Assessment Diaries
I nearly lost my sense of humour this week after getting my ankle caught up in vendor pond weed, or put simply an overload of people-doing-assessment-badly and the associated marketing BS. I am not vendor bashing, quite the opposite, I´m trying to vendor venerate, which is definitely possible in the parlours of some brilliant next gen assessment vendors, but there aren't many of them about (sad face). After 25 years working in assessment, learning and development it is difficult to take seriously the assessment ideas that come from folk who have never set foot in the world of assessment. Having a few psychometric brains in these vendor cupboards to justify the validity of these overinflated promises is actually worrying, not reassuring. Do these guys actually know how difficult it is to develop and deploy accurate assessment methodologies that will meet the demands of the future workplace? If so, the value add from these vendors would be seriously changing the world of work, rather than getting carried away with big marketing stunts emblazoned on lapels and sponsored coffee cups?
The problem, and you don't need to be a liberal leftie to know it, is the marketing BS around AI and next gen workplace assessment is in danger of actually killing the opportunity for us mere mortals to be curious and learn what we need to know so we can equip ourselves to readily identify the shit hot innovations in this space and get them implemented asap. The opportunity to literally blow our minds about the way we think about human capability development is so huge that we need need need to be talking about these stickies right now. Buyers are saturated with the hokus pokus of next gen with or without AI workplace assessment tech promises that never deliver, tabloid journalism that quote % from cat and dog surveys, let alone the headache of where it all fits together. So in short, how the hell are organisations meant to navigate their way to bona fide predictive or generative AI and next gen workplace assessment solutions amongst the throng of sexy snake oil dispensers.
It's clearer than clear that we need to spend time focussing on the opportunity to build awareness about how predictive or generative AI and next gen workplace assessment tech actually works, how they compliment each other, how they frighten each other, and us, so they can go the distance in changing the world of work for the better and to deliver on creating access and opportunity for those who are often way way brighter and more capable than the privileged care to imagine. Also, and maybe more importantly to some, it's going to blow your bottom-line-mind when you start joining this stuff up and seeing your ROIs. But, for now, the pond is running out of oxygen fast. There's too much creepy weed lurking around the goodwill principles and practices that underlie real human capability development.
Guru Sethupathy, FairNow AI , puts it so well when he asks questions about responsibility, accountability, fairness and transparency in AI. These are no-brainers if you come from the world of academia or assessment where protocols are accepted as norms, not options, to ensure standards, create credibility and trust in work that you are developing/disseminating. The business world has a lot to learn from academia (and vice versa). Both need to shake each other up a bit and find that handshake that will progress-the-progress that is dependent on these types of collaborations.
To start the ball rolling and to action this, I´ll be running next gen workplace assessment clinics once a month (watch this space). Bring me your assessment pain points, buyer queries and questions. Otherwise, join me and Hung Lee and Robert Newry on November 16th at 2pm BST to engage further.
And before I sign off, let us remember, as Chad Sowash said to me recently, to “focus on the positives…”
*Sethupathy, Guru. (2023), The AI Guru Talks Regulations. Chad and Cheese Podcast 1st October 2023. Available at https://www.chadcheese.com/post/the-ai-guru-talks-regulations (accessed 8th October 2023)