Category: K.E.E.N. skills

How a Rich Vocabulary Is Essential to Creativity

In this interesting post ‘The Mind of a Creator‘ Valeria Maltoni explores what make the creative mind and focuses on the importance of a diverse and precise vocabulary. Unfortunately we observe that the average vocabulary in our society becomes quickly much poorer on average.

“Language becomes poorer progressively. With technology it becomes poorest, almost zero. Linguist Tullio de Mauro did some research and found that the average person had a vocabulary of 1,500 words in 1976. Twenty years later, in 1996, that vocabulary dropped down to 640 words. In 2016, the average person has 200 words, says Galimberti.”

The problem is that “You cannot think beyond the words you know. You can think within the words you know.” Creativity is nourished by the ability to express subtle, precise concepts and ideas. With a poor vocabulary, creativity dwindles.

If you want to be become more creative, seek to expand your vocabulary!

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How To Avoid Losing Our Identity While Collaborating With AI

Following on our previous post ‘How We Need to Learn to Work with AI‘, there are also interesting points of view of how AI may lead to losing our identity, such as this article ‘Would You Survive a Merger with AI?‘

This article is focused on actual hybridation between humans and machine (a physical merger of sorts) but takes it at the philosophical level. It then shows that we can’t at the same time merge with AI, or replicate ourselves, without losing our identity.

There are thus some limits (luckily, quite remote and still very much science-fiction) beyond which our joint working with AI may lead to losing our identity, or being unclear about it.

In the short term, in order to benefit from AI without losing our identity, it may be a good idea to make sure we keep some of our identity to ourselves and do not share everything with AI, however enticing this may look!

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How We Need to Learn to Work with AI

This article ‘Humans and AI will work better when they start learning from each other‘ is part of a growing realization that AI will enhance human capabilities rather than compete or replace them.

“Trust plays a significant role in decreasing the cognitive complexity users face in interacting with sophisticated technology. Consequently, its absence leads to an AI model’s underutilization or abandonment“. “Technology will be just as good if all groups understand the evidence behind it and prepare themselves to use it effectively“.

While there are ways to improve the interaction with AI and still substantial progress is required in this area (interface design, etc), end-users must also learn to deal with, and understand the limits of AI. This is new skill-set that will need to be learnt and taught in the future.

We can expect a few years of soul-searching, finding ways to leverage better those AI engines that are pervading our lives, while those AI persona and their interface will also quickly improve.

We need to learn how to leverage the AI capabilities now available. This will take time to become a clear skill-set and I am quite excited to see how this will get formalized in terms of behaviors and adaptation of AI interfaces.

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How Our Brains Filter Perception More and at a Lower Level Than We Thought

In this excellent article ‘To Pay Attention, the Brain Uses Filters, Not a Spotlight‘ we are reminded that filtering is a major activity of our brain with a particular emphasis on attention management. However it obviously has some drawbacks.

“Somehow, even with massive amounts of information flooding our senses, we’re able to focus on what’s important and act on it.” By researching about this effect of focalisation researchers have actually found out that our brain uses deeply ingrained filtering mechanisms, beyond our cortex regions. “The attentional searchlight metaphor was backward: The brain wasn’t brightening the light on stimuli of interest; it was lowering the lights on everything else.”

Moreover, “[the] findings indicate that the brain casts extraneous perceptions aside earlier than expected. And filtering is starting at that very first step, before the information even reaches the visual cortex.” This shows that there is a substantial amount of information that gets filtered without even reaching any level of consciousness. This shows that we unconsciously filter much more than what we would believe!

Interesting new research paths are described, in particular how perception and movement get interlinked at a very low brain level.

In any case it becomes obvious that our filtering mechanisms are useful and dangerous at the same time, and they are so deeply ingrained in our brains that we can’t even hope to become conscious of it. Food for thought!

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How to Create Rituals to Change

This excellent post by Leo Babauta ‘The Art of Creating a Ritual for What Matters Most‘ reminds us that an effective way to change is to create a ritual.

“In this world where technology and consumerism have become our religion, we’ve largely lost something magical: the ability to elevate something into the realm of the sacred.” “We can lift an everyday act into the realm of the divine by turning it into a sacred ritual. What I’ve been trying to practice is the art of turning what matters most in my life into a ritual.”

Leo Babuta goes on suggesting moment and activities that could be converted into rituals, and how to achieve this transformation.

Without attempting to change everything to a ritual, I note that it can be a very useful way to induce change and ensure that there is repetition of a voluntary action where we are present. We may gain at having a few rituals in our lives, with a spiritual element added on!

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How Relentless Repetition is Essential for Communication

In this interesting post ‘Relentless Repetition – By Steve Clayton Chief Storyteller for Microsoft‘ an interesting account of the use of this technique is given within a large corporation.

People too often believe that developing and formalizing the message is the most important. It is not. Communicating it relentlessly, even if it may sound boring for the person communicating, is an essential discipline.

“When communicating, either in written form or especially verbally, it can become tiring very quickly to repeat yourself. You hear or read yourself saying the same thing over and over and begin to assume that everyone has heard what you have said once you have said it more than ten times.” Yet in this particular example (the vision for Microsoft) it is estimated that the CEO repeated the message probably more than 300 times to get it embedded throughout the organization.

Don’t hesitate to relentlessly repeat the message to get it embedded. It may sound boring but that’s the only way.

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How Brainstorming is Too Often Poorly Applied

This Quartz post on brainstorming reminds us of its history. In particular how the concept was formalized and “popularized in the 1940s by an American advertising executive, Alex Osborn, the “O” in the much lauded advertising agency BBDO“

Finding the right method for creativity and lateral thinking has always been an issue and a challenge. Many methods have been proposed, from using drugs to structured approaches. The Quartz post mentions a few used by famous people: Steve Jobs took walks, Google uses a 3-step approach (“1) Know the user 2) Think 10x 3) Prototype“), Amazon practices silence while studying memos, etc.

Brainstorming is obviously a classic but not always well applied. “People groan because brainstorming is well disseminated but poorly applied“.

I like the post-it version of it in a safe environment with enough time available, and a few iterations to go deeper into the less obvious outputs. What is really important, I find, is to be non judgmental. It is a tough position to have in particular in some cultures like France where ‘critical thinking’ is so much valued. It often requires a lot of effort from the facilitator to maintain such a spirit.

What is your brainstorming routine? How could it be improved?

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How Beneficial Checklists Can Be

In this excellent Quartz summary ‘Checklists‘, the history and benefits of this tool are explained in detail. The most amazing is the level of benefits that can be extracted from such a simple tool, that we should certainly use more often.

As to benefits: “In the WHO’s initial pilot study of eight hospitals in eight international cities the checklist was associated with a one-third reduction in deaths and complications from surgery.” And checklists have only become mainstream in medical care in the 2000’s with a WHO initiative!

The history is interesting too: “it was systemic complexity that gave rise to the first formal checklist in the 1930s.” – when crew realized they needed to have checklist before taking off on a new, ultra-complicated bomber airplane. Therefore, checklists are a tool to tackle complicated or even complex situations.

We often underestimate the power of such tools when dealing with repetitive, but complicated situations. Let’s systematize checklists!

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How Being Bored Becomes Good

In this interesting post ‘Why Being Bored Is Good‘ this controversial statement is explained in detail. Being bored goes against the natural evolution of our ever-increasing busy, connected, stimulated days. Still it seems that it would be essential to remain bored from time to time.

From a historical perspective, as the post explains, boredom was rather seen as an evil: the source of crime, addiction to games of chance and more generally, anti-social behavior. Therefore the solution was to find some occupation so that people wouldn’t have stray thoughts and too much idle time on their hand.

In the current Collaborative Age, the age of the attention-economy, many devices try to make sure that we don’t get bored, calling our attention any minute with notifications that ensure that we interact with our devices (and provide information for free about ourselves that can be monetized by advertisement). Being bored now rather becomes a luxury, an exceptional state that some will seek to attain. There are books about how getting bored more or better, and how it is essential for our brin development and our creativity.

I’m not quite sure what to make from all those contradictory views. It seems to be quite useful to be from time to time idle, disconnected and well… bored. Therefore in our current world where this becomes rather the exception, it might be useful to try to attain that state from time to time. We’ll certainly see soon being bored as being a respectable holiday goal or activity!

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How We Should Not Separate the Person from the Problem in Negotiation

The ‘Harvard’ way of negotiating advises to separate the person from the problem. It appears it is possibly not the most effective way of negotiating and that negotiating on an emotional basis may be more effective. I really recommend reading the book ‘Never split the difference: negotiating as if your life depended on it‘ by Chris Voss, which is extremely enlightening. Chris Voss is a top FBI negotiator with international exposure who has become something of an authority in the field of negotiation.

His basic observation is that emotional work is more important than rational approach in negotiation. However, “Until recently , most academics and researchers completely ignored the role of emotion in negotiation . Emotions were just an obstacle to a good outcome , they said . “ Separate the people from the problem ” was the common refrain“. Since the early 2000s this view is shifting, albeit quite slowly.

Good negotiators create emotion, are excellent active listeners, and label emotions to move forward to resolution. Again, this shows how in our modern world rational approaches find their limits in the real world (see previous post ‘How We Need to Consider Heartset as well as Mindset‘).

In negotiations as in other aspects, emotional work is the key to success. Let’s never forget the personal connection and emotional work is needed in all situations even in the most tense like a touch negotiation.

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How to Increase Happiness After our Professional Decline

In this follow-up post from ‘How Professional Decline is Coming Sooner than We Think‘ we continue to investigate the excellent and deep material of the paper ‘Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think – Here’s how to make the most of it‘. Once we have recognized that professional decline is inevitable and probably occurs around 50 or 20 years after you started your current career, how can we deal with this to maintain or increase our happiness?

The author quotes ancient Indian wisdom about the different phases of life. It also quotes some modern wisdom about happiness of mature people. In sum, it appears to be essential to pro-actively start a new phase of life around sharing one’s knowledge and experience, connecting, and serving.

People do that in different ways, from consultants to interim managers to serving their community and becoming teachers. Many also develop their spiritual self. The way is to recognize that this phase in life calls for a change, stopping competitive behavior and sharing more.

Be proactive in recognizing that your professional decline starts earlier than you think; and increase your happiness by taking the time for yourself and to help grow others. That’s a quite good recommendation that I will endeavor to follow!

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How Professional Decline is Coming Sooner than We Think

I strongly recommend to read this long article ‘Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think – Here’s how to make the most of it‘ because it contains much profound wisdom about professional career and happiness.

In this first post, let’s concentrate on the fact that our professional decline happens earlier than we believe. “According to research by Dean Keith Simonton, a professor emeritus of psychology at UC Davis and one of the world’s leading experts on the trajectories of creative careers, success and productivity increase for the first 20 years after the inception of a career, on average. So if you start a career in earnest at 30, expect to do your best work around 50 and go into decline soon after that. The specific timing of peak and decline vary somewhat depending on the field.” It seems that creative fields see an earlier decline, while fields relying more on building up experience over time have a somewhat later decline.

In any case, “The biggest mistake professionally successful people make is attempting to sustain peak accomplishment indefinitely, trying to make use of the kind of fluid intelligence that begins fading relatively early in life. This is impossible.”

It is essential that we recognize that we can’t sustain our performance indefinitely, and that there should be space for our younger successors to take over and put a new spin into our works. This is probably the number one happiness issue with high level professionals.

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