Welcome to Graymatter, a weekly newsletter with ideas and strategies to unlock full potential through self-leadership and technology.
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Books
I am curious to read a new book called Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout by Cal Newport. I have followed his work for a few years, including his book So Good They Can't Ignore You: Why Skills Trump Passion in the Quest for Work You Love. What I like about his ideas is that they are rooted deep in the craft of work and techniques for being productive. Newport shares practical techniques through his books, newsletter, and Deep Questions podcast. I value his techniques for choosing the most appropriate channel and process to collaborate with others. I highly recommend following his work to become more focused and productive in your craft.
Career
I have been a learning facilitator at Berkeley Haas for the last two years, teaching two executive education courses in data strategy and artificial intelligence for business. This requires hosting office hours and developing complementary content to the material presented by professors. My approach to preparation is creating unique materials that reflect my knowledge and experiences. It’s a creative process to learn at a deeper level. This is an example of “learning by teaching it,” a strategy from the Career Strategy Framework.
This is the key idea:
“The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher. Passively taking a course or reading a book is the first step. If you want to learn a topic at a deep level, then teach it to others. The challenge of teaching and sharing your knowledge will force you to learn the ideas with depth and breadth. You will learn the art of clearly and quickly explaining concepts to students with less understanding. Thinking about student questions, you will identify areas that require further learning. You should feel slightly uncomfortable about your knowledge of the topic and your ability to engage the audience. This is how you will grow your expertise into mastery.”
Here are a few observations and benefits I have realized by adopting this strategy:
By embracing a teacher identity, I have become a better teacher
When I teach the next cohort, I ask myself what something new I can learn about the topics this week.
While I could regurgitate the content from professor videos, I choose to augment this with my related ideas and work experiences. I think about how to make my office hours and material unique and memorable.
As I take evening walks thinking about this material, I often develop new ideas and questions.
Teaching keeps my mind focused on my craft and reduces distractions to things that add little or no value.
👀 Read this article for other ideas to learn your craft by teaching it.
Technology
As a follow-up to last week’s newsletter on “What is your competitive advantage in the Age of AI,” one common question is where to start using AI within an organization to strengthen your value proposition and drive business impact. The recent Harvard Business Review article, “Helping Employees Succeed with Generative AI,” shares a framework - STEP - to empower employees to collaborate with leaders in shaping where and how AI is used, help leaders to redistribute work tasks, and reimagine jobs.
Take a proactive role in identifying which of your work tasks can be automated by AI, and how AI can augment your work and make you more productive and valuable. Taking action will reduce the risk that you are blindsided by when AI can automate your tasks or do it at a higher level of performance. You don’t need to be a technical expert to use AI tools since most are based on natural language. AI is also embedded in business applications, such as Microsoft Copilot, integrated through Office apps and business applications. If you are an individual contributor, evaluate your work and business processes to identify where AI has a role. If you are a leader, actively engage your employees in applying AI to ensure trust, transparency, and change management for employees to be successful using AI.
Ideas from Thought Leaders
“By taking a shape, by having a visible plan, you open yourself up to attack. Instead of taking a form for your enemy to grasp, keep yourself adaptable and on the move. Accept the fact that nothing is certain and no law is fixed. The best way to protect yourself is to be fluid and formless as water; never bet on stability or lasting order. Everything changes.”
- Robert Greene (Law 48 - Assume Formlessness, 48 Laws of Power)
“Our most important choice in life, according to Epictetus, is whether to concern ourselves with things external to us or things internal. In particular, he will give up the rewards the external world has to order in order to gain tranquility, freedom, and calm.”
- William B. Irvine, The Guide to the Good Life: the ancient art of stoic joy
“The most important thing in life is your inner energy. If you’re always tired and never enthused, then life is no fun. But if you’re always inspired and filled with energy, then every minute of every day is an exciting experience. Learn to work with these things. Through meditation, through awareness and willful efforts, you can learn to keep your centers open. You do this by just relaxing and releasing. You do this by not buying into the concept that there is anything worth closing over. Remember, if you love life, nothing is worth closing over. Nothing, ever, is worth closing your heart over.”
- Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
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I look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas.