As you may have seen from the flurry of online activity, this week was UNLEASH America. We’ve been watching the Twitter feeds with interest. Here are a few of our observations, also linked to our research from UNLEASH UK.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the biggest trends
The growth in AI, particularly linked to Talent Acquisition, has again been a hot topic. This echoed our survey findings from when our Research team spoke to 250 people who attended UNLEASH UK. A quarter of them said that AI would be the big trend for UK business. However, Gary Hamel who spoke at UNLEASH America, explained that AI will take decades to learn qualities like creativity, natural language understanding, social and emotional sensing, reasoning and output. So organisations need to take steps to nurture and not stifle these in their people.
People were high on the agenda
There was a clear presence of the important people factors that are central to our approach at LACE. UNLEASH tweets focused on how happiness affects productivity and performance at work, how technology is accelerating culture change, the future of engagement and how trust is the currency of interactions. As again outlined in our survey, wellbeing was on people’s minds and how we need to shift our current traditional thinking, of gym memberships and yoga to areas that will increasingly and directly improve individual and organisational performance. Josh Bersin, from his UNLEASH America presentation, believes these areas include relooking at our work environment, management, skills and training, rewards and leadership.
Women in Tech have increased visibility
There were more female speakers at UNLEASH America this year than ever before. This is a great testament to all the women we know in tech.
In reference to the visibility of women, Rachel Botsman speaker at UNLEASH America, established a big presence online, with people engaging with her powerful words. “Money is the currency of transactions. Trust is the currency of interactions”
She identified the importance of trust and how to use technology to recognise trust in the right places; highlighting her four traits of trustworthiness: Competence, reliability, integrity and benevolence. At LACE we embody these traits and in everything we do.
Diversity
In line with the increase of female speakers, diversity as a whole was discussed this year. Candice Morgan, Head of Inclusion and Diversity at Pinterest, emphasised the importance of diverse teams as they provide an ability to better generate innovative ideas and solve challenging problems.
At LACE we embody diversity and inclusion! Our team of employees and associates have an age range of 21- 70 years old. Our leadership team includes six women; two return to work retirees; three who work part time; one who has returned after a career break; and one junior associate. We are also internationally diverse, with associates from nine different countries, including seven from New Zealand. But this is only the start for us and we are taking steps to become more diverse in the future.
Robotics, Blockchain, VR and AR
In line with our own findings, Mo Gawdat from his UNLEASH presentation, predicted that the 5 technologies that will reshape the world were Robotics, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Life Sciences and Virtual and Augmented Reality.
Undoubtedly, there has been a peek of interest and development around these technologies and it will be interesting to see how these continue to intertwine into our working lives.
Overall, watching UNLEASH America unfold online has been compelling, it appears that the two days were filled with thought provoking talks, insight and selfies!
