In Draft No. 4, McPhee describes his pre-computer writing method. Handwritten notes and audio tapes are transcribed by typing on a typewriter. He manually rolled the paper after each note to leave space. Once all the notes were typed up, he photocopied them and then used scissors to cut out each individual note. Notes were…
Contingency plans are nothing new for business operations. Workers get sick, take vacation, don’t perform as expected, etc. The business needs some slack capacity and/or a prioritization system when there isn’t enough capacity to meet demands. Process automation also isn’t particularly new. Again, you can build in slack capacity and/or task prioritization to manage outages…
Kind of crazy, but I have been presenting on leadership and career development for over a decade now. I was taking a walk down memory lane and stumbled across one of my earliest slide decks. I actually thought it was great. Many of the ideas and style carry through to today. The problem was that…
We often think about productivity as the tactical progress we make while at work. While it is important to be able to execute effectively on plans, it can be difficult to strategize on big picture ideas at the same time. Some time and space away from day-to-day activity enables our strategic brain to work at…
In this episode we examine how the dramatic changes in the world of knowledge work over the past five years can have traumatic effects. Acute Trauma – Life is noticeably different before and after Job Loss, Layoffs, New AI Capabilities Chronic Trauma – Prolonged exposure to a harmful situation Self-doubt, hopelessness, insecurity, fear, negativity about…
You may have seen the recent MIT paper presenting data suggesting that using ChatGPT for your writing causes your cognitive abilities to atrophy from lack of use. So, I thought it was worth thinking a bit about when one might choose to take the trade-off of ease and speed as opposed to writing the painful…
Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic by Paul Conti This isn’t an area that I have a lot of background. I find it valuable to be humbled by how naive I am in many areas and experiences. While making the world a place of healing has universal value, there are many practical lessons for managers to better…
Capitalism is the driver pushing businesses to endlessly chase efficiency and growth. While it is the current cause casting so much uncertainty on human job prospects, I think that ultimately it will help produce the cure. In a market economy, it is entirely logical for businesses to lower costs and reduce profit. There is no…
Describing AI Agents as digital workers who are members of your digital workforce is great marketing. It is also dehumanizing. Analogy is a powerful tool to explain innovation. Referring to something we already know and understand makes it easier to conceptualize novel ideas. There are certainly similarities between tasks currently done by human workers and…
Sheltering in place is the logical response to a raging storm, But your makeshift cover won’t hold out forever. There is opportunity in the swirling chaos, You must slay some dragons if it’s treasure that you’re after. What’s the worst that can happen? You expose yourself as the fallible human that you are? We need…