Just as the founding of OpenAI sparked Nvidia to begin years of preparation and strategizing that have paid off for the company, all leaders can prepare their teams to recognize those spark moments that generate the momentum needed to take their business to the next level, write author Don Yaeger and Rice University professor Bernie Banks. Prepare your teams to recognize and act on spark moments by making your company's goals clear, sharing needed information and teaching your teams to collaborate, they write.
Put it into practice: A spark is something that "begins to change the minds and climate for a team that's been preparing to take advantage of it," write Yaeger and Banks. But sustainable momentum depends on having the groundwork and readiness to recognize and capitalize on these opportunities, they note.
The World Peace Game offers surprising insights for leaders about collaboration, writes Larry Robertson, founder of Lighthouse Consulting, who notes that collective wisdom is a foundation of the game. "The World Peace Game's version takes the form of a hands-on political simulation made up of dozens of complex and interlocking problems -- actual real-world problems that inhibit actual world peace," Robertson writes.
Sometimes giving advice feels like a lost cause, but reframing the advice as a partnership can help break through to the other person, writes Karin Hurt from Let's Grow Leaders. Hurt recommends asking questions such as "Would it help if I shared a quick idea that's worked before?" before launching into unwanted advice that's unlikely to be followed.
Remembering why he fell in love with writing in the first place has spurred author Darius Foroux to restart his daily writing practice and rely less on AI to produce content for him because, Foroux notes, the act of writing is profoundly human, and each "session pushed my mental boundaries, challenged my assumptions and reignited my creativity." AI is good for some tasks, Foroux writes, but in the end, "writing is thinking," which is something humans can do that the bots can't.
Scientists have traced the origins of the potato to a hybridization event 9 million years ago between an ancient wild tomato and a potato-like plant called Etuberosum. The study, published in Cell, involved analyzing 450 genomes and found that this event led to the evolution of tubers, giving potatoes a survival advantage in harsh environments.
When hockey legend Mike Richter retired from the NHL, he pivoted to a career in energy efficiency. Richter is now the president of Brightcore Energy, a company that offers turn-key solutions -- including geothermal systems, solar, energy storage, or smart building technologies -- that simplify the clean energy journey for large commercial and industrial clients. Richter outlines how advancements in geothermal have enabled companies like Brightcore to not only complete projects in wide open spaces like business parks and college campuses, but also in extremely tight spaces like Manhattan.
I made my quip years before AI began to take over many writing duties for so many of us. There are all sorts of tips out there to help you recognize the difference between something the AI wrote and something a real human wrote. Forget all the talk about emdashes and the like. The difference is, when you read something a human wrote, you can see their thought process running through the words and paragraphs.
When humans write, they reveal their thinking. The bot isn't thinking -- its collating information and putting it into a structure we call sentences and paragraphs.
This is why human writing thrills us. It brings us into a process of thinking and lays out, step by step, how the author arrived at their conclusions. This happens whether what we're reading is fiction or nonfiction. For example, I caught a nasty cold at the end of last week and spent the entire weekend on my back. Instead of watching Netflix, I read a novel by one of my favorite authors. The book unfolded slowly as he laid out the seemingly random pieces of the story. As it progressed, I could feel the story from his mind enter my own, where his thoughts danced with mine. I couldn't put the book down.
I've read a ton of AI-generated material, including nonfiction. I have yet to read anything as captivating as the story I read over the weekend. A collection of ideas and scenes is not a novel. A story, told by one human being to another, with all its plot holes and brilliant turns of phrase, red herrings and surprise endings, is. Nothing written by a bot can make me feel like I felt at the end of that book. It left me wanting more!
This is why we write -- to reveal what we're thinking, as Foroux notes, to get to know our minds a bit better and to create community by sharing those thoughts and ideas with others. Relying on a bot robs not just us of those creative a-ha moments. It robs the world of those moments as well.
These notes at the end of the brief are my daily writing practice. There are many days I start typing and I don't know what I'm going to say, but then something comes. The act of writing causes us to think, to reveal what we already know and provides the chance to pass along our thoughts and wisdom. Don't let the bot take that away from you -- or the world.
If this newsletter helps you, please tell your colleagues, friends or anyone who can benefit. Forward them this email, or send this link.
What topics do you see in your daily work that I should know about? Do you have any feedback you'd like to share? Drop me a note. And while you're at it, please send me photos of your pets, your office and where you spend your time off so we can share them.
Sharing SmartBrief on Leadership with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free.
Just as the founding of OpenAI sparked Nvidia to begin years of preparation and strategizing that have paid off for the company, all leaders can prepare their teams to recognize those spark moments that generate the momentum needed to take their business to the next level, write author Don Yaeger and Rice University professor Bernie Banks. Prepare your teams to recognize and act on spark moments by making your company's goals clear, sharing needed information and teaching your teams to collaborate, they write.
Put it into practice: A spark is something that "begins to change the minds and climate for a team that's been preparing to take advantage of it," write Yaeger and Banks. But sustainable momentum depends on having the groundwork and readiness to recognize and capitalize on these opportunities, they note.
The World Peace Game offers surprising insights for leaders about collaboration, writes Larry Robertson, founder of Lighthouse Consulting, who notes that collective wisdom is a foundation of the game. "The World Peace Game's version takes the form of a hands-on political simulation made up of dozens of complex and interlocking problems -- actual real-world problems that inhibit actual world peace," Robertson writes.
Sometimes giving advice feels like a lost cause, but reframing the advice as a partnership can help break through to the other person, writes Karin Hurt from Let's Grow Leaders. Hurt recommends asking questions such as "Would it help if I shared a quick idea that's worked before?" before launching into unwanted advice that's unlikely to be followed.
Remembering why he fell in love with writing in the first place has spurred author Darius Foroux to restart his daily writing practice and rely less on AI to produce content for him because, Foroux notes, the act of writing is profoundly human, and each "session pushed my mental boundaries, challenged my assumptions and reignited my creativity." AI is good for some tasks, Foroux writes, but in the end, "writing is thinking," which is something humans can do that the bots can't.
Scientists have traced the origins of the potato to a hybridization event 9 million years ago between an ancient wild tomato and a potato-like plant called Etuberosum. The study, published in Cell, involved analyzing 450 genomes and found that this event led to the evolution of tubers, giving potatoes a survival advantage in harsh environments.
When hockey legend Mike Richter retired from the NHL, he pivoted to a career in energy efficiency. Richter is now the president of Brightcore Energy, a company that offers turn-key solutions -- including geothermal systems, solar, energy storage, or smart building technologies -- that simplify the clean energy journey for large commercial and industrial clients. Richter outlines how advancements in geothermal have enabled companies like Brightcore to not only complete projects in wide open spaces like business parks and college campuses, but also in extremely tight spaces like Manhattan.
I made my quip years before AI began to take over many writing duties for so many of us. There are all sorts of tips out there to help you recognize the difference between something the AI wrote and something a real human wrote. Forget all the talk about emdashes and the like. The difference is, when you read something a human wrote, you can see their thought process running through the words and paragraphs.
When humans write, they reveal their thinking. The bot isn't thinking -- its collating information and putting it into a structure we call sentences and paragraphs.
This is why human writing thrills us. It brings us into a process of thinking and lays out, step by step, how the author arrived at their conclusions. This happens whether what we're reading is fiction or nonfiction. For example, I caught a nasty cold at the end of last week and spent the entire weekend on my back. Instead of watching Netflix, I read a novel by one of my favorite authors. The book unfolded slowly as he laid out the seemingly random pieces of the story. As it progressed, I could feel the story from his mind enter my own, where his thoughts danced with mine. I couldn't put the book down.
I've read a ton of AI-generated material, including nonfiction. I have yet to read anything as captivating as the story I read over the weekend. A collection of ideas and scenes is not a novel. A story, told by one human being to another, with all its plot holes and brilliant turns of phrase, red herrings and surprise endings, is. Nothing written by a bot can make me feel like I felt at the end of that book. It left me wanting more!
This is why we write -- to reveal what we're thinking, as Foroux notes, to get to know our minds a bit better and to create community by sharing those thoughts and ideas with others. Relying on a bot robs not just us of those creative a-ha moments. It robs the world of those moments as well.
These notes at the end of the brief are my daily writing practice. There are many days I start typing and I don't know what I'm going to say, but then something comes. The act of writing causes us to think, to reveal what we already know and provides the chance to pass along our thoughts and wisdom. Don't let the bot take that away from you -- or the world.
If this newsletter helps you, please tell your colleagues, friends or anyone who can benefit. Forward them this email, or send this link.
What topics do you see in your daily work that I should know about? Do you have any feedback you'd like to share? Drop me a note. And while you're at it, please send me photos of your pets, your office and where you spend your time off so we can share them.
Sharing SmartBrief on Leadership with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free.
Just as the founding of OpenAI sparked Nvidia to begin years of preparation and strategizing that have paid off for the company, all leaders can prepare their teams to recognize those spark moments that generate the momentum needed to take their business to the next level, write author Don Yaeger and Rice University professor Bernie Banks. Prepare your teams to recognize and act on spark moments by making your company's goals clear, sharing needed information and teaching your teams to collaborate, they write.
Put it into practice: A spark is something that "begins to change the minds and climate for a team that's been preparing to take advantage of it," write Yaeger and Banks. But sustainable momentum depends on having the groundwork and readiness to recognize and capitalize on these opportunities, they note.
The World Peace Game offers surprising insights for leaders about collaboration, writes Larry Robertson, founder of Lighthouse Consulting, who notes that collective wisdom is a foundation of the game. "The World Peace Game's version takes the form of a hands-on political simulation made up of dozens of complex and interlocking problems -- actual real-world problems that inhibit actual world peace," Robertson writes.
Sometimes giving advice feels like a lost cause, but reframing the advice as a partnership can help break through to the other person, writes Karin Hurt from Let's Grow Leaders. Hurt recommends asking questions such as "Would it help if I shared a quick idea that's worked before?" before launching into unwanted advice that's unlikely to be followed.
Remembering why he fell in love with writing in the first place has spurred author Darius Foroux to restart his daily writing practice and rely less on AI to produce content for him because, Foroux notes, the act of writing is profoundly human, and each "session pushed my mental boundaries, challenged my assumptions and reignited my creativity." AI is good for some tasks, Foroux writes, but in the end, "writing is thinking," which is something humans can do that the bots can't.
Scientists have traced the origins of the potato to a hybridization event 9 million years ago between an ancient wild tomato and a potato-like plant called Etuberosum. The study, published in Cell, involved analyzing 450 genomes and found that this event led to the evolution of tubers, giving potatoes a survival advantage in harsh environments.
When hockey legend Mike Richter retired from the NHL, he pivoted to a career in energy efficiency. Richter is now the president of Brightcore Energy, a company that offers turn-key solutions -- including geothermal systems, solar, energy storage, or smart building technologies -- that simplify the clean energy journey for large commercial and industrial clients. Richter outlines how advancements in geothermal have enabled companies like Brightcore to not only complete projects in wide open spaces like business parks and college campuses, but also in extremely tight spaces like Manhattan.
I made my quip years before AI began to take over many writing duties for so many of us. There are all sorts of tips out there to help you recognize the difference between something the AI wrote and something a real human wrote. Forget all the talk about emdashes and the like. The difference is, when you read something a human wrote, you can see their thought process running through the words and paragraphs.
When humans write, they reveal their thinking. The bot isn't thinking -- its collating information and putting it into a structure we call sentences and paragraphs.
This is why human writing thrills us. It brings us into a process of thinking and lays out, step by step, how the author arrived at their conclusions. This happens whether what we're reading is fiction or nonfiction. For example, I caught a nasty cold at the end of last week and spent the entire weekend on my back. Instead of watching Netflix, I read a novel by one of my favorite authors. The book unfolded slowly as he laid out the seemingly random pieces of the story. As it progressed, I could feel the story from his mind enter my own, where his thoughts danced with mine. I couldn't put the book down.
I've read a ton of AI-generated material, including nonfiction. I have yet to read anything as captivating as the story I read over the weekend. A collection of ideas and scenes is not a novel. A story, told by one human being to another, with all its plot holes and brilliant turns of phrase, red herrings and surprise endings, is. Nothing written by a bot can make me feel like I felt at the end of that book. It left me wanting more!
This is why we write -- to reveal what we're thinking, as Foroux notes, to get to know our minds a bit better and to create community by sharing those thoughts and ideas with others. Relying on a bot robs not just us of those creative a-ha moments. It robs the world of those moments as well.
These notes at the end of the brief are my daily writing practice. There are many days I start typing and I don't know what I'm going to say, but then something comes. The act of writing causes us to think, to reveal what we already know and provides the chance to pass along our thoughts and wisdom. Don't let the bot take that away from you -- or the world.
If this newsletter helps you, please tell your colleagues, friends or anyone who can benefit. Forward them this email, or send this link.
What topics do you see in your daily work that I should know about? Do you have any feedback you'd like to share? Drop me a note. And while you're at it, please send me photos of your pets, your office and where you spend your time off so we can share them.
Sharing SmartBrief on Leadership with your network keeps the quality of content high and these newsletters free.
