Hi Rae, I completely agree, You have to know when to trust AI and also when to ignore it. I have seen so much rubbish generated from AI, and I have also saved countless hours using it too. One thing is still very clear: it cant sit in front of a customer and understand their pain point. It cant react to the smiles or see the weight get lifted of the customers shoulders when they feel heard. As JD says below to. It can't make you a good manager, it can't make you a good product manager or sales person, but it can really help support you!
At Davidson we pride ourselves on the human to human connection being the difference maker, the value proposition, the reason a student (or someone) pays the price of admission and all of us allegedly come to work every day. So I use AI to get the tedium and the minutia out of the way to return my focus there, and to the college's overall mission.
To be specific, AI helps me prepare for 1 on 1s by scanning email, Slack, Zendesk, Oracle goals, Github, and more... to create a complete picture of what my staff have been working on since we last spoke. It automatically creates check-ins in the HR system along with surprisingly accurate suggested topics for discussion. When meeting on Zoom with a transcript enabled, a one-sentence request to AI loads a summary of that same transcript back into the check-in, augmenting the suggested topics with what was actually discussed. For in person meetings, it even helped me write a free, open source app that handles transcription, diarization, summarization, and sync between my iPhone and my Mac.
None of these things actually make me a good manager. That's where training and experience come into play as you rightly point out. That experience came from years in the seat, trainings like the MOR Leaders Program, and the caravan of coaches and PD that have processed through the office over the last decade. But training and experience cannot (alone) save you from drowning in tedium. And so AI helps me rise above the fray a bit so I can actually focus on the person in front of me.
This is just one small example. I've used it to fill out capital budget requests (all the context was already in my email and Slack convos anyway), compare hundreds of pages of AV bid documents, create pitch decks and videos, and so much more.
How do we gain more experience? Well, I've gained enormous experience with AI these last two years in particular. And as it multiplies my impact, I can spread that impact further out into the institution, and learn about (and make a difference in) all the corners where the mission is actually happening.
I love this, JD! Totally agree that AI doesn't make you a good manager, but it can take the tedium work away so you have the time and space to do the things that do make you one.
I was just talking to someone about a similar idea the other day -- that is, when I *just* have a leadership role, I'm a decent leader (YMMV). But when I am both trying to do a specific function and lead it (like being a direct seller while also managing sellers) I find that I don't have the time or space to be a good leader.
I'm curious about the experience you've gained with AI, however. If it's with the tool itself, I get that. But -- just as an example -- how do you gain the experience to know what you're looking for in those hundreds of pages of AV docs, such that when AI synthesizes and compares them you can take action on them? I would assume you have some prior knowledge that you apply to whatever the AI output is. Or at minimum, enough work experience to have a framework to assess vendor proposals, even if you don't know the exact subject matter.
In a world where AI is now feeding people answers, how do they acquire that knowledge or even the frameworks to make the right decisions with AI outputs? (I do think liberal arts education may play a role here)
Hi Rae, I completely agree, You have to know when to trust AI and also when to ignore it. I have seen so much rubbish generated from AI, and I have also saved countless hours using it too. One thing is still very clear: it cant sit in front of a customer and understand their pain point. It cant react to the smiles or see the weight get lifted of the customers shoulders when they feel heard. As JD says below to. It can't make you a good manager, it can't make you a good product manager or sales person, but it can really help support you!
At Davidson we pride ourselves on the human to human connection being the difference maker, the value proposition, the reason a student (or someone) pays the price of admission and all of us allegedly come to work every day. So I use AI to get the tedium and the minutia out of the way to return my focus there, and to the college's overall mission.
To be specific, AI helps me prepare for 1 on 1s by scanning email, Slack, Zendesk, Oracle goals, Github, and more... to create a complete picture of what my staff have been working on since we last spoke. It automatically creates check-ins in the HR system along with surprisingly accurate suggested topics for discussion. When meeting on Zoom with a transcript enabled, a one-sentence request to AI loads a summary of that same transcript back into the check-in, augmenting the suggested topics with what was actually discussed. For in person meetings, it even helped me write a free, open source app that handles transcription, diarization, summarization, and sync between my iPhone and my Mac.
None of these things actually make me a good manager. That's where training and experience come into play as you rightly point out. That experience came from years in the seat, trainings like the MOR Leaders Program, and the caravan of coaches and PD that have processed through the office over the last decade. But training and experience cannot (alone) save you from drowning in tedium. And so AI helps me rise above the fray a bit so I can actually focus on the person in front of me.
This is just one small example. I've used it to fill out capital budget requests (all the context was already in my email and Slack convos anyway), compare hundreds of pages of AV bid documents, create pitch decks and videos, and so much more.
How do we gain more experience? Well, I've gained enormous experience with AI these last two years in particular. And as it multiplies my impact, I can spread that impact further out into the institution, and learn about (and make a difference in) all the corners where the mission is actually happening.
I love this, JD! Totally agree that AI doesn't make you a good manager, but it can take the tedium work away so you have the time and space to do the things that do make you one.
I was just talking to someone about a similar idea the other day -- that is, when I *just* have a leadership role, I'm a decent leader (YMMV). But when I am both trying to do a specific function and lead it (like being a direct seller while also managing sellers) I find that I don't have the time or space to be a good leader.
I'm curious about the experience you've gained with AI, however. If it's with the tool itself, I get that. But -- just as an example -- how do you gain the experience to know what you're looking for in those hundreds of pages of AV docs, such that when AI synthesizes and compares them you can take action on them? I would assume you have some prior knowledge that you apply to whatever the AI output is. Or at minimum, enough work experience to have a framework to assess vendor proposals, even if you don't know the exact subject matter.
In a world where AI is now feeding people answers, how do they acquire that knowledge or even the frameworks to make the right decisions with AI outputs? (I do think liberal arts education may play a role here)