Innovative Work Models for the Future with Liza Adams

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:16)
Welcome back to the show everyone, where we explore how empathy, connection and purpose transform business from the inside out. I'm Stephen, as always with my co-host Mike. A McKinsey report found that companies that redesign work models for agility and adaptability see 30 percent higher performance compared to peers. As artificial intelligence continues to reshape how we work, the question is certainly not whether change will come, but how leaders can create models that empower both human and AI teammates to thrive together. Mike, tell everyone about Liza, our guest today.

**Mike Liwski** (0:55)
Yeah, we definitely have an expert in this area to talk to us today. Yeah, our guest today is none other than Liza Adams. She's an AI advisor, go-to-market strategist as well as being the CEO of Growth Path Partners. Now, with over 20 years as a senior marketing executive at Smartsheet, Juniper Networks, Pure Storage, and Encompass Technologies, Liza brings a really deep expertise in leading through technological shifts, which as we know are happening rapidly in our day. As well, she is recognized in 2024 as one of the 50 CMOs to watch, and was a Pavilion Fractional Advisor of the year finalist. Through Growth Path Partners, she guides executive teams, go-to-market leaders and investors in building a human AI organization that will really achieve measurable performance improvements, which we are so keen on hearing more about that today. As well, her People First AI Forward approach helps teams unlock what is possible through Applied AI Workshops, Strategic Advisory, as well as her popular newsletter, which you may want to sign up for this.
The popular newsletter Applied AI in GTM. Liza, we are so delighted to have you with us today. Welcome to our show.

**Liza Adams** (2:30)
So happy to be here, Mike. Thank you for having me, Stephen.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:34)
That's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to this one. Liza, you've led transformations at multiple companies and been in the middle of them during times of major technological change. What was the moment maybe, or was there a moment when you realized traditional work models would no longer be enough for the future, especially where we're going with AI?

**Liza Adams** (2:56)
Yeah. When people talk about transformations, then I really feel my age.

**Stephen Sakach** (3:01)
Yeah. I've been doing that a lot lately too. I'm like, oh man, what? How many years? How many decades?

**Liza Adams** (3:09)
I don't know, but it's a really good time to be alive. I've gone through internet.
Internet, cloud, mobile, social, SaaS, and then now AI, right? So I have felt the whiplash all the way through. But transformation truly has been a common thread in my career. As they say, the only constant is change.
Especially in the era of AI, I do believe that this is going to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest transformation that we've ever gone through, and the fastest, and by far, I would say that it's probably going to be the hardest. I think what's going to be driving it, I think about it in four different dimensions. If I could just typify it and compare it with the others. The first dimension is really this mindset and behavior shift. From thinking about AI as a question and answer machine, to one that is a thought partner. That's a very different kind of thinking, right? There's transformation that happens there. The other one is when, you know, many companies today think about it as a productivity tool. So primarily to make things go faster. But I believe that we should push its potential to go beyond productivity into actually improving quality. And then beginning to re-imagine work, actually innovating. Because if we're stuck in productivity and making things go faster, we're almost painting a picture where we can see how it can, you know, replace people. But when you think about improving quality and reimagining work, it's a little harder to replace people. The third dimension is really around this mindset shift from using AI as a tool, to building and guiding AI as teammates, and then ultimately orchestrating AI systems. And then the last dimension is this movement from org charts to work charts. So org charts are what we know today, very hierarchical in nature, very siloed departments. And then work charts is when those silos dissolve, the hierarchy flattens, and then now we have a combination of human and AI experts that work together for the greater good. And that greater good is a business outcome rather than specific KPIs by department. So, you know, that I believe is what's so different about AI because you can think about the transformation in many different dimensions, and those are just four off the top of my head.