ChatGPT Will Improve Your Job Performance - Are You Ready to Use It?

Does it seem like over the last month everyone is suddenly talking about ChatGPT, the product from OpenAI that launched at the end of 2022? If you aren’t, or don’t even know what I’m referring to, you should do some quick research, or dare I say, “Google it.” ChatGPT is a conversational A.I. that has been trained with information from the depths of the internet and other knowledge sources to support questions, challenge premises, create content and governor itself in terms of how it responds to inappropriate content and requests. It can write stories, be a fake friend when you need advice, create emails, develop agendas and plans for specific topics. It really is magic.

During my team’s all-hands meeting last week, we talked about how A.I. will impact our jobs and we ran through content creation scenarios on ChatGPT. The reality is that A.I. will have a significant effect on content and analytics tasks in the workplace. The impact will be even bigger than what email did to corporate mail rooms. The message within our meeting was "you are holding yourself back if you aren't using A.I. to do your job." And I would say that to anyone in any role at any company. That’s not to say this is the end of original thought, but original thought takes time as do multiple iterations of said thought. This form of A.I. can advance the value that each one of us brings to work every day. Case-in-point: ChatGPT made the slides that I used for this topic in our team meeting. Were they perfect? No. Did they save me 15 mins to do something else? Ask my “unread” count in my inbox.

If you don’t want to be a Luddite but also don’t know where to start, just pick one thing you know takes time, e.g. that email you have to write to your team about a new travel policy, the five slides out of the twenty that give context to newbies in the room who are new to the topic, the member email for your mailing list explaining the website is going to be down tomorrow night for maintenance.

Next, open up ChatGPT. Now structure your thoughts as if you are teaching an intern how to do the job:

1.???Give context to the A.I.: who are you? who is your company? Is there historical information that is relevant for what you are trying to accomplish? If you have a public facing website for your business, the A.I. already knows what your company does, you just need to tell it who you are.

2.???Specifically state the task: “I need to tell xxx about yyy so they understand zzz”

3.???State the deliverable specifications: “this is for a company-wide email, this is a printed memo for a meeting, this is a handout/cheat sheet for our associates behind the counter, this should be no more than 200 words”

4.???Be clear about the tone and voice: Should it sound empathetic? Should it be direct so there is not confusion about what you are trying to communicate? If it should sound like your brand voice, tell it to use the voice in the copy on your “about us” page from your website, etc.

5.???Coach and Iterate: The first result isn’t always what you want, but you can keep coaching the A.I. to update, shorten, use a character count, change style of voice. For fun, I had it write an email to an email community welcoming the new members and then I asked it to revise it in the voice of J.R.R. Tolkien and the opening line changed from “Welcome to [community]” to “[community] welcomes you to Middle-earth” (don’t worry I didn’t send it). You can also ask for it to give you multiple versions to choose from.

6.???Don’t forget who the author is: Remember, this should only get you to a starting point that you, as a human, can iterate from. To my knowledge, OpenAI does not guarantee it won’t plagiarize and it can’t create the emotional connection in the same way someone sitting in the office can do with customers or fellow associates. So breathe some [human] life into the work.

Here’s an example of a one paragraph prompt I put into ChatGPT:

I work for a chain of lemonade stands. We value the legacy of our company, but we want to bring in a new wave of customers using new ingredients including CBD, herbs and spices and responsibly produced lemons. We also want to position ourselves for an older generation, this isn’t a neighborhood kid’s game anymore. I would like you to help me write a one page memo for a how we shift our focus from traditional lemonade to this new, modern lemonade business. Please include ideas of how we can use technology to further our mission. Also, please write in a professional, yet compassionate voice understanding that change could be hard.

Here was the output (in no more than 15 seconds):

To: All Employees of Lemonade Stand Inc.

From: [Your Name]

Subject: Rebranding and Expansion of Our Lemonade Business

Dear Team,

I am excited to share with you that we are embarking on a new journey to modernize and expand our lemonade business. As a company, we value our legacy and the memories we have created for our customers over the years. However, we also recognize that in order to stay relevant and continue to grow, we must adapt to the changing tastes and preferences of our customers.

To that end, we will be introducing new ingredients to our lemonade recipes, including CBD, herbs, and spices. We will also be sourcing our lemons from responsible producers to ensure that we are providing our customers with the highest-quality products. Additionally, we will be positioning ourselves as a lemonade option for an older generation, as we believe that our lemonade is not just for kids anymore.

To support this shift in focus, we will be utilizing technology to enhance our customer experience. Some of the ways we plan to do this include:

·?Implementing an online ordering system to make it easier for customers to place their orders and pay for them in advance.

·?Creating a mobile app that allows customers to track their order status and receive notifications when their lemonade is ready.

·?Utilizing social media to connect with our customers and promote our new products and deals.

We understand that change can be hard and that some of you may have concerns about this shift in focus. Please know that we are committed to working with each of you to make this transition as smooth as possible. We believe that these changes will not only benefit our customers but also our employees and our company as a whole.

Thank you for your dedication and support as we embark on this exciting new chapter in our company's history.

Sincerely, [Your Name]

In closing, keep learning and be curious. Don’t let A.I. scare you. If we could all get one hour back in our week, what is the extra task we’d have time for? What about five hours? What about ten? The ability to shift from a tactical approach to a strategic approach will only elevate the level of value we all contribute each day.

ChatGPT should not be leaned on to replace your job, it should be leaned on to do your time-consuming thinking and doing. And if we can get a bunch of code to do our thinking and doing, our brains just got a lot bigger and our days longer.

[Except for the ChatGPT example output, this article was entirely generated by a human being] #openai #chatgpt #ai #workplace #innovation