TODAY’S THOUGHTS ☠️

Hey friend 👋,

Writing today’s conversation was tougher than I expected.

I can’t think of another time where I have procrastinated so deeply. My beautiful, warm cup of tea nearly found itself spread across my walls in frustration.

Alas, we are here, and I have some thoughts to share.

I’ve been thinking (probably too much) about how we survive and thrive in this Godzilla-sized tsunami of AI innovation that shows no signs of stopping. I see a lot of superficial advice out there like “Just learn AI, bro”, but that’s not helpful.

If every company has decided that AI will be the infrastructure of everything it does, you need to cultivate a talent stack that keeps your mind sharp, your skills at the cutting edge, and helps you stand out in the market.

And that’s not about AI skills alone, nor human skills.

Something else is needed.

So, today, we’re exploring how to stay sharp (+human) in the AI era beyond the realm of skills and capabilities.

Get your tea or beverage of choice ready 🍵.

We've got lots to discuss!

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THE BIG THOUGHT 👀

Much of the world’s AI conversations focus on tools.

While AI bros care about this, the general population (mostly) doesn’t. We just want to know - what’s useful, how can I use it and what results can I expect. I know it doesn’t sound like much to ask for, but it’s damn hard to get a straight answer on it.

We’ve talked a lot about those topics already.

As we have with preparing yourself for adoption with the right mindset, behaviours and even unbundling yourself from existing (or now historic) frameworks.

Despite all this coverage, we’ve not touched upon one area that I feel is incredibly important - how will you actually work, live and progress in this AI era?

I assume this doesn’t come up in many conversations.

However, if you really want to get serious about “What does the future of work look like?”, you have to be clear on how you will use, co-exist and stand out in a career marketplace disrupted by AI.

I’m going to frame this part as ‘building your advantage in the AI era’.

We’ve talked so much about AI fluency in L&D, and the importance of human skills alongside it but there’s a 3rd piece missing from our stack (if i can call it that), and that’s instincts.

I’m not sure “instincts” is quite the right framing for this, but it’s the best I can think of as I type these words (got a better one? Tell me). It’s a collection of stuff that doesn’t fall into the common categories of skills, capabilities and behaviours that we often use.

These are the things that I feel have increased in value in the AI era.

I believe that having AI Fluency + Human skills + Instincts is your winning combo as we navigate this Godzilla sized tsunami of uncertainty and disruption caused by AI.

Big question and no one simple answer.

With ‘AI bros’ and false prophets everywhere, we need to have smart instincts.

Here’s my two cents: Taste, context, curation, expertise and a unique point of view are what’s most valuable in a sea of AI-slop.

I’ve bundled these under the label “Instincts”.

I think these, along with strong human skills and understanding how to wield AI meaningfully, is what will set you apart in the years to come.

So, my “simple answer” is to cultivate these alongside your use of AI.

Let’s unpack those instincts in a bit more detail:

While these instincts complete the magical 3 part combo to stay sharp in the AI era, we need to cover how to keep yourself accountable so you’re making the right decisions.

That leads me to our next point…

If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything.

Not sure who originally said that but it feels right for this next bit. Over the past few weeks I’ve emphasised that the conversation is no longer about “who is using AI” because that’s over.

Everyone is using AI.

The question now becomes “How are you choosing to use AI?”

Not using AI is stupid. Don’t fall into that trap because it is a fundamental element of how we now live and work. You know I’m not the type that endorses the blind use of AI, which is why you need a philosophy + guiding principles to work well with it.

If our combo of AI Fluency + Human Skills + Instincts = keeping your mind sharp, your skills at the cutting edge and standing out in a workplace that AI is quickly eating up, then our personal philosophy and principles are what help us make the right decisions with those capabilities.

Oh, and don’t leave this to be imposed on you by the ‘tech/AI bros’.

Let’s keep this simple

Defining these makes sure you make the best choices in how you work with AI.

The kind of choices that keep your skills sharp, your mind firing on all cylinders and a career you have control over.

Every L&D team I’ve been a part of had a clear philosophy.

It’s what we stood for, believed in and how we did business with one another and our customers.

For it to work, everyone needed to buy into it, and to keep it healthy. Each member needed to use a set of principles built from it so we could apply it daily.

While the word ‘philosophy’ can sound fancy, academic and a tad mysterious, it doesn’t have to be.

A philosophy is setting out how you do ‘x’.

In the case of my L&D teams, it was “this is how we work and why we do it”. The same goes for working with AI. We need to define our philosophy of “This is how I work with AI and why I do it this way”.

For the L&D teams, our philosophy was simple but not always easy to constantly maintain in a corporate world. Yet, being hard doesn’t mean it wasn’t worthwhile or the right thing to do.

Here’s an example of one:

I get it might sound a bit corporate, but it’s a simple light to keep coming back to.

This is what we do, how we do it and why we do it. And…if we’re not doing that, then we’ve F^$ked up.

We want to do the same thing for working and living with AI in all its forms. You only get the outcomes you want if you know the what, why and how.

Here’s my ever-evolving philosophy for working with AI:

It’s not perfect, but it’s a start.

My main goal is to make smart use of AI to remain relevant in my career, yet keep my human skills sharp so I have a USP which (as of now) AI technologies will find hard to replicate or replace fully. That’s my play, anyway.

By having this written down and top of mind, I keep myself on a path which I’m confident will keep me employable, happy and hopefully, a good human being.

To make sure I keep on that path, I need principles that help me apply and reinforce this approach daily.

They’re actually pretty simple:

There’s more, but you get the picture.

Ok, friend.

Shaping the future of work means being ready to meet it, and you can only do that if you do what we in our industry do best.

Prepare yourself to survive and thrive in it by bringing a great combo of skills, wisdom and instincts.

That’s how you invest in your career and support your business/teams.

We might not be able to plan for the next 5 years but we can certainly tackle the next 6 - 12 months (unless the robots come, then we’re all f**ked).

P.S. speaking of AI-Native L&D Pros…my next half-day workshop on helping you with this is coming up in June. I bring 10 L&D pros together to connect, learn and get a complete operating system for working with AI in your L&D role.

FYI: This isn't a tool demo or a prompting workshop.

→ If you’ve found this helpful, please consider sharing it wherever you hang out online, tag me in and share your thoughts.

👀 ICYMI (In case you missed it!)

VIDEO THOUGHTS 💾

I’m gonna be real with you, I’ve never been a fan of mind maps.

That changed when NotebookLM launched their mind map feature last year.

They’re now a powerful way to explore and connect my ideas. In this video, I’ll show you how to generate and use mind maps in NotebookLM to break down complex topics, uncover hidden connections, and dive directly into the exact sources behind each idea.

Enjoy 😊.

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