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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We Can’t Ignore It

There’s a shift happening right now. We don’t fully understand it or where it’s going, but ignoring it isn’t an option. Artificial Intelligence isn’t just a headline. It’s changing how we work, think, create, and value ourselves. And the number of self-proclaimed experts on the topic are growing daily.

The Pressure Is Real

AI can write, design, analyze, and automate faster than we can. Tasks that once took hours now take minutes. If a machine can do what we do, where do we fit? People said that about the automobile and the personal computer but this is much different.

As Fei‑Fei Li (Stanford Institute for Human‑Centered AI), said, “AI is not just about machines, it’s about augmenting human potential.” Even powerful tools are meant to empower, not replace us. We shall see.

Where Value Is Shifting

AI can replicate patterns, but it doesn’t live a life. It doesn’t feel uncertainty or wrestle with tough decisions - that’s where real value lies. For now.

Oren Etzioni (Allen Institute for AI), reminds us: “AI is neither good nor evil. It’s a tool. It’s a technology for us to use.” Technology itself doesn’t define value - people do. We win by using AI as a tool while doubling down on what makes us human: judgment, taste, experience, and curiosity.

Authenticity Wins

As AI makes content easier, authenticity becomes more valuable. When everything sounds polished, what’s real stands out. Deciphering what's real is the challenge.

Kevin Scott (CTO Microsoft) notes: “We underestimated how fast AI would go from fun to essential.” The shift isn’t coming; it’s already here, reshaping expectations.

Don’t Replace Ourselves

AI can help us move faster, but it can’t build trust or replace relationships. Yet.

It’s a tool, not a strategy. The risk may not be that AI replaces us. Life is more than output and efficiency and AI still can’t define meaning. At the moment.

Or I may be full of it because we don’t know what’s next.  

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. ____________________________________________________________

Measuring Your LIfe

How do you measure your worth? What metrics do you apply to your experience? Where do you see your value? David Brooks poses an important question. Do we measure ourselves by what we do or who we are?

Watch this.

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Don't Let the Bozos Grind You Down

Whether you run your own home-based business or oversee a corporate team of thousands, innovation is a key element to your offering. We all have to transform what we offer to customers and clients and prospects, or we’re out of business.

Guy Kawasaki outlines 10 key points to innovation and they can be applied to any business. Invest 20 minutes and watch this. Then get back to creating and innovating.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Leading Innovation and Creativity

We see it everywhere. Many of us say it often. But how do we ensure innovation and creativity are given the time, space, and freedom to flourish?

Innovation is a necessary element of our existence. It’s not a new concept but we seem to be taking a closer look at it. Linda Hill from the Harvard Business School unearthed some fascinating elements of collective genius, teamwork, and the iterative nature of leadership and innovation.

__________________________________________________________________ Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Leading in the Nowist

We human types are the only beings on earth who worry about the future and think about the past. A dog will learn over time that certain things should be avoided. Being a prey animal, a horse is on the lookout for danger.

A horse or a dog doesn't worry about how they ran three weeks ago or how their day will go next week. But we spend our perfectly good now splintering it into recanting missteps from yesterday while stressing about tomorrow.

Joi Ito reminds us to lead and innovate in the now.


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Kneale Mann | Leadership and management consultant helping leaders, teams, and companies get clear on their goals and results.

TED | Joi Ito

Eulogy or Resume?

David Brooks poses an important question – do we measure ourselves by what we do or who we are? The battle between our professional and career accomplishments get our attention while we discard or ignore who were are, what we stand for, how we want to live our lives.

We spend a great deal of time in our lives climbing ladders, gaining experience, and attempting to improve our situation. Many measure money and power over human connection and value. Society often gives us the impression we need to be a certain way to fit in and fight the good fight.

Brooks ponders if our attention is on the wrong metrics.


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

TED | David Brooks

Defining Innovation

It’s that time of year when we see all those lists – top this, best that, prediction this, future that. The list published on this site each year is simply some of the items I’m thinking about, you may do the same.

Fast Company began as a magazine in November 1995. After 17 years it remains a well respected outlet (and website) for technology, business, and design ideas from around the world. FC publishes many year-end lists and recently outlined what contributors and editors deem The Most Innovative Companies in the World.

Innovation may mean different things to each of us. It's akin to words like; important, good, essential, and leadership. Often it's a word attributed to the newest and shiniest simply because it's shiny and new.

For 2010, the Top 5 were Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Huawei.
For 2011, the Top 5 were Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Nissan, and Groupon.
For 2012, the Top 5 are Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Square.

Other notables this year include; DropBox, LinkedIn, Kickstarter, and PayPal. But there may be some you don't know.

To some, it might just be another arbitrary list. But it could lend insight into how to improve leadership and business ideas within your organization.

Kneale Mann

ideachampions

Are You Disruptive?

If you speak with someone in the high tech world, the discussion may get around to disruptive innovation. This is where you develop something that changes the status quo yet becomes what a few then many then a lot of people seem to begin to need or want. The turntable, the iPod, the microwave oven, power door locks, the tablet, etc.

We can’t fathom a world without the Internet. The thought of having to drive across the country rather than fly in mere hours is left for those odd occasions you want to take a scenic road trip.

Developers Unite

José Bowen is the Dean of the Meadows School of the Arts in Dallas. He has been studying music for more than 30 years and is a Pulitzer Prize nominated writer. Bowen challenges our current view. He says that Beethoven and Bill Gates have more in common that we thought and explains his theory in his recent TEDTalk.

How often do you lead disorder to establish innovation?  


Kneale Mann

TED | José Bowen

Starbucks and the Economic Meltdown

As recently as 4-5 years ago, many of us who do business presentations used Starbucks as an aspirational brand. It was the trading up transaction. You would do without something to get that $5 latte and millions of people go into their 17,000 stores every day and do just that. Then the economy took a kicking and suddenly Starbucks was viewed – by some – as too expensive or a frivolous luxury we couldn’t afford.

So instead of assuming what people were doing or thinking, the company thought it would be wise to actually find out. Matthew Guiste is the Director of Global Social Media at Starbucks. In this video presentation, he talks about how they engage millions of fans through Twitter, FourSquare, YouTube, Facebook and various other channels.

Your business may not be as big as Starbucks but this could give you ideas for engaging with your customers.



Kneale Mann

video credit: leaderlab

Your Idea Could Save a Life

That may sound like a provocative notion but think about all those ideas that are rolling around in your mind. Yesterday we discussed thinking big versus doing big.

Sebastian Thrun is a professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Stanford University, where he also serves as the Director of the Stanford AI Lab. His research focuses on robotics and artificial intelligence.

He led the development of the robotic vehicle Stanley which won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. Stanley is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian. Sebastian has been working toward a time when we no longer drive our cars. You may think this TEDTalk is about technology and gadgets. It is about a far more important idea.

It's also really freakin' cool! [video]


Kneale Mann

visual credit: TED

Imagine. Invent. Integrate.

We all love clever stuff. But something happens when clever meets ingenuity. Like this piece entitled "The Dreaded Stairs" which was released last year.

This is not posted here to endorse any site or product, it's here to make you think.

I hope it does.



Does this give you any ideas for a different way around a current challenge?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.