Accessing the Awesome Power of Communication in the AI Era

Power. Control. Empathy. Caring. Big Ideas. Transactional To Dos. Governance. Empowerment. Rewards. Consequences. Humor. Forgiveness. Gentleness. Aggression. Love. Conflict. Beauty. Joy. Appreciation. It’s all in there, always, in all ways — by accessing the awesome power of communication.

Second of the seven critical skillsets needed to thrive in the AI Era:

Accessing the power of communication is one of your most important future strong tools. Because it makes us human — something that AI will (hopefully) never get exactly right. We humans connect deeply with each other through communication.

We inspire. We celebrate. We are greater together through the power of communication.

We also hurt ourselves and others in how we communicate.

I’ve been researching the good and bad powers of communication for decades. My first book, Simplicity, celebrated communication’s amazing powers at work, and warned of the horrific downsides. Twenty-five years ago, my warnings were about overload and shortened attention spans. Since then, those harmful trends have gotten exponentially worse. (You’re likely multi-tasking right now! Spending your fractured attention in multiple directions. Aren’t you?!)

Now, additionally: With the rise of social media, AI-driven deep fakes, and more, we’ve experienced how quickly we can be turned against each other. Turned into warring factions, degrading those who are the ‘other’… not like us.

During the AI Era, we ALL have great power to do good and harm in how we communicate. So, as Spiderman’s uncle once said…

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

I will spend several issues of this newsletter on How We Communicate tips, tools, and skills. But if there’s only one thing you take away about how YOU communicate, please let it be this…

Every communication you create — every meme, post, email, text, meeting, PowerPoint, video, instruction, promotion… everything — uses a portion of someone else’s life.

We all get only 1440 minutes per day, with a finite number revolutions around the sun, and your communication asks someone to spend a portion of their life on what you have to say. With that great power (to capture and use someone’s time and attention), comes great responsibility.

Using people’s time and attention has become so easy and so voluminous, that we hardly think before hitting ‘Send.’ We just spew. Please adjust all your communications to recognize your responsibilities to the receiver.

Be You, Be Real, Be Vulnerable

For you to compete with algorithms and AI superintelligence in how you communicate, it’s also important that you get personal. Truly internalizing what makes you, you. And then bringing your uniqueness into your communications.

For you to effectively compete for people’s attention in the AI Era, it is crucial that you be uniquely you. Be real.

Your personality. Your passions. Your energies. Your way of being you — nerdy or creative, fun or serious, intellectual or driven by feelings, detail-oriented or focused on the big-picture, etc. — is an essential element of how you communicate.

Be you. Don’t ever be pressured into corporate-speak or communicating the way you’re ‘supposed to.’ Yes, incorporate some ‘Supposed Tos’ — as needed. But tap into the awesome power of communication by leveraging YOUR uniqueness.

With Every Communication, Live Your Values

Your trustworthiness and integrity are among the most important traits you will be judged on. Everyone will compare the difference between, or alignment of, what you say and what you do.

Please remember that it’s not just one communication on a particular topic on which you’re being judged. It’s your communication portfolio — all your texts, emails, presentations, instructions, posts, etc., combined.

So it’s important to figure out the values and traits that are important to you, that you want to be remembered for, and consistently thread that through every communication.

For example, let’s take the author, speaker, and change strategist, Bill Jensen. Here are three of the things that make me, me…

• Joyful Irreverence: I love bending rules. Being a provocateur. I take my work, my responsibilities, and the people I serve, very seriously — but never myself. I try to be joyfully irreverent in everything I do. Including writing conversationally... My personality is embedded in everything I create.
• Passionate Advocacy: While I am paid by people who run companies, I always advocate how to make changes from the perspective of Jane and Joe Workforce. Bottom-up empathy and advocacy. I try to live that value in everything I do.
• Life is Precious: Influencing every book, every presentation, every email, and every consulting gig I do, is the crucible moment that had a profound impact on me: The night my mom died 30 years ago. And how, due to a miscommunication between the ER and ICU, the hospital lost her for 40 minutes. That time with Mom was stolen from me and my family, and we’ll never get it back. (See above: Everything you do uses a portion of someone else’s life).

Next Steps

Over the next few issues, we’ll dive deep into How Tos on clear, concise, compelling communications and presentations. But first…

• What are the top three things that make you, you… That you will now incorporate into ALL your communications?

To Continue the Journey

So I can share with you the insights of this newsletter’s community: Please complete this three-question (anonymous) future of work skills assessment survey. Real fast and easy, but it will help us in sharing the best future-content with you. Thank you!

Bill Jensen is a seasoned strategy and transformation executive, advisor to C-suite execs, globally-known keynote speaker, and author of nine best-selling leadership and change books, including Simplicity, Disrupt, Future Strong, and The Day Tomorrow Said No. Reach him at [email protected].