Category: Innovation

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Latest Read: The AI Advantage

The AI Advantage: How to Put the Artificial Intelligence Revolution to Work by Tom Davenport. Tom has written several well respected books. Reading Competing on Analytics in 2008, provides me stellar view of business metrics. Keeping Up with the Quants and Big Data at Work both reveal deep insights every organization must absorb to understand predictive analytics and big data. Surprisingly, the AI Advantage falls flat by comparison.

the ai advantage

The book’s pitch is well researched, yet there is a surprising lack of unique cases compared to his three books above. Likewise, the opening chapter “Artificial Intelligence Comes of Age—Slowly” provides a general overview to IBM’s Watson. Small hits, and yet a larger unfocused ability of Watson to move the needle on cancer research.

The promise of AI’s subset, machine learning (ML) is very over-promoted across today’s IT sales marketplace. The opening chapter reveals some deep AI shortcomings that should not be ignored.

Meanwhile, examples throughout the book refer to the Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a somewhat flavor of machine learning. Likewise, this extends into Chapter 2: AI in the Enterprise, the impact of AI for knowledge workers. This type of technology advance is impacting a cognitive advantage in healthcare.

Surprisingly, The AI Advantage released in 2018. But the role of AI driven Deep Fakes is missing. Launched in 2014, Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) technology may indeed be the most contested application of ML.

16 Million views of a Deep Fake application on YouTube

While amusing for movies and celebrities, certainly there are significant impacts upon society regarding government, corporations, and foreign relations. Shockingly the manipulation of voice has already resulted in financial transfers to criminal organizations.

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Design Education Google Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Work Rules

Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead by Laszlo Bock. Laszlo was the Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google.

Work Rules!

Bock’s audience is threefold: Managers, HR professionals, and Employees. For example, Bock is suggesting as managers, hire people smarter than you. Obviously, for HR teams insights on hiring, interviewing and keeping talented people should not be overlooked. Regardless of your organization’s mission or size. Above all, Laszlo’s “be a founder” sums up the type of hire every company strives to achieve, an employee who makes a meaningful impact across the organization.

Above all, I was looking to develop insights to Google’s Objectives and Key Results that impact their operations. Laszlo shares Google’s OKRs (as the general rule) must be specific, measurable, and verifiable. Surprisingly, they indeed push a high level of OKR transparency across the company.

Google OKRs are achievable, relevant, and timed. Data mining is why Google was shifting away from SMART goals. For instance, revising OKRs each quarter proves you need to run lean. Googlers certainly expect to set OKRs that far exceed their teams’ performance. Of course, with any data driven company, all project teams are focusing to aim for the moon. Even failing to achieve, they are still delivering a very good achievement.

Work Rules certainly illustrates a very deep look at the company’s evolution. Learning how they were stumbling offers key insights. For example, adopting benefits like on campus laundry services and nail salons that seems simply over the top for any legacy, old school company.

It’s enjoyable to see how a large tech company grew up so fast. Their practices in People Operations show the world how change is possible. They are stumbling from time to time. It helps to see the luster has worn off the company.

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Education Google Innovation Reading

Latest Read: Trillion Dollar Coach

Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley’s Bill Campbell by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg and Alan Eagle. This is one of a few books that I recommend without hesitation to anyone. In addition, you do not need to be a manager to benefit from Bill’s coaching others to wild success.

Trillion Dollar Coach

Surprisingly Bill Campbell spent five years coaching football at Columbia. Then he coached many of the most successful technology teams driving innovation across Silicon Valley.

This book was written by three Google leaders in other words, based upon their coaching relationship with Bill over many years.

Eric Schmidt is the former Executive Chairman of Alphabet and ex-Google CEO. Jonathan Rosenberg was a Senior Vice President at Google. Today he is an advisor to the Alphabet management team. In addition, he ran the Google product team from 2002 to 2011. Alan Eagle is Director of Executive Communications at Google. He has been working at Google since 2007. As a result, all three grew as leaders via Bill’s wisdom.

Similarly Bill was a driving success for several prominent companies including Apple, and Intuit.

Bill’s relationships with Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt and many more CEOs throughout the book reveal Bill’s coaching mantra.

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Design Education Google Innovation Reading Technology TED

Latest Read: Measure What Matters

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr. It is easier to understand during a pandemic how organizations should embrace OKRs in a time of dramatic change.

Measure What Matters by John Doerr

Firstly, Measure What Matters begins with John’s story of landing an engineering internship at Intel. Andy Grove is credited by Doerr as the father of OKRs. John was able to work alongside Andy and his team. Certainly this benefitted John in his career. Above all, Grove served as Doerr’s mentor at Intel and left a lifetime impression on the delivery of goals.

Above all, this offers new views against smartgoals or annual performance reviews. Doerr also shares how Adobe, upon viewing OKRs decided to completely shut down legacy annual performance reviews. COVID is a game changer that also helps move away from year long reviews.

At first glance, I have to admit that I was somewhat dismayed to see the name of U2’s Bono on the cover. That is to say many interview of musicians go off the rails. But Bono’s contribution will surprise any reader. His ability to convey his non-profit’s OKRs is very revealing that speaks to the depth and grounding of a business plan that you may not initially attribute to a world famous rock and roll singer.

Similarly there is an inspirational story is Nuna. John shares the story of Jini Kim. Her brother, Kimong was diagnosed with severe autism. While vacationing at Disneyworld, he suffered a severe seizure. At nine years of age Jini enrolled her family into Medicaid. Jini was a product manager at Google Health. Moreover Jini helped launch Google Public Data. When Jini left Google to launch her own startup, Nuna (Korean for big sister) her application of OKRs helped her company win the bid to fix healthcare.gov in 2013.

Likewise there is simplicity to OKRs. But a foundation of solid objectives is key:

  1. Exceptional Focus
  2. High degree of alignment
  3. Uncommon degree of commitment
  4. Tracking progress
  5. Transparent goal system
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Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: Range

Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Wow, I found Range brimming with rich insights to the idea of specialization versus generalists. What an enjoyable read! Actually so good in fact, I read the book twice.

Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein

Range examines the popular idea that specialization may actually set back our goals and abilities. Interestingly, the hook for Range is the Introduction: Roger versus Tiger. While the Introduction is easy fodder for TV interviews, radio, and podcast sessions and with the video clips below, book promotions.

However, such a well written book does not need this Roger versus Tiger segment at all. It is easy to understand why, However I wish Epstein would have left out the Introduction. It spoils the better, more powerful stories in the following chapters.

In other words, Range brings forward a lot of data to the idea that a well rounded individual can better understand issues and make critical decision versus a specialist. Generalists as Epstein reveals will benefit an organization, team or family on average, better than a specialist. But there is so much more to consider.

Epstein challenges popular specialization books from Angela Duckworth’s Grit to Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers (the 10,000 hour rule), among others regarding deliberate practice. Range suggests it is better (overall) to look past this and push yourself wider, rather than deeper. Surprisingly, Gladwell actually agrees with him.

Explore the World

Secondly, having a broad education permits students to explore many things, study a wide array of subjects, and most importantly learn to fail. To this end, Chapter 2: How the Wicked World was Made, addresses key research work of noted educator James Flynn. This leads to Epstein’s story about the value of the University of Chicago’s generalization degree:

Chicago has long prided itself on a core curriculum dedicated to interdisciplinary critical thinking. The two-year core, according to the university, “is intended as an introduction to the tools of inquiry used in every discipline—science, mathematics, humanities, and social sciences. The goal is not just to transfer knowledge, but to raise fundamental questions and to become familiar with the powerful ideas that shape our society.
Page 60-61

There is a logical position that students may indeed benefit from this approach to general studies at the bachelor level.

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