Post 4 - Diversity, Empathy and Respect
One of the most interesting things about working in the AI space is what the practice of producing machine generated intelligence can tell us about being exceptionally intelligent as humans.
In the world of AI, bias is your enemy. We go to enormous pains (especially in areas like finance, sales, and sports where there are only winners and losers) to eliminate any input that would somehow taint an algorithm's ability to drive the most optimal outcomes.
That means that missing perspectives are often as detrimental as ones infused by bias. In my two plus decades in technology, companies need to approach recruitment with the same rigor that we should be approaching AI.
I can say with conviction (backed by hard core data) that a diverse team of people who listen to and learn from one another will always outperform one over indexed on sameness. A team that sees the world from a variety of perspectives and can share experience will always achieve greater things because the collective intelligence they generate is simply superior.
Our industry (and our world for that matter) still has a long way to go. As leaders it is not just our responsibility but a core management skill to understand when the best your organization can achieve is being limited by too few perspectives. It’s not simply a matter of setting a goal, it’s a constant awareness that vehement agreement may actually be a risk to winning.
Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” Creating a culture that allows for discord and debate, seeks to understand even if we ultimately disagree and provides a seat at the table for people with truly different life experiences is a constant effort.
Respect and empathy are the glue. Respect is what drives us to understand a point of view different from our own. Empathy is what allows us to see the world through someone else’s eyes. We can agree and disagree as long as we all want the best for each other. In a company, our shared goal of solving problems isn’t about getting your way, but finding the best solution.
In every company, diversity, empathy and respect are important in building world class teams but with AI the stakes are higher. Whether it’s finance, sports or sales, artificial intelligence is only as good as the data that produced it. And perhaps it will be the benchmark of what machines can do looking at the world from every angle that will accelerate the realization that human intelligence is only as good as the sum of its parts.
