Tag: tipping point

Latest Read: HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 29, 2023

HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers by Harvard Business Review. The ‘HBR Guide’ series offers articles addressed in multiple sections. This is not a single author’s interpretation.

Published in January 2023 this Guide is critical for managers regardless of organization, vertical market, or seniority within executive teams. In fact, prior to the pandemic AI had already shifted the fundamentals of business and society. Many to this day never saw it coming and this Guide is mandatory.

While business as usual is often overstated, our post pandemic world shifted so rapidly and radically, that organizations will simply fail if they do not adopt. In more and more business cases, the adopt or die mindset will continue to become painfully evident as consolidation, mergers, acquisitions and divestitures (MAD) only accelerate via AI solutions.

For managers the Introduction is aiming squarely at your future: How AI Will Redefine Management is not to be taken lightly. However in the presented articles the adoption of which cannot be overstated, miss the fundamentals of AI changing your organization, and you might as well begin refreshing your resume. For the CEO or President, this will empower you to drive change long desired but slowed by organization’s noise. And you will have to address your supporters, detractors and fence sitters to get the AI ball rolling.

Tags Artificial Intelligence, Innovation, tipping point

Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: HBR Guide to Critical Thinking

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 15, 2023

HBR Guide to Critical Thinking by Harvard Business Review. The ‘HBR Guide’ series offers articles addressed in multiple sections. This is not a single author’s interpretation.

This offers a fresh restart to critical thinking. I welcome opportunities to make a re-start with new ideas and approaches in our pandemic world. This indeed provides a good starting point in developing skillsets. The ultimate goal of critical thinking by Helen Lee Bouygues is to think reflectively, objectively, and analytically about situations and problems.

I found Section One: Get in the Right Mindset – Article 3: Act Like a Scientist very engaging. We basically are testing assumptions. How can organizations address employees or customers who suggest underlying practices are out of date, costly or even obsolete? By investing in data analytics.

Like a scientist, you must become a knowledge skeptic. As we continue to confront the impact of the pandemic, remote work and large changes in business operations over the last three years, perhaps ‘the established way’ is no longer relevant. Add upon legacy practices are the new realities of regulatory and compliance mandates faced by organizations. this becomes challenging to confront the ‘why we believe this’ or searching to confirm if the evidence supports or challenges commonly held ideas and practices within your organization.

Tags critical thinking, Innovation, knowledge, tipping point

Education Innovation Reading Technology

Latest Read: HBR Guide to Remote Work

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date July 8, 2023

HBR Guide to Remote Work by Harvard Business Review. The ‘HBR Guide’ series offers articles addressed in multiple sections. This is not a single author’s interpretation.

This title was published during the pandemic when employees were already remote. This guide is addressing a very large change in human behavior and the need for organizations to respond.

More importantly, this addresses new, unique challenges when confronting the simple day to day aspects of working outside the office. Perhaps within your family, the new remote office is the kitchen. For managers, your direct reports are certainly confronting new challenges in delivering their workflows.

Enter the Zoom era. New organizational elements were quickly changing. How to ensure employees are staying focused despite all the new distractions from home.

This Guide is indeed providing insightful tips and advice. So, how does an organization shift their operations from 100% face to face to the new remote work? Many employees quickly embraced working remote in casual clothing. In fact, this helped their bottom line saving money on gasoline and lunches.

Tags culture, Innovation, remote work, tipping point

Artificial Intelligence Education Innovation Reading

Latest Read: What Is ChatGPT Doing and Why Does It Work?

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 17, 2023

What Is ChatGPT Doing and Why Does It Work? by Stephen Wolfram. Stephen Wolfram is a computer scientist and physicist. He was named a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and is currently an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Department of Computer Science.

He holds a PhD in particle physics from the California Institute of Technology. Steven then began teaching at Caltech and was the youngest recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship at age 21.

In 1987 he created Wolfram Research and continues to serve as CEO developing both Mathematica and the Wolfram Alpha answer engine. Recently the company announced that Wolfram Alpha would integrate with ChatGPT.

In short, this book is perhaps the first worthy book to address ChatGPT with a full understanding of AI technology. Plus, Steven holds the ability to explain AI, algorithms and equations which will help the reader gain a much better (perhaps the best) understanding of ChatGPT.

Since the first public introduction in late 2022, many have simply asked how does this AI service function? Stephen in fact, lays out in very readable form, the background and basic understanding of neural net technologies. As a scientific discovery, this AI technology has certainly holds great potential to change computing with a potential huge downstream impact to society.

Tags ChatGPT, Innovation, knowledge, Steven Wolfram, tipping point

Education Reading

Latest Read: The Code Breaker

Post author By Don Kasprzak
Post date March 12, 2023

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson. This is a truly amazing book and perhaps (in a crowded field) the most important book I have read this year.

Jennifer is an American biochemist. Today she is Chair Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley and is an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. She holds a Ph.D. from Harvard Medical School.

Jennifer is also the President and Chair of the board at the Innovative Genomics Institute, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes, and an adjunct professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Jennifer Doudna is a rock star. Well Noble Prize winner rock star. And this book serves as inspiration for my daughter. No better example for any daughter to see that begin told what a girl cannot accomplish than to see how Jennifer literally hit it out of the park.

As this story reveals, Jennifer was in sixth grade when her father gave her a copy of James Watson’s book The Double Helix. This was her inspiration that would trigger her discoveries to understand DNA codes as a scientist.

Tags CRISPR, Gene Editing, Innovation, Jennifer Doudna, Technology, The Code Breaker, tipping point