Udemy‘s 2025 Global Learning & Skills Trends Report 2025 shows an 859% rise in #GenAI learning. The report also emphasises the importance of developing soft skills to complement AI-driven productivity – companies are investing in skills like problem-solving (up by 103%), team building (79%), and business communication (41%).
At 33 Emeralds we see this rise in demand for the trio of problem-solving, team building and communication. Companies are coming to us because they are seeking something more – they want enjoyable experiences that are immersive, inclusive, build problem solving, break habitual thinking, that engage, inspire and target serious outcomes.
We place a big emphasis on working with teams, but not in the traditional formats. Team building has too often been seen as the ‘add-on’ to strategy sessions, sales meetings, or the end of year event. Go-karting, laser-tag, cooking competitions, mystery dinners and spa days get nudged or bumped if the formal agenda gets too full. Of course it is essential and healthy to have relaxed downtime. But many so-called ‘teambuild’ activities are just that – not doing anything too serious as a group of people who happen to work together.
GenAI is expected to release significant productivity gains, speed up skill-building, and fuel business growth. Driving positive impact and advantage as the race quickens will require going beyond ’embracing’, and ‘closing skills gaps to stay competitive’, it will be about accelerating and activating creative collective, human potential, finding wisdom in your crowd. There is a kind of capital that drives competitive advantage that is not easily copied. It is called social capital and with regular investment, the benefits compound. We can design intelligently for the precious time that teams spend together – we can put it on steroids. Building bonds of trust and activating collective creative human potential are essential precursors for building and holding on to to advantage. They arguably more important than the formal agenda, and so intelligent design of time together must include:
- methods for creative, collective problem solving,
- drawing on the wisdom of the crowd,
- generating and owning the answering of questions (collective inquiry),
- targeting specific business outcomes.
No amount of rope pulling can achieve these outcomes, or aim to define them.
We use methods like LEGO Serious Play and The Bricks of Innovation to build sessions that are 100% lean-in, inclusive, enjoyable, stretching, and The GC Index, which activates the true diversity of human contribution required for game changing outputs. There are many exciting new ways to explore the future – these tools are just the tip of the iceberg.
Lean back before you lean in. The next time you are juggling all those competing demands on your teams ‘away time’ time, start with a blank page. Stop thinking about team building as a nice to have and start taking opportunities to intelligently design sessions that merge social capital investment with serious outcomes. Help support the massive behaviour change that technology requires.
“If you start with nothing, you can shoot for the moon.” – Steve Jobs
Contact us to put the time your team spends together on steroids. https://33emeralds.co.za/
#LegoSeriousPlay #BricksofInnovation #GameChangers #TheGCIndex
Not just AI: soft skills are the game changer: https://hrreview.co.uk/hr-news/l-d-news/not-just-ai-soft-skills-are-the-game-changer/377905
Skills for today and tomorrow’s work: https://business.udemy.com/2025-global-learning-skills-trends-report/
The story of LEGO Serious play: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/story-lego-serious-play-gaylin-jee/
What is LEGO Serious Play? https://33emeralds.co.za/what-is-lego-serious-play/
Bricks of innovation: https://33emeralds.co.za/bricks-of-innovation/
Thriving in digital workspaces: From compete to create: exploring new tools https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-24463-7_4
