We have all heard about how AI can make our life easier, but where do you start? The solution: Split your tasks into two groups – one which can give you quick wins and instant productivity gains, and the other that takes more effort and investment but will be better in the long term.
In the last 6 weeks, I’ve been facilitating small groups of leaders around Australia, talking about how they can start leveraging AI in their teams.
One of the most common questions I get is: How do we start using AI in a way that gets value quickly? In other words: How do we get quick wins?
The answer varies for each team and even each person, but one useful way to start is to ask:
What are you being paid to do?
What is your core job, your core role, your core responsibility?
Then classify everything you do into two areas: tasks related to this core role and other tasks you need to do. AI can help you in both areas. You might think you will get the quick wins from applying it to the core tasks, but it’s the other way around.
For example, let’s say you’re a school principal, and you want to help your teaching staff use AI.
For a teacher, their core role is looking after the learning journey and education of every student in your classroom. Can AI help with that? Yes! There are AI tools to monitor student progress, test their competence and understanding, and advise that teacher on how to tailor lessons for each student.
But that’s not easy to do. It takes time to invest in the technology; consider safety, confidentiality, and privacy; and to integrate AI into the school environment. It’s not a quick win.
On the other hand, you can find quick wins from the other things a teacher has to do: replying to email from parents, attending staff meetings, delivering presentations, and writing reports. These tasks take time away from their core tasks. AI tools can help make these secondary processes more efficient, which means more time for the core tasks.
This applies to every role.
Look at your core role, then all the other things you have to do. The quick wins come from making all those other things more efficient using tools like ChatGPT. They won’t do the work for you, but they will do the heavy lifting.
Of course, you can also consider how AI can improve your core tasks. But treat that as more of a medium-term or long-term process.
If you’d like to know more about this, I’ll soon be running a free public presentation online about AI for leaders. It’s open to everyone, so invite others from your team and network. I’m sure you’ll get value from it.
REGISTER FOR THE VIRTUAL MASTERCLASS
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