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When I started writing this article, I had a plan to hook your readership with a profound opening quote. A heartening message or credo from a great innovator assuring us of the wonderous privilege it is to be here on this earth while mind-bending technology makes its way from the lab to our hands at rocket speed, every single day. I didn’t spend too long googling us a mantra before a pattern emerged. Many of the passages I found were cautionary or overwhelming theories about AI’s inevitable impact on the entire human race. All of them flooded me with trepidation. Even those who spoke excitedly about the practical uses of AI offered a promise so technical and beyond my own intellect that they did little to assuage my anxiety. I am a writer/editor by trade, parent to three teenagers, an avid reader, and a music fanatic… please excuse my festering in worry about the future of human creativity. (“What happens if no one has to do anything for themselves anymore? What if we all start to think exactly alike?”- This, on loop in my mind, all day, every day.) Coming up empty while looking for relatable messaging underscored my own disconnect between AI’s expansive impact on the world and… rather simply: how it can lighten my own daily workload. And I’m thinking…. some of you might be the same. This month’s newsletter isn’t intended to teach you any of the technical aspects of AI but, rather, it is an exploration of how we can open our minds to its usefulness and, in turn, use it to augment (not replace) our skillsets. Using AI to shift our workloads An Apple Podcast “The AI Daily Brief” follows the AI’s technological trends and influence on society. They recently shared a poll in which 69% of employees said they welcome automation that will free them up for higher value tasks. In the same study, 46% of employees said they like that AI can offer automation that reduces tasks repetitiveness and also improves the quality of their tasks. Only 2% of employees said they wanted full automation that requires no human input. A doctor friend of mine has put AI to use in a way that allows for deeper human input. He runs a busy family practice that sees many patients in a day and he explained that the complicated nature of insurance documentation was eating up too much of each patient’s appointment time. If an appointment window is 20 minutes, a doctor might need to spend 15 of those minutes filling out forms. That leaves only 5 minutes to visit with the patient. The fields on the forms are repetitive and though many patients share the same symptoms and ailments his staff was losing time writing a brand-new case narrative for each individual seeking insurance coverage. As soon as ChatGPT became readily available, he trained his entire staff on how to use it to complete these standard data forms and shift that balance from tedious paperwork to patient care. This efficiency has allowed him and his staff to get back to what ignites their passions about being health practitioners. Not to mention, spending more time talking to patients can garner key details about their overall context which could be helpful in prescribing care. AI is making them more successful at their work. Taking a head-on approach to AI For people like me who are defiantly still “doing it all,” the thought of meeting AI head on as a tool that can positively impact workload is a balm. If used prudently, it can free us up to concentrate on the parts of our jobs that are most rewarding. Being able to focus on the aspects of our work that are especially meaningful would certainly make us feel more engaged with our jobs. We all surely differ in what we find tedious. For me, data entry tests my attention to detail and, in order to be careful, I move sluggishly, lose track frequently, become distracted…. automation would save me a lot of time and frustration. Your tedious task might be writing the weekly agenda and wrap up notes for your team meeting. The technological “learning curve” is more like a vertical flat-faced mountain at this point. Isolating one thing in your workload that drags you down would be a good place to center your attention. Start researching how AI could help you with that single task and then learn whatever platform looks like the best fit. It might take a little time to navigate this new approach to an old, familiar part of your work but it’s worth it when you consider the time it will save later. Ideas for bringing AI into your daily workload Business Insider developed a list of 10 ways AI is changing the workplace and it’s a worthwhile place to mine for ideas to bring AI into your own workload. Here are a few suggestions for how AI can be applied that might resonate with you based on your needs: Generate survey questions Customize legal contracts Polish your performance appraisal Locate job candidates AI is on the tip of everyone’s brains and is already leaving an indelible mark on the way we work. Considering how to embrace at least one function of AI, deciding how you want to use it, and planning for its outcome will make you feel more in control than sticking your head in the sand. I promise I’ll try it too.
0 Making Meetings Less Painful - One Work Session at a Time
I once worked for an organization that ran everything by meetings. We had meetings to plan meetings. We had stand-up meetings in our regional plants and sit-down meetings at headquarters. We huddled, we had "tag-ups," we aligned, and we conferenced, virtually or in person. If there was a way to meet or a topic to meet about, we did it. In the words of the trainer who facilitated our new employee orientation, "We make two things here: our product and meetings. So get used to it." In that type of culture, it's no surprise that people love to hate meetings. Meetings can feel like a giant time suck that pulls you away from "real work." Many leaders burn the candle at both ends-starting work in the early morning and continuing late into the night-because their working hours are consumed in meetings, and action items keep piling up. Some organizational cultures have tried to address this issue by replacing meetings with alternative ways of communicating. The problem there is that alternatives like texting and email are often no more effective than meeting in person. In fact, research shows that they can easily decrease efficiency and increase distraction. Despite their flaws, meetings are generally more effective than other forms of communication for fostering collaboration, breaking down cross-functional silos, completing projects requiring multiple sources of input, and building strong working relationships. While it might not make sense to eliminate your meetings, there are steps you can take to make them much less painful. If you search for ideas on how to make meetings more effective, you'll find thousands of potentially useful tips and techniques-including strategies for streamlining agendas, assigning roles, facilitating discussions, managing time, and so on. Today, I'll focus on a powerful technique called OPO (Objective, Process, Outcome). OPO is a proven method created by the consulting firm Corentus and used worldwide across a variety of organizations and industries. The Corentus OPO The purpose of the Corentus OPO is to design a better meeting by thoroughly planning all the individual work sessions within that meeting. What do I mean by work sessions? A work session typically shows up as a single topic on an agenda. Some brief meetings are dedicated to a single topic, and therefore have just one work session. Longer meetings often include multiple work sessions. For example, if I were planning a weekly project meeting in support of creating a formal mentoring program for my organization, the agenda might include four distinct work sessions: * Steering committee* Marketing* Scheduling* Funding Let's walk through the process of creating an OPO for Marketing. The first step is determining who owns the work session. In this example, although I own the overall meeting, I'm not the best person to lead a work session on marketing. I would assign ownership of this session to Pat, who is leading the marketing effort for our mentoring program. It then becomes Pat's responsibility to develop the work session OPO. Let's review the three key elements of the work session design one by one. Objective An objective articulates why the work session is needed and indicates the general direction the session will take. It should be aligned with the overall direction of the meeting. Typically, an objective will fit into one of six categories: 1. Information Sharing: presenting, informing, explaining, notifying, updating 2. Idea Generating: brainstorming, exploring, conceptualizing, visioning 3. Planning: forecasting, preparing, scheduling, organizing 4. Problem Solving: analyzing, assessing, evaluating, deciphering, resolving 5. Decision Making: selecting, approving, agreeing, committing 6. Producing: developing, producing, building, crafting For the marketing work session, Pat has two objectives: 1. Update the team on the results of the mentoring lunch and learns (Information Sharing)2. Approve the layout and content for the mentoring flyer (Decision Making) Outcome After identifying the work session objective(s), we move to the final O: Outcome. An outcome identifies what the work session will result in, including any deliverables. Outcomes should be as specific as possible and should be realistic to achieve in the time available. Here are some possible outcomes that correspond to the six categories of objectives. In the marketing work session, Pat may tie her objectives to the following outcomes: All too often, outcomes are absent from meeting agendas. Even when people set the general direction (objective) for a work session, they frequently fail to clarify exactly what outcomes they hope to achieve. If you find yourself in a work session where outcomes aren't clearly defined, it can be helpful to simply ask, "What outcomes are we aiming for in this discussion?" Getting that one thing clear, before any discussion starts, can make the meeting much more productive. Process The final step in the OPO is Process. Once you've identified an outcome, you can go back and define the process you'll use to achieve that outcome. This includes outlining the specific activities that will take place, the individuals who will engage in those activities, and how long you expect the activities to take. Here are a few examples of activities that correspond with the objectives and outcomes defined earlier: This list is far from exhaustive; there are countless different activities you can engage in during work sessions. Once you're clear on your objectives and outcomes, try doing a Google search for relevant options-e.g., various types of brainstorming methods, decision-making protocols, or creative problem-solving techniques. Without a clearly articulated process, many groups default to having loosely defined, unstructured discussions, which often aren't the best way to achieve results. Below is a full OPO for Pat's marketing work session, with the Process component completed: The next time you plan a meeting or an individual work session, I encourage you to try applying the OPO framework. See what happens to your effectiveness and efficiency when everyone in the room is clear, right from the beginning, about exactly why you're meeting, what the session will result in, and how you're going to get there. There's wisdom in the old saying that sometimes you need to slow down to speed up. By investing a little extra planning time up front, you can help make your meetings not only more productive, but a lot more satisfying and enjoyable as well.
