If AI makes a team 20% more productive, what should we do with the 20%?
Some would say the obvious answer is headcount reduction. Maybe that’s the right answer in some situations. Every organization has different goals, different financial realities, and different obligations to shareholders, employees, and customers. But why do we often jump to that answer before we’ve asked a more interesting question?
What if layoffs weren’t an option?
What would we do with the capacity?
Have you ever worked with a team that was overstaffed? Me either.
Teams seem stretched. There is always a project that hasn’t started yet, documentation that hasn’t been written, a process that everyone knows could be improved, or a skill that people need time to develop. Managers talk about coaching employees but spend much of their time reacting to whatever is on fire this week. Employees talk about innovation while trying to keep up with meetings, email, and deadlines. Important things are frequently delayed, not because they aren’t valuable, but because there never seems to be enough time.
Productivity and capacity are actually not the same thing. We often talk about productivity as though it exists solely to increase output. More work completed. More tickets closed. More customers served. More revenue generated. Capacity feels different. Capacity creates choices.
If a team suddenly had 20% more capacity, perhaps they would produce 20% more. Perhaps they should. But maybe some of that capacity would be invested in making the team stronger. Maybe people would finally take the vacations they’ve been postponing. Maybe managers would have time to coach instead of command. Maybe there would be space to improve processes before they become problems, or to learn skills before they become urgent.
Maybe you can take a step back and re-build the team as it should have been done the first time, before you got too busy doing your job to do it right.
What interests me isn’t whether AI can create the 20%. In many cases, it totally can. What interests me is how organizations choose to use it.
The question may not be whether AI makes us more efficient.
The question may be whether it gives us the opportunity to become more capable.
If layoffs weren’t an option, how would we use the capacity?
The answer probably says more about our organizations than the technology itself.
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