For Chief People Officers and Talent Development leaders changing the work while people are still in it
Companies do not have to do this.
If part of the work can be done by an agent, most organisations will move it. The targets stay. The work still has to be done.
But the task list is not the person.
AI can flag a mismatch in a supplier contract. Someone still has to judge the product need, the commercial trade-off, and what the business may be missing.
Workplace Lab helps people use more of that judgment, experience, meaning and motivation on one real team problem.
What it is
Workplace Lab starts privately with Unscript IKIGAI®.
Participants explore their skills, experience, interests, frustrations, aspirations, and current life context in their own words. The proprietary method uses AI-assisted pattern recognition to return three possible directions to explore.
Not personality labels. Not a generic list of jobs. Not a four-circle Venn Diagram that has no real meaning behind it.
For one chosen direction, AI Coach helps the person test what the opportunity could look like if they dared and wanted to try, what a first move might be, and what they may need to learn, change, or stop doing. In their own words, voice and experience.
The reflection belongs to the person. HR and their manager do not see it.
What the organisation gets
- People with clearer language for strengths, motives, and capabilities that did not fit inside their existing role.
- Development attached to a live business problem, not another workshop deck.
- Practice in seeing a problem, making a proposal, and owning a useful first move.
- A better basis for internal movement and short-term assignments without turning private reflection into an HR dashboard.
- A better way to communicate value and outcomes that can travel with the person and organisation.
That is the entrepreneurial mindset here. Not “everyone must start a company.”
It is seeing a problem, using your skills to shape a response, and taking responsibility for a useful first move.
How it works
- 1
Private exploration
Each person receives three possible directions and can take one further with AI Coach. Sometimes a frustration is data. Sometimes a thing a person sees as a bug becomes a feature in the right work.
- 2
One live team problem
The team works on something it already has to deal with: a customer hand-off, supplier decision, stalled service, slow process, or decision that always ends up back at the top.
Participants choose what, if anything, to bring from their private work. Nobody has to disclose their report in order to belong in the room.
- 3
A bounded chance to contribute differently
Before asking people to act, a leader names the problem, what can be decided or tested, the resource available, and the damage tolerance if a well-reasoned attempt does not work.
The core job and targets remain. But a person may take on a defined piece of work outside their usual role because it helps solve the problem — because this means something for them, and they know they have capabilities to do it.
Why now
Automation will take some of the checking and routine work. If the freed time becomes another task list, the organisation has moved the work without changing how it sees the people doing it.
I have mentored Junior Achievement Singapore's Company of the Year teams for six years. Young people can move beyond the first role they picked when it helps the product launch. The deadline still matters. The product still has to work.
You learn something when the decision matters and you are allowed to make it.
When a role cannot remain
Not every role can be redesigned. When the work itself is going, Workplace Lab is not the answer.
Private Transition Readiness is a separate, private first step before human coaching or outplacement.
If you are changing the work and want people to bring more than the task list
Start with a person, their motivation and purpose. Add one real problem.
We can talk about what is getting stuck, where the team needs room to act, and whether Workplace Lab is the right place to begin.
In person only — Singapore and the region.