Rolling out ChatGPT to Operations

March 10th 2023

(Elain’s note on March 20th: Click here for an updated list of AI productivity tools, including ChatGPT, and their use cases)

 

ChatGPT has created a hit. While we are busy figuring out use cases specific to our jobs, there is no question we want to ride the wave.

In the COO Stories, together with Luke Streeter, COO & co-founder of Flinder, we have come up with the following use cases for Operational Teams – so far. The list will clearly be adding as times go.

• improving writing (and I found it very useful to reiterate requests, e.g. “rewrite this paragraph in a professional but light way. Correct typos. Make it shorter, but only slightly shorter”
• translation (interestingly for English->German ChatGPT feels quite much better than Deepl, Google Translate and Notion AI)
• using it to explain things in a different way e.g. we asked ChatGPT to explain a tech team roles as though building a house, brings to life for those non-tech types to understand the different roles.
• research – and this is how it is different from a normal search
  • research in an aggregate format e.g. “number of employees in these 15 companies (e.g. competitors)”
  • initial research on a topic e.g. I wanted to put something together on different learning styles and how this may impact users of financial info, for example if you are a visual learner, for financial reporting graphs and images will be better etc. this once is obvious of course but what about Kinesthetic learners etc… Also good at text book answers from accounting technical – gives the initial research which can then be applied.
• writing up from bullets and research e.g. job description, meeting summary, blog posts, emails, articles, news letter. You can add your tone of voice, opinion etc. to this but it gets the base facts in there for you!

 

3 common HR mistakes very early start-ups make that fxxk up their future growth

 

1. Mix up leaders and experts (strong Individual Contributors aka ICs)

In the early stages of a start-up, it’s easy to mistake experts for managers. An expert could be a technical genius, or a star salesperson, but this doesn’t necessarily mean they are good leaders. Promoting an expert to a leadership position that they’re not up for or ready for can cause problems such as poor management, a lack of direction, and low team morale.

To avoid this, companies should provide a (clear, ideally) leader progression path and a clear expert progression path. This will ensure that strong ICs see their future in the company without the need of becoming a manager or leader.

2. Negotiate salary throughout the year

In very early stage start-ups, it is common to negotiate salary throughout the year, especially when a team member receives another offer. This could work for some time, until this comes up too often and distracts founding team or managers from their work too much. When this happens, it is likely time to fix the fundamental structural problem.

Start-ups should conduct salary reviews on a regular basis. This will provide a transparent and fair compensation system that team members can rely on and help the company maintain focus on its core business activities.

3. Promote someone with “recognition” as the biggest objective

Recognizing and rewarding employees is essential for building a positive company culture and motivating the team. However, promoting someone solely based on the desire for recognition (e.g. for some very successful projects, for an increased scope of responsibilities) rather than their capabilities and experience almost for sure create a bad manager.

To avoid this, start-ups should focus on promoting individuals who have the skills, experience, and qualifications to succeed in a leadership role. A clear promotion path or career progression framework should be established to avoid promoting individuals solely based on recognition.

 

The role of COO and COS in Organisational Performance

 

I had the pleasure to moderate a wonderful panel at CONference 2022 organised by Operations Nation: Organisational Performance: As an Ops Leader, are you supposed to be more of an Aggregator or Influencer of metrics?

Full replay is available on Hopin.