💡 Quick take
<aside>
🌐
AI is not a silver bullet. It is an amplifier. As a VP People or CHRO you set the strategy, the guardrails, the operating model, and the culture that turns AI into commercial outcomes through your people. Start with behaviours and strategy, then level up skills and technology.
</aside>
Outcomes to aim for
- Faster, higher quality decisions in hiring, org design, performance, and compensation.
- A safer, more capable organisation that learns in public and improves every week.
- A People function that speaks in commercial outcomes, not activity.
Role reset; then and now
| Focus |
Yesterday |
Today |
| Decision speed |
Monthly and quarterly cycles |
Weekly and daily cycles, with safe automation |
| Value story |
Cost centre and compliance |
Growth lever, risk reduction, and margin development |
| Data model |
Static HRIS reports |
Live skills, performance, and cost models joined to revenue and risk |
| AI stance |
Ad hoc pilots |
Portfolio of high-impact use cases with guardrails and SLAs |
| Leadership stance |
Policy owner |
Product owner, coach, and storyteller for AI in work |
Part 1 - Behaviours that scale
✅ Anchor this
Behaviours drive strategy and tools. If you cannot see the behaviour, you cannot scale the capability.
Core behaviours
- Context first
Start with the business model, unit economics, and risk. Translate People decisions into revenue, margin, cash, and risk language.
- Commercial creativity
Generate options that improve both employee experience and EBIT. Use constraints as a design brief.
- Critical thinking
Interrogate assumptions. Separate fact, opinion, and inference. Ask what evidence would change your mind.
- Relentless clarity
Make the next step obvious. Write crisp one-pagers, not vague strategy decks.
- Speed with safety
Ship in small slices, capture learning, and add controls. No big-bang transformations.
- Coaching and enablement
Teach leaders to think with AI, not just use AI. Model good prompts, good questions, and good judgement.