Research Topics

Small incremental changes for 150 years instead of redfining what the system should be.

6 areas of learning

The Core Risk: The "Skills-to-Work" Disconnect The Problem: Organizations have spent millions building "Skills-Based Organizations" (SBOs), but they are hitting a wall. They know what skills their people have (Supply), but they don't know how those skills map to the specific tasks that need to be done (Demand). Without this link, PA leaders cannot answer the Agent question. They can’t say "Automate this task" because they don’t know which specific skills represent the "human premium" that must be protected vs. the "commoditized skills" that Agents can replace. The Research Focus: The "Job-Skill-Task" Chain: How are leading organizations mapping the full lineage? (e.g., Job = Product Manager → Task = Write User Stories → Skill = Technical Writing).Skills as the "Router": How to use skills data to route work. (e.g., If the task requires Emotional Intelligence, route to Human. If it requires Data Synthesis, route to Agent).Updating the SBO Model: Moving from static "Skills Taxonomies" to dynamic "Work Ontologies" that update automatically as AI changes the skills required for a task. The "So What" for the Board: "We have the Skills data. We have the Agents. This study gives us the 'Task Map' to connect them, so we know exactly what to automate and what to upskill."

More committee buys, building relationships more broadly, proving value?

The use of Generative AI in the workplace may level the playing field when it comes to skills. What will be the new category of KSA's needed to succeed?

How are organizations truly enabling talent mobility, in each of the 5 models we identified in 2021?

As the economy works to find its footing, how are organizations making decisions about what talent is critical, and how to develop that talent?

Too often, organizations try to boost employee wellness by adding more to employees' plates: An app to interact with, a program to follow, a class to take. These efforts, though well-intentioned, don't address a fundamental and underlying driver of employee stress and burnout: There's just too much to do. This project would look at how organizations are simplifying, redesigning, and / or automating work to make workloads more manageable--and the effects those efforts have on employee wellbeing.

Organizations that put purpose at the center of what they do are experiencing challenges on a number of fronts: economic, social, cultural, and political. How are they weathering these challenges? What changes are they making? And how are these new dynamics affecting organizational culture and performance?