Project LIFTUP: Leveraging IA for a Future of Turbulence, Uncertainty, and Possibility

As AI and machine learning become more prevalent, it is essential for workers to cultivate judgment and decision-making skills complementary to the reckoning skills of machines.

Project Description

As artificial intelligence and machine learning become more prevalent, it is essential for workers to cultivate judgment and decision-making skills complementary to the reckoning skills of machines in order to meet the needs of and thrive in a 21st-century labor market. Examples of human ‘judgment’ skills include decision making and negotiation under conditions of uncertainty, deliberation, and ethical deliberation. The specific goal of this work is to enhance current workforce training and to identify possible ways in which employers can best support jobseekers from diverse backgrounds in honing job-related negotiation skills through an asset-based approach. Using interviews with diverse workers, the study will analyze the interaction of culture and negotiation, and then leverage the findings to develop authentic materials and curriculum for negotiations training in a workforce development context. The investigators are currently submitting proposals and seeking funding for the next stage of this work.

Read More About Our Negotiation Skills Initiative

Leveraging artificial intelligence and immersive media, we are in the early stages of developing an online negotiation learning experience for underserved peoples. Negotiation is an interaction where the intended output of what two or more parties can do together is better than what they can do alone. How effectively we negotiate impacts the quality of our professional and personal lives and affects important relationships in our community. Even a seemingly small improvement in our persuasive skills can mean the difference between a successful job interview or business deal and one that fails. Studies show that employers are increasingly looking for new hires to have strong judgment skills, which include areas such as negotiation and decision-making under uncertainty. Moreover, cross-cultural studies have illustrated that the appropriate deployment of these skills depends on cultural and situational factors. The interaction between cultural structures and negotiation surfaced in the focus group sessions we hosted with Arab and Afghan members of the Cleveland community. Individuals raised questions which out-of-the-box negotiation curriculum does not fully address, such as, “How do we build trust in a negotiation, especially when Americans might not trust newcomers? How do we welcome the counterparty to engage with us when we’re from a different culture?” To meet this need and lead the way in providing the refugee and asylum-seeking communities the training necessary to fully participate in the US workforce, the Newcomer Navigator Program in partnership with Harvard University’s Next Level Lab seek funding to launch a research design project that would create this first-of-its-kind learning experience for international newcomers.

Resources

IA Via AI: Intelligence Augmentation through Artificial Intelligence (iFEST 2021 presentation)

Between Skills and Success: Developing Workers’ Dispositions for Applying Skills (iLRN 2021 presentation)

News

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