The 1%: Creating the Brain Space to Think

Robot-related thoughts w/c 23rd Jan.

The 1%: Creating the Brain Space to Think

"Meditation is about finding a space beyond thought". There is a space...I reflected...Beyond thought? Where could this lack of script (and control) take me? This was now the third conversation with someone who had shared the life-changing benefits of meditative silence and retreat as a way to create space and restore mental energy. There are many mindfulness apps (e.g Headspace, which according to Wikipedia has 6 million users)  and it seems that many people are finding relief by being able to switch off from their busy/digitised world. 

Meditation has been around forever and creating space through prayer, reflection etc is a fundamental aspect of the spiritual world. As I was chatting with a meditation teacher, I found it fascinating to hear how meditation explores the phenomenon of tapping in to a 'mass consciousness'. We are all connected, it's just we are all too busy to realise it. It echoed a Transhumanist (extending human lifespan and capability beyond our biology) lecture I attended last year talking of the same idea of a mass consciousness, but achieving it via the uploading of human brains onto a computer. Like the film

Her. But it's you. Creating a computer with the storage space to store a human brain is currently thought to be possible in 2043. (My daughter will then be 31. Of all the thoughts filling my brain at 31, it wasn't that full human cognitive capability was being digitised.)

So how much space is your brain being given right now? Or are you in constant processing and execution mode with a never-ending script of task? There have been a number of articles written about importance of letting children be bored, as there could be some unintended consequences of the developing brain being constantly stimulated. Because of course it's in the spaces that we create something new. If everything is too jam-packed then all we can do is execute. Best workshops I've had the joy to facilitate are those where individuals or teams are given the time and space to talk, reflect and create new dialogue together. The key is to create the right space for people to feel safe to create together. (BTW If you think your team could do with more joined up thinking at the next meeting, I like the Vanilla Ice principle: 'Stop. Collaborate and Listen').

We will see many AI and robot products entering our virtual and physical spaces this year. (Just today, caught sight of a driverless bus being piloted on a road- the same one going live in Vegas). Last week I met the makers of the new robot delivery service Starship Technologies, Including Dan, the man with the coolest job title in the room: Robot Handler.  

The founders are the two guys who set up Skype, so I have no doubt that their ambitious plans to make this a ubiquitous delivery option for last mile delivery on every street in suburbia. Faster, cleaner, cheaper deliveries to your front door, these robots will soon occupy our pavements making it ideal for heavier deliveries that's an aerial drone would find an energy challenge. They are driven 99% autonomously, so the innovation is in fact 80% software 20% hardware using their or inspiring mapping technology (Ruts in the road, kerbs, stacked static obstacles such as bins as well as dynamic objects such as pedestrians).  

Their cute robot (known currently as Pika) does not have an AI installed, so it is responsive and reactive rather than intuitive and predictive. The remaining 1% of driver control will be for the human operator who anyone time will have virtual reins on up to 100 bots at a time. For example if the robot has not moved for 10 seconds, this would send an automatic signal to the human to get them to decisionmaker next move. 'Help I need an intelligent human to give me a new plan'. Space and inaction therefore triggering the need for human intervention to then think and decide the next best move. 

For those of us in frontline roles, this will increasingly be the basis for great customer service: As the simple aspects become more automated, the jobs for humans will become more about dynamic decision-making, creating improvements and innovations, and solving complex problems. The 1% of occasions where you really need human assistance. 

As Frey and Osborne's 2013 landmark white paper highlighted, it's the routine jobs that will be automated, in short: routine manual work through robots and routine cognitive work through AI. Like with Pika, the expected and mapped areas can be handled by the robots – it's the unknown spaces that requires creative thoughts that only a human (carbon) brain can currently deliver. So it will become more important for people to ensure they are practised and comfortable with handling unknown and trickier situations. 

So, what does this mean? As we embark on another year, one which will see big developments in technology, what can you do to get some calm space in your brain? It is the space that helps us create. And it's this skill to do some decent thinking that will fast become the premium workplace skill. How could you use your existing technology in your life to buy back some time and space to switch off? 

And for today's children, how can we protect this thinking time- time to chat in a non-goal orientated way. For if all the conversations are scripted with an executed outcome, then we are not setting the foundations for what will help them thrive in tomorrow's jobs: the 1% of times when fully engaged creative thinking is needed.

P.S. The robots are coming... Let's use them wisely to create the space for us to think.

Laura Thomson-Staveley is founder and leadership coach at Phenomenal Training and co-host of Secrets from A Coach podcast. For more information visit: phenomenaltraining.com and secretsfromacoach.com