To fully prepare your organization for Disruption (of any form) and for Artificial Intelligence (AI) you will certainly need your staff to be on board. Telling your staff that Disruption is fast paced, uncertain and risky change is not likely to be sufficient - as per my PhD research on factors influencing change - engagement is likely to be required.
So engaging your staff in order to prepare for Disruption or AI is not about just telling - it requires elements of information, communication, investigation, critical thought that is followed up by ideas, investigation, data and further critical thought and assessment. Rather than holding your staff away from these activities you should include them in the development of the process and ideas. Your staff may feel greatly engaged and produce some fantastic ideas for your Disruption preparedness if they can be truly involved in understanding the issues and developing the responses.
In Disruption there will be less time to understand and react to change, so having an engaged workforce that can identify emergent issues and build rapid response plans may assist your organization in staying ahead of the competition. The modern organization is likely to need faster, less certain processes in order to be flexible, innovative and responsive to change.
Sure no staff will ever like the reality of job losses and fast change that is uncertain but if you can involve them in the understanding and the decision making they will appreciate the new environment and may assist you in developing innovative solutions. At the same time the staff may identify new creative ways to take advantage of the new environment and open up new opportunities for your organization as a whole.
The future is not bleak, but if you want to stay ahead and cope with modern change your organization needs to engage with staff now ! before the changes take place, before the next presidential tweet or before the drones and robots present in your industry.
In a Disruption environment leaders will be required to have more skill in this area, be able to explain and influence more change (even if it is in opposite directions and without notice). Leaders of the future must act quickly and yet have time to listen and engage, be able to work in uncertainty and risk.
Consider hiring leaders now with additional skills ready for Disruption ! avoid the lost opportunities of having managers without the leadership skills required.
If you are a Leader or seeking to be one in the future - you need to read, read, read about Disruption NOW ! Those that fail to understand and adjust will fall behind.
Feel free to ask Dr Mat over a chat or email on Leadership, Management or change issues, advice, consulting or mentoring that you may seek.
These and other related topics feature in Dr Mats book titled "Leading and Managing Change in the Age of Disruption and Artificial Intelligence" - written for the modern professional, student and academic - anyone wanting to be ahead on modern Leadership and Management issues.
Available through Amazon (kindle version out now, hard copy can now be purchased) - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1787563685 . This book has been strongly endorsed - so use this link to review the endorsements, or to preview Chapter 1, table of contents and the preface from Amazon (kindle version button) - consider buying this book or recommend it to professional colleagues or friends/family, students and academics.
Dr Mat is also on Twitter - @DrMat14
Consider your own specific situation and seek professional advice before acting directly in reaction to any of the tips on this website, they are intended as general advice only.