3 key ‘human’capabilities, amidst the ‘AI noise’

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Emotional Intelligence.

Developing and mastering these capabilities enables success in modern marketing, indeed business in general. As the workplace evolves with increasing use of AI, these ‘higher order’ human capabilities are ever more important. There are many other skills, which can be trained. For senior leadership, we enter further areas, which can be coached, such as how to create and hold organisational purpose & culture. For all work life, when you master these 3 things – Critical Thinking, Creativity & Emotional Intelligence, you have a strong foundation for success.

Much school education & much business training does not give primary focus in these areas. So our role as parent, mentor, coach and leader is hugely important, to give explicit focus on how to culture & develop these capabilities in ourselves, our children, and our teams.

Critical Thinking

Being able to collect data and concepts, assess, and make decisions. We have access to ever more data, which may or may not be relevant to the outcomes we are working toward. We cannot be paralysed by the magnitude of the data available, nor should we feel the need to understand all of it. And we cannot depend on AI to make decisions for us. The key is to be able to appreciate what is available, assess and use it to get to decisions. I mention concepts alongside data here, as we are increasingly faced by multiple interacting concepts, and need to be able to see the relevant patterns, meanings & implications, and use them to make decisions. For example, multiple change programmes in one company at one time … or multiple digital ecosystems offering similar but tangential opportunities.

Creativity

To form new original ideas & solutions.

To invent or seeing answers that others (competitors) may not.

Seeing hidden patterns, making connections, perceiving the world in different ways – enables creation itself and the ability to select creation. In some cases you have the idea yourself. Equally powerful, is the intuition to select the original actionable creative idea, from within many options brought every day to business decision makers.

Emotional Intelligence

There are 4 stages of Emotional Intelligence, to develop:

The central thought is to be aware of your own emotions and manage them, rather than the emotions manage you! e.g. the difference between

“I was in the meeting and was really angry. (S)he did that thing again, and I couldn’t help but say what I felt. Everyone took positions. We got nowhere. And now somehow we need to try to tidy it up … or pretend it never happenedâ€

vs

“I was in the meeting, and I felt angry. (S)he did that thing again. I realised that to raise my voice and say what I felt would not help us get to the solution. I listened some more, and thought what would be the best question to ask. That unlocked a better discussion, and steadily I felt calmer.â€

When we can do this for ourselves, we can start to understand the emotions of others and help to manage them. Look at your colleagues and really listen. What is their body language telling you about how they feel, the tone & quality of their voice, their skin tone and perspiration? Are they feeling confident, anxious, unsure, angry? What can you do to help them to feel calm and productive?

When you are doing this naturally for yourself and the people you are with, then you are likely to be helping people to learn from mistakes, to use meeting time efficiently, to listen better … you are helping people to do great business.

So, there it is – the 3 key ‘human’ capabilities amidst the ‘AI noise’ for marketing success today!