Now that people can do their jobs in, like, half an hour by relying on a computer, there’s a twist. When you’re done pretending you came up with all those ideas yourself there’s still a greasy pole to climb. Top jobs in organizations are still restricted to those who claim the most credit for their work. But you’ll need to watch out for your colleagues’ sharper elbows as they realize it, too.
These days, if you’re not related to the President by blood or marriage, how do you get ahead? It’s not enough to come up with a brilliant idea or product and sell it. It’s not enough to spot the right opportunity and pursue it. You’ve also got to develop a keen instinct for watching your back. A great way to do that is to put your best foot forward and promote yourself. Trust me. If you don’t do it, you’re holding yourself back in ways you can’t imagine.
I worked a recent contract with an organization that had these exact issues. The person in nominal charge was relying on ChatGPT to fix all his management issues. Not only that, he was telling everybody who would listen that he could fire them and have a robot do their job. Scratch that. He didn’t have the confidence to say it to their faces. He was saying it to their colleagues behind their backs. He couldn’t read a room, all his colleagues hated him and couldn’t wait for his ouster. I heard a few people wish him dead. Not joking.
Yet, he’s still there. Every time I see his LinkedIn profile hasn’t updated, I’m in awe. The jerk. Karma is slow, I get that. But this slow? The guy is a cockroach! Meanwhile, there were inter-nicene battles waging with ferocious intensity at every turn. To describe the dysfunction wrought by AI on this place, I need a science fiction metaphor. Morale was like the opening scenes of Terminator 2.
Lucky for me, I went to a private boys’ school in England. Of course, it was traumatic, in many ways. I bullied a couple of kids in my early years there. Then I got bullied by some other kids in my next couple of years. I learned the hard way that bullying happens when there’s an absence of strong leadership. If the teachers take their eyes off the moral tenor of an organization, it allows dysfunction. That is a major risk for organizations with the evolution of Artificial Intelligence. It’s a major risk for you and me, too.
All organizations need to have honest conversations about AI and how it’s used. If we’re allowing it for some tasks, is there a need to disclose its use? If we’re allowing it for writing, where’s the line? My personal view is that AI should be verboten in most organizations. It makes you stupid. It means you don’t have to think. It means you don’t have to work to influence your colleagues. It means you get to cheat. It means experts are devalued. Those are not values consistent with worthwhile work.
If you’re stuck in an organization or work setting where those things are happening, I see you. My advice is to think hard about why you do what you do. If it’s for a paycheck, cool. I get that. But if you’re doing your work because you believe in something, talk about that, too. Write about it. Not for the internal audience of your colleagues, but for people outside, too. Ask yourself: Where can I tell a compelling story about my purpose? And go and do that.
I don’t expect it is going to take as long as some of us expect for the wheat to emerge from the chaff.
