of headlines recently - and you might have seen them as well - from CEOs of large organisations around Australia insisting that all their people who were previously office-based must now come back to the office full-time.

They acknowledge that during the pandemic, office workers had to work from home, and now many organisations have hybrid work or other flexible arrangements. But for these leaders, the message is clear: Their best and only way to collaborate and build their team culture is to have everybody working full-time in the office, five days a week - the way it used to be.

This narrow way of thinking limits your future.

If you think the team of the future is going to look just like the team of the past, where the best employees happen to live within commuting distance of your office, you're wrong! You're limiting your talent pool, you're less attractive to the best employees, and more progressive competitors will have a competitive edge.

Compare this to libraries. In the past, libraries were known for being quiet spaces - in fact, that was one of their key characteristics. And that made sense, because they were one of the few places where you had access to information, knowledge, and reference material. So it made sense to provide an environment to help people absorb that information.

But we now have many, many other ways to find, access, and absorb information. And, to their credit, libraries have evolved. My local library is now more of a community hub, catering for people talking on the phone, students working in groups, noisy community activities, and even loud young children. And if you still want that quiet space, they even provide free earplugs!

As a library member, I don’t even have to visit the library anymore. My membership gives me access to a large collection of e-books, streaming movie services, and more.

If you're a leader, take a leaf out of their, err ... book.

Two hundred years ago, the office WAS the best workplace for knowledge workers. But we no longer need offices to access files, use secretarial services, connect with others, and even use computers.

The team of the future is very different from the team of the past. And this applies to all workplaces, not just knowledge workers and offices.

This idea is one of the four pillars of the future of work. I’m running a free public online presentation soon about this, where I'll share these four pillars and give you practical steps to take right now to support your team and your leadership journey. It’s free to register, and you're welcome to invite other leaders in your team and network, too.

Register for the virtual masterclass:

https://swiy.co/go-teams-without-boundaries

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