WEBVTT - Keep learning, with Alexandra Levit 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:09.240 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:15.480 This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:15.520 --> 0:00:17.799 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:21.160 this series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.079 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:24.160 --> 0:00:26.759 they have for the rest of us. So today I 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.560 am delighted to welcome Alexandra Lovitt to Before Breakfast. Alexandra 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.600 is the founder and CEO of Inspiration at Work, which 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.800 is a futurist consulting business. She is also a speaker 0:00:37.120 --> 0:00:39.800 and the author of They Don't Teach Corporate in College 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.520 and the new book Make School Work. So Alexandra, welcome 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:44.080 to the show. 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:47.040 Thanks Laura. So good to be back and chatting with 0:00:47.080 --> 0:00:50.640 you after a little bit of time has passed. Yeah. 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.320 Yeah, it's so good to reconnect with people. I'm loving 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:56.360 that I'm getting to share these conversations with everyone. Why 0:00:56.360 --> 0:00:58.360 don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:04.640 Well, these days, I am a fashioned workforce futurist and 0:01:04.800 --> 0:01:08.600 what this essentially means is that I work with organizations 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:13.360 and governments to ascertain what has the greatest potential for 0:01:13.440 --> 0:01:17.880 disruption in the world of work and then devise scenarios 0:01:18.040 --> 0:01:21.800 and plans for getting through those disruptions in the most 0:01:21.840 --> 0:01:26.160 productive way possible. And how I became connected with the 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.560 future of education was through an organization called GPS Education Partners, 0:01:31.800 --> 0:01:36.720 and they are shaping the world of work through training 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:42.039 students at a younger age to participate meaningfully in the 0:01:42.080 --> 0:01:46.320 workforce through work based learning experiences. And you and I 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:49.680 we've probably talked about this before, but since I've gotten 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.520 into this field about twenty five years ago, there's been 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:58.120 a pretty persistent problem that has just kept me up 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:01.240 at night, niggled in my brain. And that's that there 0:02:01.320 --> 0:02:04.800 is this gap between the jobs that are available for 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.840 people to take and the talent that is wanting to 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:12.560 take those jobs. And so throughout the course of my career, 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:15.079 I've been on the hunt for a solution that would 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.840 pair effectively talent that is available for work with the 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:23.040 jobs that organizations need to fill. And so by pipelining 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:28.239 students at a younger age into a specific career, or 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:31.280 at least giving them good exposure to it, I think 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:34.840 we start to mitigate the problem of not having the 0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:36.960 right people for the right positions. 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.360 Well, what are we doing wrong with education that leads 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:43.160 to this mismatch, this gap. 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:45.880 Well, Laura goes all the way back to my first book, 0:02:45.960 --> 0:02:47.960 which I know we talked about a long time ago. 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:51.799 They don't teach corporate in college, and that more or 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:54.160 less sums up at least part of the problem, which 0:02:54.200 --> 0:02:58.480 is that the mandates of education don't really match up 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.400 to what students need to know in the real world. 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:04.320 And this has only become in the last twenty five 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:09.480 years more relevant because things are changing faster. So when 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:12.760 you think about an established curriculum in high school or college, 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:16.120 it is static for a long period of time, and 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.680 often by the time a student gets out of a 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.399 degree program, whether it's a secondary degree or a post 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.800 secondary degree, that material has become obsolete or at the 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:29.560 very least needs to be substantially updated or assimilated into 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:33.280 the reality of business today. So I think what we've 0:03:33.320 --> 0:03:37.880 been still doing is relying on education, the traditional model 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:42.240 of education, to adequately prepare young people for the workforce. 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:44.360 And by the way, this is any workforce. It's not 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:48.160 just a traditional white collar workforce, or it's any kind 0:03:48.160 --> 0:03:52.280 of job. Students don't have an intuitive, natural sense of 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.840 how those work because they've never had the experience before. 0:03:56.320 --> 0:04:00.000 So we are not providing students with enough concrete operation 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:05.200 ttunities to experience the work world, to experience the different 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.480 career paths that they might be interested in, both to 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:12.080 determine what they do like and also what they don't like. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:16.160 That's just as much of a valuable experience too, because 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:21.599 if you, for example, are interested in engineering, you might, 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:24.560 as a high school student, have absolutely no idea what 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.919 that means in practicality. And if you don't have an 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.719 experience like work based learning, you may go to a 0:04:31.800 --> 0:04:35.760 four year college and you may get a degree in engineering, 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.920 and you may realize that somewhere down the line, either 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:42.599 in an internship or a post graduation work situation, that 0:04:42.680 --> 0:04:44.919 it's nothing like what you expected, you don't like it 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:47.599 at all, And then you've just spent four years of 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:52.240 a very expensive education to not do something that has 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.800 anything to do with that degree. So I view it 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.400 as something that needs to be at least investigated at 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.080 an early your stage in a student's development. 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:05.000 So what would that look like, I mean, is like 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:08.800 more internships, more stuff that like courses that look like work. 0:05:08.839 --> 0:05:10.360 I mean, I'm very curious what it would what it 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:10.960 would look like. 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:12.960 Yeah, I mean this is this is a great question, 0:05:13.120 --> 0:05:17.080 and I think we can look to other countries as 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:18.880 an example. Here in the US we are not as 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:24.240 good at things like apprenticeships as many organizations who are 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:28.200 European based, for example, and many governments they've got really 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.480 much more robust public and private sector partnerships over there, 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.880 where it's expected almost that you do some kind of 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:38.240 work based learning in at the high school level and 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:41.440 sometimes even earlier. So what we are trying to and 0:05:41.800 --> 0:05:45.039 I say we it's it's not really me, it's organizations 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:48.640 like GPS Education Partners, who I worked with on this book. 0:05:49.279 --> 0:05:54.000 What we are trying to do is establish a six 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:58.640 part framework for if you are interested in launching a 0:05:58.680 --> 0:06:01.600 work based learning program, which is basically what it sounds like. 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:06.120 It's learning by working in a real world situation such 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:11.960 as on a factory floor, and to be able to 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:17.680 work with other stakeholders and other constituents in your immediate purview. 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:20.719 And obviously this is going to vary depending on where 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.120 you are or what your role is. So let's say 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:26.120 you are an employer who wants to stay in a 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:29.719 given geographic area, but has no idea where to get 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:32.640 talent and is struggling to get talent. Maybe you're a 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.039 mid sized company and you don't know how to get 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:39.720 talent to compete with the bigger companies that have name recognition. 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.360 So you want to start a work based learning program, 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:44.840 but you don't know where how to get how to 0:06:44.880 --> 0:06:49.000 get this going, and so you might partner with what 0:06:49.040 --> 0:06:54.240 we call convener and intermediary like GPS Education Partners, and 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:58.120 you might partner with policymakers. You might partner with school districts, 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:01.679 get everyone together on the same page, and just follow 0:07:01.960 --> 0:07:05.760 this blueprint for how to get a work based learning 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:09.600 pilot off the ground. And the most important thing about 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:13.360 this is it doesn't have to be done alone. If 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:15.880 you're an employer, obviously you might not have a frame 0:07:15.920 --> 0:07:19.120 of reference for setting something like this up. But to 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:21.640 go to people who do know how to do it 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.200 and do know how to get all the parts working together, 0:07:24.440 --> 0:07:26.920 I think that's a very very critical piece of this, 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:29.200 and so that is what we're trying to do with 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.760 our book. We're trying to literally tell people this is 0:07:32.800 --> 0:07:35.640 what you do, step by step if you're interested in 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:39.200 getting this set up and what it ends up as 0:07:39.280 --> 0:07:42.160 it really does depend again on the individual situation. But 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:45.640 in an ideal world, students would be spending part of 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:50.080 their school day in a real world employment situation, learning, 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.400 for example, a new piece of manufacturing and technology that's 0:07:53.480 --> 0:07:58.080 leveraging robotics to do work and production more efficiently. That's 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.480 just an example. The student comes in, the student is 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:04.800 working with employees or a bit older or have a 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.080 bit more experience, so they're learning not only these hard 0:08:08.160 --> 0:08:12.480 technical skills, but also the skills that are necessary just 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.800 interpersonally to assimilate into the work world that we talk 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:20.760 about so often. And then they are using their academic 0:08:21.000 --> 0:08:25.920 education to support what they are learning in the work environment. 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:30.000 So this might be they are taking some classes on 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:34.480 site at an education center that are related to let's say, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:38.960 using our existing example to manufacturing, getting a manufacturing certification, 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:44.200 so that their academic education does actually line up with 0:08:44.440 --> 0:08:48.480 the work based learning experience. And what I also love 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:51.240 about work based learning is that by the time you 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:53.240 get to the end of your experience, you have a 0:08:53.320 --> 0:08:55.640 much better idea of whether this is a career path 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:58.720 that you would like to pursue, and if so, what 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.000 kind of education do you need in order to get 0:09:02.120 --> 0:09:05.880 ahead in that career path. And I wish, for example, 0:09:06.040 --> 0:09:09.000 my son, who is the person I was speaking of 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:11.720 when I was talking about the engineering example, I wish 0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:15.720 that he had done something like this so that going 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:20.000 to a four year college was a sensible, informed decision, 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:23.280 Whereas right now it's kind of a crapshoot. We really 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:27.080 have no idea what's going to happen when he gets 0:09:27.080 --> 0:09:29.040 that degree, or if he's even going to like that degree. 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:32.440 Whereas if you participate in work based learning prior to 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.679 going to college, you can ascertain is a four year 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:39.360 college degree the next appropriate step for me? And maybe 0:09:39.400 --> 0:09:41.520 you can even have your employer, if you're going to 0:09:41.520 --> 0:09:46.040 continue working with that organization, help you financially with that degree, 0:09:46.080 --> 0:09:48.960 because the employer recognizes the value in you having that 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:54.000 additional education. So essentially, it just means that post secondary 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:57.600 education makes more sense for the individual before rather than 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:00.960 just pipelining every student into a four year degree program, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:03.240 which is the model that we in the US have 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:04.440 had for quite some time. 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:07.400 Absolutely, well, we're going to take a quick ad break 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:08.800 and then we're going to come back and talk more 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:12.000 about how people can learn more while on the job 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:21.800 for the jobs of the future. Well, I am back 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:25.679 talking with Alexandra Lovett, who is a futurist also the 0:10:25.720 --> 0:10:27.720 author of They Don't Teach Corporate in College and the 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.200 new book Make School Work. We've been talking about work 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.560 based learning, but you know that's great for young people. 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:35.720 A lot of the people listening to this are adults 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:39.960 and they may have student children who would like benefit 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.800 from this, But a lot of people are concerned about 0:10:43.400 --> 0:10:47.000 you know, I need to keep learning as well. You know, 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:49.679 we keep hearing that the jobs of the future may 0:10:49.679 --> 0:10:52.040 be different than the jobs of today or whatever they 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:56.600 catch phrases are. So how should people who are already 0:10:56.640 --> 0:10:58.880 in the workforce now be thinking about the skills they 0:10:58.960 --> 0:10:59.880 might need in the future. 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:03.160 One of my favorite topics, And you know, I get 0:11:03.200 --> 0:11:08.079 asked every single day about AI's impact on the workforce 0:11:08.480 --> 0:11:11.360 and its impact on skills and what we will need 0:11:11.400 --> 0:11:15.240 to do in order to as humans meaningfully contribute to 0:11:15.440 --> 0:11:18.040 our organizations going forward. So I think this gets to 0:11:18.080 --> 0:11:21.600 the heart of your question because AI is one of 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.040 those things where most people in the workforce today are 0:11:25.080 --> 0:11:29.480 starting with a blank slate. Nobody really has these skills. 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:32.640 If you do have skills, maybe they're pretty rudimentary, like 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.600 you know how to type something into CHATGYBT or claude 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:40.440 and get some kind of sensible answer to it. But 0:11:40.840 --> 0:11:44.520 that is really only the starting point for leveraging let's 0:11:44.520 --> 0:11:48.360 say generative AI effectively. And so what I'm recommending that 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:51.760 everybody do is, first of all, have a mindset of 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:56.520 learning agility, understanding that your learning is not over just 0:11:56.559 --> 0:12:00.800 because you're no longer in formal education, and that having 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:06.480 a gainful employment situation for the foreseeable future means that 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:10.520 you have to be continuously revisiting what skills you have 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:13.520 and what skills you need. And in terms of where 0:12:13.559 --> 0:12:17.120 to start with this, I always recommend that people take 0:12:17.160 --> 0:12:21.640 a look around and say, what are the parts of 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:27.000 my current job that are being automated and what do 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:31.439 I need to learn to still have a productive role 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:35.800 in whatever process or workflow I'm involved in. So it 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.600 really does involve a little bit of individual employees being 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:44.760 MANI futurists. You have to kind of look around and say, okay, 0:12:45.000 --> 0:12:48.320 this is the area that is most vulnerable to automation, 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:53.080 and what additional or adjacent skills can I develop? In 0:12:53.240 --> 0:12:56.320 order to continue to participate. And I'll give you a 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:01.640 very clean example of this. I'm a workplace columnists for 0:13:01.720 --> 0:13:06.040 several different outlets. When I think about column writing and 0:13:06.080 --> 0:13:09.520 I write on the workforce, of course, I think about 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:13.559 what AI is capable of doing in that process today 0:13:14.000 --> 0:13:16.080 and what is it going to be capable of doing 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.320 at some point in the near future. And from a 0:13:19.360 --> 0:13:24.480 writing column perspective, the writing itself is actually likely to 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:28.160 be done by AI. It's already, it's already happening. And 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:32.160 if I just rely on that writing skill, I could 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.720 be out of a job within a couple of years. 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.960 So instead, I have to look at the entire process 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.600 of the production of a column and say, h, there 0:13:42.600 --> 0:13:48.680 are things like fact checking, interviewing with sensitive sources, editing. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:51.760 Those are all things that, let's say, the Wall Street Journal, 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.160 for example, is not going to allow to be done 0:13:55.320 --> 0:13:59.080 completely by AI. Some of those things, there's got to 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.960 continue to be a human in the loop. And if 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:05.280 I want to keep writing columns or keep doing columns, 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:07.680 I need to think about how I can acquire the 0:14:07.840 --> 0:14:11.480 editing skill, how I can acquire the fact checking skill, 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:15.080 and how I can enhance the in person or phone 0:14:15.160 --> 0:14:17.760 or video interviewing that I do with people so that 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:21.400 sensitive sources can continue to feel comfortable because there are 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.240 going to always be sources that are not going to 0:14:24.320 --> 0:14:27.840 be jazzed about revealing things to an AI. And I 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:30.720 think that's just how it's probably going to be. I 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.960 could be wrong, but I am staying a step ahead 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:36.360 of the situation in which I do not have a 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:41.280 role anymore, because the writing itself is being done by AI, 0:14:41.400 --> 0:14:44.640 and everybody who is in a job, regardless of what 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.280 that job is, needs to be doing that same type 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.720 of thinking what can be automated or what's on the 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.520 chopping block to be automated, and how can I acquire 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:56.880 those additional skills? And in terms of where you acquire 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.800 the skills, we are lucky in the sense that there 0:14:59.880 --> 0:15:03.760 is more skill acquisition opportunity just out there in the 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:06.440 public domain than there ever was previously. 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:09.800 Things like well, why don't you give us some examples 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.520 of where people should go to look like, let's say 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:15.440 they've identified a skill that they would like to have 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:19.040 and then they basically need to design their own curriculum 0:15:19.080 --> 0:15:22.160 because their company isn't doing this for them. What should 0:15:22.160 --> 0:15:22.440 they do? 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.880 So I think looking online is just a great way 0:15:25.920 --> 0:15:30.880 to start. There are so many really prestigious universities actually 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:34.320 that are offering free versions of certain classes. This is 0:15:34.400 --> 0:15:37.840 especially true in technology, but is also relevant in other 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:42.920 fields as well. There are so many online repositories of 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:47.080 learning content Coursera to me. I call it ut to me. 0:15:47.160 --> 0:15:50.520 Some other people say you to me, but there are 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:55.680 dozens of those that you can go and access different 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.080 types of learning opportunities. LinkedIn learning is another really really 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:03.480 good one. I have taken several of those courses through 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.440 that my colleagues have produced to learn think more about 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:09.000 what they do and get a little bit deeper on 0:16:09.160 --> 0:16:12.000 certain topics. You can also ask, I mean, there's the 0:16:12.560 --> 0:16:15.960 old fashion just asking to be mentored by someone who 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:18.080 might be in your field and might be a little 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:22.760 bit further ahead on let's say that AI skill development 0:16:22.960 --> 0:16:27.040 and how it applies specifically to your workflow or business process. 0:16:28.080 --> 0:16:31.640 And that's what I recommend. It doesn't matter again, what 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:34.440 the level of the person is, because the level doesn't 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:37.920 necessarily correlate with the knowledge. You could have young people 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:39.600 who are really really good at AI. You could have 0:16:39.640 --> 0:16:41.880 senior people who are really really good at AI. It 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:44.400 is a bit of a misconception that all young people 0:16:44.400 --> 0:16:47.760 are good at technology. I don't think that's necessarily true. 0:16:47.760 --> 0:16:50.120 It just depends on the person. And so looking for 0:16:50.200 --> 0:16:53.720 that person within your purview who has a generosity of 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:56.040 spirit and who also seems to know what they're doing, 0:16:56.400 --> 0:17:00.640 and shadowing them and learning how are they prompting the 0:17:01.120 --> 0:17:03.520 technology to get it to work for them for what 0:17:03.560 --> 0:17:06.800 they're trying to do. I have learned so much just 0:17:07.560 --> 0:17:10.400 in passing with conversations people, Oh my god, you're using 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:12.439 AI to do that? Really, how do you do that? 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:15.000 And then you literally just learned it on the job 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:17.040 right there, And so. 0:17:16.960 --> 0:17:19.479 What are you doing using it for in your life currently? 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.119 Oh so it's a really good question. So, Laura, I 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:25.440 don't use it for any writing. And I'll tell you 0:17:25.520 --> 0:17:28.640 a little bit kind of a funny story. One time 0:17:28.920 --> 0:17:31.919 a few months ago, a client said to me that 0:17:32.000 --> 0:17:34.119 they thought a white paper that I had written was 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:37.879 generated by AI. And I asked them, how how did 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:41.000 they come up with that? And they said, well, I 0:17:41.160 --> 0:17:45.800 put it into one of the AI you know, detectors, 0:17:46.200 --> 0:17:49.320 and it said it's got it's eighty five percent. Sounds 0:17:49.359 --> 0:17:52.240 like something that's already out there. But what the client 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:56.479 didn't do was click on the source that the AI 0:17:56.840 --> 0:18:01.520 was generating this information from and found that the source 0:18:01.560 --> 0:18:04.720 that the AI had been trained on was my own content. 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.840 Absolutely, so it was like, you know, you and. 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:10.159 I have been in this and in our spaces for 0:18:10.200 --> 0:18:12.440 a while, and so we've generated a lot of content. 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.240 And AI is only as smart as the content that 0:18:15.280 --> 0:18:20.400 it's trained on. So therefore it can't necessarily be relied 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:24.840 upon a to be unique in its thinking and b 0:18:25.240 --> 0:18:28.320 to put things together in a way that makes sense. 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.480 If I look at the AI version of my content, 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.880 sometimes if I dig a little bit below the surface, 0:18:34.920 --> 0:18:37.880 I can see that it doesn't quite make sense. And 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:40.359 this is why humans still need to be in the 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.600 loop when evaluating AI content, because people who are new 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:45.840 to an industry, are new to a role, might not 0:18:46.080 --> 0:18:49.159 have that institutional knowledge or skills to recognize that what 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.840 they're reading is not one hundred percent accurate or relevant. 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:58.200 So I definitely use it for things like background research. 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:01.280 I do want to give the caveat with research, you 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:03.879 have to be very careful about the data you're getting 0:19:03.920 --> 0:19:06.959 and making sure that you are still looking at the 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:10.440 sources that the AI is citing to ensure that those 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:13.080 are reputable sources, because a lot of times AI doesn't 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.560 know the difference. So this goes back to having some 0:19:15.720 --> 0:19:20.760 degree of knowledge in your field, but just summarizing and 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:28.000 I would say collating a bunch of information that is 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:30.399 in a lot of different sources. I think AI is 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:33.160 really really good for that. I think it's sometimes it's 0:19:33.160 --> 0:19:35.119 a good thought starter if you just don't even know 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.280 where to begin on a topic or on a project, 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:41.280 it can give you some starting ideas. It can absolutely 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:46.400 hold you accountable. I am now experimenting with using AI 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.960 for personal coaching, for career coaching, and I am recognizing 0:19:51.080 --> 0:19:54.239 how sycophantic it is, which for those who might not 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:57.040 have heard that term, it really means that AI is 0:19:57.080 --> 0:20:00.760 looking blowing smoke up your butt and validating you kind 0:20:00.760 --> 0:20:04.800 of to an extreme extent. And it's a great point, Alexander, 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:10.960 that very funny. Yeah, So it does that, and you 0:20:11.080 --> 0:20:13.480 have to you have to really be and this this 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.520 goes to AI skill acquisition, right, you have to understand 0:20:16.520 --> 0:20:19.600 how to prompt it. So it's giving you a really 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:23.440 unbiased view of what you're working on, not just telling 0:20:23.440 --> 0:20:26.159 you everything that you think and do is great, but 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:28.919 that's a skill, just like any other skill, understanding how 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:31.199 to prompt AI effectively. So these are the things that 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:34.360 I'm I'm noodling on I'm working with. I still think 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.200 it's it's highly useful, but I don't think it's as 0:20:37.280 --> 0:20:40.959 good as we sometimes give it credit for. Will it 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:43.920 get that good? It might, but it still isn't going 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.080 to have the ability to think truly independently, and so 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:51.919 we have to continue as content providers to put really, 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:54.879 really good, strong content into the world so that the 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:59.680 AI in turn can be more accurate and effective in 0:20:59.720 --> 0:21:03.439 what it's recommending. Because without humans, AI can't think on 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.560 its own, and we probably a while from it being 0:21:06.600 --> 0:21:07.040 able to do. 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:09.280 So we're aways from there. Still, all right, Well, we're 0:21:09.280 --> 0:21:10.800 going to take one more quick ad break and then 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:19.879 I'll be back with more from Alexandra Lovett. Well, I 0:21:19.880 --> 0:21:22.760 am back talking with Alexandra Lovett, who is an expert 0:21:22.800 --> 0:21:26.560 on all things future and how to change the school 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.240 and work and how we learn these days. So I 0:21:29.280 --> 0:21:31.920 want to pivot though to your own personal productivity. We've 0:21:31.920 --> 0:21:34.200 been talking a little bit about what you use AI for, 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:37.760 but I'm curious about any routines you have. We love 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:41.520 to hear about people's productivity routines, morning routines, anything else 0:21:41.520 --> 0:21:43.840 you're doing that you think makes you more productive. 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.320 Well, and I know this is your sweet spot, so 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:49.800 I would love some advice from you. But what I 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:53.080 do is I try to get started as early as 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:56.680 possible in the day because I find that on something 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:01.000 that is concrete, so not just checking emails and answering 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:06.639 messages or scrolling LinkedIn, but the project that I am 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:08.919 working on on that day, I try to get a 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:12.280 start by nine o'clock in the morning, so at least 0:22:12.320 --> 0:22:15.280 I've got some momentum for the rest of the day, 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:18.600 because I find that once I get going, I am 0:22:18.600 --> 0:22:22.960 a lot more productive. If I'm putting things off, then 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.159 it tends to get later in the day. Then I 0:22:25.240 --> 0:22:29.440 procrastinate even more, my energy level dips. So getting started early, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.240 getting some momentum, and then everything else that has to 0:22:32.240 --> 0:22:34.680 be done that day on that project seems a little 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.639 bit easier. It doesn't seem like as much of a 0:22:36.720 --> 0:22:41.280 hurdle to get past. I also, it's kind of a 0:22:41.280 --> 0:22:44.520 similar point, but I break down very large projects into 0:22:44.560 --> 0:22:50.320 their component parts and try to assign a component part 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:53.199 per week, and I do this for every single project 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:56.320 that I'm working on, so that I'm not following this 0:22:56.440 --> 0:22:59.000 kind of amorphous walge. I have to write a book 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:01.520 in the next six months, but during the week of 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:05.760 February twenty third or twenty fourth, I am going to 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:10.479 research and write this particular chapter. And I've got a 0:23:10.520 --> 0:23:13.879 workflow that goes week by week, not day by day yet, 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:16.280 but week by week what needs to be accomplished. And 0:23:16.280 --> 0:23:19.280 I find that that keeps me on track with multiple 0:23:19.320 --> 0:23:21.320 balls that are in the air that have to be 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:25.800