In this episode, host Bradd Busick sits down with colleague, IT leader, fellow podcast host - and longtime friend - Jason Elrod. Together, they don their (figurative) hard hats and descend into the crevasse of the IT skills gap.

Bradd and Jason answer deep questions - like, why AI can’t be layered onto a legacy mindset? Where’s the first place you should bring AI into your organization? Do we really have to rewrite entire roles, new hire job descriptions…and maybe even the very meaning of work?

Jason also sets the backdrop of the AI era's unprecedented pace of change, shares how the purpose-driven origin of his podcast Drink Coffee, Do Cool Stuff has informed the way he thinks about work, and lays out the key difference between leadership by choice versus management by mandate. Bradd and Jason also plumb the depth of how CIOs, CISOs/CTOs, and boards need to be viewing AI through the lenses of strategy, risk, resilience, and fiduciary responsibility; why “AI inventories” are becoming obsolete as AI gets embedded into everything; and why addressing the modern skills gap might be less of a hiring issue, and more of a changing of the guard when it comes to team leadership - a problem that can’t be solved by merely working hard, but requires smarter thinking to shift teams from fear, to curiosity.

Highlights:

6:47 What makes this moment in IT different?

9:50 How can you quantify the value of AI effectively?

16:49 How can you patch the talent leaks in your organization?

20:58 Where should you start if you’re a leader who wants to fix the skills gap in your own team?

Links:

Park Place Technologies: https://www.parkplacetechnologies.com/

The Savvy CIO podcast page: https://www.parkplacetechnologies.com/the-savvy-cio/

Bradd Busick: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bbusick/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ParkPlaceTech

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/park-place-technologies/

X: https://www.linkedin.com/company/park-place-technologies/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/parkplacetechnologies

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parkplacetechnologies/

Limitless Cyber: http://www.limitlesscyber.com/

Limitless Cyber YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@LimitlessCyber

Drink Coffee. Do Cool Stuff. podcast episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oJiTLBUN_Q