I just read an article in HBR about how AI-generated workslop is destroying productivity. In a nutshell, it is content that on the surface appears polished, but it lacks real substance. It could be a cause of most companies seeing little ROI, despite the surge in the use of GenAI.
So, people are creating quick competitor reviews, new product narratives, action plans, that unfortunately, they are spending minutes on, but to review and realise the substance is missing, can take hours.
Workslop is not new of course. It was always there. Before AI, team members could take a brief, and quickly copy-paste lots of text from the first hits they get on Google and have a nice, long document to provide at the end of the day. Reminds me of that, often quoted phrase on apologising for writing such a long letter, due to the lack of time to write a short one!
The main difference now is that the unsubstantiated work being done using GenAI looks more polished so it can take more effort to recognise it for what it is.
There are two key needs to handle this challenge:
1. Openness to question the status quo: If organisations continue to pretend that things are the same and GenAI just makes people more efficient, they will have old systems clashing with new. For example, in a world where a detailed report took a week to complete and a day to review, it may have made sense to prepare a detailed report for management. But if it takes an hour to complete and still a day to review, there is a mismatch. Also, if people are still rewarded for the number of reports, how many will they churn out in a week?
2. Management skills for all: Effective people managers are great at providing clear communication, asking strong questions, giving feedback, providing context, challenging thinking, and having awareness of the impact of their actions on other stakeholders, and on the business as a whole. These skills are needed by all employees interacting with GenAI. The human is the manager.
#Managers #Leadership #GenAI #UnlockHighPerformance
