“Is there something you want to ask me?”
“I am sorry my responses are limited.”
With the launch of OpenAI’s LLM “AI” ChatGPT, and the world take-over of AI bots, one thing that seems to have got lost in all the hype is the subject of questions.
In this article for The Guardian, Steve Rose proposes that the first way we could all lose is if we become less intelligent, then we should expect to be wiped out!
I love that.
Because from our point of view as trainers, coaches, using leadership & teamwork training video games (now with a custom ChatGPT assistant built-in), it is safe to say that people are extremely limited in their capacity to ask questions — yes, I mean you guys out there. From our experience of training hundreds of teams over many years, people have been educated, conditioned, to not question, not challenge the status quo, not think. We have created a global monolith called “education” that firmly places people in a hierarchy based on a model of language and numbers that is driven and measured primarily by memory. Society is socially and professionally based on a top-down model of success and respect. Trust me, those at the bottom have no say in it… and in truth, those below the top ranks are also prohibited from challenging the traditions that have been established over the years.
Questions are out of the question.
Get it?
You learn not to rock the boat, not to stand out. It’s not good for your longevity. You will be identified as a troublemaker and sidelined, excluded from the group, and eventually ejected, if you break these implicit codes of behavior. Groupthink principles maintain the cohesiveness of organization in opposition to whatever principles of openness, transparency, trust; and all the bollocks we hear spouted in various strategy papers, annual general reports, mission statements, and so forth. But to say this is also to break an unwritten rule.
In fact, rocking the boat is undiscussable, and the fact that is undiscussable… is also undiscussable.
You think I am mad. Your conditioning will automatically pull you off these words, like you have just swallowed poison… and yet, the godfather of the discipline of organizational learning called this behavior skilled incompetence. The fact that everyone knows it, but it must not be mentioned, becomes impenetrable under another layer… so even that knowledge can’t be talked about.
Now the real world is rapidly outdoing Hollywood in the amount of apocalyptic scenarios that are being talked about. It’s like, dudes, you guys may have been on strike, but when you got back to writing and filming, you will have been outdone by the crazy changes back here on planet Earth.
The greatest challenge we have as a professional species is learning how to manage and work with “AI” tools; primarily because we have trained people not to think.
You think I am too harsh? Seriously‽
The COVID-19 disaster showcased the global incompetence of leaders and organizations, whilst also celebrating the unbelievable talent of those that asked fundamental questions and innovated.
Let’s be clear: the unsung heroes of that catastrophe were the frontline workers who put their lives in danger, while those at the top of the hierarchies left the towns and cities to “rediscover nature” and “write poems”.
It was like a Marie Antoinette moment here in Paris… let them eat brioche. The exodus of the elites happened faster than you can say “Jack Robinson”; and with no shame whatsoever… a dog-eat-dog attitude. Across the world, cities applauded the courage of the front-line workers every evening, and now they are back to being ignored and treated like second class citizens.
We have created a society that searches for answers, that searches and looks for solutions, but we have created a global community; and, to a large extent, it is that global community that has no idea what the questions are. People can hardly use Google search, let alone contemplate how to work with a large-language-model-based assistant.
The new world of professional work is — and will continue to be — based on developing creative solutions to a whole array of problems and challenges. Soft skills, power skills, emotional intelligence, collaborative intelligence, and adaptability intelligence, are fundamentally dependent on cultural intelligence; meaning that culture is the way in which groups of people solve problems… and we are at a landmark point in the history of mankind: we fundamentally need to reverse the negative effects of an exam-based system which educates people to be willing slaves. We need an education system that sets people’s creativity on fire and equips them with the ability to ask questions.
Don’t wait for someone else to tell you what to do, because doing nothing is suicide!
“Why would you kill yourself?”
“That, detective, is the right question!”
You are going to have to break the rules. You know that organizations are dysfunctional; that is their nature. Like losing teams in the premier division of football, they have lost their mojo and now follow Machiavelli, not elite coaching and innovation models.
Get out of Dodge, people!
DISCLAIMER: This article was written by a human.