This is the second episode this month about AI and the implications for our jobs.

Two weeks ago I went along to a huge event run by Workday down in North Greenwich. Workday, their partners and their customers took to the stage to talk about applications of AI that are coming to their platform. As part of the event I was able to run a discussion with a couple of voices from the company who are helping businesses navigate the challenges that AI presents to us. 

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I was joined by Jerry Ting. Jerry is the founder of Evisort and now teaches at Harvard Law School and is a senior leader at Workday. And the other contributor was Angelique de Vries Schipperijn, she's the EMEA president for Workday. The conversation was fascinating for me in a few ways, firstly we can be so daunted about what AI represents in our jobs and this seemed simple and easy to understand, but secondly because as I mentioned last week the conversations I got from the audience suggested that there’s a lot of businesses who have barely started their own journeys.

Look, here’s the challenge of the moment, I think the conversation at the event described a future that we have the agency to participate in. It seems real and like something we can connect with, but also everyone who came up to me afterwards anxiously told me that their organisations are doing nothing at all. That’s why I got so much value from this conversation. I think inverted commas “doing AI” feels scary and huge whereas incorporating it into some of the things we’re already going feels possible and easily achievable. 

 I need to declare that this is a promoted episode in the sense that Workday is a client that I was working with at this event and have worked with before, but critically it was a conversation that I’m delighted to be sharing here. 

I want to give a shout out to Hollie Benneyworth at Workday who has worked so hard to make this happen.

You can find a full transcript for this on the website.

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First of two episodes going deep on how AI is going to impact work - and therefore workplace culture and dynamics.

This week is with Alexia Cambon from Microsoft. Alexia is Head of Research on Copilot & Future of Work. Last month her team released the Work Trend Index Annual Report. It’s one of the most important pieces of insight into how our jobs will change. Their previous reports have been interesting going deep into how people are experimenting with AI but this year’s is different. It articulates a version of work that most of us aren’t yet ready for.

P&G research: Having an AI assistant doubles a worker’s output, proving as effective as having a real teammate

Alexia mentioned that the research was performed by Karim R. Lakhani. The paper itself.

Conor Grennan

Jaime Teevan

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"There's this concept called inbox zero, where everyone tries to get to their inbox down to zero. But I would suggest that a more noble pursuit is that of calendar zero".

I chatted to Howard Lerman this week. I was blown away by this discussion - it captured exactly what is wrong about current work, and why back-to-back meetings are going to lead to many organisations missing the opportunity of this vital moment.

This is an essential listen - about where work is imminently going and how Howard's philosophy is building his fascinating new product Roam to serve the company of the future.

Explore Roam, follow Howard.

Read all about the way that work is about to change in the newsletter

The AI 2027 predictions are the wake up call we didn't know we needed

Microsoft explains why we need to ready ourselves for the reinvention of work

Konstantine Buhler on 'always on'

Full transcript on the website

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The next two podcasts I see as a piece with each other, today is about meaning the next one is about mattering. Collectively I feel they present serious substance about the foundations of good culture.

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There’s some overlap - the authors today,Tamara Myles and Wes Adams, have done research with next week’s guest Zach Mercurio. One of today’s guests Tamara Myles said one of the most powerful questions you can ask to measure engagement at work is to ask ‘does your manager care about what is going on in your life?’

Today is about meaning, and I feel it gets to grips with questions of purpose. Why sometimes purpose doesn’t seem to create an impact in an organisation - and other times really makes it hum.

The authors describe meaningful work as work that provides community, helps us contribute to something that matters, and challenges us to learn and grow.

For full show notes go to the website.

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Someone posted on LinkedIn that the podcast had died. Or I had died. But he is risen! I'm back with a great discussion, powerful in its simplicity.

Psychologists Dr. Patricia Grabarek and Dr. Katina Sawyer have created a guidebook for anyone who wants to make things better for their teams. In it they suggest that managers need to set the tone for our colleagues. Yes, of course I hear you say but it's so often something that the hectic buzz of work distracts us from.

As workplace wellness is in decline they suggest that it's time for managers to step up and be the creators of great culture, even if that might be pushing against the tide.

Leading for Wellness is out now.

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Interested in how skills could enhance your business? Check out the short film I made with the Department for Education.

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What do your typos say about you?

What's the right medium to build connection with your colleagues?

How did Shopify and Netflix reinvent their communication?

How can any of us navigate a bulging calendar and overloaded inbox?

Professor Andrew Brodsky gives us a field guide to communications and tells how we should be rethinking how we message.

Andrew's new book Ping is out in February.

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Interested in how skills could enhance your business? Check out the short film I made with the Department for Education.

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Today's episode is an Avengers Assembled of podcasts about work. I join host Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis from the Squiggly Careers podcast, as well as Isabel Berwick from the FT's Working It and Jimmy McCloughlin from Jimmy's Jobs.

We talk AI, asking payrises, RTO and much more.

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Michael Morris's book Tribal covers the codes that bond humans together. It has been shortlisted for the Financial Times Business Book of the Year award 2024. It came runner-up to 'Supremacy' by Parmy Olson.

He explains that humans are inspired by peer codes, human codes and ancestor codes when it comes to their behaviour - and he gives plenty of insight of how we could build more tightly bonded groups in our own teams.

Make Work Better: Resisting the Enshittification of Work in 2024

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Everywhere we look we see someone who is outraged - and plenty of that anger makes its way to the workplace.

The last time President Trump was in power it led to employees becoming more active - who knows if the same will happen in 2025.

Karthik Ramanna talks us through the way to deal with outrage - and the actions that any leader can take to make the workplace a better place. His new book is out now.

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