Lessons Learned in Our Local Engagement Through ShiftLabs

You can’t act when you don’t know.

“Why don't more people know this?” was a refrain we heard repeatedly during ShiftLabs engagements about the topic of technological change and automation. Although some ShiftLabs participants were aware of general aspects of AI and automation, most were not as familiar with the national trends and the specific local effects that automation might have on jobs and skills. The awareness gap was especially true with regard to automation’s disproportionate impact on lower-skilled occupations. In follow-up engagements with ShiftLabs participants, participants expressed a desire to address some of the risks raised, but acknowledged their lack of knowledge and expertise on the topic. A sense of “not being an expert” on the topic of automation was pervasive, and continues to impede proactive action from implementing partners, government entities, employers, and civic groups.

Communities are hungry for information.

Our work in Phoenix and Indianapolis reaffirmed our starting assumption that sharing original, localized data fills demand and provides a fresh way to ignite public discussion, create a sense of urgency, and attract media attention. Across all of our local engagements this year, including with prospective new ShiftLabs partners and communities, we have consistently found a strong hunger for locally tailored data—which do not yet exist for most regions and communities. In Phoenix and Indianapolis, for instance, our automation risk reports were the first of their kind locally. In Indianapolis, multiple think tank and academic reports focus on workforce and economic development, but none of these resources look specifically at technological change and the risk of automation.

Automation is an interdisciplinary issue.

Understanding how automation will impact jobs and designing solutions is not any one person or sector’s job; it requires everyone to be involved. Education, workforce development, and social sector and economic development are all important components of a holistic approach to the issue.

Go with what works.

Local partners expressed some trepidation at the prospect of the effort involved in building an automation-resilient workforce, claiming that it can feel like trying to boil the ocean when a community sets out to “prepare people for the future of work.” Yet some of the most important action that was catalyzed through our ShiftLabs engagements involved adapting existing programs to take into account the ways work is changing. In Phoenix, for instances, when ShiftLabs presented automation impact data on the region’s retail sector, the local Workforce Investment Board began to investigate whether to provide government retraining funds to the retail sector. Small, concrete actions matter, whether they involve a local partnership revising its strategic plan, a local job fair asking its network to add a program or handout about what “future-proof skills” are, or a local Rotary meeting inviting a speaker on the topic. Cultural change often begins with a proverbial conversation around the watercooler.

All (automation) politics are local.

One clear lesson we learned in ShiftLabs engagements was the impact of (and vast differences in) local context and history in each region, and way in which local factors shaped the extent to which the pilot communities proactively embraced planning for the changing nature of work. Individual characteristics of cities lend themselves to certain types of solutions, such as the development of innovative, tech-forward solutions to workforce and economic development issues in Phoenix.

However, the desire for “easy wins” locally is a facet of one of the greatest concerns that the program has encountered: because the strongest momentum in initial ShiftLabs communities has been around preparing for and growing the upside of technology, far less focus has been centered on making sure that no one is left behind. Consistently, from Indiana to Phoenix, we discovered that local actors are most enthusiastic about embracing, growing, and preparing local talent for the upside potential of technology to create good jobs. These types of programs make for strong public relations copy, but on their own are not a comprehensive approach to automation or to the future of work in general. It is much more difficult to develop policies, solutions, and strategies to ensure that the future of work is equitable and that the most economically vulnerable workers, who are at disproportionate risk of automation, are not forgotten. Both types of initiatives are important. One attracts new opportunities and the other ensures that existing residents can take advantage of those opportunities