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David's Blog

Useful insights on What Matters Most to you and me and everyone else.

A Year on Stages Around the World (And What It Taught Me About What Matters Most)

I'm supposed to be writing a book right now.I'm sitting at my desk in Vancouver, third cup of coffee going cold beside me, staring at a manuscript that needs my attention. But I've got my speaking calendar pulled up on a second screen because I was looking for a specific date I needed for a chapter, and then I just started scrolling. I didn't mean to go down this road. I do this sometimes, though. I get lost in the memories of my travel itinerary, the way some people get lost in old photo albums.

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David Alison

All Articles

Beyond Demographics: Why Values Matter More Than Labels for Workplace Culture

Not long ago, I stood in front of a room filled with people from across the nonprofit sector in the United States. They were gathered because they care. About people. About justice. About making this world a little more decent and a whole lot more humane. And they wanted tools—real tools—to do their work better.

David Alison

Employee Engagement

Attracting New Residents to Your City: The Values Approach That Actually Works

Your city has jobs. Your cost of living is competitive. Your quality of life metrics are strong. And the people you want to attract keep moving somewhere else, often somewhere with worse numbers.

David Alison

Sales

An Employee of the Month Program Won’t Keep Your Best Hotel Employees From Leaving. But this will.

Yes, I’m being cute here, but it’s true: your best housekeeper won’t stay for the employee of the month award. Neither will your best front desk agent, your best night auditor, or your best groundskeeper. The plaque on the wall, the photo in the break room, the gift card to a restaurant they’ll never use. It’s all a nice gesture. But it won’t stop them from looking around for a better job that feels like more of a fit.

David Alison

Employee Engagement

AI in HR: Why People Decisions Can't Be Made by Machines

Your recruiting AI screens out candidates who would have been perfect. Your engagement surveys generate reports that gather dust. Your talent management platform has great data and zero adoption. These aren't implementation failures. They're values collisions.

David Alison

Employee Engagement

AI in Hospitality: What Hotel Staff and Guests Actually Want from Technology

Your front desk staff keeps going around the AI tools. Your guests keep asking to speak to a real person. These aren't bugs. They're features of human nature that your tech stack ignores

David Alison

Sales

Employee Engagement

AI in Financial Services: The Human Side of AI Adoption for Risk Management

Leaders, and HR professionals, are facing a new frontier where machines aren’t just helping us; they’re reshaping how we work. And while that brings incredible opportunities, it also brings risks—human risks. In our rush to implement AI technologies, we sometimes forget about the people. Employees may feel...

David Alison

Employee Engagement

Leadership Development

AI in Education: What Teachers, Parents, and Staff Actually Want from School Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to transform Alberta’s schools, offering new possibilities for teaching, learning, and managing education. But introducing AI successfully requires more than just deploying cutting-edge technology. To gain trust and foster collaboration, schools must align their...

David Alison

Employee Engagement

AI for Humans: Why the Best AI Strategy Starts with Values, Not Technology

You've been in the meetings. Someone from IT presents a roadmap. There's a timeline, a budget, and a list of use cases sorted by department. It looks thorough. It is thorough. And it's missing the only thing that actually determines whether any of this works.

David Alison

Leadership Development

AI and Human Values: What Happens When Technology Meets What We Care About Most

Why not build AI tools that understand WHAT MATTERS MOST to us? This post is an open invitation to companies using AI who want to make AI human-centric. We have the data. Values are the Answer. We just need to put them to work. Let’s talk.

David Alison

Leadership Development