Peter Hinssen - The Never Normal

This week, we have a rare repeat guest on the podcast. Listeners may remember innovator and thought leader Peter Hinssen from the 2019 ISF Congress in Dublin. We had him back this year at ISF’s 2023 Congress in Rotterdam. He and Steve had a chance to talk about the future of work post-pandemic. Their conversation offers lots of practical tips for leaders working to prevent workforce burnout and how boards can approach adopting new technologies like AI.


Key Takeaways:

1. COVID has made lasting impacts on the future of work. 
2. Annual budgets and other commonly used business practices are in the process of evolving into ones that are more malleable and adaptive.
3. Companies will need to reinvent themselves to thrive in the new “never normal.”
4. With the rise of AI and large language models, organisations do have a lot of work ahead.


Tune in to hear more about:

1. COVID’s impact on the future of work (1:40)
2. Sunsetting pre-pandemic business norms while imagining new ones (2:47)
3. Companies in every sector will be reinventing themselves in order to thrive in the new “never normal.” (6:33)
4. As AI and large language models are integrated into global business, what’s next for business leaders? (14:12)


Standout Quotes:

1. “One of the good things I think that we've gotten back from COVID or that we've retained from COVID is that I think the acceleration of the future of work has really happened. I think we're now seeing companies that clearly see that the way we did HR, employment, and work pre pandemic, we can't just hope that that is going to come back. And I think that is a fundamental change that I think was really something that the pandemic helped us with.” -Peter Hinssen

2. “But you know, that stronghold, that idea, that framework of an annual budget that we've held on to for such a long time is very difficult to actually give up. But I think it's exciting, because I think in this never normal, we're going to see new mechanisms and new ideas and new concepts and new governance ideas that are going to come to fruition. But at this moment, we're still very much in that transition.” -Peter Hinssen

3. “I really believe after a decade of unicorn applause, we're now going to have a decade of potential phoenixes out there. And I think a big part as a leader in such a phoenix transformation is to actually give your workforce, your people that sense of we're going to do this together.” -Peter Hinssen

4. “We're going to have to deal with that governance of content, unstructured flows, and that's a whole new kettle of fish that we have to understand. New technologies, new mechanisms, new ways of dealing with that. And I think it's going to open up a huge opportunity in terms of thinking about risk and thinking about security in that context. So I don't think you can ignore this. This is the biggest thing that I have ever seen in 30 years in IT. And if you're not on top of this, you're gonna be behind … And I think honestly, more and more boards are going to need to figure out how to build the skills and the mechanisms and the place to discuss these things that are not just compliance with the tsunami, but also the innovations that you cannot afford to miss. And I think, honestly, that's going to change the dialogue in the board quite a bit.” -Peter Hinssen

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