Latest / UNLEASHED By LoyaltyOps / The Competitive Advantage No One Can Copy
Transcript
- Mickey Anderson: you most leaders are reading this era wrong. They're hiring a bunch of A players, arming them with AI and calling that a team. I firmly believe that the companies that lead this next era are the ones building the teams that AI is meant to replace. Welcome back to Unleashed and thank you especially to all of our new listeners joining. This episode's a little bit different from the past six. It's going to be a little bit hotter take, a little bit more controversial from the cuff. I am excited to share on this topic because it's close to my heart. And this episode is really for anybody whose work depends on people performing together. That could be leaders and founders and CEOs. That could be people working within teams and organizations, trying to do the best they can and become the advantage the company needs. And then those external who are supporting those companies, the fractionals, the consultants, the coaches, all of you. And this episode is really about my big belief. And it's probably the closest thing I have to a personal manifesto. I believe that teams are the advantage. It's the way people operate together, not just those individuals. We have this pressure today coming from everywhere. We've got AI and technology coming at a massively rapid rate. We have constant change, economic uncertainty, global events. There's just, it's coming from everywhere. But I believe that the way through it is the same for all of us. Now, what most companies are doing right now is they are cutting headcount and trying to ask their people to do more with less. They are layering them with AI and automation and agents and co-pilot. And they're making the promise of higher productivity, of lower costs, of a flatter org chart. And it looks really sexy on paper. We've got individuals who are self-optimizing and moving at speeds that we have never seen before. We've got the functions within organizations armed with technology and optimizing within their own walls. And then we've got Everyone focused on the company's mandate, which is growth for pretty much everyone right now. But what's happening is the output's rising for a quarter or two and that financial story we're seeing looks good in the short term. But what's actually happening is no one is building coherence across the organization. We've got everyone self optimizing on their own for their own KPIs, not on how it all comes together for the company's bigger picture mission, vision and future. Everyone working together as a team, moving the company forward as a whole with clarity, collaboration, coordination, that's something that AI cannot give you. and that's not what most leaders are building right now. We all know AI amplifies whatever you give it, whatever's already there. But if what you have are a bunch of disconnected individuals working in parallel, self-optimizing, AI is just going to make them diverge faster. So what is it that makes a true team different? It starts with having shared direction and mandate. that's interpreted the same way across functions and individuals. You have people collaborating across lanes instead of just optimizing within their own walls. And the team is getting stronger every quarter because they're learning from one another, they're sharing context and insights and learnings. So as the team or the individual learns, the company learns. That's what we're missing now. So, What I believe every listener, regardless of where you are on your chart or in the world, needs to be focusing on right now is this. Start with clarity. Across your mandate, we need universal clarity across the organization. Every leader, every function, every team, every individual clear on what our mandate, what our vision, what our mission is, interpreting it in the same way. And then we need to translate that down. so that every function within the organization knows what that looks like for them. And then beyond that, how all those layers and functions work together to create that outcome. And when you have that clarity, up, down, and laterally, it halts. People stop self-optimizing, and they're looking at the bigger global picture of the company. Not what can you do for me now, but what can we do for the organization to move forward? And then once you have that clarity, the next step is collaboration. It's sharing context with everyone. So we're working from the same picture, not a bunch of pieces. It's getting the right people in the room to plan and build plans. The people who are actually executing the work need to be involved in the planning process. They hold all of the information, assumptions, and context that you need to make great plans. Then you need decisions made by the right people at the right level within the organization. And that collaboration of everyone learning and growing together, that's what's gonna set the company apart from everyone else. And that's something you can't replicate. That is a competitive advantage. Then once you've got that collaboration, how do you make it consistent? How do you make it something that compounds, that continues to support your people and your organization over the long term? That's coordination. That's the structure, the infrastructure on how your teams communicate, on the rhythms, the tools, the systems. How do we hold meetings here? How do we make decisions here? How do the teams plan and execute here? And making sure that that coordination layer is strong and structured and supportive of your people. Then when you've got clarity, collaboration, and coordination, you can layer in AI as a force multiplier. The mistake most leaders make when it comes to AI and technology is they throw tools and tech down at their team and expect them to adapt. That's top down and that treats AI as a mandate and that leads to a lot of resentment and a lot of shelf wear. When we're talking about bottom up, we're talking about the people doing the work. coming together to build the plan on how do we leverage AI here. You don't need to be an AI expert to be able to point out friction points and opportunities, efficiencies, and bring in that context. You get them involved in the planning process. What do they need? Where does the friction live? And how can this actually help? And then you let AI shape how the team works together instead of just throwing it on top of the team. That. That right there is how AI becomes a force multiplier within your organization. And here's where I'm drawing the line in the sand, right? This is it. This is my true belief in this next decade, in this next era that we're just working our way into now. It's that people, teams are the true advantage. And it's the way they operate together that makes them that advantage. The organizations who lead over this next decade are going to be the ones who set their people up for success and amplify those teams with AI instead of having a bunch of individuals armed with AI working in parallel. That is what I believe the next era needs from all of us. Look, thank you for listening. ⁓ It would mean the world to me if you hit that follow button and share this episode with someone you think needs it. Thanks again and we'll talk soon. finally one together ⁓