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In This Edition

Employer Mental Health First Aid

There’s a new kind of first responder working in Ontario’s non-profits. Tom explains.

“I Don’t Totally Trust It Because It Can Hallucinate”

If the godfather of AI acknowledges the limitations of AI, what are we mere mortals to do?

AI Is Not For Every Non-Profit, At Least Not Yet

Tom continues the discussion of AI and its application in Ontario’s not-for-profit realm.

Results Of Our Last BIG IDEAS Survey

In our last edition of BIG IDEAS we asked whether your organization followed Amazon and Shopify and mandated a reduction in staff meetings? Find out what your colleagues are doing.

Employer Mental Health First Aid

The Story

One of the trends in the workplace, at least the non-profit workplace in Ontario, is the increased expectation on the part of employees that their organization is not just interested in their mental health but will be proactive in fostering it and in providing hands-on assistance when needed.

The Skinny

This is a significant responsibility and one that not every non-profit has contemplated, has committed to, or is equipped to fulfill. If your organization has made that commitment, but hasn’t proceeded further, here is one step you could consider taking: equipping your supervisory and management employees with training in mental health first aid (MHFA).

Available through the Mental Health Commission of Canada, training in mental health first aid provides the following:

the tools to recognize signs of decline in mental well-being.
the ability to talk about their mental health.
the knowledge to discuss professional and other supports that could help with recovery or improved mental well-being.
the confidence to reach out to these supports.
the tools to assist during a mental health or substance use crisis, and
the knowledge to use MHFA actions to maintain one’s own mental wellness.

In addition to fostering a healthy work environment, the course prepares trainees to deal with more significant situations:

suicidal behaviour
panic attacks
overdose
acute stress reaction and,
psychotic episodes.

Presumably those trained in Mental Health First Aid use their knowledge throughout the work year but would be particularly well equipped to deal with “an emerging mental health or substance use problem or in crisis, until appropriate treatment is found or the situation resolves”, since actions to be taken by the Mental Health First Aid provider can include:

Assessing the risk of suicide and/or harm.
Listening non-judgmentally.
Giving reassurance.
Encouraging professional and other support.
Self-Care.

The BIG IDEA

If your organization is committed to good employee mental health, consider arranging training for at least your supervisory and management personnel in Mental Health First Aid, so they can be first responders as the need arises.

TomBITS

"I DON'T TOTALLY TRUST IT BECAUSE IT CAN HALLUCINATE"

The Story

As Canadians, should we be celebrating today or putting a paper bag over our heads? Such are the options after the announcement that Geoffrey Linton, a researcher at the University of Toronto and also known as the “godfather of AI”, has been awarded the Nobel Prize for physics.

The Skinny

His contribution to artificial intelligence is complicated, far beyond my knowledge to explain. It has to do with “helping create the building blocks of machine learning” through what are called “artificial neuron networks” which facilitate the machine learning that is at the heart of AI.

As proud as he is of his achievements, and as impressed as he is with the capacity of AI, he also recognizes both its potential harm and its fallibility.

Hinton is quoted as saying that AI will end up having a “huge influence” on civilization, bringing improvements in productivity and health care. At the same time, he acknowledges that “We also have to worry about a number of possible bad consequences, particularly the threat of these things getting out of control.”

He is also quoted as saying “I don’t totally trust it because it can hallucinate, but on almost everything it’s a not-very-good expert. And that’s very useful.”

The Big Idea

There is not much we can do to mitigate the potential harm that AI might bring with it, beyond using it in an ethical way, but we can take note of Linton’s observation about fallibility. If you use ChatGPT or other AI tools, do so with what accountants call “professional scepticism”. The content you generate should be factual, but there’s no guarantee.

AI IS NOT FOR EVERY NON-PROFIT, AT LEAST NOT YET

The Story

A Canadian has won the Nobel for his contribution to AI, and generative AI is all the rage, but according to a recent survey, not many Canadian businesses and organizations say they are using it.

The Skinny

An article by Cathy Barr and Emily Jensen, published by Imagine Canada, and citing the Canadian Survey of Business Conditions, says 9% of businesses and organizations are already using AI while 5% have plans to use it. Focusing on the non-profit sector, the results are lower but not dissimilar at 5% and 4% respectively. Small numbers for sure!

The major uses of AI by the 5% of non-profits are said to be to accelerate the development of creative content, to drive data-driven decision-making and to improve customer experience. And while the private sector is looking to AI to automate tasks to replace employees, non-profits see AI as a way of addressing their workforce recruitment and retentions challenges. Unfortunately there is no elaboration to explain how AI helps them address recruitment and retention, but we can hypothesize that at a minimum it refers to adopting HR software with an AI component that makes the organization more effective in hiring, training and scheduling.

At CMCS, we have encountered only one organization that referenced using AI, and that involved a finance director who went to ChatGPT to help with Excel formulas. However, we are guessing that many of our non-profit clients have purchased software enhanced with AI capabilities.

We also have started using AI in our own work. For example, I recently called on ChatGPT4 to research a particular human service model and was able to obtain a significant amount of detail about its purpose, its content, its efficacy and its costs. My search even revealed which Canadian organizations are reputed to be leading-edge in providing it. And the search didn’t take long, maybe an hour in total for a series of queries.

The BIG IDEA

At CMCS, we are like non-profits when it comes to not wanting to automate people out of their jobs. There are only two of us, Nancy Collins and myself. We both need to work. So our BIG IDEA is to be better, faster through the use of AI… but not fewer! We hope you follow the same credo.

SURVEY results

In our last edition, we asked “Has your organization followed the lead of Amazon and Shopify and cut back on staff meetings?”

Well, your response was unanimous. No one reported that their organization was trying to emulate these two Internet behemoths and reduce face time. So, that’s good news for everyone who loves a meeting. In some ways, it is also reassuring, because meetings have been identified as an important contributor to a healthy work environment. But remember, meetings can always be more effective.

Our thanks to all BIG IDEAS readers who contributed. You are making non-profits better with the information you share.