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Human Qualities Most Likely to Matter In Work With AI

April 28, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Image generated with Chatgpt

There are lots of discussions and debates nowadays regarding the evolution of work with growing AI impact.

Noticed a very interesting article, “Is AI Smarter Than People? It’s complicated”, in the Wall Street Journal (source below). It also highlights inputs from a related experiment, and the human qualities most likely to matter in the evolving world of work.

These are selected notes from the article.
———-
* My research suggests that we’ve been asking the wrong question and drawing the wrong conclusions.
* In an experiment relating to prediction market accuracy, the hybrid teams (human-AI) reached insightful conclusions that neither a human nor a machine could have produced on its own.

* It’s not that these people were more intelligent than others in the study. They demonstrated two important qualities: perspective-taking and intellectual humility.
–Perspective taking – ability to genuinely inhabit another point of view.
–Intellectual humility – ability to recognize the edge of your own knowledge and sit with that discomfort rather than trying to rush to fill it.
* Perspective-taking requires requires genuine curiosity about minds other than your own. Intellectual humility requires a kind of emotional courage: the willingness to feel uncertain, even a little foolish, in the presence of something or someone that seems very sure of itself.

* These are not the soft skills we typically celebrate.
* What my experiment suggests is that the human qualities mostly likely to matter are the uncomfortable ones: the capacity to be wrong in public and stay curious; to sit with a question…to read a confident, fluent response from an AI and ask yourself, “What’s missing?”…to disagree with something that sounds authoritative and to trust your instinct enough to follow it.
* We don’t build these capacities by avoiding discomfort. We build them, by choosing it, repeatedly, in small ways.
* Most AI chatbots today default to easy answers which is hurting our ability to think critically.
*…the divergence I worry about – the quieter process of people gradually outsourcing the judgment…
* What can any of us actually do about it? Start with the reframe: The goal of working with AI isn’t to get the answer faster. It’s to find what you are missing…use AI as a savant collaborator to explore uncertainty.
* Perspective-taking, intellectual humility and curiosity are traits that can be cultivated.
———-

Source: Is AI Smarter Than People? It’s complicated; Vivienne Ming (neuroscientist, cognitive scientist and author of “Robot-Proof…”); April 25-26, 2026

Finding Meaning After Loss

April 24, 2026 / / 0 Comments

Many people face loss and experience grief in different ways. They move through related feelings and often feel lost. A loss can come in different ways.

Awareness of this topic and how to work through it can help a lot, even to being present for someone going through a loss.
We have heard about the five stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. 

This is a video, discussion with grief expert, David Kessler that gives valuable awareness and context on the topic. David was a co-author with Elizabeth Kubler Ross (famous for her work on five stages of grief) on the book, On Grief And Grieving. He highlights a sixth stage that is very important – finding meaning.

According to David, there are seven factors that guide the concept of meaning. This is helpful to understand (from the video).

Origins of Emotional Intelligence (Research perspective)

September 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments

A recent discussion about the origins of Emotional Intelligence got me thinking about this topic. Dr. Daniel Goleman has been one of the most well known faces/experts in emotional intelligence, thanks to his book. He actually got the idea from couple of other professors, John Mayer and Peter Salovey. Here are some notes from an interview.
—
“According to Dr. Goleman, it all began with two psychology professors on a summer’s day: “John Mayer and Peter Salovey invented the whole field,” Goleman explains, “when they were chatting about politics while painting a house.” Salovey (President of Yale University) and Mayer (Professor at University of New Hampshire) were talking about their research on cognition and emotion. They wondered: How could someone so smart act so dumb?
Their conclusion: Smart decision-making requires more than the intellect as measured by traditional IQ.
…Goleman continues the story, “And because of that conversation, they published a wonderful seminal article — but in an obscure journal. The moment I saw their concept of emotional intelligence all kinds of bells went off. And I thought, ‘I have to write about this!’”

Goleman is quick to add, “I don’t see myself as particularly gifted in this domain. I am a psychologist, a researcher and a writer, but I am not a guru of emotional intelligence”. “I am a commentator…”
Goleman credits the researchers and innovators. “All I did was amplify someone else’s idea, and other people have run with it…”
—
From another paper, that looks bit earlier:
“It was not until 1985 that the term ‘emotional intelligence’ was first used in a doctoral dissertation by Wayne Payne. In 1987, an article published by Keith Beasley in Mensa Magazine uses the term ‘emotional quotient.’ Reuven Bar-On, an Israeli psychologist proposed a quantitative approach to creating “an EQ comparable to an IQ score” in the first copy of his doctoral dissertation, which was submitted in 1985. In 1990, psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer published their landmark article, ‘Emotional Intelligence,’ in the journal ‘Imagination, Cognition, and Personality’. In 1995, the concept of emotional intelligence was popularised after the publication of Daniel Goleman’s book ‘Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ’. “
—
Few other names/studies are referred to in the early development of emotional intelligence – Michael Beldoch(1964), B. Leuner(1966), Howard Gardner (1983), Wayne Payne(1985), Stanley Greenspan(1989).
—

Would be happy to learn more or be corrected, if anyone has more to add.

Sources:
* Dr. Daniel Goleman Explains the History of Emotional Intelligence; Joshua Freedman; Feb 29, 2024; Six Seconds
* The origins of Emotional Intelligence theory; Impellus
* History of Emotional Intelligence: Origins, Evolution, and Background; Ashveen Sahni; August 17, 2024; Kapable

Leadership Insight from Neuroscience studies on Building Accountability

September 2, 2025 / / 0 Comments

There are some valuable notes from neuroscience research for leaders on how to improve responsibility and accountability in their organizations. The article is ‘Latest From the Lab: Ownership drives responsibility’ from the NeuroLeadership Institute, published on July 28, 2025

(Image- Gerd Altmann, Pixabay)
—-
” While 91% of managers and employees say accountability is important at work, 97% of managers say they struggle to hold their teams accountable.say they struggle to hold their teams accountable.

* A recent study suggests that our sense of responsibility, and the brain activity that supports it, can emerge from having a sense of control or agency in our work, as opposed to merely following orders.
* In a newly published brain imaging study, researchers showed that the act of merely following someone else’s orders, or not having ownership of our decisions, reduces our sense of responsibility for the actions that follow. In other words, how responsible we feel, stems from having a “stake in the game,” or some degree of ownership in the work.
* This study builds on a growing body of work into how accountability happens in the workplace. Taking responsibility for the work done and the impact made is one of the characteristics of accountability, a concept that…is a current challenge facing many.
* Prior research has shown that when we lose our sense of control, such as when we’re obeying orders or being told to do something, this immediately reduces our perception of responsibility. We feel less responsible for an outcome if someone else, especially with a higher status or rank, told us to do it. This poses a major challenge to organizations…
* Behaviors that managers could engage in to drive their team towards accountability:
– reminding a team member during a weekly check-in of the reason their work is critical, whether/how it’s aligned with an organizational goal or a team goal (will increase engagement of the networks in the brain associated with the “why” behind the work).
– managers can help employees feel a greater sense of ownership over their work by making the work meaningful to the individual or align it with their career goal. (will act to increase the person’s sense of agency, and ultimately, responsibility for the work.)”
—

Effects of Incivility on your business and people

August 3, 2025 / / 0 Comments

What are the effects of incivility (disrespect/rudeness) on your business and people?

A TED Talk (video link below) from Prof. Christine Porath includes useful references on this topic, which are backed by research. There are also some positive behavioural examples (if you are wondering, as a manager or leader, how you could do better on this dimension).

Selected notes from the talk:
* Small, uncivil actions can lead to much bigger problems like aggression and violence.
* According to their study, incivility made people less motivated. 66% cut back work efforts, 80% lost time worrying about what happened, 12% left their job.
* For those who witness incivility, witnesses’ performance decreased, too…quite significantly.
* Incivility is a bug. It’s contagious, and we become carriers of it just by being around it. And this isn’t confined to the workplace.
* It affects our emotions, our motivation, our performance and how we treat others. It even affects our attention and can take some of our brainpower. And this happens not only if we experience incivility or we witness it. It can happen even if we just see or read rude words.
* This can be a big deal, especially when it comes to life-and-death situations. Researchers have actually shown that medical teams exposed to rudeness perform worse not only in all their diagnostics, but in all the procedures they did. This was mainly because the teams exposed to rudeness didn’t share information as readily, and they stopped seeking help from their teammates.
* The number one reason for incivility is stress. People feel overwhelmed. The other reason is because they’re skeptical and even concerned about being civil or appearing nice. They believe they’ll appear less leader-like. It’s easy to think so, especially when we see a few prominent examples that dominate the conversation.
* According to research from the Centre for Creative Leadership, number one reason tied to executive failure was an insensitive, abrasive or bullying style.
* It ties to one of the most important questions around leadership: What do people want most from their leaders? We took data from over 20,000 employees around the world, and found the answer was simple: respect. Those that felt respected were healthier, more focused, more likely to stay with their organization and far more engaged.
* Civility and respect can be used to boost an organization’s performance.
* When we have more civil environments, we’re more productive, creative, helpful, happy and healthy.

The Power of ‘Curiosity’

July 16, 2025 / / 0 Comments

These are valuable notes below for reflection on “Curiosity” from a recent Harvard Business Review article titled, The Right Way to Prepare for a High-Stakes Conversation. Curiosity mindset seems to drive learning. The powerful impact and related behaviours appear in many articles and studies, including leadership potential (Egon Zehnder).
—
“In a world where information is abundant but insight remains scarce, curiosity may be the ultimate competitive advantage.

If you wouldn’t fly on a plane that hadn’t had a preflight check, why head into a high-stakes conversation without first checking your most vital mindset: curiosity?

The question isn’t whether you’ll face disagreement and pushback in your next high-stakes conversation—it’s whether you’ll be mentally prepared to transform that into insight and constructive action.

Curiosity is a choice, and that choice begins before you speak your first word.

By honestly assessing where you sit on the Curiosity Curve, setting realistic intentions to move toward greater openness, and deploying targeted Curiosity Sparks, you can transform your most challenging interactions from battles to be won into opportunities for mutual discovery and collaborative problem-solving.”

According to the author, there are four surprising benefits of curiosity.
“1. When We’re Curious About People, They Like Us More.
2. Curiosity Begets Curiosity
3. Curiosity Creates Empathy
4. Curiosity Makes Us More Resilient

To get more curious, try asking yourself one of these “curiosity sparks.”
1. What might I be missing?
2. How else might someone else interpret this situation?
3. How might I be affecting them?
4. What can I learn from this person?“
—

Can you build the curiosity mindset into your organisation culture?
Perhaps a good place to start with is in leadership and management development.

Sources:
* The Right Way to Prepare for a High-Stakes Conversation; Harvard Business Review; Jeff Wetzler; July 2, 2025
* 4 Surprising Benefits of Curiosity; PsychologyToday; Jeff Wetzler; December 12, 2024

The Potential Impact of China’s New AI Model, DeepSeek 

January 31, 2025 / / 0 Comments

If you have seen the news about DeepSeek in recent days (including rattled financial markets) and are wondering what the noise is all about, why this is disruptive, important and relevant, this video below from CNBC is a helpful watch. It includes an interesting interview with Perplexity CEO, Aravind Srinivas, with pertinent questions and inputs (from early Jan ’25).

In this week’s Business Standard, an article stated that “DeepSeek has become the most downloaded app on Apple App Store in India across all categories, according to data from Sensor Tower… It was released worldwide on January 10, with an update on January 27…
DeepSeek is the most downloaded app on Apple Store in the US… On Play Store, it is the second most downloaded app…
However, in countries like the UK, Australia, Singapore and Canada, it already hit the number one spot amongst all apps on January 28. But it has not made a similar domination in most European countries.”

This development seems to have taken most experts by surprise. The achievement, speed, budget, resources and context of all this could be a valuable case study in itself. Some countries are already thinking/concerned about the security and ethical aspects as well.

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi 

October 2, 2024 / / 1 Comment

On Mahatma Gandhi’s 155th birth anniversary, we remember his life and wisdom.

We continue to live in times of high uncertainty, violence and wars threatening to spread. As much as everyone likes to focus on their own world/environment, we live in a more interconnected world, and the impact of good and bad outcomes will be felt wider.

Is it becoming increasingly difficult to wish for a world of peace and harmony?
Are we speeding up our Doomsday clock/own extinction?
How could we get out of a vicious cycle of violence?
—-

* Blessed is the man who can perceive the law of ahimsa (nonviolence) in the midst of the raging fire of himsa (violence) all around him. We bow in reverence to such a man by his example.
* Gandhi objects to violence because it perpetuates hatred. When it appears to do ‘good’, the good is only temporary and cannot do any good in the long run.
* Gandhi feels that violence is not a natural tendency of humans. It is a learned experience.

Satyagraha, the Centre of Gandhi’s Contribution to the Philosophy of Nonviolence
Satyagraha is the quintessence of Gandhism. Through it, Gandhi introduced a new spirit to the world.

What is Satyagraha?
Satyagraha (pronounced sat-YAH-graha) is a compound of two Sanskrit nouns satya, meaning truth (from ‘sat’- ‘being’ with a suffix ‘ya’), and agraha, meaning, “firm grasping”. Thus Satyagraha literally means devotion to truth, remaining firm on the truth and resisting untruth actively but nonviolently. Since the only way for Gandhi getting to the truth is by nonviolence (love), it follows that Satyagraha implies an unwavering search for the truth using nonviolence. Satyagraha according to Michael Nagler literally means ‘clinging to truth,’ and that was exactly how Gandhi understood it: “clinging to the truth that we are all one under the skin, that there is no such thing as a ‘win/lose’ confrontation because all our important interests are really the same, that consciously or not every single person wants unity and peace with every other”.  Put succinctly, Satyagraha means ‘truth force’, ‘soul force’ or as Martin Luther Jr would call it ‘love in action.’

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is an attribute of the strong.”

Source: https://www.mkgandhi.org/africaneedsgandhi/gandhis_philosophy_of_nonviolence.php

Identifying Experts To Follow In Today’s World

January 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments
via pixabay

We live in a world where there are many who claim to be experts or share expert opinions on multiple topics. The amount and impact of ‘pseudo-experts’ seem to be increasing. On all forms of media, lots of expert opinions on varied topics are shared constantly and many people buy into them and trust quickly without realising the quality of information, the individual who is sharing or the actual source. As a result, low quality or unreliable perspectives find lots of eyeballs and mindspace.

I wanted to share 3 tips that have helped me in figuring out right experts, better quality information and perspectives.

1. Understand background and experience, both of the expert and the source

Look for the background, expertise and experiences of the individual(s) in the relevant areas. The quality, depth and breadth of those experiences and their contributions track record over time also matter. Look for how deeply they may have studied that area and shared quality insights. A basic search on the internet or LinkedIn can help. Do note that the number of connections or titles don’t translate to being an expert.

Ideally, there needs to be a mix of conceptual/theoretical and practical experiences for high quality insights and perspectives. Being an expert in one area does not translate automatically to being an expert in other areas. We tend to see that error or bias quite a bit. It also helps to observe who have liked/endorsed them or their insights or shared further. Credibility has to be developed over time and with consistency.

If studies and researches are quoted in articles or conversations, it always helps to see who or where the research was undertaken. Ask the logical questions about the relevance and environment of those studies. The quality of the institution or individuals who undertook the study can be an important factor in the validity of results that are quoted.

2. Openness to alternate views and discussions

The best experts are open to listening, discussing, learning and debating alternate or contradicting views because they understand there are multiple variables to explore, some that they may not have foreseen or others that may be worth learning or engaging further. An open mindset to a quality discussion and exploration improves the outlook of an expert perspective. Keep in mind that we generally tend to read and believe in topics that we want to believe in or have an internal bias towards. We relate better to certain conversational and writing styles.

3. Observe patiently and do your own research over time

Hold off from jumping to conclusions from one expert opinion or view, unless you have done your homework and looked across multiple expert views or studies. The predictiveness of quality is better if you have been tracking someone’s work over time. Even then, it helps to maintain a broad perspective and expand your senses to multiple experts. If the opinion relates to your own area of work, it helps to reflect on your experiences and the links to the perspectives shared.

As a result of all these, the quality of your insight and perspectives will improve over time and chances of being misled will reduce substantially. Your quality of thinking, actions and growth will be on a better curve.

Have other approaches worked for you?

“Logic, it is often said, is the study of valid arguments. It is a systematic attempt to distinguish valid arguments from invalid arguments.” – William H. Newton-Smith
Logic: An Introductory Course (goodreads)

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