By Jan Bruce
New research shows that two cognitive skills, positivity and problem-solving, matter most to help employees feel less threatened and more empowered by GenAI tools.
As the dazzling promise of Generative AI shifts into its practical use, leaders are bumping up against a difficult reality: employee resistance to the tools due to unfamiliarity or fears of job replacement.
Executives are concerned about this reaction, reports Deloitte, and rightly so. When employees see GenAI as a threat, they’re less likely to make productive use of the tools, let alone turn them into a business advantage.
Most guidance on GenAI adoption focuses on management tactics and technical knowledge—Set up that implementation policy! Teach people to train this large language model! So far, the discourse hasn’t looked at the cognitive approach, or the mindset, that can reliably steer workforces away from an AI threat state toward productivity.
New research suggests that two skills matter above all others, across job roles and departments, to help employees see the opportunity in GenAI and embrace the work to make the tools effective and transformative.
These skills aren’t technical. They’re cognitive: positivity and problem-solving.
This makes sense on the surface. Who wouldn’t want a positive workforce that solves problems? But let’s look at the research on positivity and problem-solving more closely. Something significant is happening with these two skills and GenAI specifically, differentiating employees who develop them from those who don’t.
What drives productive outcomes with workplace GenAI?
For the meQ Spring 2024 Workforce Well-being study, our data science team surveyed 5,989 employed adults across a variety of industries. Given the rapid advancement of GenAI, we focused on how employees are embracing or resisting these tools. Do cognitive traits make a difference in adapting to GenAI? If so, which ones?
The data reveal that positivity and problem-solving confer significant advantages in helping workforces see GenAI as an opportunity and use it productively.
Compared to their less positive counterparts, employees with the highest positivity scores are 40% more likely to report that generative AI tools enhance their productivity. They’re 37% less likely to feel these technologies threaten their job security.
In this research, positivity means far more than a cheerful disposition. It’s one of seven learnable, cognitive skills of resilience, and it’s based on the ability to reframe negative thoughts into more productive perspectives. Such positivity is critical for adapting to change, as our brains are wired to scan more for negative information and to give it more weight, potentially skewing our perception of reality.
The problem-solving advantage is even more pronounced. Individuals with strong problem-solving skills are:
● 66% more likely to experience productivity gains from Generative AI.
● 55% less likely to worry about job security.
Problem-solving as a learnable resilience skill is similarly complex. It involves breaking problems down into manageable steps, considering multiple options, making a plan, and persistently working through obstacles.
Understanding workers’ mindset regarding GenAI is essential to shape policies and training programs that empower employees to leverage the technology’s benefits. This research demonstrates that training in the cognitive skills of positivity and problem-solving, as well as the full suite of resilience competencies, will help employees take up the power of GenAI, rather than feel threatened by it.
How positivity and problem-solving work together.
Positivity and problem solving are interrelated skills that continually build on each other, notes Andrew Shatté, Ph.D., meQ Chief Knowledge Officer and Co-founder.
“If you’re a good problem solver, you likely have strong self-efficacy, or a sense of mastery moving forward, no matter what comes your way,” Shatté says. “That means you’ll be more positive and optimistic about the future. In turn, the more capable you are at getting out of negative emotions and into realistic positive emotions, the faster you can get into problem-solving mode.”
In other words, the more employees learn the resilience skill of problem-solving, the more positive they become. The more skill in positivity employees have, the more likely they are to counter a sense of threat and get to problem-solving.
When both skills are present, they reinforce each other in a virtuous circle, generating cognitive thrust away from anxiety, insecurity, and resistance. Employees trained in these two skills are more likely to achieve lift off toward maximizing their knowledge and use of GenAI.
We can think of GenAI at work as a jigsaw puzzle. Employees must be able to understand and fit the pieces together even as the picture quickly changes and grows. In this effort, positivity and problem-solving are the most productive and protective cognitive skills to train in our employees — as long as they are together.
Dr Shatté continues: “People need to be able to adjust and pivot constantly with this technology. But that much agile problem-solving will grind people down, and they’ll hit change fatigue unless they also learn the resilience skill of positivity. You need both.”
How to build cognitive skills across the workforce
1. Get every person responsible for finding and developing talent on board with the importance of these skills. Your talent acquisition and development teams need first to understand why specific cognitive skills are non-negotiable for GenAI success. They then need effective tools to continually identify and build skills across diverse employee populations. GenAI isn’t going anywhere. In fact, 72% of CEOs plan on investing in GenAI tools in 2024, per KPMG. Present and future workforces must have the right skills to rise to the challenge, or they’ll end up slow-walking the tech to failure.
2. Assess your workforce’s current cognitive skills. The only way to know the state of positivity and problem-solving in your workforce is to measure it. A comprehensive, clinically validated psych-cognitive skills assessment will let you see which units in your organization are most resilient and ready to lead on GenAI, and which may be more prone to feelings of anxiety, insecurity, and resistance. Such assessments also give you data on the psycho-cognitive risks and opportunities in your population. Subsequent analysis reveals how to fix or build on, respectively, for improved business performance.
3. Deliver targeted training, support, and change management strategies to empower all workers. Once you have a map of your workforce’s cognitive skills, you can develop and deploy the training programs precisely suited to your people’s needs. For example, say a clinically validated assessment shows your sales managers are low in the resilience skill of positivity, at a time when the organization is rolling out a critical new product feature. You can swiftly move to help your managers learn and practice this skill. Such support for resilience skill development is miles beyond a Zoom pep talk or a surprise pizza lunch; it is simple but impactful mental skills training for measurably better performance, especially in periods of disruption.
As business leaders, we have to get these cognitive skills into our companies. It’s not a choice. As Deloitte notes, “We are in the first inning of a thousand-inning game and there’s so much to be figured out.” Those who don’t build workforce-wide positivity and problem-solving will end up with a graveyard of dead AI tools and employees more likely to run from any threat. The businesses that do build these workforce skills will rise up and figure out not only how to engage with GenAI, but how to make it great.
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Jan Bruce is a disruptor, entrepreneur and force for growth. Recognizing the science of resilience as the new essential for human and organizational capability, Jan co-founded meQuilibrium (meQ), the #1 digital platform to deliver resilience at scale to workforces globally.
Jan was early to recognize that in a world of accelerating change, workforce emotional wellbeing, adaptive capacity and a growth orientation would become mission critical for employees and organizations. This insight led Jan to found meQ in 2011, the first SaaS-based cognitive performance platform, integrating the science of resilience with advanced technology making it possible to predict workforce risk, prepare global workforces with personalized solutions and propel employees and organizations to growth.
Under Jan’s leadership, meQ has proven the measurable impact of its resilience-building solution on identifying and mitigating workforce behavioral health and performance challenges during extreme disruption.
Prior to meQ, Jan had experience in all facets of digital and print media, from brand management, marketing and ad sales to content creation and circulation/customer acquisition. In 2002, Jan signed on as the body+soul’s chief executive officer and led a round of funding to re-launch the business at a valuation of $2 million. Eighteen months later, she sold the company to Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. (MSLO) for a 400% return on investment. Prior to that, Jan served as CEO of Integrative Medicine Communications, a content development and licensing company and the leading digital brand in science-based complementary medicine.
Jan is a recognized resilience and workplace behavioral health and technology subject matter authority. She has been a keynote speaker and/or a panelist at many conferences including pre-eminent employer health and wellbeing events. She is a co-author of the book meQuilibrium: 14 Days to Cooler, Calmer, and Happier, and is a contributor to Forbes on Leadership.
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