Sparks: Think Beyond Borders: How to Cultivate a Global Citizen Mindset With Solvay CEO Ilham Kadri

We tend to talk about technology as if it is its own entity that has its own mind, mission and agenda. “Technology is going to replace our jobs, it is going to get out of hand, it will take over the world!” But the truth is we have control over technology, it is our choice how we use it. We can decide whether we want technology to replace us or augment us. There are already a lot of great organizations, like Accenture, Amazon and McDonald’s, making the conscious decision to use technology to augment their people. Technology is a tool, how are you going to use that tool? Are you going to let it replace jobs, or are you going to find innovative ways to use technology to help your people get their work done?

13 Kesä 20192min

Martin Migoya is the Co-Founder and CEO of Globant, an IT and Software development company that uses the latest technologies transform organizations. They have worked with companies such as Disney, the Met Police in London, and the MTA in New York. Globant was founded back in 2003 by four founders and today they have almost 10,000 employees in 16 countries. Creating and maintaining a culture with a handful of people is one thing, but how has Globant scaled that culture while growing to almost 10,000? Martin explains that one of the main goals of their culture was to go against the typical command and control system that a lot of the professional service industry has always had. The leaders at Globant use a very unique method to give their employees autonomy and internal mobility. The company is made up of what they call Pods and they currently have around 1,200 pods. Each pod is made up of a group of 8 to 20 people, depending on the project they are working on. The pods can stay together for a few months or even up to 14 years, whatever is needed for the lifetime of the customer and project they support. These pods each create a pod constitution by having all the members of the pod meet and discuss the values and principles they would like to hold and they discuss what will be needed in order to make the customer happy. During this discussion they also assign roles--they decide, for example, who’s going to be the accountant, who will be the entrepreneur,who will be the teacher, etc… Globant is also supportive of internal mobility inside of the company. They help and support employees who want to move from one role inside of the organization to another, even if they are completely different, say going from finance to entertainment. They also support employees who want to change cities. Globant is located in 40 cities and employees are free to change if needed. Martin says it is difficult to allow complete autonomy and mobility, but it is something very important to Globant and it is a huge part of their culture. Martin shares that even though anything is possible, there are some limits.  He says, “The first thing we ask people is, okay, you want autonomy. You need to behave like an adult so if you're finishing a project and you have the next six months within that project, you need to finish it. You need to commit to that. Otherwise, it's not autonomy. It's misbehaving like a kid. All right?” Globant also got rid of the typical annual employee survey years ago and now they use a feedback tool called BetterMe, which allows for constant, real time feedback. They have found that using this method provides more meaningful feedback and they now have 20 times the feedback that they received using other methods. What you will learn in this episode: What it’s like to work at Globant How they make internal mobility easy for employees The result of getting rid of annual engagement surveys inside of Globant and what they do instead Martin’s view of the global state of AI Martin’s advice for leaders around the world looking to transform their organizations. Contact Info Globant.com Books: The Never-Ending Digital Journey: Creating new consumer experiences through technology Embracing the Power of AI: A Gentle CXO Guide

10 Kesä 20191h 2min

If you are a sports fan and you watch games on TV, whether you like football, soccer, baseball, hockey, etc...you may be amazed by how fast the commentators get their information. They are constantly getting real time stats so they can keep viewers informed throughout the game. During a recent conversation with Mihir Shukla, CEO of Automation Anywhere, he brought up this point about sports and he related it to organizations, asking why we don’t have this capability within organizations to have real-time, constant stats. Think about how this capability would change the way we work. It would change the way we make decisions, it would change the way we lead organizations, it would change the speed at which we can keep up with competitors.

6 Kesä 20192min

Jim Clifton is the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, an American analytics and advisory company founded in 1935. Jim has been the CEO since 1988 and under his leadership Gallup has expanded from a predominantly US based company to a worldwide organization with 30 offices in 20 countries. Gallup is made up of 2,000 professionals plus 35,000 contract workers across 160 countries. Jim is also the co-author of a new book called It’s The Manager, which is based on data Gallup has collected from their largest study on the future of work. The book examines 52 discoveries found from that study that point to why managers are the biggest factor in your organization’s long-term success. From the Gallup study Jim and co-author Jim Harter found six things that have been done in the past that most organizations still seem to hold on to. These six things need to be changed inside of organizations immediately in order for organizations to stay relevant and successful in the future of work. One of these six changes Jim talks about is the shift from working solely for a paycheck to now the need for purpose and meaning at work. The things that employees want has changed over the last few decades. When Jim was starting out in the workplace in the 70s and 80s he says he wanted 40 hours a week and a fair paycheck out of work, that was it. His main dream and focus was on getting married, having kids, having a nice house, etc… But now with the new generations coming into the workplace they don’t have the same dreams and aspirations as Jim and his generation did. “My generation got married like 15 years earlier on average than this generation. We had a bunch of kids and we also owned our homes. But all of that means that when I went to work, I really wasn't concerned with what the mission or purpose was of the organization. I mean this is a striking difference, but now I'm staying with millennials because they're 40% of the workplace when they come to work. They're saying, my life now merges with the workplace, not with my family, and I need to know that if I'm going to spend all this time here, how does that fulfill that need? Because my job is much more a part of my life than any generation ever.” Another change that is pointed out in the book is the need for managers to focus on employee development instead of employee satisfaction. Jim says, while there is nothing wrong in providing perks for employees, it should not be the reason employees come to work. There’s been a rising trend in organizations believing that they need to provide ping pong tables, latte machines, nap pods, free lunch, etc...but employees want to have a real purpose behind the work that they are doing. Employees want to know that the managers are going to work on their strengths and help define a development plan and help them grow inside of the organization. As stated in the book, “When you have great managers who can maximize the potential of every team member, you have delivered on the new global will: a great job and a great life. That is the future of work”. What you will learn in this episode: What Jim’s first job was and how it changed his life The biggest changes Jim has seen in the workplace over the past few decades The difference between a coach and a manager Jim’s view on perks in the workplace Why organizations use workplace practices when there’s no data to support that they work A look at the research and findings for the book, It’s the Manager Contact Information: It’s The Manager on Amazon   Jim Clifton on LinkedIn

3 Kesä 20191h 11min

Most, if not all, of us have smartphones these days and we all have our favorite apps. Whether you like to use Instagram, Pandora, Google Maps, or Ebay, “there’s an app for that”. You may have noticed that every once in awhile your apps will update. Just like the apps on your smartphone, we--as individuals, leaders and employees--need to constantly update ourselves. We have to master learning how to learn so that we can keep our skills up to date. This is the way to succeed in the future of work and the way to futureproof your career. What kind of an app are you and how often are you taking time to update your skills?

30 Touko 20191min

Last week I went to social media to find out what your questions are related to leadership, employee experience, and the future of work. You asked and now today, I answer. The following questions are the ones I am addressing on today’s episode:   Often leaders are on the fence about investing in employee experience, especially when it requires outside support or consulting. What are the top 3 things you've heard from leaders that have pushed them to actually take action on an employee experience shift? Would you make any changes to your top 5 soft skills for the future (perpetual learning, accountability, empathy, self-awareness, entrepreneurial thinking) if you were to create the list at this moment again? What are the top 5 hard skills that will be relevant in the future? Now, it seems it is programming, however, a lot of it will be probably replaced by AI, therefore what hard skills will be the most relevant in the future? If you were responsible for employee engagement and happiness in a company, what would be the first three initiatives or actions you would take at this position? Let's assume the company culture is not yet defined and we are talking about a corporation. How fast the “ask for feedback, analyze, and respond” process has to be? We’re used to annual surveys and I understand it’s no longer possible to respond annually, but what is a good timing? 3 months, 1 month, 2 weeks? I am lucky to be at a firm thinking about the future of work and upskilling, but what advice would you give those employees or orgs who are not early adopters to start thinking about the future of work? What are some tips to create a work environment where employees feel safe enough to share their thoughts and concerns with leadership before issues become major problems? You said in a recent podcast that being a good coach is the number one behavior of a great manager. What are some key steps to becoming a good coach?

28 Touko 20191h 4min

There are countless conversations, concerns, theories and ideas about the future of work. Will AI and automation take over? Will we experience major job loss? Will there be a ton of new jobs created? Will we all be on Universal Basic Income and be able to do whatever we want? But what if the future of work is exactly the way it is now? What if in the future of work there is still a majority of workers around the world who don’t like their jobs, who are disengaged and who are not treated well by their organizations? This is something we need to think about and also consider a major concern. We need to make sure that in the future of work we create jobs that are meaningful, organizations that are human, and work that we actually want to do.

23 Touko 20191min

Ed McLaughlin is the President of Operations and Technology at Mastercard, where he has worked for the past 14 years. In his current role Ed oversees all of Mastercard’s technology functions including the global network, processing platforms, information security, and technology operations. As Ed points out, working in technology doesn’t mean he is sitting in a cubicle coding all day. Work in technology is very much a people centered role. “I think technology has always been people at its heart. What really matters is who are the people, and how well we use the stuff, how good we're at it, and how much we understand what all of that's for. Technology is always for a purpose, and it's people that give it that purpose. Yeah, I spend a lot of time. I still code every once in a while, but it's not the work of doing it, it's really working together to create the value that is. I think just about everything we do is either done through or with technology these days. It's just really how we make things, how humans work together.” When it comes to the doom and gloom talk about AI and automation, Ed says he is “profoundly optimistic” He believes that these advances in technology have the potential to free humans up to do the things they actually want to do. He says, “When I hear talk of a jobless future, I just think it's just a lack of imagination. I mean, when I think of all the things I wish we could be doing if we could have more resources freed up, my lists have lists.” Mastercard is actually harnessing AI inside of the organization in order to flag fraudulent activity for customers, to help employees collaborate effectively, and to make it possible for employees to continuously learn and grow. One tool they use is called Safety Net, which monitors all transactions in real time and looks for fraudulent behaviors. It helps protect the company from the 200 fraud attempts that happen every minute, which would nearly impossible to do with just human employees. Another program they have in place is called NuDetect, which can detect if someone is trying to sign into a customer account using a stolen identity. The AI looks at behaviors such as what height the phone is at when signing in, the way the person types, whether they are sitting or standing, etc…. With all of the new technological advances and the fast rate of change in today’s world of work, how are companies supposed to keep up? Ed says it is important to stay constantly curious and don’t get stuck doing things as they have always been done before just because change is hard. “I do think, and this is hard, you need to have an enthusiasm for what's new, not to be fashionable, not for fashion's sake, but to always be questioning. I think it's a skeptical enthusiasm of, "If a new capability is there, does it allow me to do what I want to do better?" I think as long as you're centered on what you're trying to do, then all the new capabilities I find just profoundly exciting.” What you will learn: How to create great digital experiences for employees Why Ed is optimistic about AI and automation A look at some cool AI programs Mastercard has created such as NuDetect and SafetyNet How Mastercard upskills and retrains their employees What the office space is like at Mastercard How they are keeping up with the pace of change How to balance information and data with privacy and security

20 Touko 20191h 6min