4D Human Being Podcast | Live and Lead with Impact

Action AI: Getting Engaged & Staying Human

• 4D Human Being

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Last week we mapped the mindset, the stories you tell yourself, and the move from autopilot to intention. This week, we pick up the thread and turn it into action. 

We look at identity and habit, and how Daniel Kahneman’s brain operating System 1 loves routine while System 2 builds new skills. We name the real worries around jobs, inequality and risk, and keep ethics, data care and the Environment in view. Then we bring it back to you, your relationships, your leadership and your WellBeing. 


Start here when you plan how AI works with you:

  • Mindset to action: Notice your first reaction. Choose curiosity. Make one intentional change.
  • Identity and value: When you hear “that is not me”, pause. Your value is more than tasks. Choose how you show up.
  • Make the path easy: Put one AI tool on your home screen. Use one ready prompt. Try one focused task this week.
  • Redesign your role: Map You and AI in a simple Venn. List what AI can do. Add what only you can input, interpret and apply.

You will leave with one clear aim. Choose intention over fear, so you happen to the world, rather than the world happening to you.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, my name's Philip Waller. My name is Penelope Waller, and we are two of the directors at 4D Human Being. And welcome to the 4D Human Being podcast. What's it all about, Penn? It's all about your personal and professional relationships, it's about your communication skills, how you lead, how you work and build teams, how you are looking after yourself and your well-being, and how you are much more at choice. What do we mean by that? Well, sometimes we can get a little caught in patterns in life, and we can all be a little bit on our automatic pilot. So 40 human being is all about helping us get back to choice and being a four-dimensional human being, and your fourth dimension, of course, is intention. So whether it's about your impact, your leadership style, your team dynamics, whether it's about your well-being, whether it's about your communication or your presentation skills, anything that involves human beings interacting with other human beings, 4D Human Being are here to help. We're gonna take a deep dive and look at some tools, insights, theories that are gonna help you go from a 3D human doing to a 4D human being so that you can happen to the world rather than the world simply happening to you. Hello and good afternoon. Hello, it's a very soggy afternoon, Phil, I have to say. It is, and it's only October. You know how you say how it's always nice to be out in the rain because then you come in and you're dry. I still feel wet. Yes, I know, it's a soggy. It was soggy and doggy. It was really soggy and doggy. Dog is in the stream. Lot of wet. Your house has got a sort of slight, slight whiff of wet dogs. Yeah, that's how I'm glad I'm not selling it. Because that's because it's probably not unlike the baking of bread. Although for some people no, for some people homely homely. For me, definitely. How much a weekend? Yes, very good. I'm I feel gearing up, I feel like I'm talking about Christmas. Well you've got your Christmas shirt on. I've got my Christmas shirt on. I've got my scarf on, I've judged. You've judged. Well, do you know what? We I think we miss out on the accessorising over the summer because the scarves stop. Yeah. And now I now I'm back in the oh, just throw that jaunty scarf on. Yeah, yeah, well, it can cover a love the tune. Love the autumn. Love the autumn. Very happy. Lip fires, very happy. Strickles. That's strictly cum dancing for those of you who don't know that code. No, although we're they're competing now, Phil, aren't they? With your um five trophies and a medal, which Philippa has won in program dance competitions. I am quite literally going to have to get some shelves. You literally are. And I think it's interesting because you spoke about taking up dancing many years ago. Ballroom dancing. Yeah. Through some quite difficult times and it was it was a thing for because it was therapeutic. Therapeutic, enjoyable, and all those kind of things. And now you're like competing on the national stage, Phil. Can I stupid segue there? Can I? Because I think there's a super segue. I'm gonna dance my way into a super segue. I mean that's doubling down, isn't it? One step. One small decision. And if we talk about AI, one small, which is definitely our experience. One small step. One, I'm just gonna have a look through that door, or I'm just gonna go to one class.

SPEAKER_00:

Can lead to a trophy for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Can lead to a trophy. And in fact, this reminds me, I think I've said this before. I'm pretty sure after I'd left drama school, and I've I've done if I've ever told this story on the podcast, but I got offered to go to a playwriting course one evening. Yeah. Or or they were, you know, play reading. And Maxine Peak, brilliant Maxine Peak, um, who's in the brilliant movie I just watched last night, I swear she's so wonderful. Just yeah, big hugs and shout out to you, Max, who was in my year. She got the last place on the play reading evening. And the only and the other sort of graduate class that they'd offered was improvising.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I and I said it to Lloyd Trott, who was who was the dramaturg at Rada. I went, oh, I'm not sure. He said, I think it's improve. Yeah, and he said, I think honestly Philip, I said, I think it'll I think it'll be your thing. I think it'll be I went, all right, I'll go to one session and I'm sitting at the back and I'm just watching. And that's all you've got to do. Yeah, you've just got to take one step. You've got to take one step, go into the room, and of course, you know, of course you're brilliant at improvising. Because once I started, you know, they couldn't shut the door on me. But actually they were like, can we can we can we pop her on another path? Open another door, open another door. I think a slot's opened up in the plane. Exactly, exactly, exactly. Um but it's a really, it's a really good example of it's gotta take a step. Well, it's because it's so easy to hear about something or to hear a title or an idea and just go, no. Yes. No, thank you, because I don't know it. Yes, and also you don't have to think, right, I'm going to do this because I'm going to win five trophies and a medal. Similar to AI, you don't have to think I'm going to do this because AI is going to take over 80% of my job. Just do it because what might be interesting. Yeah, because just because well, just because. Just because. Exactly. I mean, open the door. And in fact, I would offer, again, really nice parallel with opening your mind and arms to a new concept, a new way of working, something that could, you know, really revolutionize how we work. So it could be very big, of course, we will be. Is absolutely don't it. It's what I love about this is we so often talk about running ahead, running ahead to visualize where you might be. If you if you want to become a good presenter, imagine you, imagine yourself walking across that stage and the way that you're holding your body, the way that you're engaging with the audience, because it's so powerful to visualize those things. Your brain doesn't know the difference between your imagination and the reality. But sometimes with things like borroom dancing AI, obviously direct comparisons, sometimes it's better to only take one step. Yeah. That wonderful David White. We have the dream. Yeah, but you can sort of let it sit there. But actually, there's a lovely poem I've mentioned it before by David White, which is all about that, which is just take one step, don't take another one, just take one. And it's all about stay close, stay close, just one step. So that you're really minimising the expectation, you're minimising the change. You're just saying, I'm literally going to take half a step and I'm going to have a peek. And that's all I'm taught myself to do. So if I do that, I've I've achieved what I changed. And we're going to talk about this in the context of AI along with a couple of other things today. So on the last podcast, we spoke much more about the kind of mindset around AI, what we think of it, also how how Philipper and I kind of got started using it with the help of our wonderful colleague. And how we're now helping other people. Yeah, and our kind of the different thoughts that we all have around it, the narratives that we hold around it. And today we're going to talk about some of those genuine fears, both at that sort of macro level, whether that's organisational or global, but also on a personal level. We're going to talk about some of And and are very real and normal. Absolutely, a very, very real. We're going to also talk about um some of the ways perhaps that we can take that first step that might be might be kind of easy for us. And then the third thing we're going to talk about is comms and the big one for us. The big one that we we definitely touched on last time. And we're going to talk about the duty. Yeah, the moral obligation. Moral obligation of organisations. We'll come to that. Okay. So I think perhaps we'll start with the fears. Always start with the fears. You've got to start with the difficulty. And then you go into the positive. Eat the frog, is that a thing? Is that a thing? Is that a thing? That is a thing. That is a thing where you do the hardest thing first. Yes. Why the frog? Why the frogs? Please write in on a post. It sounds like something out of um, you know, the sort of island when you're in the jungle. Celebrity I'm in the jungle getting out of here. Or is it a sort of children's parabola? Not that, yeah, but yeah, or is it a children's parable? I don't know. Anyway, I think eat the frog means basically turn around and face your fears. Which which actually is a really, oh god, it's just such a life-changing thing to do with change. One of those phrases that I absolutely love, which will thread through all of this, is wait, stagnate, create. And the thing about wait and stagnate is first of all, we're stuck. But secondly, we're usually being held back by fear. Yes. Usually. Yes. And the conversation because we're not, but we don't, we're not looking at the fear, we're sort of being controlled by it. Yes. And the conversations you and I have had this week, and look, we we can't possibly cover off every every human fear and every specific fear each of us has around or blocker we have around AI. Well we could death tick, exactly. There's that. But yeah, you and I have been talking about, yes, those sort of bigger global fears or organisational fears that are very valid, but we've also been talking about perhaps some of the personal blockers or fears that are not necessarily spoken about. So we're going to talk a bit about those. But maybe let's start with those more macro fears because they are the these are things that are in the press and that we talk about. And I guess three big ones for me are fear of massive job losses, and that obviously that is personal as well as being on a global level. Uh, the second one for me is sort of that existential threat, literally the kind of the the machines are going to take over. And then the third one is um around inequality. I think those are probably the three that stand out to me in terms of those much bigger uh negative impacts that AI could have. I don't know if you'd add anything to that. No, because my mind's going to the micro, to the identity. So if we think about those those bigger, bigger fears, if we go reverse order there. Um so inequality. I personally don't think this is being spoken about enough because I think in all sorts of revolutions and and technical technological changes, um, there's always the danger that there's going to be winners and losers. And that I mean that's very normal and uh in society, and we have to really think about that in terms of AI, both in terms of access to AI. There are people there'll be people that can or access the wonderful things it can bring, but there will also be people who kind of hold the capital or the assets in the world and can utilize AI, and those of us who lose out economically through through the development of AI. So that's a really big thing that is a genuine fear. And I guess we have to look to um governments, we have to look to organizations to to kind of think about that. But again, but but we can equally have some say in that on a local level. Exactly. I think what comes up for me is the difference between I've created a really useful prompt that's helped me sort out all my utility bills. Great, I'm gonna do that. And oh, I've created a great prompt that's gonna help me sort out all my utility bills. My elderly neighbour. Yes, and then my mum would really benefit from this. I could easily help them do this or I could set them up on this. Yeah. So there's something isn't it? There is something on the label level. And of course, that does work on a macro because was it the World Bank? We used to talk about this ages ago, years ago, when we started doing working with creativity in organizations, that I think it was the World Bank, set up basically an idea sharing forum so that when I think a South American country was looking to do a lot of infrastructure and retalmac roads, because of the information and ideas that had been shared at a global level, they saved a lot of money and a lot of time because they could already see from mistakes or innovations other people had done what was going to work in their climate and in their terrain. And so that that sharing, so that you know, we if we think about it on an organizational or a national level, that you're somehow sharing that information. So it's not only what it's not only that you are able to take on what AI brings you, it's that you're then able to output what you learn to do with that and how you've innovated. Because that is going to definitely help at some a bigger level, and then of course us personally. But the more that we're sharers, right? This is a shortcut, this really works, this is a quick way to do this, or this is a super accessible, you know, there'll be different apps coming out. This is a really simplified version. This is if you just want to do X, Y, or Z. So the more we it's all sharing.

SPEAKER_02:

Totally, Phil.

SPEAKER_01:

So so you can think of, I mean, obviously, there there will be some limits in terms of what we can do about how inequality kind of um unfolds as as AI develops. I mean, I guess you can think about it politically in terms of who you vote for. You can also think about it in terms of your company values and principles that you have influence over. Yeah. And as you said, Phil, if there's not enough of that sharing in the system, then we can we can put that in the system ourselves. So there's things we can do. Definitely, and it's an interesting mindset though, isn't it? Generally, yeah. When you think you've worked something out, does it stop them? Yeah, or do you share it? Exactly. I heard some wonderful stories about people who are sort of helping people get access to AI, you know, and they talk specifically about people who are right down the bottom of the sort of um socioeconomic scale and also old people. Those are the two groups that are the same. Well, it's a good example, and I mean I don't know how the companies themselves would feel about this, but let's say you've paid for a for a particular access level on a on an AI platform or an app, and you don't use that much, but you could easily give half an hour or an hour to a neighbour. Yeah, yeah. So there's that. So that that's the inequality piece, which I think will be coming up more and more over the next couple of years. The second one is obviously the existential threat, and there there is some talk around this in terms of the machines will get so intelligent andor manipulative that they will be able to take over either or both through how they can then manipulate human beings and influence us in ways that perhaps aren't uh where we'd want to go, but also literally how they could take over in terms of running the world. And it's not it's not a non-existent threat, it exists. I did hear I think it might have been again Jeffrey Hinton that said uh he's more inclined to think that whilst organizations and governments might be less open to sharing their advances in AI for competitive reasons, he thinks they will be open to sharing and collaborating in terms of that existential threat in terms of machines being able to take over because it's in no one's best interest. So we'll see how the kind of governance unfolds around this. I think this analogy that I'm gonna give is on the personal, but it's difficult, I think, for us to it's a bit like climate change and how we can stop that on a personal level when it's a global issue. It's how do we bridge that? So if I think about it on a more personal level, I think it's quite useful to catch ourselves in the binary and the polarisation that either it's going to be super beneficial and wonderful, and we're all going to be super convenient and just be floating around, you know, just like super healthy with some new army, or it's it's you know, it's some sort of dystopian horror film where the machines are taking over. My analogy would be you know, you've been single for a while, you're thinking about dating, and already you've run ahead to oh, it's gonna be a nightmare. What if they don't live near me? What where are we gonna live? Um, it would be I'd have to make compromise. Already everything is about what's gonna happen in the future and all the problems with it. And of course, the reality about the human experience is it's progressive and it's nuanced.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

That as things happen, it's a dance and it's a it's a shift all the time. And I think when we're in fear of I think I don't think, I know, when we're in fear, we become very binary. Yes. I'm either going to be safe or I'm going to be dead. Like that and we lose all of the nuance of well, if and when that happens, we might respond with this, and where are the lines? And the lines might go too far, a bit like social media. But of course, then we might go, well, hold on a minute, seat belts, you know, they they didn't cut, they weren't, you know, when we first had cars, they they didn't exist. Yeah, so it's just taking a breath and coming back to what can I control here? Yeah, what's the dance here? That we're not if we if we were a species that was completely unconcerned with our own destruction, we would have destroyed ourselves. Well, exactly. The one thing I would say on that is I'd like to say we won't, but we haven't. We haven't yet. No, we haven't yet. Um I guess the one thing I would say on that is I'm I'm kind of torn in tones of in terms of how how involved we do or don't want to get in in politics. I mean, you and I have been very engaged with politics for the last couple of years, uh, which I think is very useful, very important. And I think certainly in terms of that kind of governance of how this is unfolding, because it's it's going to be a big part of our society. I think it probably is important to get politically engaged at a certain level. Uh, I understand if not everybody feels like that, but you know, ultimately the power of the governance of all of this is going to be in the hands of the combination of large organizations and governments. It's interesting, isn't it? As we're talking about it, and it's making me think that of course the challenge with anything like this is that we're talking about fears, we're talking about the unknown, we're talking about what what might be coming, what might not, and how can we regulate? But of course, what everyone is in the same boat of we don't know. No, that's right. So that's what I mean about this dance is we're going, regulate, regulate. Well, it's you know, we we can't let it spin out of control, but of course, we don't know what we're regulating. No, that's right at the moment. So it's it's very challenging. That's right, and we spoke about this last time in terms of putting a narrative to something that is so unknown. And I would advise anybody to watch your TEDx talk, Phil, in terms of uh we're all improvising and making this thing up as we go along, and this is no, no, this is no different. And then the third kind of more macro global um fear and threat, which we're not going to spend too much time on today, because we did speak about this last time, and we're gonna go down into the personal level on it, is of course uh job losses in terms of things becoming very automated, very efficient, and the impact that that will have on the job market. Now, again, that that is a genuine threat and always has been with technological advances, as we spoke at length about this on the previous podcast. So we won't go into too much detail about that, other than it's a very valid fear to have. I think what we're more interested in talking about today, in in that respect, in that third one, is to push it right down to the personal level in terms of you know, my my job, your job, uh rather than thinking about it globally to speak anything. Blacksmiths, you know, there there are a few left. Yeah. Yeah, that's right, you know, but there is less need for them. Yeah, yeah, that's right. That's right. And and even those, I mean, we've we've definitely met some. So, for example, the the Wheeled and Down Museum in in Sussex, which is just it's an amazing place. It's like stepping back in time in these old buildings, and there is sort of these artisans who who work there. So, finding a different way to practice your trade that is still useful in the way that you still have control over. Yeah, and that's exactly what we want to talk about in terms of those more personal fears. So, we didn't really speak about this last time, but um, of course, lots of us will have blockers and fears in terms of using AI, and we'll talk in this episode also about how to kind of open the door of AI. But before we do that, if we just think about for those of us who hadn't or haven't sort of tried anything in the world of AI, or we're sitting there thinking this is going to be bad for me, my job is gonna change or be lost, or we're thinking if I can just sort of cling on for the next five years, I'll be fine. I guess something you and I have been talking about this week is yes, of course, that sort of genuine uh fear and concern around job losses. For me, there's something else as well. And we were having a really good conversation with uh about this this week um with Matt as well. That that there is an absolute truth to that. And is there also some truth in sort of not wanting to change anything about our jobs? Sort of thinking, I mean, even if, even if AI could be sort of integrated into my role and I could stop doing some of the more processed stuff, and that might free me up then to have more time to think strategically or creatively, or more time to build relationships and have conversations. You know, maybe I like sitting there doing my data on my Excel spreadsheet. Maybe it feels too challenging for me to spend time conversing and building relationships. Maybe I quite like spending time on my own and doing my work and then having my lunch and going home at five o'clock. And maybe I don't think uh, but maybe that is a blocker to me thinking, well, I could totally transform this job and I could be engaging with all sorts of people when really I'm like absolutely kind of want to get through the day. Absolutely, and that and that for me speaks to at least two things, one of which is Daniel Kahneman's system one and system two brain, and the second thing is uh our identity. Yeah. That if we think about the system one, system two brain, we've talked about this before, definitely, but if you don't know Daniel Kahneman's work, um the system one brain wants to be on autopilot, wants to do what it already knows, super, super lazy slash efficient. Yes. And what we operate in that system most of our most of our time. It's super useful. Yeah. Pattern, or we sit here and know exactly what you're doing. I can get lost for hours in an Excel spreadsheet. It's so satisfying. It's energy efficient. It's energy efficient. I'm in my world, I don't have to engage with anybody else. Nobody's interrupting me or making suggestions on what I know needs to happen. That's right. It's quite a nice space to be in. Yeah. Well, that you're that's bridging slightly to the second one, but you but but certainly that part of it that is you know exactly what you're doing, it's very familiar. This terrain is very known to you. It's gonna be an end result. Yeah, you've probably got half a brain on it. Yeah. So it's it's partly the unconscious is just doing what it does, and you haven't got to, it's not like trying to learn French. No, exactly. So I did I did some of our, I did some sales analysis the other day for our for our organization. And it was exporting data from our account system, downloading into an Excel spreadsheet and formatting it. And after I've been doing it for about 10 minutes, I had to just repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat for all the different sort of sales. And I was just clicking and pasting and clicking. And I wasn't even thinking about what I was doing, but at the end of it, I had this really beautiful brand. Yeah, yeah. So that's so there you go. So that's system one. Now, system two, system two would have been Penn, I want you to um brainstorm some ideas for a brand new series on our 4D on demand digital platform. Yeah, and so which I love as well, but I yeah, yeah, but there's a different was not the mode of it's a different energy, exactly. So we're asking people to really fire up that effortful brain, system two, which is learning new things, and it's the equivalent of trying to find a new route to work or to your child school or to the gym, and possibly spend time more time with other people, which for some people is well let's we're gonna come to that because that's that's identity more, a bit more, but yes, effortful as well. Yeah. But actually, what we need to do with trying to raise the pressure on our boiler or trying to find a new route to work is actually say, okay, I am good today or tomorrow or whatever, or next Thursday, I'm gonna set aside some time and I'm gonna and I'm going to consciously try to find that new route to work. So it becomes a thing that you that you're choosing to do because every day that you could just keep taking the same route you went, it has to become a thing, like a choice. Like you're gonna go and buy that pair of trains or whatever it is. So you have to actually make that thing happen. Yes. So you have to decide Wednesday, I'm going to have a have a 20-minute play with an AI. Yeah. So we have to actually make a conscious decision and we have to go and sort of do that thing and fire up system two, which is the effort. But once we started doing it, it will become system one, of course. Yeah. And then there's identity, which you're talking to, which is about who you think you are and how you like to spend your time and the kind of person you are at work. Yeah. And we may we may not even be aware of this, you know, because we are we're doing the job that we've been doing for a while and it's just it's how we operate. We may not be aware of some of those patterns of who we are and how we show up, whether that's being a little bit more introverted or extroverted. So getting our energy from being on our own and doing tasks or being with other people, or it might be that I am someone who is really good at using Excel or whatever it might be. So there'll be different things that we kind of tell ourselves about what our job is and what that means to us and who we are, that perhaps we are now being asked to step outside of. And that is one of the hardest things for us to do. I agree. Because it's at quite a deep level that we are connected to that identity around our jobs. And so if someone says suddenly, well, instead of spending five hours of your day processing that data, I now want you to spend two or three hours going out and talking to some people in another team. It's not that we can't, it's not that we can't do it, it's not that we can't get out of our chair and go and do it, but it's just so contrary to how I've been operating and who I think I am and what I think my job is and how you've been valued for all this time. I totally exactly agree with you. I think that a big part of the fears is this identity, and I don't think we quite we wouldn't give necessarily give it that language, but that it's it's posing a threat to how I spend my time and how I bring value to the world, and that is huge. That is huge. That people really think I'm great because I do these tasks and I'm really efficient and I'm really good at them, like the Excel spreadsheets or whatever it is. And if that's going to be taken away from me, God, that feels like I can feel it even in my body. But it just feels like that's not me, but that's not what I do, that's not what my what my job is. And of course, there is a truth to that because that's what we have told ourselves and that's how we've identified ourselves and our job. It's not that it's impossible for us to do something different. I mean, you know, I've I've said many times on this podcast, I used to, you know, I used to be a chartered accountant. I mean, I still am, I think once a chartered accountant, always a chartered accountant, but you know, I certainly wasn't, you know, building client relationships or delivering programs or getting up on stages, it just wasn't what I was doing. But as I now know, it's not that I can't do it because I do do it. It's just that's not who I thought I was or what I was doing. And if somebody had said to me, you know, 25 years ago, so I don't know if you're not, so I know that you're I know that you're managing our whole sort of consolidation of our international accounts every month, but actually now what you're going to do is you're going to deliver the training to say, I'd have been like, Yeah. No, I'm not. Yeah. No, I'm not doing that. Yeah. Um, but of course I can do it. It's just that's not who I was. Well, also, I think what you speak to there brilliantly is the difference between someone shoving you off a cliff and somebody saying, here's the first brick in quite a long path that you're going to take, and and there'll be so many great experiences along the way. But you carry on doing what you do right now. We're going to start playing with some other that's quite. Which is what we'll talk about in terms of taking that step into this world. But I really think one of the most important things is to sort of own our own blockers. Because yes, there will be other things. You know, we'll be fearful about our job, perhaps, or perhaps we won't have um clarity on what we need to do, we won't have the systems in place, we won't really understand how AI could could be used in our role. So, of course, there'll be lots of other things. There may also be a part of you that feels like if you step into that world, you're no longer going to be you, or no longer going to be what's valued in the world, or and and that that feels very real, and you are the only one that can overcome that and take ownership of it. I mean, even if your company put all of the facilities in place and laid out a very clear roadmap what AI was going to be used and how, you'll still feel like, yes, but that that new role isn't me. So, and if I was to, if I was to give, I don't know if the advice is the right word, but one sort of invitation in all of this, as I would probably would, you know, one of the things that I I would offer more generally on human development, probably the big one would be learn to regulate your nervous system. But the other one would be when you catch a phrase like that's not me, is is firstly, it's really normal. Yeah, you you are so not alone, you are with the majority of human beings so that we can we can all feel like that. And the second thing is to get curious about it, is to is to find a kind of slightly lighter, oh that's interesting. I've just heard myself say that's not me. I wonder what I I wonder what might be possible here. It's just gently, gently, not it's got to be me, or I've got to be completely the opposite to who I think I am, but just oh look, I'm I'm saying that's not me. How do I know it's not well and I you know and I think this but gently gently, gently, gently, nice, be nice to ourselves. And I think this is a good a good point to sort of mention again, which we have before Ian McGripps' model of our brains, the left the left and right hemisphere. And there's there's a great animated um talk online that he does. Now, we know relatively little about the brain, so let's just bear that in mind when we when we talk about this. But I think that model is a really good way to think about how we operate as human beings and how AI is going to impact that. So if you think about our brain in terms of left and right, so left is much more um what we already know, it's it's also looking for facts, but it's also organizing and sort of that sort of more data processing. Um it's solving things based on information we already have, whereas the right hand side of the brain is much more about meaning making, um, improvising, things that we don't know, creating you know, all those kind of things. Now, uh most of us, unless we have some kind of uh Problem with our brain. Most of us are what we would call whole brain thinkers. We have the whole brain with which we think, but of course, our education system and lots of the jobs that we do has I like to think of it almost as if the left hand side of your brain has had much more of a weekly and daily gym workout than the right hand side of your brain for a lot of people. I mean, obviously for those in much more in the in the arts, they will have worked their brain differently. But if you think about the part of your brain that's been sort of worked and used and is really sort of on its game, it pays the bills. It pays the bills. So that you know, that's the part of yourself that will be working more for you. And so we just we're just used to using that part of our brain and thinking like that. So it's not that you can't, but it's almost like it's almost like you've been sort of working out with one side of your body and and your arm and your other arm is slightly weaker. It's not that you can't build it up, it's just that you haven't yet. Yes, well that's it. In fact, Ian Miguel Kus goes further because his um it's the master and his emissary, his book, and he's his premise is that we've we've worked the left brain so much that it's become the master and the right brain, all of our creativity, all of the potential possibility, what's new, what might be out there, has become the emissary, the the servant. And he and and actually he he gives the analogy of we're sort of poodling along and both hemispheres are working, and and left brain sort of goes, I could shape this up a bit better and get this bit better organized. And so it gets up on his you know big throne or her big throne and starts going, right, you know, right, you get up at nine, you go and do that, you know, then you'll do this, then you'll do that. We'll have work systems and diaries that look just how I want them to look. We'll get we'll get everybody scheduled, that'll all be great. And eventually, as people are getting on the tube, getting on the train, getting in their cars at the right time, traffic, parking, left brain, how much and I do love all this. I love all this, but eventually, left brain goes, I can't see why we even need right brain anymore. They don't seem to be very doing anything. We'll just we'll just be left brain. And then people go, my life feels a bit meaningless. I don't, I feel a bit disconnected, I feel a bit depressed, yeah, feel a bit anxious. I don't know what's wrong, just feel a bit empty, feel a bit lost. What is that? And of course, right brain's going, I'm here! You've thrown me away, and we've sort of got it the wrong way around. We sort of needed left brain to serve our humanness and our love and connection and our being and our experience and our what's this world and all what's possible and all hello, how love you see? Oh, I love you. And we needed left brain to get us to that appointment on time because we then we can see the person that we love and share all this wonderful time with them, rather than I'm just sitting here crossed because we said five o'clock, and I don't care about the person. Now I'm just cross. We've got it at the wrong time. Totally. Well, I mean, you know, this is so I think this is such an opportunity. Well, isn't it interesting that AI has come along at this time when lots of people are talking about we are we've got to get creativity back to the core of our education system what we're doing. What are we doing this? The meaning. Yeah, in terms in terms of meaning, in terms of um depression, in terms of our future and how we shape and evolve ourselves. I mean, so many things, that right-hand side of our brain is going to be key. And isn't it interesting that we've suddenly got this piece of technology that we can outside? That we can like plug plug in. I know. I know, and look, and look, they're so if we if we were making meaning out of this, we'd be like, yeah, sure that's come along. Because now we can free up to be even more human. I mean, I just feel I that that part of it makes me feel very excited. And if anybody's going, well, you know, yeah, but it's all just nice add-ons, why do we go to the theatre or watch Netflix or read books or want to tell each other's stories? Watch comedy, watch comedy, or or or want a sofa in a certain colour or a picture on the wall, or draw, or put up a Christmas, or see a view, or why yeah. Why do we do any of this? Or want to dress nicely, why do we do that's right. We wouldn't bother. No, exactly. If it wasn't the absolute stuff. I mean, I always, you know, one of the things for me is that you know, when people make a lot of money, they buy art. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, they don't they don't just schedule themselves more, they buy art. So anyway, so that's a you know that that that that I think is such an opportunity to become more human, of course, we would say to become more 40 human. Exactly. And and of course, the other thing about this, if you were really sort of meaning-making out of out of this, of course, it's very, very difficult, in fact, virtually impossible for us to fire up that sort of that creativity and that right-hand side of the brain when when we're living in fear. It's very, very difficult for us to do that. And of course, lots of us are quite fearful. I mean, in terms of how how the world is speaking at the moment and and politically, there's a lot of fear in the world, and that creativity gets kind of overwhelmed with with the fear and the catastrophizing. So we've got we've got some work to do as human beings in terms of releasing ourselves from the fear and pulling ourselves into creativity for so many reasons. And AI is just the latest, it's almost like you know, we talk about this a lot, it's almost like the universe will keep giving us things until we learn the lesson that we need to learn. So we need to release the fear and be creative. Yeah, I'm gonna give you another thing that might make you might be doing that. AI is gonna push you to do it. Are you gonna do it this time? Absolutely, absolutely, and it's really re-prioritizing because in our a lot of us will know the experience of if we've got a bill to pay or a poem to write, we'll pay the bill. So exactly that. It's like we've it's like we're being pushed to re-prioritize what the experience of being human is. So I think that's very exciting. Which leads us on to if you if you do have any of those feelings and they're perfectly valid, I mean, I would certainly say that about myself, you know, in terms of my age and what I do, which is very kind of human-related, I was thinking I don't know if AI is going to be necessary for me, but it it is really useful, and I'm really enjoying using it. And we spoke on the last podcast about how our wonderful colleague Matt introduced us to uh AI and we we started using it to kind of get over that initial blocker, if you like. And the way that he did that was in a very specific way, but you can think about this in terms of that first step to unblock, like you said, Phil, take one step. You can think about this in terms of edge theory, which is which is change theory, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, exactly. So if you think about what helps you get over the edge, is it the bite-sized chunk? Is it doing it with a friend? Is it making it into a bit of a game? Is it actually having a coach or a mentor to help you get over it? Is it being pushed? Is it yeah, is it being pushed? Exactly, but it's true, isn't it? Some for some people it's like, you know, you'll learn that you'll survive jumping off a high board when you've been pushed off of a high board. Exactly. So we've all got different ways. Some people do like to leap, some people like to, you know, edge their way down. Or do you want to watch, you know, the rest of your team do it first and then you'll do it, or do you want to be the one that that leaps and sort of shows everyone else what to do? Exactly. We all have different ways that we step in to change. And you may or may not be aware of your your kind your edge. Yeah. I am certainly somebody who wants to want someone else to do it first. Yeah, see, I I want to do it first and I'm gonna do it. Whereas some people might want to learn about it. That's why you ended up in casualty with a broken shoulder when we went sledging. Exactly. Because you were like, I'm going first, I'm going down. Exactly. Exactly. So so we're all different. So what so first of all, really normalise it. That feeling edgy at the edge is completely normal. And what helps you? What if you think about a time where you have moved through change, whether that's sort of the persuasion to move house or go somewhere new on holiday or move job, whatever it is, what's helped you? Does it help you to, you know, go for a run, take a deep breath and jump? Does it help you to really do a lot of groundwork and loads of prep so that you know it's the equivalent of I'm not moving into the house until the last picture's hung up? Or are you someone who can move in when they're still tarpauling, you know, on the roof? Do you need to do it with a friend? Do you do you really love, you know, if you were going to a new new place or a new doing a new sport, would you want to go and do it with a friend? Would you want to go and do it? And screw up on your own, or you know, you'll know what you're like. Totally. So I've got there's a couple of really good examples of this. So we spoke last time also about the book switch where you can think about change both sort of intellectually, emotionally, how you feel about it, but also the path, the ease with which you can change. And a couple of really good examples for me have been we mentioned this last time that Matt wrote us just a really brilliant prompt, which we'll talk about writing prompts in a bit. So that I didn't have to do that bit, I just you just got the benefit. I fed it in, watched what happened, and went, wow. So that's one thing you can do in terms of either for yourself or for somebody else. Yeah. The other thing I've done is I said this to you the other day that Google have now reduced the number of search items that you get fed back from 100 to 10 on Google search for for various reasons, which we won't go into. But of course, I don't feel as satisfied now when I do a Google search. So it's prompted me now to put an AI app on the front of my phone, and I'm now going to be using that for my searching. So that that's more that's an environmental thing where now that's going to be easier for me to use. So there are different things we can do that just make it easier for us to process wise to start using. And one of the things I would also offer is what do you know gives you pleasure? So I love language. So one of the really pleasurable things for me with AI is to ask for, is you to use it like a thesaurus. And really specifically. So can you give me, you know, words that also mean, you know, to get working together, the beginning P. Because that usually it's because I'm looking for for words, but I find pleasure in language. So what's your version of that? What do you what do you like? What do you sort of enjoy? If you think about a task, even a task that you're worried about might be at risk, what is it that you enjoy about it? Do you enjoy, you know, the language like I do? Do you enjoy uh data gathering? Do you enjoy the sort of organizing of things in a certain way? You know, what is it that you that you love and start there? Yeah. Start on it. And equally it might be as as Phil as you said, ways I can wear my hair if I'm wearing a polo neck. I mean, it doesn't really matter. Exactly. Or it might be that you ask your leader or as a leader, you set your team a challenge, so you kind of gamify it a bit. So there's lots of different ways you can just get people into it because I think sometimes we can sort of we can be a little bit negative or criticize people because they're not they're not changing, they're not trying something new. But it's it's often not that people are poorly intended, it's just there is a genuine blocker there that I literally don't know how to do it, or I don't have access to what I need to do. Or so there's lots of different ways we can just take that first. Yes, you could do a you could do a which is exactly what Matt did for us, you could do a a prompt template, give it to somebody, well, give give it to the your whole give it to your whole team. They've all got exactly the same prompt. You can say, go away and play with this, and then if you want to, you can tweak that prompt and see because if if you want it to give you something a little bit different, a little bit specialized according to you, what would you love? And so that you really you're you're the the the amount that you're being asked to do is the five percent. Exactly, exactly. So this is what we call edge. This is really taking that thinking about it as taking that first step, you're opening the door. And if you haven't got anybody who can write prompts, you can definitely Google that, go online, go on Instagram, they're everywhere. Yeah, people advising you how to write prompts. And then before we come on to, I guess, what one of the big things for 4D, we're gonna talk about your job role. And again, part of this identity and part of this kind of perhaps waiting to see what happens is well, this is my current job, this is what I'm currently responsible for, and I and I don't know what the new job is gonna look like. So I'll wait, I'll wait until somebody tells me what that's gonna be because I don't know. And that's I mean, in a way, that that may be fine. There may be organizations that are, you know, writing lots of new job descriptions. I guess our offer would be to perhaps take that on board a little yourself, if you can. Yeah, and think about what's your current job role? And you said you talked about putting this in a Venn diagram. Oh, I love Venn diagram. So so Venn diagram yourself with AI, right? So so so you've got you, you've got AI. Current job. Current job. So what do you think AI might be able to do? And even if you've never used it, what do you think AI might be able to do? So if we use us as an example, we would what it might be able to do from your current job. Yes, yeah. Yeah. You that you could be pretty sure that it could format a facilitator notes or a set of tools for a proposal. In fact, Matt's just got got it to write proposals and to give sort of price options and things like that. So you'll be pretty sure it can do that kind of thing. And then you could do the crossover of what what could both of us maybe do? That maybe stuff that you really like that you might want to hold on to. And then in the other one, what are the things that I don't really think it will be able to do? And first of all, write those down. And if you really don't have anything for that, interesting, but use AI. Yeah, exactly. Use AI, exactly, exactly. Well, honestly, that we were we were joking about this last night in a conversation I was having. That you exactly that of using AI to ask what AI can do. I mean, it's just a loop, the internal loop. But the other thing about that, about that last one is start to ask yourself from the perspective of these two criteria input and output. So, what is it that AI couldn't possibly do without your input? Because this is already your unique selling point. Asking questions. Yeah, asking questions, um, giving it instructions, telling it information that it doesn't know about, giving it a new. Finding about stuff from clients or stakeholders. Exactly, giving it certain information about a specific client and actually correcting it on some things on and on and on. So it needs input and then it needs output. So it can't interpret what it shoves out for your own. In fact, sometimes interprets it wrong. Sometimes it interprets it wrong, it needs correcting. So it needs interpretation, and then of course the piece will come on to is it needs to share, it needs then what are you doing? Yeah, like it's now a thing in the world, and of course, the thing that we're really good at us human beings is the connection, is the communication. So and implementation as well as implementation as well. So the doing things actually got to happen, exactly. So even and the new ideas that come out of what you've done. So then loop back into more input. So even if you start with those very broad ideas of all right, if AI is in the middle doing some of this sort of processing work for me, what does it absolutely know? If you had a if you had a an assistant and it was doing all of that, but you're the expert, what do you need to tell your assistant or your coache or your your sort of mentor that you're that it needs to do for you? And once once they've done that for you, now you're yeah, you're the expert who's now going to go into the world and use this information to do something with. So you can fill those with more and more and more potential, more ideas to input and more connection, expansion, communication, interpretation, ideas at the other end. Yeah. And depending on what you love doing, it might be that you want to, like I like I gave the example a minute ago of instead of processing lots of data, I'm sitting there and analysing the data and thinking, what does this mean? What could we do with this? So depending on what you like doing, or maybe you're somebody who just wants to have more time for conversations with other people. So depending on what you love doing, if you look at your current job and kind of put pull it apart a little bit and expand it into what could AI do? Uh, what am I not currently doing that I might love to do? And effectively start kind of crafting your own new job spec and alongside that your sort of AI assistant job spec. And it might be that that's you know, that's a work in progress that will start shifting and changing, but it's the start of you taking control of what your job career might start moving into. And I know it sounds a little bit like, oh, this is just you know, kind of um high in the sky, and I'm kind of making this up. I guess I guess we would, you know, we would think about what Joe Dispenser talks about, which is you know, the best way to predict your future is to create it. Absolutely, and and someone's got to do that work at some point, and I and you know we know lots of organizations that are really trying to think and future-proof and think, well, how might how might this look? How might systemically be we be working together? And no one's really got the idea. Exactly. If I so if I think of an example, and this again speaks to the idea of sort of of moving away from the binary or the polarization. So, for example, let's say the thinking is AI is gonna take over customer service, like that. So it's customer service jobs gone. And there's a different way of thinking about that, which is ah, this is interesting. Let's say AI is gonna do a lot of customer service work now. I'm gonna look at those results. I'm gonna look at what issues get resolved really well through AI. I'm gonna look at which demographics respond really well. I'm gonna look at what medium that works on. Is that a voice bot? Is that a sort of typing bot? Is that is that by just generating emails? Like how, what's the best way? And where are the where are the gaps? Where are people not getting issues resolved? What demographic, what particular issues? Ah, great, here's an opportunity. So what we need in this area is either we need more inputs into the into AI and find a different way, or with that demographic, with that issue. Taking them out to lunch. Yeah, taking we need we need a special team. Yeah, and we need a special team and we need to get them upskilled because there's a real opportunity there. We don't we don't want to lose that market. In fact, we want to expand it because it's an aging population, that demographic is growing, we are going in. So AI is gonna hold all of that and we're gonna specialise here. And that's if you get curious about what AI can do, what the results are showing you, what the data showing you, then you suddenly it's gonna give you all this information about other opportunities, which brings us on to the comms bit, of course. And just to finish on that, if that feels too big, or if it you know, if you feel like you're waiting for somebody else to give you that information, I guess my offer would be just take five percent. Take five percent of your job role and see if you can move 5% to AI and do 5% differently or add something new. That you know, just again, just a really small step. Or like one thing. Yeah. One thing AI can do for me, and one new thing that I'm gonna do that AI can't do. That's a really nice small step. That's a really nice model. Which does bring us on to our next piece, which is if again, if we think about sort of the inputs into AI and the outputs from AI and that right hand part of our brain, which is connection, meaning making, improvising, relationships, all of those pieces. Of course, of course, we are sitting very much in this world at 40 Human Being. We are called 40 Human Being. You know, we are in the world of uh connection, comms, influencing, relationships, leadership, all of those what have up until now been called soft skills. And I think there's a stat on this, isn't it? That in terms of uh corporate investment into training, is it something like 85 and 15%? Like I said, 85% of training budget goes on hard skills, so technical and vocational skills, and 15% goes on what is up until now called soft skills. And we would argue switcheroo, it's gonna say switcheroo too. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're not soft skills, they're core skills, they're core skills. They're core human skills, yes. And what I love was the conversation you had this week, which really is an is a wonderful invitation/slash challenge to organisations, which is that rather than leaving people to feel like, oh, what's gonna happen? What do I what do I need to do? How how am I gonna cope? What if my job goes? Is that it's a moral obligation for organizations to to say, right, if this is if this is if this is a shift that's happening, we are morally obliged to upskill you. Well, before we say, right, you haven't got a job, is to or you're gonna be doing this instead of this, instead of this, is to upskill you in those core skills as we will definitely. We know that we know our workforce needs. That we know and we know that it's gonna keep it's gonna be is gonna be needed in the workplace, and we know that that's gonna keep you in employment. It might be a slightly different job, but you're gonna be but you're gonna have the skills. Totally. And again, as you would skill someone up in health and safety. Exactly, Bill, exactly. And and again, obviously, we are sitting right in this at 40 human being. But if we think about the skills that we are definitely, definitely, definitely gonna need, they are going to be communication skills, relational skills, influencing skills, and creativity. Yeah, I mean, yeah, without a shadow of a doubt, that is what that is what we're gonna be needing to upskill. So that 15% is gonna have to shift massively. And I think organisations, team leaders can do an enormous amount for their for their teams and for their employees in terms of making people feel much more open, engaged, uh, and curious about what's possible because they'll feel like, ah, if my job now involves me going to talk to a different team in the organization because we need to collaborate more rather than send data across the road or the pond, I feel I have the skills to do that now. Exactly. And if you think about what is going to be needed, we are going to have to have, we are wanting so much human experience. And if you think about your energy, your ability to engage, your ability to have ideas of how to bring people together or to get them interested in something. I mean, if you think about something, I don't know, it could be it could be a utilities that if everything is now being processed on an equal level, because all of that data is now in an in AI, so all of a certain company across competitors can all basically match because they've all now got the same level of data information. Big data is just going to kind of flatten the field. But let's say, what's the differentiator? The differentiator is, oh, I'm with that company because once a month they get us all together and they, you know, give us a whatever some kind of experience online or in person, or they they they they're so good, the way that they email us and their customer service, or that they'll call us once a month, and they're so funny and they're so engaging, and I really love the way that they and they really understand what it's like to try to, you know, work my boy, whatever it is, well, that is gonna be the differentiate. It do you know, and it's really it's get it's gonna come down to the personal because AI is gonna be able to do a lot in terms of that macro level. So if I think about I've had quite a lot of um contact with utilities this week, Phil, as you know, and if I think about some of the things I learned this week from having a water utilities guy come and visit my house, but I didn't even know what my stop cot was, but you know, he he told me some things about water usage and where the pipe work was in the house, and and then I thought, if I had my electricity person come round and just spend, I don't know, 45 minutes with me and say to me, right, well, do you realise that if you changed this, this, and this, you'd probably save X, Y, and Z. Because it's it's it's very challenging for us to read all these leaflets and sort of work it all out. But they might have time to do that. That's right. And we're saving the planet, though. That's right, that's right. I'm gonna exactly they're gonna come around, I've got 30 minutes with you, and I'm gonna give you a quick tour of your house in terms of this, and I'm gonna make it so easy for you, you are gonna know how to deal with it. And I'm gonna save you, X, Y, Z, D. Exactly, exactly. I mean, they and again, that I'm not in that industry, and that's just an idea off the top of my. I mean, there's so many things we can do. I really, really believe that a part of what AI is gonna do, even though it's going to be quite a sort of consolidating and macro piece of technology in many ways, I think it's gonna free us up to be more present, local, and personalised. Which is a which is what we need. Catchphrase. I I agree. So, so let's bring that right down as we finish to your kind of you know, the nitty-gritty of your daily life. What are those opportunities for you? What is it that AI can do that can free up an hour, let's say, if even starting with an hour of your week? And what would really benefit you and your team to do in that hour? What what what do you know would really shift the culture, the enthusiasm, the idea sharing, the connections and collaboration between your team that you've now got because how many people say to us, I mean, we haven't even met for three years? No, I know. We haven't even got in the same room, we don't really know each other. So true. Um and and and and then we wonder why there's dynamic difficulties and people are I'm not talking, it's siloed. You've this is such an opportunity. So you can look for those tiny micro opportunities of all right, I reckon we've gained at least an hour a week. What are we gonna do with that? Do you know what I'm gonna do, Phil? Straight after this. I'm gonna go and type in to Claude, which is my uh AI of choice. Other AIs are available. Um I'm gonna type in, how can how can Claude, how can you help with my daughter's mass homework? Because then I might free up my afternoon fit. Come on, Claude. Now we're challenging you. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the 40 Human Being Podcast. We hope you enjoyed the show. Do take on board some of the insights, tools, and tips because every time that you try something new to get back to choice, you are making a vote for the you that you want to become. And I I love that phrase, Pen. I do too. And please do share this episode with somebody that you know would really benefit from the lessons and learnings we've been chatting about today. And of course, if you're interested in more from 4D Human Being, do get in touch. We run workshops, trainings online, in person, conference events and keynotes. We've got the 4D on-demand platform for your whole organisation. And we do have a free essentials membership where anybody can sign up for absolutely free to access some of our insights, tools, and tips. So do get in touch with us if you'd like to hear more. We cannot wait to hear from you and to carry on the conversation.