When I joined the workforce in the late 90s, learning and development was mostly instructor-led sessions. Yes, this is likely one of the oldest forms of learning, where an instructor in the front of a room teaches you about the topic you want to know. In those times they would give out a binder full of paper, a workbook, and a notebook as tools to help you reinforce the learnings. This practice of instructor led still exists today and, while less common given technology, is still very effective. It’s just now done at scale with Zoom. I remember one time at FreshDirect we did leadership training and when I met with one of the supervisors in our warehouse about something, I noticed that an inch of dust had settled on his binder. The point is that he had never picked up or referenced the information in the binder since the training. More on this later.

Next came the CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory). It's an optical disc that stores data that can't be changed or erased. You would get a package in the mail with a CD-ROM that you would load into a computer. It was the pre-internet version of software. The CD-ROM would be interactive, with various screens that you can click, images, and videos. It would also include quizzes and was the first version of having to take a test to move on to the next stage of learning. The CD-ROM was somewhat effective, interactive, scalable and profitable in learning and development. Anyone computer with a CD-ROM drive can be used to take your course or learn without a live human instructor.

Next came the internet and mobile, which changed learning and development forever. You can deliver learning any where and at any time in the world. The scale and efficiency that the internet brought to learning was massive, and it quickly became ubiquitous. At that time, if you had internet access and a computer you can learn anything. The internet era ushered in learning on the internet, e-courses, and, eventually bite-size learning modules. The internet also allows instructor-led training to expand from a room with desks to a virtual classroom. You can deliver video, interactive sessions, e-learning, or instructor-led courses - the possibilities were limitless.

The one area that was always challenging in learning development was the actual application and operationalization of the learning. Did the training make it into your employees’ daily worklives or did their “outie” show up and forget everything their “innie” learned (see Apple’s TV Show Severance). A way to really drive the learning into daily operations was to have the employees practice and role play. I am a basketball coach, so while we teach form, basketball sets, and various elements, the players must figure out how to actually bring these things into the game. So you practice and attempt to create muscle memory.

While instructor-led sessions (in-person or virtual) would allow for group discussion and, in some cases, a role-play scenario, it was always challenging since you had to role-play with the teacher or a colleague - can you say awkward! An introduction to a company called Mursion, really peaked my excitement. Mursion would allow folks to role-play a scenario, like how to apply Radical Candor, in a safe environment with an avatar via Zoom. Since this was pre-AI, I wasn’t surprised to learn that the avatar on the Zoom session was a real person trained in role-playing for that scenario. While this was cool, it wasn’t cheap and really scalable.

So when Open AI launched the Advanced Voice Feature, I immediately saw the opportunity. Everyone who paid for Open AI Pro or had an enterprise account would now have access to a live coach via voice 24/7. You can click on the Advanced Voice feature and get access to a coach that has almost limitless knowledge and frameworks. Then I started playing around and saw its potential as a co-pilot or role-playing assistant for leaders.

You can prompt it to role play and act like an employee who has performance issues but is often combative and doesn’t respond to coaching well. You are their leader, and you have to deliver negative feedback. You’d like the AI to analyze your session and provide you feedback on the things you did well and things you should change. The result is a safe and fantastic experience where you and your leaders can role-play with AI. The AI voice will also bring the same tone of the employee as you prompt. In the end, the AI provides insights into what you did well and what you need to improve.

If you click on the link here, you can see the test, which I posted to the leadership channel at Suzy to illustrate the power of this technology. So go ahead and try it out, have fun, and write to me about your experiences. Think WAY outside the box like an angry customer, a vendor you are negotiating with, or maybe even a meeting with your manager to ask for a raise.

I look forward to seeing how you use Advanced Voice in your daily work.