Running the AI race is the only way to train for it
Executives everywhere are talking about AI. Very few are doing anything meaningful about it. This is not through a lack of good intention, but rather, as a result of embracing what they know.
The good news is that many organisations are finally aware that AI is going to change society, industries, and the way that work gets done. As a result, big conversations are by and large taking place. I don’t want to underappreciate the significance of challenging discussions about reinvention. Kudos to those who oversee a commitment to bold and lofty growth aspirations or business model pivots, as it is not always a given that Boards and executive teams of incumbent organisations will overcome their natural risk aversion. That said, awareness and dialogue is the easy part. Without being critical of the big strategy offsites that often precede higher levels of ambition (in fact, we often participate in them), how many organisations truly channel the momentum and excitement of two days away into game changing impact? Ever present operating realities, the need to reorganise, solve one more crisis, integrate a new purchase, deliver that technology upgrade… all reasonable in of themselves… stymie genuine step change from taking effect.
Most of the organisations I deal with struggle to transition from alignment and intention to mobilisation. Months go by where they prepare for change rather than live it. This is what I mean when I say ‘executives embracing what they know’. We are all taught that we shouldn’t just jump into things half baked. The prevailing mindset is ‘if you are going to do it, do it properly’. And then months turn into quarters and a year has passed by and the strategy offsite is a distant memory.
I am increasingly telling my clients to just start. Mobilisation is the precursor to momentum. Create that new team. Deploy AI to redesign an entire work flow. Explore that brand new growth domain. Just start. So many organisations are waiting for the right conditions or laying the groundwork to make future efforts more fruitful. And yet, the reality of here and now urgency will never abate. The real courage isn’t embedded in a commitment to reinvent, but rather, in the decision to free up three people to pursue a growth avenue when they are needed for today’s priorities.
The obvious counterargument is that without a stable base, your organisation won’t be able to properly fund growth. The fallacy in this line of thinking is believing that stability is an endpoint… that we can objectively achieve it, and that it will stick. The greater the pace of change, the more likely that the pursuit of stability in your core business becomes a recipe for irrelevance. Just starting doesn’t imply jettisoning all your existing priorities in pursuit of something shiny and uncertain. What it might entail is cordoning off funding and then drip feeding it based on performance gates that look very different to your traditional ones, or looking at your umpteen strategic projects and asking if some of them really matter in the face of massive industry disruption. AI is changing the game, and yet many organisations are first trying to solidify their position in the old game before they springboard into the new.
A problem which exacerbates slower than hoped for mobilisation is past experience of small tiger teams or skunk work efforts that never delivered anything. We have all seen the sticky note brigade drum up hype with little bottom-line impact. These frustrations have led to learnings around properly setting things up for success.
An honest disclosure is appropriate at this point. Taking time to lay the foundations is often in the interest of consultants who are compensated on time and materials. Most advisory firms love foundations! Therefore, I may not be doing myself any favours in railing against this. Stop worrying about the long-term sustainability of your AI transformation efforts and stop delaying the planting of seeds in favour of tilling the soil. Just start.
So how is this different then to the half-baked growth fads that we have embraced from time to time, only to end up with innovation theatre? Am I really arguing that we should ignore hard earned lessons from the past when we failed to take the time to set up for success? Yes, I am… but only partially.
AI is different. The changes are so profound and are coming so fast, that the time spent getting all your ducks aligned is more costly than ever before. Not so much in terms of keeping up with competitors who are probably moving just as slowly, but more in terms of the likelihood that you will be left without a seat when the music surrounding the re-wiring of industries finally stops. That doesn’t mean however that we should throw caution to the wind and fund the very efforts that previously proved to be wasteful. Rather, we should forensically consider what led to that lack of impact and how we can shape a bias to action based on those lessons.
Innovation typically doesn’t fail due to bad ideas. I would go as far to say that ideas are relatively easy. It doesn’t take a creative genius or entrepreneurial whiz kid to see how AI could not only transform your core operations but also unlock brand new growth domains. However, when clients ask me about AI, I talk about operating models rather than use cases. This shouldn’t be read as preparatory in nature. The mantra of ‘just start’ is the best possible way of designing a revised operating model. Doing it on the fly, in light of real learnings that force a different approach to support success, is the only way to ensure it is meaningfully different to what you have today. Previous ring-fenced growth efforts in large incumbents often suffered because they were governed by a one-size-fits-all operating model. Therefore, mobilising right now is only effective if it covers both the ‘what’ and an open mind on the ‘how’.
Strategic conversations about who we want to be in a radically different AI enabled future are critical in terms of shaping ambition. But, they are also limited to getting you to the starting line. Mobilisation is key, and every day you prepare to change is a day you are not learning about that change. Running the AI race is the only way to train for it. Just start.
