AI Anxiety in the Modern Workplace with Janet Robb

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blocks. I just feel that that's not inspiring to me because it's too too difficult. If we

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started a level that we set goals like appropriate levels, then I pay attention. Sometimes my level

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might, do you know what I do every day? I make my bed. I make every single day in a really

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nice way and plough up the pillows because sometimes that's all I feel like succeeded in. My

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way, at least when I go to bed, I made that bed and I've done something and I moved the

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dial. Sometimes the dial is as small as making your bed and we need to allow people to do

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that. Awesome. I think a little bit about their, yeah, hungry faces that have, I think, nearly

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three million models and events so on. And how can we, yeah, this information over now,

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how can we prevent people or employees from this? Really, really, really, really amazing

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question. And the reason why I love it so much is you've acknowledged it. The elephant

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in the room is in the last two years, we have created more new words than I have ever

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experienced in my 50 years on this one. And again, I keep talking about my dyslexia. I

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have never talked so much about it in the cause of AI, but with my dyslexia, a lot of the time

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I couldn't read words or if they were really big or I haven't been familiar with them, I

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struggled with them. So I am absolutely okay with saying, what does that mean? Because that

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has been how I've had to grow up. I've had to be brave and say, I don't understand

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what that word means. Can you help me? I've a wonderful friend, Marianne, and she always goes,

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she never bouts my leg. She just explains the word or reads the word for me. But that, there's

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not everybody's in that position. There are words like nano banana, flipsy, tui, tuo,

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tada, do, and because we get into the freezing of using these words, we bring people in

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and we are excluding people by not, and again, it's the key word of assuming. Just because I

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know that word, I have to stop assuming that everybody else knows that word. So again, a

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culture of asking and freezing for asking is going to have to come into the organizations.

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Too many new words, too many new phrases, and I say this all the time, I was in coffee with

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a lovely friend this morning, I said this as well. Everybody is sitting too intrus higher

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on their seat because they're clenching their back sides because they don't understand

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conversations because new words are in the place. We need to relax our bums and say, I'm

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sorry, I don't understand, but we need to have that in a safe environment. And so two things

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there, safe environments are being able to ask and second of all, being aware that you're

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being a bit of a prat if you continue to use words that out of your circle, people don't

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understand. So think of yourself as a bit of an idiot if you don't help people come along

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in the journey.

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Awesome, I think a little bit about how we can we can have such a road. When we are, how

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much dress comes really from the technology, for us I say, yeah, I call it workplace culture.

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Oh my, you asked the best questions. Well done you. Okay, I don't know the percentage, but

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I would say both are very, very important to understand. The product itself is a tool.

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And I have a friend that calls the shop on channel point and click. If you know where to point,

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you know where to click, the problem is they keep changing it and then next day you don't

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know where to point or click. So understanding the tool is different compared to what the

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culture of the organization is. So the reason why culture and the freedom to allow this

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culture to change is so important. I'm going to give you a question that I want everybody

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think about and I use LinkedIn and awful lot is my main social channel in LinkedIn. I

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don't know if you've noticed, but there's a lot of rocket chips about there's a lot of

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posts that are not the length of your arm. Straight away, our subconscious have worked out that

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that is done by AI. And our subconscious has decided that doesn't have the same value

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as if they wrote it themselves. Now, my argument back is really because if that person used

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AI correctly and used to correct prompting and did the correct validation and the correct

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reformatting, there's smarts in that and there's smarts in the understanding of what you

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you pitched. And the other hand, so there's a lot of D value and that the D value is a cultural

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thing. How do we make sure people value AI? The next question I've got is guilt. Do people,

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there's a lot of people walking around feeling guilty that they haven't done a day's work

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because clawed or copilot or co-work did something in five minutes that normally took you three

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hours? How do you remove that guilt? Because all of these emotions affect us. I talk about

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the day that I went running the park and I thought I'd dementia because I had so many, we

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have about 50 to 60,000 thoughts a day. And now with AI, I'm sure to heck, I have 60,000

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extra ones. And on top of that, I also have a lot of shame, embarrassment, fear, anxiety,

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lots of courtesan-reusing emotions that if they're not addressed in a culture that is

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safe, a culture that is discussing it, helping people on that journey to remove that guilt

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in that fear, then everybody's going to be walking around with a sick line in a couple of

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years time with a mental health problem. And so the tool is a tool, understanding the new skill

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sets, like prompting, finding the documents, saving the, oh my goodness, the amount of documents

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we're getting and we don't know what to do with them or print them or let them wind up versions

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that we're getting. There's a lot of that needs to be trained and looped in. But the culture

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side, this is the most important revelation since the industrial revelation over 100 years

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ago. Our brains are key of men and key of women. We need help. We need guidance. We need

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sometimes, just, I went to bed yesterday at six o'clock. I want you to know what my head

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can take anymore. And I'm going to have a quick par snooze, by the way, that par snooze

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lasted two and a half hours and then I couldn't sleep at night. But I'm beginning to go,

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my head hurts. I need a lie.

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You have say a link in or other, I call it channels. We have this, I call it a I slop problem.

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I think how, how can be prevent for this? I see all these people now will have this wonderful

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lies flying in their private jets and all these other generated really bad generated slop

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on channels. And I see it also in teams, people sent this bad YouTube video. So how we can

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fight or prevent our self for these sloppy content.

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The only people in the whole world we can control is ourselves. We can try and educate, but

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at the end of the day, we're responsible only for ourselves. I think eventually people

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are beginning to know when something somebody doesn't have the smarts to Mac, sorry, back

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up what they're saying or showing you that eventually does float to the top. And that's

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going to take time. But eventually, they're just lovely saying truth will light. If you don't

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have the smarts to back it up to be able to do whatever you've created and talk about it

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in a way and educate in a way, it will come to the top. The issue I have with what you

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said is how do you stop the fear of feeling that you're being left behind because everybody

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else seems to be moving forward and you maybe art. That's the bit that worries me when I see

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people on like YouTube and doing all of these things. And yes, they're doing them badly.

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And sometimes I watch a YouTube video thinking I'm going to learn and I thought, but I know

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more than that. And I still think I needed to learn. And yet you've made a YouTube video.

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Wow. Some AI is giving people a lot of confidence. There used to be a saying when I was younger,

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but her, her, her body is posting checks. They can't cash. In other words, they thought they

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were something and they really weren't. That's what AI is doing to a lot of people. And I think

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over time, people will begin people are smart and people will realize where the intelligence

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really is. Unfortunately, at the minute is well hidden. So you can only judge yourself. And

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I really, really want people to hear this bit if that's okay. Where you are right now is fine.

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You haven't missed the bus. You're safe and you're okay. If you think everybody's million

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miles ahead of you, I've crushed you. They're either bluffing or they've just learned one

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thing that you know more than them is okay to be where you are at the moment. And all you

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have to do to move the dial some days is make your bed. Some days you need to maybe do a little

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bit of learning. Some days you need to be honest and say, I don't know what this word means.

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Can you help me? If we make it okay for people to be honest, I think we're going to get

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on much better. I think a little bit about, yeah, how can I call it? We have this, now, I

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have to do it right. Yeah, we have these, these, I look at LinkedIn graph, we can see all

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these jobs and it starts. People have learned years coding or years, years on this and now all

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these skills are dying in the job offers. They write, yeah, you must use AI. I think this

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fierce people and I think have we also, when we look at jobs that, yeah, that we know

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you must have it, especially in tech more self skills now to, yeah, live in the AI area.

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It's a very valid question. So I'm going to start with the fear factor of people that

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have spent 20, 20 to 30 years in the industry and have done coding their way. We have seen,

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so like I started with green screens, I started with tip decks, change does happen. It's the

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accelerated level of this change that is scaring people. Your ability to understand how

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something works or something was put together is so valuable. It is so, so, so valuable because

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you're going to be the person that's going to really understand what's going on behind

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that under the hood. However, there is a, however, there are now, I'm going to be tools

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that are going to accelerate what you did in light speed. And if you learn those tools

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and adapt to that, then yes, I do think you're going to be left behind. But if you realize

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your skills that you have already are still needed and still understood is brilliant.

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The other thing I'm going to have to stress is when I started a night, I started as a

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coder. I, I, how many times have I said I'm dyslexic? You should have let me any renear coding.

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If you'd one spelling mistake in those days, nothing meant three, I was terrible. But I'll

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tell you what I did have. I have really, really strong communication essential skills.

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So I know this is going to make some people feel uncomfortable. We're going to have to learn

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to communicate. You're going to ask, have to ask, what am I doing wrong? How do I make

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sure that I'm friendlier, amenable, approachable, that I articulate in a language that doesn't

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sign like jargon? Yes, you don't just have to learn the new tools. You're going to have

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to learn how to communicate with people like me. And I used to be the middle person because

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I used to understand both languages, which was really great. I used to be put in the middle

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to interpret for these people. And I everybody's going to have to, I'm sorry, at 50, at 60,

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if you've been locked in a room, there are, last 30 years in a dark room coding, you're

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going to have to come out. So you're going to have to use learn new skills. In the industrial

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revolution, people had to learn new skills. And we just have to suck it up. We can suck

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it up together with a lot of love and compassion from your culture, the organization culture,

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because you don't want to lose that person. As also, they have a lot of back knowledge that

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you need. Okay, you worked, I see in your profile, you wrote six years from my, nearly six

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years from Microsoft. And now we say, okay, Microsoft comes back to you and say, hey, Janet,

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develop us a tool. You get unlimited money, unlimited resources. How could a product

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looks that helps to prevent all these, yeah, I, I, I, I, I, see stuff? How would you build

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it? Right. Okay. Good question. First of all, I hope they're listening and they want

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to give me all the money in the world. I've done nearly a, I think the, my last stent

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with Microsoft was six years, I think I think don't done over 10 or 12. I don't, I don't

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remember. But so I wore a few Microsoft tasks. But this is what the tool they need to make.

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When we talk about adoption and enablement, again, I go back to the, the, the, the, the

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person word of assumption, there is an assumption that people know how to do that. So I would

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create a tool. I would create a protocol. I would create a protocol that created really

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clear step points. Oh, I've already doing that step points with barriers to resistance

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at each point. I would have check off sign off. I would take it slower. I would start at

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the beginning and not in the middle. I would educate people about the curse of knowledge.

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I would educate people about the understanding that each impacted group feels differently.

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I would define each impacted group. I would have my influencers defined in there. I would

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have a budget assigned to it. I would have rules and, you know what I would have? I would

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have the, the CEOs, the CEOs bonus, knit to the culture feeling in that company. That's

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why I would put more emphasis from the top time in making Janet and reception, Janet

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encoding, Janet in whatever role that I feel that I am valued still. I have a place and

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I should use the AI and I have a set of steps because you can't make a system touch a

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person. It has to be the person deciding that they want to step involved. So if Microsoft

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wanted me to do that, I would be very, very happy. Thank you very much.

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What will you say coffee tea, energy drink, water, during digital transformation? What is

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the best drink from your personal test? What do I drink? I'm terrible. I'm going

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to die at 53 because I spend my life drinking Cooke Zero. I literally have my hard right

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life. Everybody talks about, oh, I need to get a coffee. I need to get a coffee because

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I think that's what I'm meant to do. But no, I love a, I don't drink enough water. I'm a

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bad person. I drink, and you know what's even nicer? Cooke Zero from the fridge for breakfast.

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I think we are running out of time. So I thank you for this was really, I really enjoyed

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the lot of fun and I learned a lot. Yeah. So, yeah, the people find all your data in the show notes.

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And yeah, what's the one thing you say people should take away from this session today?

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The one thing I want people to take away from this session is it's okay to be where you are right

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now. It's okay to have the feelings and you haven't missed the bus and just do one thing each day

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that helps you move the dial because people are overwhelmed and I think they need a bit of love.

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Also, yeah, then thank you for your time. That was, I really enjoyed. Thank you so much. Bye.

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Bye-bye.