Building Upon Human Intelligence

AI expertise is currently being developed as rapidly and massively as possible by all marketers (and everybody else who is trying to get ahead). That is a good thing, but it does not lead to a significant competitive advantage because everyone is doing it.

What everybody is NOT doing is developing HI.

Again, how AI gets used will be determined by HI. That’s one reason why we should be focusing on HI.

There are many other reasons. Marketers who are first to focus on developing HI will gain significant competitive advantage and become iconic brands (if they are not already).

The more that HI develops, the better our decision-making as a species will be. We may evade the destruction that is racing toward us, every day closer. We are like children in a life raft playing with machineguns.

We have already exterminated 60% of mammals, birds, fish, and reptiles since 1970.

When we have exterminated all species other than our own and the ones we like to eat, and pets, Animal Planet will be the highest-rated network.

As an encore, we may exterminate ourselves. Given the unwise phenomenon known as ego, trying to bully the rest of the world in an era of cyberwarfare, supersonic missiles, laboratory-created viruses, nerve gas, thermonuclear weapons, and the deadliest of all – psyops – is a practically guaranteed ticket to returning to Stone Age conditions if anyone survives at all. Not a great gift to be left to our grandchildren.

So, development of HI is the next big thing. How do we do it?

For marketers, the best way to contribute to the development of HI is to nurture HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS. This will also maximize year-over-year brand sales and EBITDA.

How do you turn a team into a high-performing team?

First, you have to fix the boss of the team. McKinsey found that 56% of American employees see their boss as toxic, and 75% of employees agree with the statement that “their boss is the most stressful part of their workday”.

This is because of that ego thing I mentioned a moment ago. That ego thing could actually kill off our entire species and possibly every living thing on the planet. And it could happen very suddenly and soon.

Each of us can only control our control space. What we can do about saving the species is right here at home, in our offices, in our day-to-day lives, we have to be aware of not acting from ego ourselves.

Takeaway Action Items

One way to inspire high-performing teams is that everyone on the team can get bonuses for high-performance work – everyone. That incentive is very powerful.

Another powerful driver of high-performing teams is recognition of high performance on a day-to-day basis. Shine the spotlight of gratitude on people who are doing good things.

But that is ineffective if you are also making others feel small because they are not contributing. A high-performing boss will be thinking of everyone on the team as individuals and communicating with them so as to get the best performance out of each person, by understanding that person better. Becoming their coach and mentor. Caring about them and nurturing them as a valuable resource.

Every person has certain gifts they come into the world with. In the set-up called civilization as it has manifested here on Earth, most of us are getting paid to do something other than our passion work, the work we would love to be doing, and have dreamed about doing all our lives. Most of us have forgotten those dreams along the way.

The high-performing boss will look for ways to give assignments to individuals that play to the person’s gifts and the way they like to be creative.

When a team starts to hum, and everyone is looking forward to the next workday and feels appreciated and contributing to a team effort, it will start to show tangible signs of being a high-performance team.

When the larger organization sees a high-performing team, and that team knows it is appreciated by the larger organization, HI goes into high gear – flow state – and in that, the highest state of HI, big positive innovations occur.

Get your HI and your AI aligned. Note that some of the smartest organizations in the world today are actually combining their AI and HI departments. For example, Wharton Neuroscience is part of Wharton AI. My company RMT, is thrilled to be working with them. Dr. Michael Platt of that organization has often spoken and written about cultivating HI. Read his books, especially The Leader’s Brain, and those of Gerald Zaltman, and my books Mind Magic and soon to be released Powerful Mind. Jerry Zaltman’s new book, Dare To Think Differently, just arrived on my desk – a pre-publication copy coming out next month.

These books will give you literally hundreds of specific, actionable ideas to develop HI in your company.

In addition to books, you can also get HI clues every week in my blog, Pebbles In The Pond. There is also Natalie Neilson’s and my YouTube and TikTok series of videos (and Apple and Spotify podcasts), Power Of You. I do believe these authors are the ones with their fingers on the pragmatic pulse of metacognition, knowing how to use brains and minds and souls for the most positive outcomes, or HI for short.

The Big Picture

What is missing in our toxic civilization and our toxic politics is the perception that homo sapiens is a team. The same techniques which can make high-performing companies can make a high-performing world that believes in itself down to each individual.

The whole planet, with all its species and resources, can be seen as a team. The whole universe can be seen as a team.

We don’t have to have “bad guys”. Toxic teammates and even toxic bosses can be cured. It starts with compassion for them. In a word, love.

Take the time to consider, envision, imagine. That is the big doorway to HI.

Study HI, it is a real thing.

Dr. Michael Platt adds this:

Great stuff, Bill. I would add to this meditation on HI and high-performing teams that interpersonal physiological synchrony is the glue that sustains harmony, trust, cooperation, and teamwork. It is the chemistry underlying group flow. It begins with interpersonal attention and builds with the give and take of real conversation, and maximized by engaging in rhythmic group activities like singing, dancing, chanting, drumming, playing music—rituals that are human universals because they sustain prosociality rather than selfish behavior.

We have done and continue to work on physiological synchrony—in sports, in friendship, and in the workplace. Synchrony will be key to adaptability, resilience, and performance in the age of AI.

Dr. Michael Platt on How to Make Better Decisions

Dr. Gerald Zaltman Adds This:

“So, development of HI is the next big thing. How do we do it?”

First, we need to recognize that a mind is the product of many forces ranging from broad socio-cultural influences to the functioning of neural systems in the brain. These forces largely but not always work in concert and operate in conscious and especially nonconscious ways. The basic job assigned to a mind is to make meaning, i.e., make sense of our external and internal worlds. It is why human minds evolved the way they have. How well that task or job is performed constitutes “intelligence”. Importantly, in this view, there are many forms of intelligence and not one of them is fixed. Each can be improved or allowed to decline.

AI is a product of human intelligence. In turn, it is a tool for further use by human minds in their efforts to create meaningful answers to human problems. Thus, it is a tool we can use to enhance our own intelligence. It is up to the human mind and its natural striving to find or make meaning that governs where, how, and when AI is employed in the service of human intelligence. Said a little differently, human intelligence is the master while AI is its valued servant. The danger is that the servant is always tempted to be uppity and retire the master.

Building High-Performing Teams
Once a month in this column, I’m going to be adding links to my latest podcasts about how to nurture the talent under your management and bring forth its creativity for maximum success at both a business and personal level. For example, this month’s subject is Resistance. What to suggest to yourself and your direct reports when feeling resistance inside to something that is going on. How to turn that uneasy feeling into a learning experience and flow state performance.
This month’s podcast length is ≈49 minutes.   Watch the Video

Posted at MediaVillage through the Thought Leadership self-publishing platform.

Click the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friends.
The opinions expressed here are the author's views and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillage.org/MyersBizNet.