This post by Todd is spot on.

Organizations can no longer treat disruption as separate events to manage one by one.

Here are some "rules" for your consideration.

Don’t confuse cutting people with creating AI productivity.

Gartner warns that a significant share of AI-related layoffs may later require costly rehiring. Measure real productivity gains first. Redesign the workflow second. Adjust staffing only third. Cutting before the system works is fragile. Proving value and then reallocating capacity is designed for volatility.

The skills problem is bigger than the jobs problem.

The real question is no longer “Which jobs survive?” but “What do our people need to become good at next?” Automating the early years of professional work without redesigning how expertise is built risks hollowing out the next generation of senior talent.

Managers and culture decide whether AI actually works.

Culture is what allows strategy to succeed. Leaders set direction and guardrails; managers bridge the gap between boardroom AI plans and Monday-morning reality.

The winners reinvest AI productivity instead of simply pocketing it.

Two companies each become 20% more productive. One cuts payroll. The other redirects capacity toward customers, innovation, better service and workforce development. Three years later, the second will likely be stronger. AI’s biggest opportunity is not eliminating the cost of human work—it is increasing the amount and quality of valuable work people can do.

Growth is about designing a better operating system that combines people, process, culture and technology to create more value under continuous change.

The practical questions for any leadership team today:

Where has AI produced measurable productivity?

Which skills do we need two years from now that we are not building?

Are our managers ready to lead the change in how work actually gets done?

When AI frees capacity, how much will we reinvest to create additional value?

AI will automate work. Some jobs will shrink or disappear.

But the bigger story is becoming clear: the Future of Work will be shaped less by who has the most AI and more by who redesigns work, develops people, and manages the human side of AI better than their competitors.

Todd’s Big Question remains the right one:

If AI makes 20% of your workforce’s current work unnecessary, is your first instinct to eliminate 20% of the people—or to determine what additional value those people can now create?

Reposted with commentary. View the reposted item ↗