I used to think I had a communication problem. AI helped me realize I was just built different.
Picture this: I have an insight. The so what for me is, how can this insight be leveraged? So I do some lateral thinking and voilà - an action appears. The next time I get to share with a large group, I start with the insight (4), explain my thinking (5) and serve the so what (6) on a silver platter.
See the problem yet? I'm sure about 80-90% of you do.
(for the remaining 10-20% - you my people 👊)
The reality is that most people actually want something like:
- Set the context
- Define the problem
- Explain why it matters
- Express the insight
The room wants 1 to 4.
My brain runs 4 to 6.
I still remember the first time I became aware of this affliction. I was in a large conference room full of studio execs (old dudes in grey suits). I don't remember the exact details but I vividly recall walking up to a whiteboard to explain the outputs of a regression model and its implications.
Which was followed by roughly 2 to 3 seconds of thick, stifling silence.
Chat, am I muted?
I used to chalk it up to poor communication on my part (social signals just don't land in my head very well). So even though I've repeatedly silenced rooms, I never learned from it. If anything, I've leaned further into what I thought was my strength: speed to action.
Bouncing across execution nodes, drafting conclusions, ungating decisions, dragging outcomes across the finish line at a pace that often rankled my teams. "Jung, stop trying to solve other teams' problems - let them figure it out!"
Navigating in and around that friction, rubbing up against the edges of how decisions actually get made and understanding how data gets consumed by humans who have to relentlessly roll that boulder up a hill, forever, has led me to this question:
How can I deploy 4 to 6 on the 1 to 4 problem?
Obviously, the answer's AI, amirite?!