Guidepost 001: Leaning into character skills
Adam Grant's new book Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things highlights how humans can be a cut above machines in the AI age
“The reality is, that we’ve talked for decades, maybe even centuries … about how cognitive skills are what separates us from animals. I think, where we are now, is recognizing that our character skills are what elevate us above machines.”
Adam Grant on The Next Big Idea Club Podcast, October 2023
Leveraging generative AI has surpassed simply being “in vogue.” It’s now regarded by notable commentators as being the primary skill that separates tomorrow’s high performers from the low performers. The narrative is compelling and concise: integrate AI into your work, and you’ll do more, earn more, and “be” more. Or, risk AI taking your job.
What Grant highlights with great clarity is the enduring competitive advantage humans have over machines: we are able to see past mathematical optimization.
Rather than seeking to objectively maximize or minimize a targeted outcome, we make emotionally-informed concessions and deliberately choose meandering paths to achieve one or more human-centered outcomes.
There are parallels to the creative process, which is tempting to judge as a “waste of time.” On the path to art, we create and discard many ideas, attempts, even fully-finished pieces. But with each addition to the “trash” pile, the artist uncovers an additional angle. We see the problem in a slightly new light, and mold our next iteration to accommodate it. For the academically-inclined reader, we call this “updating our prior.”
Much like the artist’s journey to refine a nebulous work, we are constantly shaping our teams. We trash [many] ideas, and keep some. Cementing the people - not the business outcomes - as the north star on the journey is not how a machine would manage. Put plainly: it often wastes time and money. What used to be called “the road less traveled,” could be renewed today as “the road less optimized.”
Artificial intelligence is usurping many areas of our lives, and it’s naive to argue that it shouldn’t. I am constantly reminding myself to focus on flexing my competitive advantages. I cannot beat ChatGPT in writing HTML. So, I outsource that, shamelessly copying and pasting the scripts to get the widgets I want.
But what I am uniquely gifted at is synthesizing information about people. What is the essence of someone’s personality? Who do they want to be, and how do we support that in the workplace? What are the steps needed to achieve wins at the individual, team, and organizational levels?
This is not business
We fool ourselves into thinking “this is business.” As if calling it a “business,” removes the fact that we’re a group of humans. No, anyone who has been around a company for mere seconds spots it immediately:
Anything that is going to be accomplished here will be from a triumph of harnessing human interaction in all its sticky glory.
“If it weren’t for the people, this job would be easy” goes the common trope about management. As Grant articulates, the challenge lies in countering instinct and resisting the “obvious path.” Leaning into character, seeking a deeper outcome, recognizing the emotions of a fellow person. These qualities will be what distinguishes tomorrow’s top talent.
Do what only you can do best, and outsource the rest.
I’d love for you to consider tagging along for more than just this one read:
Best,
P