Category: technology & AI

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A Most Essential Leadership Skill

In a market.full of AI, fintech and virtual innovations clamoring for testing, how does an organization cope with all the calls for these future “necessities”? What is hype?  What could be an essential component to add to a credit union’s platform?

Several years ago I taked with a successful CEO about his recent offering of crypto (bitcoin) to  members.  He said the members were asking for it.  He owned some himself.  Integrating with third party providers was straight forward. There was no risk to the credit union,  The transaction fees added another source of revenue.

The CEO was very open about his reasons.  He was one of fewer than ten credit unions then offering this member option.  Now was the time to just let the members decide.

From crypto to financing cannabis banking to marketing partnerships that save members money by spending more, the opportunities are endless for the latest game changing service or product enhancement.  Sometimes there is some member interest.  Sometimes the change is a third party rollout, wanting to test launch an offering with a known market to establish a proof of concept.

What CEO wouldn’t  want to be seen as a insightful leader versus a fast follower by peers?  Besides a lot of the traditional service culture strategies can take time, can be hard to measure and at times boring.

The Crypto Example

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize–winning economist recognized worldwide for his work on international trade and hisopinionson the economic issues of the day, often from a progressive point of view.

An excerpt from his cJuly 10 onversation with Dennis Kelleher:

There is no legitimate use case for crypto. They’ve had 18 years to come up with one. They keep throwing things up like “an inflation hedge” or “source of stability.” Every one of them has turned out to be baseless.

The only real use for crypto is tax evasion, money laundering, and crime. It’s the preferred mechanism of choice for global terrorists, sex traffickers, and rogue nations like North Korea and Iran.

You have to ask yourself why crypto has basically hijacked the political agenda of Washington. It’s because they followed the Sam Bankman-Fried model of buying bipartisan support by spending hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns. And this is the astonishing thing, Paul, that people don’t know. . . .

The Critical Faculty

So how does a coop or any leader decide what to test in a era of mixed messages and uncertainty about the future?  It is a challenge as old as the parable of the seeds and the sower.

Where ever there is fertile ground both weeds and seeds will take root.  Some may try to take out the weeds, but that can be hard especially early on when the plants are just sprouting, and later when mature growth is all mixed together.  The story suggests the choice is not strictly binary– that is the proof of a plant, a new product or even an idea can be clearly  projected as either a weed or the fruit of a seed.

What is required by  a reader of the parable, or a CEO in real life is discernment.  Some appeals by  entrepreneurs  or political leadership seeking support for their agenda will be compelling and relevant. Others, not so.

The ability to distinguish the important and lasting from the temporary and unproven comes from experience.  This is the ongoing learning about one’s prior decisions and the people and process that were used.

Discernment is a lifelong challenge both for CEO’s and in life.  Because change is inevitable, it is a skill that ultimately determines one’s ability to choose not just as a CEO  but more importantly the right in one’s personal life choices.

And if the parable is representative, at times we will grow from  seeds, and at other times perhaps weeds.  The test is whether we can see  the difference.

 

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Two Reactions to AI’s Challenge

Yesterday’s post on AI’s promises and dangers, prompted two responses.

One is a personal reflection by a dedicated AI user and one from an organizational point of view based on NCUA’s  application.   Ironically both reach a similar conclusion about the ongoing need for human insight.

An AI User’s Perspective

(by Lara Hoyen, my daughter, posted on LinkedIn)

I felt an urge today to write down my thoughts today.

I didn’t want AI to help, though I regularly ask for assistance. To script a tough conversation with a co-worker. To translate an interview transcript into a compelling blog post. To summarize a 15 year story into a compelling couple of paragraphs.

Recently Claude’s been unlocking even more for me. I’m able to clean up years of data files and create interactive dashboards. I’ve launched webforms to standardize inputs. I’ve automated weekly email reports with project status changes.

These types of tools used to have to wait until they could move from a backlog into a sprint. Then my data team co-workers could built it.

A recent Harvard Business School study found that power users of AI, rather than being freed by AI, are busier. It intensifies their workload because they can take on broader responsibilities. The article talked about AI users experiencing “Brain Fry,” with symptoms such as mental fog and decreased focus.

This describes exactly how I’m feeling.

I’m reading to seek wisdom as I consider my response to the political upheaval that is impacting our nation, community, and neighbors. Hannah Reichel’s devotional, “For Such a Time as This,” describes the Christian church’s response to the rise of Hitler in Germany as a way to give perspectives and inspiration to Americans today. She writes about the power of letters shared between dissidents. For those that wrote them and received them, these messages helped to “clarify their thoughts, name their realities, and strengthen their resolve.”

I want to make sure I don’t lose these abilities. To reflect, apply, synthesize.

Even as I see the amazing opportunities that AI is unlocking for a resource-strapped NGO (and 501 C 3) with more work to do than people to do it.

Ann Lamott, an author I love, released a book recently on improving your writing. She explained that the power of communicating, is how we “awaken to life and to beauty… our own huge creative and imaginative spirits.” She laments that we should “stop hitting snooze… look around, breath it in, and scribble it down.”

That’s why I needed to write this post.

I wanted to reflect on the risk I face of inadvertently outsourcing my thinking to AI vs. using it as a smart assistant. I wanted to name the impact I am experiencing cognitively because of my use of these tools. And, I want to strengthen my resolve, as an antidote to these consequences, to walk through each day mindfully – noticing, reflecting, sharing, and connecting.

I’d love to hear your practices that keep you human, as you work with AI. And, where you’re seeking wisdom for such a time as this.

AI’s Organizatinal Impact & NCUA’s Example

(from RAndy Karnes, retired CEO, CU*Amswers)

What we miss in AI is that behind it all is a systemic approach to learn.  Some one or thing said learn like this!  Practice and learn some more. Why AI will not become the most effective teaching template for future generations is not much talked about.

While it might be difficult to teach higher functions, the basics should be simple.
And the NCUA’s oversite/audit functions should be childs play if they would apply the logic to:
1. Inventory required input and content. (eg. exams, data, regulations)
2. Summarize the content for norms amd exceptions.
3. Score the norms and exceptions.
4. Make recommendations to accelerate positive outcomes and adjust to exceptions.
If one day we  want to compete with AI intellectually as a teacher and simply avoid work by just accepting its outcome – we first must teach ourselves the instant insight we seek.
Child’s play like the NCUA’s work at this point, will not be a stumbling block for credit union futures.  That work we must learn to do ourselves.