AI Conversations features realistic scenarios that managers might encounter in their own workplace, such as coaching conversations and delegation challenges. You get the chance to talk with a team member who’s brought to life by AI technology.

Like a character in a story, they have their own personalities and realistic responses. Your conversation ends with detailed feedback and suggestions for improvement when you have those challenging conversations in real life.

In this blog, I share our experience of working on this innovative new product. We’ll cover how we approached the process of crafting skillful AI-human interactions from a Content perspective, and what we learned in the process.

Getting to Grips With AI

No one on our team began this process as an AI expert. In fact, some of us were nervous about its potential to take our jobs! Many of us had tried it out a bit, asking ChatGPT to summarize ideas or generate poems in, say, the style of Roald Dahl.

At work, we’d just started exploring its potential uses. Generative AI could be fun, and with increasing exposure, we recognized that it could be a powerful tool for learning and creation.

When the AI Conversations project was first proposed, excitement mingled with trepidation. We worried that it was big and complicated for our small team, especially given the ambitious timescale.

Would we have to imagine entire workplace conversations? And how would we feed those into the AI? But a few chats with our project partners at Learning Pool reassured us. We learned that we’d create realistic management scenarios, and the AI would produce the conversations. We embraced this new challenge and moved ahead.

Deciding on Topics for AI Conversations

We know that having challenging conversations is one of the things that managers often dread. Armed with data around popular and highly requested topics from our client base, we focused on six key topic areas we know will resonate with line managers, regardless of their industry or sector. We also wanted to reflect the move, for many, to virtual or hybrid working environments.

The six scenarios that we developed were:

1. Managing Poor Performance

2. Goal Setting with the GROW Coaching Model

3. Getting a Project Back on Schedule

4. Delegating Customer Service Tasks

5. Managing Resistance to Hybrid Work Requirements

6. Managing a Disengaged Member of your Virtual Team

Developing Realistic AI Scenarios

The scenario development process began with Managing Editor Keith Jackson and Senior Editor/Writer Jonathan Hancock meeting at a seaside café. I’ll let Keith tell you about it in his own words:

“Fuelled by industrial amounts of coffee, we did what we do best: write compelling, engaging, yet practical and relevant scenarios. Jonathan and I are experienced journeymen in the field of work and management. We both had long experience of difficult management situations, and we were able to use that experience to write characters and scenes that our learners will encounter in their own careers.”

Given that we were adopting new skills, the Content Team used a buddying approach to develop the scenarios further. Once the first one was refined, the writer shared their learning and expertise with the next writer, and so on. This helped us to develop robust scenarios – and the skills to create them at pace.

Developing the Key Characters

So, we had our scenarios fleshed out. Time to create the characters that users would converse with! Each team member took charge of a scenario and imagined three different personalities that they might find in that situation.

For example, what type of people were likely to struggle with time management at work? Perhaps a new manager who lacked confidence, an employee with ADHD, or someone who focused on relationships at the expense of productivity.

Each of these became a character for whom we wrote AI prompts to program different priorities and speech patterns. With AI Conversations, when users select a scenario, the character they interact with is chosen at random.

So, you might meet a change-resistant team member who won’t return to the office; a disengaged direct report who feels cut adrift in the world of remote working; or an ambitious worker angling for promotion.

How We Prompted and Tested AI Conversations

Because we were working with a new technology, there were a few kinks to work out. Before testing our scenarios, the Learning Pool team gave us feedback on what elements we should tweak.

A key skill when writing prompts is not to overdo it! If you tell a generative AI program that your character “uses emojis,” it’s likely to use them in every statement. So, you have to temper your wording – saying, for example, that the character uses emojis “occasionally.”

Once we’d adjusted our prompts, it was time for Learning Pool to see how our scenarios performed!

AI Conversations Come to Life

Our partners at Learning Pool tested the AI interactions in a “sandbox” area, and we went through a final round of quality assurance to iron out a few wrinkles.

It was amazing to see the characters that we’d created interacting with us! We were surprised to see how realistic they were. Like humans, some of them did their best to wriggle out of tough conversations, while others checked in about your feelings. One team member ran a test where they tried to speak about anything other than the scenario, and the AI brought them back to the topic.

Once managers have practised having these challenging conversations, and received their feedback, that’s not the end of the story. Each module is supported by a package of carefully curated Mind Tools resources. These include videos, animations, infographics, and articles to help embed and expand the learner’s knowledge and skills.

Final Thoughts on Creating AI Conversations

The Mind Tools Content Team found it a refreshing and highly rewarding experience to work with Learning Pool on this project. We were out of our comfort zones, working with cutting-edge technology, and we learned a great deal from the process.

We’ve ended up with a high-quality, credible, effective learning tool that we’re confident can carry the Mind Tools and Learning Pool names into the market. We look forward to seeing managers and leaders interacting with the characters we created and practice navigating difficult conversations in an innovative way!

See AI Conversations in action! Find out more about AI Conversations, watch a quick overview video and book a full demo with the Mind Tools team.

The post How We Built AI Conversations appeared first on Mind Tools.

We're still feeling the effects of the global pandemic. Oil prices fluctuate wildly. War has returned to Europe. The climate is in crisis. Generative AI has arrived.  

And political, social and technological change is only going to get faster, more frantic – and harder to foresee. It’s the epitome of a "VUCA world": volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. [1] It’s become very difficult to see any kind of clear view ahead. 

“May you live in interesting times” was always meant as a curse, after all. 

But there are also opportunities amid unpredictability – if you're ready to grab them. And, while many businesses are going by the wayside, many others are finding ways to survive and thrive. They keep a grip on their future – however fractured things get. 

And usually, it’s because they have a plan. 

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail 

In turbulent times, mid-to-long-term planning lets you and your organization focus on the things you can control – and at least be aware of the things you can't. Get it right, and you'll keep a handle on who you are as a company, what you want to achieve, how you’re going to do that, by when, and with what effect. And you'll spot some of the difficulties and dangers ahead.  

Your plan isn't a rigid list of actions you can take to guarantee success, because that's just not possible now – and probably never was. 

Instead, it's a well-thought-out map for the way forward, with room for a little "course correction" along the way. And it lets you bring others on the journey with you. Even if the direction has been set by the C-suite, managers at all levels need to know how they fit in, to make sure the core work gets done. Only then can they inspire their teams to help turn aspirations into actions.  

Without a plan, you’re lost. 

Business Planning, the Family Way! 

I know the power of a good plan from personal experience. 

Eighteen years ago, my family life felt like its own little VUCA world. My wife and I both worked in radio, and our industry was changing fast: new technology, unexpected challengers, different ways of doing things. And in the radio station where we worked, large-scale change was looming. 

We had two young children then, and suddenly there were big decisions to make – about our jobs, where to live, how to share the childcare, what to do about schools… It felt overwhelming trying to consider everything: to know what would be best for everyone, and how to achieve it all. 

So we made a five-year plan – a fairly small-scale one, granted, but, in retrospect, it was actually a very business-minded approach. Because it covered many of the things that commercial enterprises need to put in their plans (just couched in ways that made sense for two parents and their kids!). 

Business Planning Basics 

Here’s an example of the type of business plan I’m talking about. It shows what many companies consider when they’re starting out, or looking for new investment, or launching new products or services, or – like us – just in need of more clarity about where to go in the next few years and how to get there. There are nine common components: 

• Executive summary 
• Mission statement 
• SWOT analysis 
• Goals and metrics 
• Industry analysis 
• Competitor analysis 
• Financials 
• Marketing plan 
• Conclusion 

And here’s how that collection of information, analysis and ideas can work in practice – as experienced by my wife and me! 

Business Planning in Action 

We started with our version of the executive summary – an in-a-nutshell description of all the information and ideas we’d be pulling together – then followed it by drafting a kind of mission statement, based on who we were, what we wanted to achieve, and why we felt it was important.  

For us, that highlighted the importance of getting a good work-life balance, doing jobs we felt passionate about, and finding a community where our family could thrive. For businesses, it’s often a useful way to summarize plans for stakeholders – or maybe prospective investors. 

We did our own version of a SWOT analysis, listing all the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats that we could think of, relating to our family. My wife and I both love learning, for example, and could retrain if we decided to – that was a strength. We had little help with childcare though – that was a weakness. The value of our house had gone up recently – so there were opportunities there. But we also saw a new level of competition for jobs where we worked, adding urgency to our decision-making.  

In a commercial plan, this is a particularly important part of the process, helping to shape ambitious but achievable strategies, and to secure internal and external support.  

For us, all of this led naturally to defining our goals – and trying to do it in a SMART, businesslike way. We looked for useful metrics, including the income we’d need at different points in the plan. And, since a key goal was to have more time for the kids, we chose some fairly loose ways to measure that, too. 

We did our own kind of industry analysis. As in a typical business plan, we thought about our industry – radio – as it was then, and how it was likely to change in the near future.  

I suppose we even did some competitor analysis – thinking about the people who might be coming for our jobs, as well as the market forces that were putting the whole industry under pressure. 

By this point, we'd already begun thinking about leaving radio – potentially to retrain as teachers. So we had a new target audience to research. Were there enough opportunities for us there? What needs could we satisfy – and what did we have to offer?  

And then, to make that shift, how would we show off our experience and skills? A marketing plan of sorts emerged as we decided to spruce up our CVs, and targeted people to talk to. As in a commercial business plan, all the earlier analysis focused our ideas.  

The financials were particularly important. Like any business we looked back at our records, drew up budgets, and made projections. More companies use complex algorithms to do that. We took a simpler approach, but we still had to be rigorous. Any five-year plan needs to make financial sense, with regular checkpoints, a little wriggle room, and at least some form of safety net in case things get really tight.  

Looking back, that financial part turned out to be the one we relied on the most. It helped us make decisions, gave us confidence – and, occasionally, confronted us with hard truths – as we enacted our plan. 

The last element was a conclusion, bringing together everything we’d collected and explored. In a commercial five-year plan, this summary often becomes a rallying call to stakeholders and a powerful message to potential investors. For us, too, it was a clear call to action. It crystallized everything we’d been thinking and talking about. 

Suddenly we had a route to follow to the future we wanted. It fueled our confidence to push ahead – and, as we did, we learned even more about the full power of a well-made plan. 

The Benefits of a Five-Year Plan 

Whether you’re managing people in a company or a family, having a plan helps at every turn. 

It provides clarity for everyone involved and influences everything you do – from the people you gather around you, to the products or services you decide to develop, to the way you end up delivering them.  

It can help you to secure funding if you need it, and keep your stakeholders involved and informed as you move forward. 

However busy things get, you’ve got a document to refer to that reminds you of your purpose and your priorities. It helps you to do the things that move you in the right direction – and say no to the things that don’t.  

It’s a way to avoid overwhelm, manage stress, and stay motivated. But it also lets you see when to adjust your course a little – because, inevitably, things will change. 

Five Years Later… 

Five years after making our plan, we were both fully trained teachers, living in a new city, and our children were happy in their schools. Some of our work-life balance was right, although that part was still very much a work in progress. And we’d taken a financial hit that would take a while to heal. But our plan had helped us get the big things right, bounce back from the odd misstep, stay afloat financially, and just about manage all the moving parts of family life.  

Some of the thinking we did back then still guides our decisions today. It's good to look back at our original goals and see how far we’ve come. And we may well repeat the process before long. The kids are starting to leave home. Retirement is no longer a distant prospect. Where do we want to be five years from now – and how are we going to get there? 

Meanwhile, times are likely to keep getting more “interesting” for everyone. In families and businesses everywhere, VUCA levels can make it hard to see anything beyond the struggles of the here and now. 

But experience tells me that, when you feel like there’s simply no point making any meaningful plans, that’s exactly when you need them most.  

To learn more about business planning, Mind Tools members have a range of resources to choose from, including:

Practical Business Planning

Business Requirements Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Managing in a VUCA World.  

Reference: 

[1] U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center (2018). Who first originated the term VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity)? [online]. Available here. [Accessed June 9, 2023.] 

About the Author:

After a 15-year career as a BBC presenter and producer, Jonathan switched to education, where he spent a decade as a teacher and school leader. With numerous books about memory and learning to his name, he compiles quiz questions for TV shows and heads up the U.K.'s Junior Memory Championship. Since 2019 he's been a writer and editor at Mind Tools, working on a wide range of resources and co-presenting the Expert Voices podcast. Outside of work, he loves watching soccer, tending his garden, and running – everything from 5Ks to ultramarathons.

The post What's the Point of Planning? The Benefits of a 5-Year Business Plan appeared first on Mind Tools.

And sure enough, far too often, things like this fall to the bottom of our To-Do Lists, pushed out by other priorities.

Why making time for learning matters

When learning goes ignored or overlooked for too long it can lead to significant problems. For example, loss of skills and knowledge, decreased productivity, and reduced motivation and satisfaction among staff. It can also affect performance, and your organization’s ability to stay competitive by limiting opportunities for creativity and innovation. It can even result in legal challenges or fines, for example, if compliance or health and safety training gets ignored.

So, in this blog, we’re going to explore some of the key barriers that people face in finding the time for learning – and what you can do to encourage and help your people overcome them.

A “lack of time to learn” Is the biggest challenge for employees

Despite an increasing desire among employees to improve their skills, many still can’t find the time to do what they want to do. In fact, according to Mind Tools’ 2022 Learning Performance Benchmark, “a lack of time to learn” was by far the biggest challenge facing employees. In contrast, other barriers to development, such as finding the right resources, unclear personal goals, or the lack of a place to learn, all scored relatively low, at under 15 percent.

Interestingly, remote workers tended to struggle more with finding time for learning compared to office-based workers. 54 percent of remote workers agreed it was a barrier, compared to 39 percent of office workers. [1]

These results suggest that, despite the flexibility that working from home offers, the lack of structure and in-person “nudges” or reminders for people to work on their personal development, could be making it harder for remote and hybrid workers to prioritize learning above their other responsibilities.

The power of collaboration

Another reason why remote workers are finding it hard to make time for learning could be isolation. Collaborative work is often rated as the most valuable method of learning, with support from colleagues (79 percent) and managers (66 percent) rated higher than support from mentors (45 percent) and coaches (34 percent). [1]

Managers, in particular, play a crucial role in leading by example here, and encouraging their people to prioritize their own development. They are also pivotal in helping people to discover relevant learning opportunities that suit their roles and responsibilities – and help them to achieve their personal goals, as well as those of their organization.

In fact, managers were cited as the leading source of information about learning among employees in our latest annual L&D Benchmark Report, with 38 percent of people agreeing that this was the case for them. Other popular sources included internal communications (32 percent) and colleagues (31 percent), once again demonstrating the importance of peer-to-peer collaboration. [2]

Managers need to lead learning

Despite these findings, over the past five years our research has shown that “reluctance by managers to make time for learning” has consistently been voted as the biggest challenge facing L&D teams. Mind Tools’ 2022 Learning Performance Benchmark revealed that a massive 91 percent of L&D leaders were either somewhat or extremely concerned about the reluctance of managers to make time for learning.

The report also showed that high-performing L&D teams had managers in place who recognized the value of learning in the flow of work (62 percent of high performers) and that managers were also equipped with resources that allowed their teams to get the most out of learning (83 percent). [2]

It’s clear that managers play a vital role in leading learning within an organization. They are the link between an organization’s learning aspirations and the people on the ground. But to truly be effective in leading learning, managers need to have a good knowledge of relevant training – and where people can go to find it. They also need to encourage employees to set learning goals and help them to dedicate time in their busy schedules so that they can achieve them.

Delivering learning at the point of need

With so many time pressures facing us nowadays, when we do find some time for learning, it needs to be purposeful, easy to find and easy to interpret. Sometimes people may only have 10 minutes in the day for their own development. So, when they get to that point, learning needs to be just a click away.

This is backed up by findings from our Learner Intelligence Report series, which found that one of the most stable patterns to emerge over the past few years has been employees’ preference for accessing resources at the point of need (56 percent). [1] So organizations need to have relevant learning resources on hand for their employees, and they need to be clearly signposted. The organizations can do this by having a good understanding of the kind of problems their employees often face. For example, a call center may need a range of resources that help their employees to deliver great customer service or navigate difficult conversations.

Understanding the types of skills that employees want to develop on a personal and professional level is also critical, and supplying relevant information that allows them to do this can enhance job satisfaction.

If you want to discover more about how Mind Tools for Business can help you to deliver great learning resources to your employees at the point of need, book a demo here. 

References

[1] Mind Tools for Business (2022). Learner Intelligence Report 2022: Is hybrid working? Available here.

[2] Mind Tools for Business (2022). Annual L&D Benchmark Report: Is your learning culture keeping pace with rapid digitalization? Available here.

The post Are your people too busy to learn? appeared first on Mind Tools.

This is all about when you do your work, rather than where you do it. And it’s usually remote, but not always.

With a traditional synchronous model, you and your team will keep similar hours, meeting and working together in real time – maybe online, maybe face to face. With asynchronous work, people do their part whenever they want or need to. And rather than talking to colleagues, they find out what to do by tapping into systems and databases.

Does that sound appealing to you, or a little bit isolating? Well, according to Martin, it depends on how it’s done.

The Asynchronous Mindset

Martin recently shared his experiences and tips in a new book, co-written with his business partner Rob Rawson, called “Running Remote: Master the Lessons From the World’s Most Successful Remote-Work Pioneers.” And it's a Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly Bestseller.

When I talked to him for the latest Mind Tools Expert Interview, Martin explained the “asynch mindset,” based on “deliberate over-communication, democratized workflow, and detailed metrics."

Here's an excerpt. (You can stream the audio clip below or read a transcript here.)

My Experience of Asynchronous Working

As an independent journalist, I’ve spent many years working remotely and asynchronously, with mixed results.

When I was doing a master’s degree in the U.K., asynchronous work offered a financial lifeline. I was an associate editor for a New York-based magazine, and I edited articles while my editor slept, sending completed work in time for when he switched on in the morning. This situation suited all of us.

Earlier in my career, I was the Mexico correspondent of an American business magazine. Based in Mexico City, I worked alone, day after day, keeping in touch with my editor in Houston via email and occasionally text and phone.

I thrived on the autonomy this gave me, and loved coming up with new ideas for the magazine that I could run with, without anyone else weighing in. This kind of grassroots decision making is one of the positive features of asynchronous working, according to Martin.

But on the downside, it was sometimes difficult to motivate myself, and the days could drag. And if I needed a quick answer to something specific and unusual, which wasn’t in any policy or guidance document, well, “quick” was rarely an option. I had to wait until my editor came back online.

In-Person Communication Wins

Looking back on these experiences, I find the faces of my editors swimming into focus. Because we did meet up occasionally, and it is those face-to-face interactions that stand out most vividly when I think of those jobs.

Although a passionate advocate of asynchronous working, Martin agrees that synchronous communication remains an important piece of the remote-working puzzle. In fact, in his own hierarchy of communication, “in-person” comes top, and every year, his own company holds a face-to-face retreat for all its employees.

“We’ve recognized that synchronous time is so important to be able to, number one, build rapport between all of our different team members and trust, but also allow us to be able to really close the chapter on one year of the business and open up another chapter in the business,” he explains.

There are two reasons why they don’t do it more often: cost and efficiency. It’s expensive to get everyone in the same place, and it takes much longer to disseminate information in real time, rather than via a prepared document. Plus, with written information, you know that every recipient gets exactly the same message, and people can refer to it as often as they like.

Martin’s hierarchy of communication continues with voice and video calls, instant messaging, and finally email, as the foundation holding up the pyramid.

Be in Tune if Not in Synch

But however you communicate in asynchronous teams, perhaps what matters most is the attitude of team members.

I once worked with a graphic designer whose location changed from week to week. Over the course of one project, he moved from Spain to Mexico to Colombia.

The time zone changed, but his efficiency and excellent communication didn’t. The project ran smoothly, with great results. But I know that if he’d dropped the ball, even for one day, I would have railed against his digital nomad lifestyle!

Liam Martin’s model of remote asynchronous work relies on every member of the team being a hardworking self-starter, who will always read attachments to emails, no matter how long and dense they look, and will never feel sub-par or distracted or lonely.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that working in isolation doesn’t suit everyone. So I can understand why managers continue with the synchronous model, despite the allure of its opposite. It may be slower and more costly, but it fits how humans behave. And while it’s still humans doing much of the work, that makes a lot of sense.

Listen to the Full Story

You can listen to or read my full 30-minute interview with Liam Martin if you're a Mind Tools Club member or if your employer is a Mind Tools for Business licensee.

Martin and Rawson's book carries a prominent endorsement by Cal Newport, another expert we've already featured on Mind Tools. Search his name at the top of this page, and you'll find our in-depth review of his book "Deep Work" and our exclusive Expert Interview with him.

If you're not already a member, join the Mind Tools Club now to gain unlimited access to 2,400+ resources, including our back catalog of 200+ Expert Interviews. Or find out more about Mind Tools for whole organizations, big or small, by contacting our enterprise team.

Meanwhile, catch more excerpts and insights from my guests by searching our Expert Interview blog topic and by signing up free to the Mind Tools Expert Voices podcast.

The post "If you trust your employees..." Liam Martin on Asynchronous Work appeared first on Mind Tools.