Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Moraine Park's Talent Talk. I'm your host, Mindy Boynton, associate dean of customized training here at Moraine Park. Today I'm excited to be joined by two incredible guests. Jason Mathwig, the industry alliance director at New north, and Rebecca Deschane, the Vice President of Talent development at New North. Today we'll be diving into some fascinating topics around talent development and industry partnerships. So let's get started to kick things off. Could you please share the story behind starting the new Digital alliance and its core mission?
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Yeah. First off, thanks for having us here today. Really excited to be here with you and share a little bit about what we got going on here in our New north region and as part of the new Digital Alliance.
So really, the alliance was created a while back, almost 10 years ago now. It was created by a result of some local industry leaders that were truly voicing a concern about the widening gap in the supply of technology talent. So all the way back in 2015, there was a study done by a new era, the Northeast Wisconsin Education Resource alliance, where they pooled about 40 employers, almost 100 school districts throughout our region and found that there really was a large shortage of IT talent gap, almost 1300 professionals here in our region. And that gap was expected to grow by almost 3,000 people by 2021.
There's a large loss of wages in the region.
86%, they said, of high school students surveyed were not interested in going into technology. So really they were like, what can we do to make sure that we're meeting this gap? Because by 10 years down the road, there's going to be that shortage. So what can we do? And so it started off with eight industry leaders that really pooled their resources together to try to figure out how can we make a difference and move the needle. And so they initially hired a director to lead these initiatives and they created what was initially was called the New IT Alliance. Again, like I said, almost 10 years ago, their first big initiative that they did was they launched their first ever IT focused job and career event called New Connect it and that was actually hosted up at Lambeau Field.
Some other initiatives that they did originally were creating a monthly newsletter called the Tech Upload. They did tech talks with local colleges in our region over the years. Of course, things have morphed and changed over the last 10 years. We are now called the New Digital alliance and they changed that here a few years ago to really encompass a broader range of roles within the digital and IT industry. So it wasn't just solely Focused on it.
And while we still focus on the attraction of future IT talents and digital talent in our region, we now also have a large focus on the support of and encouragement of innovative thinking of the current digital and IT workforce throughout our region. Through Friday of programming and events here in our 18 county region in Northeast Wisconsin.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Wow, that's incredible that you've been going for 10 years already. It feels like you just got started. I know you mentioned you have newsletters and career fairs, but for individuals considering joining or maybe investing in the new Digital alliance, what other key resources or benefits can they expect that they would access in getting involved with the new Digital Alliance?
[00:03:30] Speaker B: Yeah, great question. So really the largest benefit that I talk to a lot of our investors and companies throughout the region is the networking opportunities with like minded IT peers, area leaders, other vendors, educators, students, but also really the opportunity to foster that growth both professionally but also personally. You know, within the organization. You know, of course I mentioned some of the things that are already happening, but we also have monthly IT and cybersecurity roundtables that we host. Those are virtual, those are free opportunities to attend. We do a partnership with Women in Technology. We do a digital Leaders conference. That's for investors only. So your invite only event we did start a couple years ago a Tech Summit and it is on AI the last couple years as we'll be talking about today, that's hosted in October during Wisconsin Tech Month. And then also last year we just started our first ever Wisconsin Tech Month kickoff event to really start showcasing all of the Tech Month opportunities that are happening up here in Northeast Wisconsin in the month of October.
[00:04:33] Speaker A: That's great. You definitely have a lot for investors. And as Moraine park has just recently become an investor, we're already seeing some of those, those great benefits. So thank you.
And personally I had the opportunity of being a part of the new AI Cohort. What inspired the creation of that partnership with Microsoft and LinkedIn to create this lear opportunity?
[00:05:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for joining the cohort. We had such a great response to launching our inaugural cohort this past two months ago. I think it was now, but really our relationship with Microsoft goes back a couple years. We're very fortunate in our area to have one of the original Microsoft Tech Spark regions. And that was really Microsoft saying how can we help locally drive these innovations, drive the technology, drive opportunities for people to be connected to those areas.
So through that partnership we've been very engaged at New north on how do we grow that ecosystem across our 18 county region as well, you may remember when Covid hit in 2020, there was a lot of closures, there was a lot of shutdowns. And at that time, Microsoft came to us and said, how do we provide these upskilling opportunities? We know that are in LinkedIn quickly to individuals that have been most deeply impacted by that, that are losing their jobs at the hotels, at the restaurants and aren't able to find that work because you can't work from home at a restaurant. Right. So we worked with Microsoft and Generator and we launched what is now called the Microsoft or the Generator Skills Accelerator. And that has gone from being a northeast Wisconsin initial response to that rapid skilling opportunity to now serving across the nation. They are a strong part. So Generator is a strong partner with Microsoft and working in different communities to again provide individuals with those rapid scaling opportunities that are going to help them to grow in their careers or to find those new careers that help them advance.
And as we have been going through, we know AI is a huge question about it and there's something new every day, but also it's a lot of overwhelming information that's coming out. You're drinking from a fire hose. So as we were looking at these different opportunities, how do we leverage kind of what was built through the Generator model to be able to bring that to our local partners? Right. Like people serving in nonprofits who don't have a dedicated IT team that can help them kind of navigate what that looks like. Bringing those folks together to create this cohort really allowed us to build a community of learners and gave them that opportunity to get started in a place where they could. Right. I'm going to be dedicated to starting this, to following through and to going forward from there.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: That's incredible. You mentioned you had a great response. Can you share about how many companies participated, the types of sessions and the kind of the format and what, what do participants get upon completion?
[00:07:52] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you for that. We had 20 different organizations that participated with us and 32 total.
So it was a six week course. People joined and did some asynchronous learning on their own, following through on the LinkedIn modules. And then we hosted a lunch and learn opportunity for each of those six weeks tied to that learning for that week. So being able to bring in those industry experts to be able to have that conversation and dive a little deeper into what was in the LinkedIn learning modules really helped. Some of the key areas we covered were right, what is generative of AI for business leaders and how do we keep our team on the bleeding edge of AI as LinkedIn likes to call it.
What are those AI challenges and those opportunities for leaders? Integrating generative AI into your strategy and building that AI aptitude for your organization is really, really important. Whether you think you're using it or don't think you're using it, it's out there and we're going forward with it. And then those who sign up and are connected in through their LinkedIn Prof. Can earn a professional certificate from LinkedIn and Microsoft that pops up as a badge on your LinkedIn profile. So people can see that you've gone through this training and you're on the start to that path of AI mastery.
[00:09:19] Speaker A: Excellent. You mentioned keeping up with AI is like drinking through a fire hose. And after going through the program, I can completely relate to that. So how do you see this program helping organizational leaders navigate AI adoption and implementation?
[00:09:37] Speaker C: You know, it's a place to start. So when you're seeing all of this information come through and you're like, I don't know where I'm going to start to learn on that, being able to provide that kind of starting line for them to say, here's what we have.
They get it on their calendars now. They're dedicating that time. Right. They're making it an intentional opportunity to do the learning.
But it also is something, it creates the opportunity where you are committed to doing the learning instead of pushing it off to the back burner when you have all of those other responsibilities that are coming your way. So it helps keep you accountable to completing that training and being able to move forward with those opportunities.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: You're so right. Just getting started, taking that first step is often the hardest step and not being afraid of it. Right. There's so many people who think AI is here to take jobs and I really think that fear can hold people back. So just understanding the foundations and starting off with being a part of a group of people who are all learning and getting started together, creating that community is such a powerful thing that you've done.
So again, why do you think it's so critical for leaders to understand AI and how can they use this to start integrating into their decision making processes?
[00:11:04] Speaker B: Yeah, really. You know, AI is not just a tech issue anymore. You know, everyone sees it as tech, but it's really, it's a leadership issue. And understanding that AI is critical for leaders because it's really changing how their business truly operates from a competitive advantage to innovation. They need to truly grasp how can this help solve some of our problems and if not you know, they could potentially risk falling behind their peers, you know, with customer experience and overall competitiveness.
You talked about employers and employees were worried about taking their job. I think that's something that leaders need to figure out, that it's not there to take over anyone's job. It might shift how your employees work, but really engaging with them and figuring out, okay, how can we do your job a little bit different? How can we take some of the things that you're doing that are taking time away from your innovative thinking and use AI to, to move some of those things so that they can happen quicker and you can get back to more strategic and innovative thinking.
So there's a lot of different types of things that leaders need to start to think about from an overall level one, as well as thinking about not how can I force AI into my organization, but what are some of the pain points and issues that I'm having? Can AI be a tool to fix that? I think that's also another big issue where companies, AI is the big thing, like we gotta get AI and we gotta get AI and well, AI might not be the right, right tool. So don't force it into your work, into your organization if it's not the right thing. So it's almost starting on the back end of what's the problem that we're having? How can AI potentially help us with that? So really it's taking that step back that leaders need to focus on of, of how can AI potentially solve these problems, not how can I get AI forced into my company.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: I love how you kind of flip the narrative on that with AI, That's a great way to look at it.
And for organizations that are just getting started with AI, which is many of us, besides getting involved with your cohort, what else would you say is a first step that they should take to ensure a successful integration? Besides thinking about that problem that they're trying to solve, are there any other considerations, tools, best practices that you would recommend for companies considering just taking that first step?
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say play with it. That's kind of the first thing is, is whether you use, you know, Copilot or chatgpt or there's, you know, there's so many others that are out there. Those are kind of the two main ones that everyone talks about. But AI is, takes the shape of so many different things. So just play with it and find out what works for you, what doesn't work, you know, it's nothing that's going to be implemented overnight. So really, just to start Trying things. And what works for, for you individually and also what works for you is your organization and your company.
I think making sure that at an organizational level, having those conversations on policy and how can your employees use it, not don't use it, but how can you use it ethically and responsibly so you're not putting your company behind the eight ball or you're not as an individual, as an employee, hurting yourself as well. So making sure that you're talking at a strategic leadership level of what are we doing to make sure that we're thinking about this as an organization as a whole and making sure we're staying compliant and not putting any proprietary information out there and whatnot, but still encouraging your employees to use it, but making sure you're thinking in terms of policy and procedure when it comes to AI because it's a tool, just like a lot of other tools that we use in companies. And you had to at one point come up with those plans for those. So how do we start thinking about that and encouraging our employees to do some research? The last thing that I'll say is not every company will have this, but if you have that one person in your company that's truly passionate about AI, and I'm finding this as I talk to more organizations that they, they find that person and they say, go, you're that person. You're going to be that, that lead for our company and really give them the, the resources and time for them to explore and try and figure out how can we potentially use this with our company. And so find those people that are passionate about that topic because they're the ones that are going to find the innovative ways to use it versus forcing someone that isn't necessarily passionate about your employees saying, here you need to use this, but find that person that truly is passionate about it because they're going to learn all the different ways that that potentially they could use it within your organization.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: That's excellent, excellent tips. The only thing I have found is also just starting to have conversations with my team because what I have found is many people are already using it. Even having conversations with my kids, I found, wow, my son's already using this in ways that I had no idea. Also listening to other podcasts and then as part of the cohort I had learned, you know, creating cross functional committees. I myself got on a cross functional committee here at Moraine park where we started an AI cross functional committee. And it's amazing what I've learned from other departments, things they're doing and using and learning from their best practices. So something I not only learned from the cohort, but that we had been doing here at Moraine Park. So great tips. On the flip side, what are some common AI pitfalls? Maybe some things that leaders should avoid doing when it comes to AI?
[00:16:38] Speaker C: Yeah, great question. And I think part of the challenge with AI is there's this little bit of fear of the unknown.
So going back to what you said of having those conversations, understanding where your teams are at, who's already using it, how are they using it, how can you share that information and how can you help bring along those who maybe aren't using it yet or are afraid to start using it for whatever reason that is is really important. But I think Jason mentioned a little bit about this too.
When you jump into AI without that clear reason as an organization, just saying it's trendy, it's great, let's go, let's use it. And not taking the time to think about how is it going to align with your business objectives so it doesn't become a distraction to the work that you're doing, right. You want to make sure that it is there to help and assist and to move it along. So understand where it can help you solve those problems, have those conversations with your employees. Most of them are probably already using some form of IT in some way. Understand how they're using it to help with those business practices and how you can continue to go forward. The other thing that we hear a lot about is really the data quality and understanding, right? Good data in, good data out, bad data in, bad data out. So understanding when you're using AI, it's only as good as the data that is being trained on. So how are you making sure that you have those protocols that you're setting up those expectations of things that you want to make sure are there, how you need to invest in that data governance piece that goes with it. You know, we at New north, we're a small team, so we've been trying to figure out in our own roles how does this best help us, how do we move this along? And one thing we discovered through again some cross functional conversations were how do we assess some of these different spreadsheets that we have for site selection, how do we assess what these spreadsheets are and can we combine them in? So there's only one spreadsheet to have to go in? I get from different organizations, different things, different information. And as we're thinking like, yeah, absolutely, AI is going to be able to help us do it we quickly discovered that there was a barrier to the data in the way the data was in the spreadsheets. So if you have a column that's marked first name, you know, F with a capital first with a capital F spelled out name with a capital N spelled out in one document and the other document has it as F name. Those two things don't talk to each other. So you have to be able to understand why the importance behind that data procedures are in place. And that can help you kind of avoid some of those pitfalls of, well, it's not working for what we wanted, so we're just not going to use it is one way that we would talk about that. Human oversight. Right. AI is only as good as AI is and AI is learning itself. So making sure I had this conversation, my son's in sixth grade as well, and oh, I'm going to use ChatGPT. And I said, that's great, buddy. It's going to help give you a great foundation. And then you need to go back and make sure that the information is accurate, that the information is truthful. You need to make sure that it aligns with how you talk and how you're going to be sharing that information. So there's still a human element to AI and. And don't lose sight of that. Right. Respect where that is and how people can bring that together.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Absolutely. I think that's a great point. It's going to save a lot of time, but it still needs that human element of spot checking. What other advice would you give to leaders just beginning their AI journey? Is there anything else that you would share to leaders who are just getting started?
[00:20:33] Speaker B: Yeah, we've talked a little bit about this already. You know, just the just play with it and get started and try things and you're going to fail and things aren't going to work. Even to what Rebecca just said about you're going to figure out why are these two documents not talking to one another. And it's something as simple as how you have the descriptions and whatnot. So just kind of going in and playing, but kind of going back to when you're working with your employees. Again, it's really education and finding a way eventually. How do you educate and train your employees? Again, it's a service, it's a product just like any other, you know, product that you're using within your company. You know, HR at some point had to be trained on the HR software that you're using. You know, this is going to be no different is how do you start to train your workers, your employees on how to use it? You know, and as you mentioned too, they're using it already. So that goes back to that. Don't tell them not to use it because what are they going to do? They're going to go home and they're going to use it anyways on maybe on their personal device. You might as well train them properly in how to do that and how you want to and how to do it ethically and properly and making sure that there's no bias and obviously security issues, things of that nature. So I think education is going to be a good important component of that. And then lastly, just start small and scale. You know, sometimes I think people, they need to do this major big thing and look at what we did. But really just start small and work your way up and find out what works and what doesn't work. And you know, don't bite off the whole elephant in one bite. You know, start small and scale up as you see fit.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Yeah. And I would add too, as you having those conversations with your people to let them know it's going to be okay if they stumble along the way. We're all learning through the AI process and I think sometimes we're scared to make a mistake or we're scared to fail in those certain situations. And AI is a windy road and things are going to change almost immediately. So just having the conversations that say we want to test it, we know sometimes it might not always go the way we had hoped. But how do you learn from those situations? How do you better prompt AI to do the work that you want it to do and create that culture of fail forward and being able to be mindful that you're learning from that process as you go forward.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Can you share any success stories now that you've completed the first cohort or any exciting plans that you have for future cohorts?
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I wouldn't say I really have any success stories right at this time. Hopefully maybe that'll be something to come down the road since we just kind of completed the first cohort here a few weeks ago. But that'd be great to hopefully share some success stories. But we are currently planning our second cohort here. We actually are live with registration for that right now. And that starts here, beginning of April. It'll be the same model as we just did here earlier this year, but are looking to do a second cohort. We'll have some of the same speakers that we had during the lunch and learns and then another unique Thing that we're also working on is partnering with Menominee Nation and offering it for employees of the Menominee Nation. And that was also part of kind of our grant opportunity we got with Microsoft as well. But those are some of the upcoming things we have specifically with this training.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And I would follow up to the cohort learning and being able to share what they've learned. And I know we had one participant who shared he better understood how to prompt. And that really is key when you're talking about AI, is asking it the right question to get the information that you want it to provide for you. So he shared that it took a couple iterations, but as he figured out that it's like talking to a toddler and you are literally going to give a step by step directions for what you want it to do, he was able to go through years worth of data in a matter of hours instead of a matter of days to be able to dive deep into what he wanted to do that assessment on. So instead of having to do it manually, instead of having all these multiple things, learning how to do the right prompt helped accelerate the ability to analyze that data and then be able to use it for development of some new curriculum.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Well, I know here at Moraine park, after I went through the program, our talent development leaders reached out to me and said, was that of value to you? Do you feel like that was helpful to you in your leadership journey? And I said, absolutely. And we're exploring, looking at some of those modules for our leadership team across the board. So hopefully a success story that you can add to the docket in the future.
In addition to the AI cohort, are there any other upcoming technology related events or initiatives that you're able to share with us coming up around the New north region?
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. At the beginning, as you may recall, I mentioned the monthly virtual roundtables that we have. We do alternating IT topics every other month and then followed by cyber security topic, the one coming up this month. It's kind of a fun play on March Madness. We have a gentleman coming in speaking about how to utilize data to help pick your bracket. But then he's also going to relate it to how can you use data in terms of business that you do. So kind of a fun little play on March Madness. So if you're looking for a way to maybe bolster your bracket as you're filling that out here, that'll be a good opportunity to attend that. All those are listed off of our new Digital alliance website, Amplify OSHKOSH which is also one of our kind of community partners, if you're familiar with them. They have their annual event coming up here in April. Amplify it, which is going to be on artificial intelligence is is their big topic. Their theme is what's next in AI? That's going to be held on April 8th at the Culver welcome center in Oshkosh. That's on the UW Oshkosh campus. Microsoft is actually hosting a virtual series coming up called AI in Motion, Empowering Every Organization. And that series is it will feature non profit leaders from across the US that are dedicated to ensuring that person, organization, community is left behind during this rapidly evolving AI economy. Those leaders will discuss things like inclusive learning initiatives, collaborative solutions and driving systemic change. One thing that we're doing also with our new digital alliance that we're actually going to be doing here, starting a couple weeks, we're going with our fourth cohort of our investor mentorship program. And so that partners up tor from one organization and a mentee from another organization of our investors. It's a three month program that they get to go through. And these are IT leaders specifically. And so they talk about a variety of different topics. They have a plan of work that they work through. And it's a unique thing that's offered because it is across organizations of a mentorship program. And so they're getting, you know, different perspectives. They're able to maybe open up a little bit more because they're not talking to, you know, a supervisor within their own company for that fear of oh my gosh, is this going to get back to me kind of a thing. But really successful program are approaching almost 20 folks in that program here, this upcoming cohort. So those are some of the bigger initiatives. Of course we have lots of things that are happening all the time, but some of the bigger ones that we have coming up here this spring.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Awesome. And we have been working with New Era as well. So last year we collaborated to host the first AI for Higher Education conference and had a conversation with our New Era leaders and they're very excited to be able to bring that back. So we're exploring opportunities to be able to bring that specifically for our higher ed partner to be able to explore more of those practical applications. How are they using it? How are students using it? How do you balance those ethics for it? Probably timing a fall time frame for that, but we're excited to be able to continue working and collaborating with New Era to bring this topic forward as well.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: Well, you certainly have a lot of exciting things coming up and I know that you will also be a featured speaker coming up up at Moraine park at our Business forum which will be held on May 8 from 8 to 11 here at the Moraine Park Technical College Fond du Lac Conference center on how AI is shaping the future of work. We appreciate you supporting that event along with a panel of speakers from Mercury, Marine Alliance Manufacturing, Sargento and Grande Cheese. That is a free event that we'll be hosting for businesses here in the area. So we appreciate your support on that as well.
So how can listeners stay connected or get involved with initiatives and projects that we've discussed with you today?
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, you know, a lot of our stuff is all on our website, the new digitalalliance.org you can find all of our events, our own events that are out there, but we also list a lot of other regional events. So if Moraine park is offering an event or other organizations throughout our region and even sometimes statewide, I try to do list as much as I can out there that I know. So it's a really kind of a great one stop shop to see what it and digital events that are happening in our region out there.
Information on what it means to be an investor, what are some of those benefits that our investors are getting and being an investor with our new Digital alliance, but a great way to at least, you know, learn about what are these things happening. I mentioned at the very beginning we have our Tech Upload, which is our monthly newsletter that has a lot of great information that comes out monthly links to our events and other opportunities that are happening throughout our region. So if anything else, that's a good place to sign up for that newsletter. So you're staying up to date on a variety of things that are happening throughout our region region.
[00:30:02] Speaker A: Well, thank you for tuning in to today's episode of Moraine Park Talent Talk. A big thank you to Jason Mathwig and Rebecca Deschane for sharing their insights today. If you enjoyed the conversation, be sure to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes. Until next time, I'm Mindy Boynton and we'll catch you on the next episode.
