Today I did something that I found perhaps even more nerve-racking than giving a keynote.
I made a room of 180 people feel.
Not think.
Not analyse.
Not discuss.
Feel.
And that turned out to be surprisingly nerve-racking.
I had been asked to speak about skills-based organising.
About AI.
About the future of work.
About how jobs change, how tasks shift and how organisations have to prepare for a world in which AI increasingly supports or takes over thinking work.
All of that was in the talk.
But afterwards I realised that the most important question of the afternoon was not about AI.
And not about skills either.
The most important question was:
What really gets people moving?
Pain or desire
In organisations we often ask the same question.
How do we get people on board?
How do we create support?
How do we make sure people change?
But perhaps we are starting in the wrong place.
Perhaps we first have to understand what gets us moving ourselves.
My experience is that in the end there are two forces that make people change.
Pain and desire.
Pain works.
Shortages work.
Urgency works.
Competition works.
But usually not for long.
Because fear can make people move.
Desire makes people keep going.
More and more I notice that I therefore believe less in convincing.
And more in enticing.
Not manipulating.
But letting people experience a future that feels so attractive that they want to move towards it of their own accord.
An image of the future that stays with you.
A feeling that does not let go of you.
A glimpse of what is possible.
And that is nerve-racking. But I felt that today it worked reasonably well.
Perhaps we are not afraid of AI
Strikingly enough, there was hardly any discussion about whether AI is going to change work.
Almost everyone seemed to accept that by now.
Jobs are going to change.
Tasks are going to disappear.
AI agents are going to carry out work.
People are going to direct AI agents.
And sometimes AI agents will direct people.
That no longer seems to be the discussion.
The real tension lies somewhere else.
Perhaps we are not afraid of AI.
Perhaps we are afraid of what AI makes visible.
That jobs are becoming less important.
That diplomas are becoming less predictive.
That potential is becoming more important than the past.
That people can often do far more than their job shows.
I started my presentation with a simple question on the screen:
"What are skills, actually?"
The longer I think about it, the more I believe that this may well be the heart of the whole movement.
Because a skill is not just an ability.
A skill tells a story.
About what someone has been through.
About what someone has learned.
About what someone is curious about.
About what gives someone energy.
About what someone may not even know about themselves yet.
And so skills-based organising is ultimately not about skills.
It is about potential.
The finest sentence of the afternoon
Perhaps the most important message was hidden away on one of the most technical slides.
Underneath an example of a skills gap analysis it said:
"Not a rejection, but insight into potential and capacity to develop."
That hit the heart of it exactly.
Because that, I think, is what this movement is really about.
Not looking at what is missing.
But looking at what is possible.
Not reducing people to their past.
But making room for their future.
Not asking:
"What are you?"
But:
"What could you become?"
What is left when thinking increasingly becomes a technology?
AI is getting better and better at recognising patterns.
It can recognise the skills that are there.
Predict missing skills.
Suggest learning interventions.
Distribute work.
Match projects.
Make development paths visible.
But the more I think about that, the more I wonder:
What is left when thinking increasingly becomes a technology?
Feeling, perhaps.
Feeling whether something is right.
Feeling whether work suits you.
Feeling whether a choice is meaningful.
Feeling whether a colleague might fit a task better than you do.
Feeling where energy arises.
Feeling where you come into your own.
AI can do a lot.
But AI cannot desire for you.
Why HR is becoming more important than ever
That is exactly why I think HR will become more important than ever in the coming years.
Not as an administrator of processes.
Not as an owner of systems.
But as a co-designer of how work is organised.
Because in the end the future of work is not only about technology.
It is about trust.
About safety.
About culture.
About whether people can be themselves.
About whether organisations have the nerve to put potential at the centre.
The desire I felt
What stays with me most from today is not the figures.
Not the models.
Not the AI.
But the desire I felt in the room.
The desire for organisations in which people are more than their job title.
Where talent becomes visible.
Where work can adapt to people, instead of the other way round.
Where technology helps to discover potential.
Where learning becomes part of working.
Where people are allowed to be themselves.
And perhaps that is where the real challenge lies in the end.
Not whether work changes because of AI.
That is going to happen anyway.
The question is whether we dare to change along with it.
Whether we dare to let go of what feels familiar.
Whether we dare to believe that people are more than their job.
Because when people not only understand that future but also feel it, something special happens.
Then movement arises.
Then energy arises.
Then belief arises.
And once you have really felt that desire, you never settle for less again.
And now?
Does this story resonate? Would you like to talk about it further? Would you like to receive the slides? Or book me as a speaker sometime? Feel free to send me a message. Then we can feel together what is needed in your situation.