Is your organization keeping pace with the speed of digital transformation? Many companies are struggling to define new job roles and approaches to management. As AI and machine learning take on tasks and services, what are the best ways to evolve your work force? This session will offer practical insights on: Understanding what it means to be a digital organization. Why learning and development must be everyone’s responsibility. How to work across functions to co-create key new systems. How to upskill using design thinking, agile practices and AI. Ways to measure success.

1. HOW TO UPSKILL YOUR WORKFORCE
FOR THE DIGITAL FUTURE
Amy W. Loomis and Robert M. Burnside

2. What’s ahead in this webinar:
1. What it means to be a digital organization
Is it only about technology? How will your workforce culture change?
2. How to work across functions to co-create key new systems
Workforce transformation via connected systems instead of silos.
3. Why learning and development is everyone’s responsibility
Skills are changing at all levels and across all functions – at digital speed.
4. How to upskill using agile practices, design thinking and AI
New methods and practices speed adoption of new skills.
5. Effective ways to measure success (and failure)
Data and analytics are critical to how we learn, innovate and move forward.
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3. The digital future is actually now
• Automotive
• Consumer Electronics
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Medical
• Military
• Retail
• IT
• Telecommunications
• Training
• Transportation
• AI
• VR and AR
• Machine Learning
• Voice recognition
• IoT
• GPS
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4. Centuries of similarity This is NOT a digital classroom This IS a digital classroom
. . . and yet we are just learning what it
means to BE digital
Example: Higher Education
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5. 1. What it means to be a digital organization
It’s not just technology – it’s the way we work and work together
From . . . To . . .
u Command and control
leadership
u Collaborative leadership, self-
organization
u Business silos and silo thinking u Cross-boundary collaboration
u Stable business models u Evolving and new business models
u Product orientation u Customer orientation
u Set career pathways u Evolving career pathways
u Incremental skills development u Continuous, at times dramatic skill
shifts
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6. So what does this mean for HR ?
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7. So what does this mean for HR ?
2. Adopting new
technologies
• HR processes in the
flow of work
• Continuously learn,
iterate and co-create
best practices
• Relevant analytics
• Easy and seamless
experiences
3. Implementing
best practices
• Cross-function buy-in
• Digital literacy across
HR
• Effective change
management
• Pilot use cases and
POCs
1. Adopting a new
mindset
• Be employee centric
• Agile rules and
methods
• HR as strategic
advisor
• New partnerships
across the business
How integrated are the systems and processes that enable the
employee to attain the organization’s business goals?
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8. Polling Question #1
How far along is your organization in becoming a true digital
workforce?
a) We’ve already transitioned
b) We’re on our way
c) Started but not much progress yet
d) Haven’t started
e) Our organization doesn’t want to change
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9. 2. How to work across functions to co-create
key new systems
Traditional Org Chart Organization Network Analysis
Workforce transformation via connected systems instead of silos.
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10. Polling Question #2
How integrated is your HR organization across the C-suite?
a) We have an equal seat at the table as strategic advisor
b) We are definitely have an advisory role on workforce issues
c) We sometimes consult with other functions on workforce issues
d) We rarely collaborate with other functions on workforce issues
e) We operate in a silo as a discrete operational function
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11. 3. Why L&D is everyone’s responsibility
Organizational change requires new skills
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12. Learning in the flow of work
Source Josh Bersin: A new paradigm for corporate training in the flow of work
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13. Digital workforce skills: Technical and human
u All jobs are changing: routinized, high-volume, low-judgment activities will
be automated out of daily work – including HR and workforce enablement
u The challenge is in understanding what skills and new roles are coming online,
and how to upskill workforce and leadership teams around these new skills
Two key types of skills
1. Technical: How to integrate AI, Machine Learning, Analytics, Blockchain,
Robotics, etc. into evolving strategy, operations and product development
2. Human: How to use critical thinking, collaboration skills, creative processes
and similar human skills to evolve the workforce as an organization
. . . So how do you think about upskilling for a digital workforce? 13

14. u Use Agile as both a methodology and a cultural mindset
u Use Design Thinking to start with the employee, client, end user
u Use AI to scale and analyze feedback, create adaptive learning
and track engagement
4. Upskill using Agile, Design Thinking and AI
Digital transformation requires new methods and practices.
p.s. Agile does not mean doing the same things faster!
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15. Polling Question #3
How agile is your organization today?
a) We have embraced agile methods and are moving full speed ahead
b) We have started to apply agile in certain parts of the company
c) We are running agile pilots
d) We use the word agile but are not really an agile company
e) Not so much
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16. How to upskill: Agile
u Start with senior management buy-in
u Develop pilot projects to show immediate value
u Ensure common understanding of agile approaches
u Identify innate blockers or possible conflicts
u Have a roadmap for agile role out and adoption
u Right size training for different roles and goals
u Be sure you can collect and analyze feedback
Example: IBM used agile practices to create and continuously improve its Think
Academy MOOC targeting 380k employees across 170 countries using 2 week sprints
that alternated between technical architecture and user experience improvements.
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17. How to upskill: Design Thinking
u Ensure your organization is employee and client-centric
u Start with the end user in mind.
u Know what you want learners to be able to do – not only
the information you want them to consume
u Consider using “Hill Statements”: Who, what, and “wow”
to articulate what the end goal of your project will be
u Define minimum, medium and ideal parameters
u Create a culture of continuous improvement
It’s time for you to “empathize” with your employees, follow them around, survey
and interview them, and sit down with them in workshops.
-Josh Bersin: The Employee Experience is Tricker and More Important than You Thought17

18. How to upskill: Artificial Intelligence
u Start with skills gap analysis against the needs of the business
u Use AI to identify patterns of employee learning and inquiry
u Provide adaptive quizzing and micro-learning
u Identify and match employee skills to mentors or job roles
u Nudge employees to recall key materials or put learning into practice
u Use chatbots for everything from Q&A to more complex conversations
u Examples:
u Hugo’s story a first person upskilling journey experience
u Citi’s CLO Cameron Hedrick is upskilling 200K employees using AI
Nota Bene: AI can address but also reinforce cultural and organizational bias
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19. 5. Effective ways to measure success (and failure)
Foundational Principles:
1. management buy-in for metrics that relate new skills to business value
2. both/and: employee understanding of new technologies/effective use of them
3. rapid prototyping/pilots/fast failure as first approach to new tech and programs
Business Value Measure
Skills alignment with business need Low complexity skills – machines/AI
High complexity skills - humans
Culture of continuous learning Employee engagement with adaptive
learning systems
Talent: acquisition, satisfaction,
retention
Rankings, development, meaning
Improved productivity Increased speed to market, innovation
Shared understanding of digital
transformation
Organization culture survey, pulse, and
monitoring
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20. Q&A
u What are your biggest workforce
transformation challenges?
u Who are key stakeholders you need to
engage?
u Where are your inter-organizational
dependencies or blockers?
u What success stories can you share?
Any questions we can’t get to we’ll respond to after the webinar – promise!
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21. Contact us:
Amy W. Loomis, Ph.D.
LinkedIn Profile
awloomis1@gmail.com
Robert M. Burnside
LinkedIn Profile
robert@nomadiclearning.com
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