From our experience of helping clients with GenAI, leadership’s role in enabling the successful adoption and value realisation from their GenAI transformation is becoming increasingly significant.
Although each organisation’s culture is unique and the role of leadership will differ, we suggest leaders focus on the following areas during organisational change planning to maximise their impact in enabling GenAI transformation.
Communicate clearly and lead by example
Leadership plays a critical role in ensuring that business change is adopted across an organisation. The change driven by GenAI is no different, and leaders must be on board with communicating the right messages in a consistent manner. This includes:
- Clearly and consistently articulate the value of GenAI to your teams, conveying agreed-upon strategic messages.
- Provide ongoing support with messaging that the use of GenAI is mandatory and not an ‘opt-in’. We have seen some clients start softly with messaging, but most revert to firmer positioning to highlight GenAI usage is a basic expectation.
- Get your management teams on board to drive consistency and follow through on adoption activities across all teams and levels.
- Always lead by example, threading GenAI into your own daily workflows and making it the norm to encourage others to follow suit.
Show support and empathy
You should not dismiss that your employees will be worried about the impact of GenAI on their short, medium and long-term job security. We should also acknowledge that, to some degree, we do not know what a GenAI-enabled workplace will look like in five to ten years time. However, in the short to medium term, providing support and treating employees’ worries with empathy is a vital role of leadership through this change. Consider how you:
- Provide support in change and adoption initiatives of the GenAI transformation to enable habitual use of new tooling, processes and ways of working
- Give long-term and effective support across the GenAI adoption journey to your employees and customers, not just for a short-term implementation period. The GenAI transition journey will be long, and leaders need to recognise that the support they offer needs to map to that.
- Communicate with empathy - this will be a worrying time for some individuals. Recognise and address employees' concerns empathetically, acknowledging the anxiety some may feel about the changes brought by GenAI and look to alleviate these concerns where you can. Often, just listening is a fantastic way to start, and work with those individuals to effectively plan how they can upskill and get onboard.
Boost organisational engagement and collate feedback
Leaders play a big role in engagement across the organisation, listening to how plans are proceeding and how outputs and impact can be improved. Two key factors to consider are:
- GenAI has a wide range of impacts, with different teams and individuals affected in multiple ways. Ensure you are supporting across your impacted organisational workflows and not just those directly impacted. This ensures the end-to-end value is better able to be delivered.
- Seek your team’s continuous feedback through an open and honest communication culture. It’s really important to showcase how valuable their feedback is to you and the organisation and how it will be used to make the product or process better.
Innovation and security balance
It’s important for leaders to ground and balance their inspirational messaging around innovation, play and experimentation in the reality of how your organisation protects itself.
- Be clear in striking the balance between driving innovation and experimentation vs. responsible usage and company security policies. Our experience tells us that more risk-averse employees are much less likely to experiment with GenAI because they are worried about the unintended consequences of putting sensitive data into the wrong tool. Some clear, simple, accessible and updated guidance on what to use and not use when it comes to GenAI tooling is an easy way to mitigate this.
The role of leadership in the transformation to a GenAI-enabled workforce is pivotal. Leaders must navigate the complexities of communication, support, organisational engagement and innovation to ensure successful adoption and integration of GenAI. By clearly articulating the value of GenAI, providing empathetic support, seeking continuous feedback, and maintaining a balance between innovation and security, leadership can significantly influence the transition process. The proactive involvement of leadership in these key areas will lay a strong foundation for achieving sustainable GenAI adoption and realising its full potential across the organisation.
If you're navigating the complexities of GenAI adoption in your organisation, don't hesitate to get in touch with our expert team at Clarasys. We can help you craft and execute a strategy tailored to your unique needs, ensuring a smooth and effective GenAI transformation.