Bloomquist, Emily

The increased use of intelligent automation (IA) is challenging organisations to rethink their business models and focus on agility, consumer centricity, innovation and operations excellence. Recognising the global impact of COVID-19, rapid changes in technology, data-driven decision-making and competition for differentiated talent, the Department of Management Engineering and Consulting (ME&C) prioritised the next skilling of talent to proactively prepare for the increased use of IA. This paper discusses our strategic approach, best practice interventions and diversity of methods to prepare ME&C staff. In alignment with Mayo Clinic’s new strategy to the year 2030, which is a catalyst for staff to develop the skills needed to transform healthcare, ME&C leveraged the 70-20-10 model for learning and development. Various next skilling interventions were adopted to disseminate knowledge and accelerate skill building across the IA continuum of discovery, translation and application. Commercial digital offerings were used, and various Mayo Clinic offerings (eg a series of artificial intelligence [AI] seminars, a journal club and an IA community of practice) were introduced. A crowdsourcing website was created to promote learnings focused on industry insights on AI, robotics, cloud computing, digital transformation and platform scalability. ME&C staff engaged with multidisciplinary teams on the execution of IA strategic priorities. Through diverse interventions, ME&C validated the importance of experimenting, learning from experiences (inside and outside Mayo Clinic) and developing reusable assets such as frameworks and playbooks. While engaging in initiatives that covered a constellation of technologies, staff learnt about the applied value of emerging technologies, business implications and considerations for consumer and staff experiences. We believe that our project will inform other organisations in their quest to build IA capabilities to accelerate business transformation while developing talent.