As AI makes knowledge more widely available, are organisations paying enough attention to the relationships that help people put it to work?

In this episode of the Digital HR Leaders podcast, David Green is joined by Michael Arena and Greg Pryor, co-founders of the Connected Commons and co-authors of the forthcoming book, The New Social Code: Five Relational Edges That Outperform Algorithms. Drawing on decades of organisational network research and experience leading talent in major organisations, Michael and Greg explore how human connections shape performance, career progression and the ability to turn new ideas into action. Michael is Dean of the Crowell School of Business at Biola University and previously served as Chief Talent Officer at General Motors and VP of Talent at AWS. Greg’s career spans talent leadership and consulting at organisations including Accenture, Workday, Merrill Lynch and Juniper Networks. Together, they make the case for bringing social capital into talent practices alongside skills and experience, helping people build the relationships they need for the work they do today and the responsibilities they may take on tomorrow.

Join them as they discuss:

• Why relationships become more important as AI makes knowledge easier to access
• The five relational edges: opportunity, trust, attention, insight and influence
• Why bigger networks can undermine performance, and how to balance deep trust with broader connections
• How onboarding can help new joiners build trust and contribute more quickly
• How to recognise collaboration overload and support the people connecting different parts of the organisation
• What networks reveal about future leaders, and practical ways to apply this thinking without sophisticated analytics

This episode is sponsored by 365Talents, a Docebo company.

Every organisation approaches skills in its own way, so 365Talents designs its talent intelligence solutions to adapt to how each business works. HR teams use them to put skills-based strategies into action more quickly and to see the impact across the whole organisation.

Find out more about 365Talents

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Resources:

The New Social Code: Five Relational Edges That Outperform Algorithms

The New Social Code Compendium Newsletter

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