AI advances mean we need to double down on this one skill

AI is an extraordinary tool that amplifies our cognitive capacity. It can analyze, summarize, and generate content faster than any human. However, AI is only ever as good as the questions we ask it. It will never replace our capacity for thinking, and can, in fact, reinforce bias because it is learning what we teach it.   

For this reason, the top skills of the future include thinking skills. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, employers anticipate that beyond technical literacy, the most in-demand capabilities will be creative thinking, critical thinking, resilience, and the capacity for learning.

Thinking is a premium, and yet it is also the very thing that is most at risk.

We all know that when it comes to data, rubbish in = rubbish out. The same goes for our mind. What we feed it and how we use it determines the quality of our contribution and the value we add. As a high-performance coach and leadership expert, I spend my time consulting with leaders and their teams, challenging them to do better thinking and extract the value of their collective capacity.

Modern-day workers are facing a triple threat from the joint epidemics of algorithms, attention theft, and burnout. Here’s why:

1. Algorithms reinforce biases 

More and more, our capacity to think, create, and problem-solve is being challenged by algorithms delivered through social media. Our viewpoints are being regurgitated back to us via algorithms that sense what we like, what we tolerate, and what we think we need. 

Social media serves to reinforce existing beliefs, not challenge them. We are slowly losing the capacity for critical thinking, and this is the very capacity we need to develop if we are to remain adaptive in a world where cognitive load is being managed more and more by computers.

2. Attention theft robs us of time

Attention theft is catastrophic to independent thinking and crippling our ability to focus. How many notifications are pinging right now to pull your attention away from reading this article? How many times a day are you pulled away from the task at hand? 

Research from Tania Barney, neuroscience and sensory processing expert, suggests that distractions are costing us time as well as money.

Her research found:

• An average of 2.1 hours are lost daily as a result of distractions.
• The average time spent on a task before we get distracted is 11 minutes.
• The average time it takes after a distraction to return to a task is 25 minutes.

After meetings, emails, unplanned interactions, and rest breaks, how many hours do we have left in a day for thinking and productive work? We get pulled into the urgent things that feel pressing but do not meaningfully matter (like chats with colleagues, reply-all emails, and notification alerts). All this leads to the next major threat to thinking—burnout. 

3. Burnout robs us of energy

Burnout is the compound interest on lost productivity due to attention theft. Just because we’re getting distracted by “urgent” unimportant stuff doesn’t mean that the real important stuff goes away. It piles up, weighing us down psychologically and eating into recreation hours where we should be recharging our batteries through rest, exercise, or time with loved ones. Burnout is a global issue, costing humans their well-being and businesses millions in lost productivity.

Burnout is the result of prolonged work stress. Symptoms include overwhelm, constant exhaustion, and a feeling of being ineffective at work no matter how hard you try. Increased rates of burnout add up to bad news for business. Burnout has been identified as one of the leading causes driving people to leave their jobs. But it also leads to disengagement, which can cost employers 34% of a disengaged employee’s annual salary, according to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2021 report.

Prioritize team thinking time to leverage collective potential

With the joint epidemics of algorithms, attention theft, and burnout, our most precious resources have changed from time and money to energy and attention.

To counteract this, we all need to be more curious. Promote and legitimize thinking time by asking more questions in daily interactions. Encourage your team members to build on one another’s ideas. Create regular cadences when the team meets to reflect, reprioritize, and reset, such as quarterly team-planning workshops. The future of work is human—and your capacity to create spaces and places where people can think, learn, adapt, and grow is what will allow teams and organizations to transform and endure.

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