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Methods of the Masters
A blog on the art & science of creative action.
Show, Don't Tell: Your Team Won't Use AI Until They See You Using It
Last week a CEO asked me the same question I hear from every executive: 'How do I get my team to use AI?'
My answer shocked him.
Love in the Age of AI: The One Thing Algorithms Can't Fake
In the AI age, love is more important than ever. Because now anyone can generate “good enough” solutions with a few prompts. But people want more than good enough. When average is free, only above-average passion will stand out.
Think Differently About Meeting Prep: From Manual Grind to AI-Enhanced Efficiency
Deeply practical guest post by former NCAA and NFL punter, now tech executive, Zoltán Meskó. I met Zoltán at Stanford’s annual Campbell Trophy Summit last summer, and he stayed in touch, telling me all the cool stuff he was trying - check out how AI is changing the way he works.
Stop Making Peace with Pain: The Hidden Cost of Normalizing Inefficiency
"I don't really have any pain points to automate," a CEO told me during an AI workshop last week. "I don't do repetitive work like other people in the company do."
Then he mentioned how he spends six hours manually editing every report his team sends him… I had to stop him right there.
Redefine AI: Amplified Intelligence, Augmented Intelligence
There’s only one right answer to the question, “Did AI help with this?” The shift to an AI-first mindset isn't just about saving time. It's about recognizing a fundamental truth: AI isn't a tool you might want to use. It's an amplifier you'd be reckless not to use.
Use AI to Use AI: The Meta-Skill Nobody’s Talking About
Learning to work with AI isn’t really a technical challenge. It’s a human behavior change effort. AI skill building is about far more than learning new tools. It’s about unlearning old ways of working.
45 Minutes That Saved 20 Years: The Story of An Unlikely AI Hero
AI is transforming industries. Designers are compressing month-long workflows into minutes. Scientists are using AI to condense years of research into days. But what about decades into minutes? Meet Adam. He doesn’t have a LinkedIn account. But in 45 minutes, he built an AI tool that'll save his organization thousands of days of work every year.
Never Too Old to Learn: How Experience Gives You an “AI Edge”
Growth mindset expert Diane Flynn shares insights and advice for a more experienced generation of workers who might feel somewhat hesitant to embrace the collaborative superpowers of GenAI.
Stop Hiding Your AI Use (And Make Your Team Stop, Too)
Right now, in boardrooms and Slack channels across the globe, leaders are inadvertently creating a culture of AI shame. They're reinforcing the very hesitation they should be helping their teams overcome. It's time for an intervention.
Practice Process Mindfulness
One of the defining contributions the d.school is helping teams ask themselves, “What kind of thinking is appropriate, when?” We call such clarity being “Mindful of Process.” And it can seem like semantics until you realize we need to show up in different ways.
Catalyze AI Success: The Power of Dedicated Innovation Capacity
In the past year, I've witnessed a fascinating phenomenon across organizations embracing GenAI. Two "identical twins" in the AI race, similar in their approach to AI adoption -- engaged senior leadership, extensive training, numerous opportunities for AI integration -- whose outcomes couldn't be more different.
Scrape Your Knees: Why Falling is Essential to AI Mastery
Most folks’ biggest mistake in collaborating with AI is expecting to get things perfect right out of the gate. But learning to use AI is just like any other motor skill: you’ve got to fall in order to create new neural pathways. Here, I share some insights on falling forward, productively.
Seek Inspiration to Spark Innovation
Rather than waiting around for lightning to strike, take a more proactive approach. You can provoke your own imagination. One of the most effective, powerful, and fun tools we have created for such self-provocation missions is what we call “Analogous Exploration.”
Unlock AI's Potential: Your Journey from Fear to Fun
It’s been 21 months since my book Ideaflow was published, and unexpectedly — catalyzed by the launch of ChatGPT just one month later — the period that many authors described as a victory-lap book tour was transformed into a front-row education in a thrilling new world, reshaping not just how I work, but how I think.
Ethan Mollick: “Latent Expertise: Everyone is in R&D”
Special guest post from Wharton professor and “accidental AI expert” Ethan Mollick. He joined the podcast a couple months back, and then he blew our minds with this exceptional post on how companies can do much more with AI than merely improve efficiency.
Beware Prompt-Hoarding
If you are to succeed in your quest to realize the gains promised by GenAI enthusiasts, you must regard every quick and easy prompt pack with skepticism. “The Ultimate Prompt Guide” promises to bestow a wizard-summoning ability with a blue-pill-like ease. No, you will not know Kung Fu after downloading that prompt pack.
Lose Your Thumbs, Find Your Voice
For all the hype about Natural Language Processing (NLP), it’s easy to forget that typing isn't all that natural. For many, it’s a bottleneck to our thought process. In the age of AI, we can bypass our fingers and thumbs entirely in favor of actual “natural language”: the spoken word.
Commission A Personal AI Project
Many organizations are asking their people the wrong question: “What can GenAI do for our business?” This is the wrong question because most employees don’t even know what GenAI can do, period! Here’s a cheat code to help your people understand its potential.
Start Using AI for Yourself
I’ve noticed a troubling trend among organizational leaders: they’re hyping GenAI to subordinates, clients, and customers alike, but they’re woefully inexperienced themselves. Time to start practicing what we preach.
Try This Before You Give Up on GenAI
The fine folks over at Section recently interviewed me about some common mistakes I’m seeing folks make when they use AI. One of the biggest ones? The tendency to expect too little, and get just that.