Advantage: Age

Full disclosure: Despite what my brain thinks, until I catch my reflection in the mirror, I’m not 28 anymore. We live in a culture that celebrates youth and often suggests aging means becoming less relevant. Maybe we have been looking at it the wrong way. The older we get, the more we have seen. 

We have watched trends come and go, experienced success and failure, and learned lessons that cannot be taught in a classroom or replaced by technology. Those experiences create judgment and perspective. In business, there is often an obsession with what is new. 

Age Pivoting

Technology and innovation matter, but the strongest organizations combine ideas with the wisdom that comes from understanding people and challenges. Artificial intelligence is a perfect example. AI can improve efficiency, but it cannot replace human experience. It does not understand relationships, leadership, or empathy. And I don't know about your experience, but I've discovered it's often wrong. 

Technology provides information, but experience helps determine what matters. I don't think the goal is to stay young forever - it's to stay curious forever. Getting older is inevitable; becoming irrelevant is a choice. Aging is not the end of the story; it is where age becomes one of our greatest advantages. 

Experience matters.

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Education Is More Than School

We don't stop learning with graduation. It becomes curiosity, experience, books, mentors, and paying attention to the world around us. AI is a powerful tool, but it isn’t education.

 Artificial intelligence can help us find information faster, organize ideas, and improve productivity. What it can’t replace is critical thinking, judgment, experience, and the ability to ask better questions. 

 Those come from learning. 

 The most successful people never stop learning. They adapt, challenge assumptions, and stay curious because they know yesterday’s knowledge won’t solve tomorrow’s problems. 

 Whether you’re starting your career or approaching retirement, education remains one of your greatest advantages. Keep reading. Keep asking. Keep learning. 

 Stay Curious

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A.I. + A.I.

We hear about AI everywhere. Chatbots, algorithms, self-driving cars – they’re changing the way we work, learn, and communicate. It’s impressive, sometimes a little intimidating, and often makes us wonder: if machines can think, what’s left for us? 

But here’s the thing – artificial intelligence can process data, predict patterns, and solve problems. Actual intelligence? That’s deeper. It’s curiosity, creativity, empathy, and the ability to connect the dots in ways no algorithm can.

The Limits of Machines

AI can crunch numbers, recognize faces, and even write essays. But it doesn’t feel. It doesn’t care about context the way we do. It doesn’t understand a joke, a story, or why a moment matters. Actual intelligence is messy, human, and unpredictable – but it’s also what makes innovation, leadership, and culture possible. Machines can assist, but they can’t replace insight, judgment, or intuition.

The future isn’t about choosing AI over us – it’s about how we use it. When artificial intelligence augments actual intelligence, we unlock new potential. We work smarter, not just harder. We ask better questions, notice patterns we might miss, and focus on the ideas that truly matter. 

Curiosity Over Automation

Our greatest advantage is our minds. Let’s stay curious, keep asking questions, and remember what makes us human. AI is powerful; actual intelligence, fueled by creativity, empathy, and awareness, is what shapes our world.

AI and AI are here to stay. The machines will get smarter and more intuitive. They are not fads and the bottle was crushed years ago. Use AI and AI as tools and allow your own input and thoughts to have a voice as well.

We live with machines; but life is built on us. ____________________________________________________________

Scrolling Through Life And Missing It

We live on our devices. Clips, viral videos, news alerts - they’re everywhere, and they grab our attention like magnets. Did we see that thing? Did we hear about that guy? 

Sometimes it feels like we’re keeping up with the world, but are we keeping up with ourselves? Hours slip by while we react, scroll, and double-tap, and the life happening right in front of us quietly passes by.

Missing Moments That Matter 

 Life isn’t a feed. The laughter around the table, the quiet moments at sunrise, the small gestures that mean the most - they aren’t trending, and they aren’t going viral. When we’re glued to our screens, we risk missing the very moments that make life rich. 

Relationships weaken, opportunities pass, and our own story gets lost among everyone else’s highlights. That doesn’t mean we ditch tech entirely. Devices are tools, not life itself. The trick is balance. Let’s take a walk, have a conversation, or just pause to notice what’s happening around us. Being present, opens doors: we see people, ideas, and moments we would have scrolled past. 

Finding Life Between the Notifications 

Ask questions, notice details, and truly listen. Life is happening, whether we’re looking at it or not. When we reconnect with our own world, the digital one becomes less distracting and more of a choice rather than a habit. We live on our devices - but life is happening for us, right now. 

 Let’s not miss it. ____

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Wonderment of Our Inner Child

When we're kids, we're told to be curious, to dream and play, and to pretend. As we age, the world gets more demanding and puts on more constraints.

Or do we do it to ourselves?

Sir Ken Robinson is a fascinating man who is a tireless champion for creativity, education, and possibilities. Watch his TEDTalk and replace teacher with leader and children with team and see if this may help for your career, team, and kids.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

TED | Sir Ken Robinson

Curiosity Cured the Cynic

The minutiae of daily commitments and poor internal customer service can crush a company faster than a nimble competitor. We watch with amazement while companies like Apple, Facebook, and Zappos seem to thrive within a hyper creative environment. This is not to suggest these companies don't make mistakes - in fact, many make them in front of the world in spectacular fashion.

It is not also to suggest it is all rosy and fun every moment because real work is being done. But what is the difference between the companies that many read, write and talk about compared to the businesses we pass by every day?

Perhaps successful business owners and managers keep these ideas fresh in the minds.

Stay curious for learning. Be curious about improving.
Be curious like a child. Stay curious through searching.
Stay curious about now.

Be curious, not judgemental. 
Walt Whitman

Be curious in life. Stay curious about your mistakes.
Stay curious for questions. Be curious in discovery.

Be curious through listening. Stay curious in business.
Stay curious for you.

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
Marie Curie

Stay curious about others. Be curious with think time. Stay curious for next.
Be curious of leadership. Stay curious toward answers.

Curious people are interesting people, I wonder why that is?
Bill Maher

Be curious about possibilities. Stay curious about your strengths.
Stay curious and motivate others. Be curious for what drives people.
Be curious always.

Celebrate and embrace curiosity with everyone in your company and watch what happens next.
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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

wikipedia

Curiosity Has No Age Limit

I posted this a few years ago and showed it to a client recently. If you visit here once in a while, you know I have a passion for leadership and culture. I also think it's a shame we begin talking about these topics far later in life than we should because they're important to people of all ages.

Meet Adora Svitak


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Kneale Mann | Leadership Strategist, consultant, writer, speaker, executive coach facilitating performance growth with leaders, management, and teams.

TED | Adora Svitak

Our Ongoing Education

We live in a fascinating time. Technology, communication, collaboration, and knowledge bring us more changes every day to connect and grow. As far as leadership and business culture, it’s also an ever more complex time.

We have four and sometimes five generations in the workforce side by side trying to homogenize the experience through systems and processes, strategies and priorities, options and competing priorities. This is challenging for all of us.

I do subscribe to the mantra that education is a lifelong journey and that may be more important now than every before in our existence.

Sir Ken Robinson is a fascinating man who is a tireless champion for creativity, education, and possibilities. Watch his latest TEDTalk and replace teacher with leader and children with team and see if this may help for your career as well as our kids.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership and Culture strategist, writer, speaker, executive coach engaging leaders, collaborative teams, and strong business results.

TED | Ken Robinson

30 Ideas for Life and Business

Everyday on Twitter I share a saying or quote, quip or idea that may inspire you. Some are deep, some are silly but all are meant to make us think for a moment.

Here’s the list from June 2012

• How will you turn your dreams into action?
• Attempting to change the past is futile
• Enjoy an offline day once in a while
• Be yourself, everyone else is taken. Oscar Wilde
• Would you rather create a quick win or a win-win?
• Never underestimate the power of your next step
• Could today be the day?
• Hitting people over the head, that's assault, not leadership. Dwight Eisenhower
• Your curiosity needs more attention
• Those who matter don't mind
• Help someone today and expect nothing in return
• Take a moment to say thank-you
• If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. Dalai Lama
• If you seek strong leadership, provide it.
• It's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln
• Leadership is not on a business card or an org chart
• Thanks Dad!
• Turn what if into why not
• The answer you're looking for is inside you, once you get quiet and listen
• The art of communication is the language of leadership. James Humes
• The accomplishment of your dreams lies with you
• The difference between those who get it done and those who don’t is action
• Now is all we got
• Turn off technology and turn on your mind
• The function of leadership is to produce leaders not followers. Ralph Nader
• Busy is a victim word
• If you promise good service to customers, promise the same to co-workers
• If you stop now, how will you know if you can do it?
• You are where you think you are. If you don't like it, change your thoughts
• Curiosity can be your biggest strength

And Happy 145th Birthday, Canada!

Kneale Mann

istock

A Month of Ideas

Every day on Twitter, I post a saying, quote or thought. It may be something I heard, something that happened or something that gives me pause. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they're timely, sometimes they’re meant to make us think.

Here’s the list from February 2012

• Don't replace fear of inaction with fear of success
• Groundhogs aside, what will you accomplish in the next six weeks?
• What obstacle will you remove today?
• Learn from a child
• None of us does this alone
• Curiosity can be your biggest advantage
• Why not?
• Make it about them
• Replace distractions with actions
• All we have is right now. What are we gonna do about it?
• Regret solves nothing
• They don't want a boss
• How will you help someone today?
• The starting point of all achievement is desire. Napolean Hill
• Anytime after now
• Once you decide you will do it, you will figure out how you will do it.
• White space is allowed
• If you give up, how will you know?
• Turn no into how
• Stay curious
• What will you create today?
• Every moment you focus on a weakness is a moment you allow a strength to weaken
• Don't let yesterday take up too much of today. Will Rogers
• If you're looking for the answer, look inside you
• After all is said and done, much more will be said than done. Aesop
• Time to get to all those things we put off yesterday to do tomorrow
• We don't always know and that's okay
• Accept responsibility with grace and move forward

Got any ideas?

Kneale Mann

Image credit: linda huber

The Web: It’s Amazing and We’re Not Amazed

Humans are inherently curious. This doesn't mean you have to be a PhD candidate in biophysics to be interested in finding answers. Our curiosity brings ideas which can often turn into bigger ones if we allow them to flourish.

The earliest ideas for a computer network intended to allow general communications among computer users was formulated by a dude named Joseph Licklider who was a computer scientist. He had this idea in the early 1960s he called it the “Intergalactic Computer Network”.

By the late 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense hired Licklider to lead the Behavioural Science Command and Control initiative at the Advanced Research Projects Agency or Arpa. He convinced some influential people on the project that his idea of building a network of connected computer had some merit. That was the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or the Arpanet.

The Arpanet becomes the Internet

Now we can click here, tweet there and spend far too much time complaining that it’s just not this enough or that enough. As Louis CK says, everything is awesome and nobody’s happy. We are tripping over technological breakthroughs every day and we still complain. I loaded a software upgrade yesterday and was complaining how slow it was within about two minutes. Case rested.

What now seems like a lifetime ago, back in 2007, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly did a review of the first 5,000 days of the Internet as we know it. So add another 1,000 or so since then and see if our predictions can possibly keep up with advancements and reality. Feel free to make some predictions and we’ll see if you’re right in another couple thousand days.



knealemann

visual credit: TED
Other TEDTalks by Kevin Kelly.
Also published on Social Media Today

Learning From Kids

I had the privilege of attending TEDxMcGill in Montreal over the weekend. The team of organizers did a first-class job. Visit the site, watch for videos of the presentations, enjoy and learn. The theme of the day was curiosity and one TEDTalk they featured was with brilliant phenom Adora Svitak.

Watch, learn, think and be blown away.



knealemann | email



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image credit: TED