21 Irrefutable Laws of Success

Posted on June 3, 2025 by Doug Bergman

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

Here is a collection of Linked-In post summarizing each chapter of John Maxwell’s classic book. The list starts at 21 and works backwards to the first one.

21 Law of Legacy. What will people say about you at your funeral? What happens after you are gone?  What will your legacy be? Ouch! Tough questions to ask and to think about.  Leadership is not measured by success, it is measured by succession. Legacy is not about leaving something to someone, it’s about leaving something in someone. Woah. Go back and re-read that one.Maxwell leaves us with advice for how to approach legacy 1) know the legacy you want to leave.  Consider your life as a blank book, and you fill out the pages hour by hour day by day. What will be in those pages, 2) Live the legacy you want to leave. You must becomes what you desire to give and see in others, 3) choose who will carry on the legacy. Legacy comes when you put the leaders you helped develop in positions to do great things. 4) Pass the baton. Find your moment. In a relay race, the most important section is the baton exchange zone. Be intentional.

20 Law of Explosive Growth.
This law may not be for everybody. If you’ve followed all the laws till now, you may have led a very successful organization and are a respected leader by your followers.  And you have probably grown the organization. Maxwell says “to add growth, add followers. To add explosive growth, add leaders”. Who among your followers are leaders that you are developing? Those leader-followers will have an impact on the people they influence, and so on.
Developing leaders is different than developing followers.Leaders who attract followers –  need to be needed.Leaders who lead Leaders – want to be succeeded
Leaders who attract followers – develop the bottom 20%Leaders who lead Leaders – develop the top 20%
Leaders who attract followers – focus on weakness. Leaders who lead Leaders – focus on strengths
Leaders who attract followers – treat everyone the same. Leaders who lead Leaders – treat individuals differently 
Leaders who attract followers – spend time with others. Leaders who lead Leaders – invest time in others
Leaders who attract followers – grow by addition. Leaders who lead Leaders – grow by multiplication 
Leaders who attract followers – impact only people they touch. Leaders who lead Leaders – impact people beyond their reach

19 Law of Timing.When to lead is important as what to do, how to do it, and where to go. Maxwell identifies 4 typical outcomes for timing: 1) the wrong action at the wrong time (no explanation needed). Good luck with that, 2) The right action at the wrong time, Your followers will not be able to distinguish whether it was a good or bad decision, 3) the wrong action at the right time ( Leaders have an intuition about needing to act, especially entrepreneurs seem to jump in at exactly the right time. But mistakes can happen if they had incomplete information or misread the situation, and 4) the right action at the right time. This is when incredible happens.
So really there is only one winning option here. Not acting, acting incorrectly, and acting at the wrong time can all have disastrous results. Regardless of the who, what, where, and why. When, timing, is vital to a leaders capabilities.

18 Law of Sacrifice. There is a price to pay. What are you willing to give up to get what you want?  Maxwell says the heart of good leadership is sacrifice, not personal gain. He offers some observations about real sacrifice, 1) there is no success without sacrifice, 2) leaders have to give up more than followers; this is called the cost of leadership, 3) It’s not a one time sacrifice, but ongoing,  and 4) the higher the level of leadership, the higher the price to pay. In many cases, leaders stand on the shoulders of others, who have made sacrifices for the benefit of others down the road.  Same goes for the leader. Think about MLK, his leadership set the stage for an entire movement that has lasted decades. 

17 Law of Priorities.Business does not equate to productivity, nor does activity equate to accomplishment. Maxwell talks about a principle he calls Pareto Principles, where you focus your attention on the top 20% (based on importance) of your todo list and activities, and you can expect 80% return. We’ve heard of this before, and it is an effective business philosophy. He also suggests asking 3 questions to help determine your priorities: 1) What is required of me( What must I do that no one else can (or should), 2) Which item gives the greatest return (the leader should spend most of his/her time working in areas of strength. Get out of your comfort zone, but stay in your strength zone), and 3) which items bring the greatest reward(life is too short not to do things you love.)

16 Law of the Big Mo (Momentum) Sometimes motivation is the only difference between winning and losing. Maxwell makes some key points about momentum, 1) Momentum is the “great exaggerator”, everything seems bigger when there is momentum, small wins seem like huge victories, but also small setbacks seems like terrible events. But we’ve all seen it when there is a momentum shift that literally changes the entire game. 2) Momentum can also make leaders seem better than they are. When momentum is happening, the leader can do no wrong, followers let them off the hook for mistakes and give huge kudos for easy wins. It can exaggerate the success. 3) It can also actually help followers perform better than they are. The perfect example is the 1980 US hockey team, you may have seen Miracle on Ice.  The team was good, but no where near good enough to win a medal, yet in game after game there was momentum that enabled them to play beyond expectations,  that carried them to defeat Russia for the gold medal. Under normal circumstances, there is no way.Similarly, in an organization, momentum can literally make the impossible….possible. But, it takes a leader to create and build momentum, then followers catch on.

15 Law of Victory. Leaders find a way for the Team to win; they have an unwillingness to accept defeat. Maxwell identifies 3 common components of victory, 1) unity of vision – the team has to all believe in a common vision with the same agenda. 2) Diversity of skills – you need a team with a variety of skills to be able to tackle challenges that come up, and 3) the leader is dedicated to raising team members to their potential – You hear coaches say, “You can’t win without good athletes, but you can lose with them. This is where coaching comes in.” Leaders provide empowerment and direction, and then figure out what must be done to achieve victory.

14 Law of Buy-In. People buy into the leader, then the vision. Maxwell identifies a process followers tend to use when they consider who they follow. 1) First, they buy into the character of the leaders, 2) You gotta be able to do what you say. followers buy into your competence to take them where they want to go, and then last 3) the buy into the commitment. They want to see it clearly in their leader. Maxwell points out one critical point. Buy in is temporary. You will need to re-earn buy-in throughout your leadership. To put it bluntly, the only way to keep your followers is to earn their buy in for you and your vision.

13 Law of the Picture. People do what people see. You set the tone for your followers. If you work hard, they will work hard. If you model growth and humility, so will they. They will emulate your positive attitude and abundance mindset. If you are ethical and thorough, they will understand that honesty and integrity are standards for excellence.Taking that to the next level, this is true in good times and bad.  The greatest impact a leader makes is leading in times of uncertainty. Maxwell says it is during these times, followers need a clear picture. The greatest leaders tend to be visionary, but practical–meaning they see what’s coming , but also what must be done. Followers are looking to see the leader live the vision.

12 Law of Empowerment. Empowering others makes you larger. Not every leader has the courage to be willing to empower others. What if you empower someone so well that they are more successful than you? First let’s look at how you empower someone. You have to be able to accomplish something. Your power to be productive is what you will give away. Next, share what you do and how you do that with someone. This is the beginning of empowerment. You pass along your secrets. Now, gently push the bird out of the nest and empower them to go try it on their own, with your help as needed.  And finally, off they go on their own. Ideally they do it better than you! Hopefully now they will pay it forward again. But, in reality it’s not that easy, there are surprisingly big barriers why leaders fail to empower others. One is that leaders are scared to lose their own power. Being a great leader and in charge of something — there is security in that.  The other barrier is almost the exact opposite — they may not be self-confident enough to give part of themself away.Maxwell says, “Strange as it may seem, great leaders gain authority by giving it away.”

11 Law of the Inner Circle. Those close to you determine your level of success. Few single leaders can do it all , obviously no one can possibly be great at all 21 Laws from this book…BUT…with an inner-circle-team, together you can do great things. While most people have an inner circle, few people are strategic about who is there; sometimes those teams just happen by convenience. You need to be intentional about building relationships that could become your inner circle.Maxwell identify 3 things to think about as you build your inner circle: 1) who they are (ie. their character and values align with yours, 2) What they do (if you are a high achiever, you are going to want the same in your inner circle. Skilled people in ways that enhance the team, and 3) How they lesson the load of the leader (remember the Law of Addition about adding value to those around you? Well that applies to them as well. They should add value to YOU.And while your inner circle is vital for your success as a leader, Maxwell says you also need an out circle. This group challenges you differently — they help you push boundaries and expand your horizon.

10 Law of Connection. People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Leaders must touch a person’s heart before they ask for a hand. Emotion before action. It may seem mushy touchy feely, but it is the human side of leadership that is in play here.  Maxwell identifies 3 key ideas for connecting with your followers: 1) they need to know you believe in them, 2) they need to see you as an example (practice what you preach), and 3) they need to feel you value them (sounds a lot like what we talked about in a previous post about Law of Addition, right?) Some “pro tips”: learn to walk slowly through the crowd, enjoy being among your followers. Before talking shop, make a connection. Some people think small talk in a professional setting is fruitless, but in fact it’s vital.

9 Law of Magnetism. The people you attract is less determined by what you want and what you are looking for, but rather who you are. In fact, in many cases, those people will usually possess the same qualities that you do. It does force you to think about your strengths and weaknesses. Leadership is also about attracting people who compliment your style, not battle against it. This law ends up being kinda like a magnifying glass into your own character; you have to be careful that all the people on your team have similar blind spots and tendencies. Take some time to think about the qualities you look for in your team and followers. Does that list mimic your own attributes or does it fill in the gaps? 

8 The Law of Intuition. Leadership, in some ways, can be as much art as it is science. The principles of leadership are constant, but where and how they are applied varies in each situation. Maxwell shares that of all the laws, this is the hardest to teach. In any situation, crisis, or opportunity, leaders look at everything differently and they ask different questions.  Mostly that comes from the leader always seeing the bigger picture. There are 4 questions that a leader works through when “reading” a situation. 1) What do I feel (gut instinct), 2) What do I know(what evidence or artifacts do I have), 3) What do I think(can I start to put things together), and 4) What should I do(is there a plan of action I can follow through with) 

7 Law of Respect.People follow individuals whose leadership they respect. The more leadership a person has, the more quickly he recognizes leadership skills in others. Maxwell identifies several ways leaders tend to gain respect from followers. 1) natural leadership ability(some people just have it, 2) respect for others (they see more than, and before, others), 3) difficulting overcome (thrived through adversity, 4) courage (people follow courage, not titles, 5)success (people respect accomplishments of others), 6) loyalty (in a world where loyalty is seldom seen, it is an asset) , and 7) Value Add to others (you might recognize this from my previous post about the Law of Addition).How do you become a better leader? Rank yourself in each of these areas and focus on improving in each area. The time you spend will pay off. 

6 Law of Solid Ground. Character and good values make trust possible. Trust is the most important element of leadership. No exceptions. It is what makes leadership possible. Broken trust undermines influence and organizations fall apart. We see it all the time in the corporate world as well as politics. Maxwell recommends focusing on improving 3 core values to improve character. Integrity: be honest even when it’s hard, authenticity:  be your same self with everyone, discipline: do the right thing every day every time, just because it’s the right thing to do. 

5 Law of Addition. Leaders add value by serving others.  The bottom line in leadership isn’t how far you advance, but how far you advance others, but adding value to their lives. Ask yourself: “Are you making things better for the people who follow you?” If yes, then that is a sign of a true leader, if not then you may actually be a subtractor. Ouch. One CEO, Jim Sinegal of Costco, said it was simple: pay good wager and treat employees with respect. Costco has long since been recognized for being one of the top companies to work for. This law works because by adding your value, the recipients take that and multiply it. Maxell says the math does not add up, you actually get back more than you give.

4 Law of Navigation. This may be the simplest, but also the one law many leaders struggle with.Anyone can steer the ship, it takes a leader charts a course.  Planning. Anticipation. Preparation. And both before and during, don’t let emotion get the best of you. Maxwell’s research indicated that what separates leaders  is their ability to see both MORE and BEFORE others, and that comes from the fact that they are seeing the bigger picture. Followers expect that from their leaders. Generally speaking, leaders follow some common steps to ensure solid navigation: 1) Emotion do not cloud judgement, 2) Use past experience(learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them 3) Examine conditions before committing(use past experience, but also look ahead), 4) listed to others (As Steve Jobs said, “You don’t hire good people and tell them what to do, let them tell you what to do”) , and 5) balance fact and faith (have faith but be realistic about challenges and obstacles).

3 The Law of Process. What separates great leaders from good leaders is they invest in those who follow them, providing continual opportunities for growth. Maxwell’s point in this lesson is that leadership is not a sudden overnight success. Instead, it’s like investing in the stock market.  What small ‘process’ improvements do you do day in/day out both for yourself and your followers: Small daily changes to get better in your priorities, passions, abilities, relationships, attitudes, discipline, vision. How many of these are in your daily agenda items?You may not notice huge leaps of growth because they are happening gradually. It’s a game of inches, not miles.

2 Laws of Influence. Leadership is not about title, power, knowledge, money, popularity. It’s quite simple: “leadership is influence – nothing more and nothing less”. And management of people or an organization is not leadership.  Managers can maintain direction, but cannot change it. Entrepreneurs are skilled at seeing opportunity and going after it, but that does not mean they are good with people. Walk into any university where there are hundreds of PhD experts in a variety of fields, but that knowledge does not necessarily have any relationship to whether they can lead. Being the first or a trendsetter does not equate to being a leader. Those that are first have to also have people intentionally behind them, following, acting on the vision. Have you ever had, or known of a person in authority that people did not respect? Title and position do not equate with leadership.As you move along your own leadership journey, keep in mind an amazing resume does not make a leader

1 Law of the Lid. “How well you lead determines how well you succeed” It’s leadership, not success, that determines how high the lid is on your potential. It is possible to have success, but be ineffective at leadership. Your ideas, implementation strategies, and determination can take you to a certain point, but ultimately it is the way you interact with others on your team that determines how far you can go. McDonald’s hamburgers is a classic story of this. The McDonald brothers succeeded obviously, but were limited in how far they could take their success; It was their investment in a visionary leader that helped McDonald’s become the $6B+ company we know today. (thanks Ray Kroc) We can all succeed in some way, but there is a lid. If you wanna climb higher, go further, have more impact, …you will need to be a good leader as well.  

Looking for other interesting leadership books. How about “Turn This Ship Around”

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Why the AI double standard?

Posted on April 6, 2025 by Doug Bergman

Self-driving cars:

Autonomous cars do have accidents, but significantly less than humans.

Over 1 million people die in road traffic accidents each year in the world,  20 to 50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries.
According to this report , Since 2019, there have been almost 4000 autonomous vehicle accidents. with 10% of those resulting in injury, and 2% have resulted in a fatality. Far better than humans, in fact not even in the same ballpark. It’s safe to say (hee hee) that humans are bad drivers.Yet, with self driving cars, we are unbelievably critical. One Tesla or Waymo accident occurs  and we are up in arms, screaming and yelling. I recall someone actually dying in a self-driving car accident and we went ballistic. 

Humans cause millions of car accidents

Humans drive impaired and distracted, self-driving cars do not. Approving self driving cars is a political rabbit hole, with some states in the US not even allowing them. Self-driving cars can optimize their driving route for mileage, safety, construction, whatever. Humans go by instinct, habit, and what we see. Humans have only 5 senses, some of which are not even relevant to driving. Good smell does not help me get to the supermarket. Self-driving cars have many more sensors than humans. I imagine the overall driving record for self-driving is tremendously better than that of humans. Why the double standard?

AI:

AI might be biased, but so are humans

We talk about bias in data training and results. Yet, humans are incredibly biased, emotional, vindictive, jealous,and naive. We talk about incomplete training data, yet do humans ever make decisions without all pertinent knowledge? All the time. In fact, humans even choose to ignore some data in decisions-making. AI can’t do that. We talk about AI needing to be told what to do through prompting, and the wording of those prompts is vital. Don’t humans require the same direction? We talk about privacy in data, yet humans are guilty of violating trust frequently.  We talk about AI not being inclusive and accessible, but yet we have many human-created systems which are not. We talk about AI getting wrong answers. Humans get it wrong a lot. We talk about AI systems hallucinating. Humans daydream and get distracted all the time.

In some ways, I’ll even suggest AI is really not that different than humans after all.

Why are we more critical of technology and less tolerant of technology than of ourselves?

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Do you need a human? Or AI?

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Doug Bergman

Would you be OK interacting with an AI doctor, as compared with a human doctor?

How do you know when you should use a human, instead of AI?

What is human intelligence?

First, you need to know how AI LLMs work. They are intelligent in language. They are experts on how humans have written sentences and spoken works and presented information. They don’t “know” this or that, nor have they experienced anything at all, but they have “read” (been trained on) most books, most research, most news articles, and most TED talk scripts. The AI might be able tell you what it smells like in the Sisteen Chapple (as Robin Williams notes about Will in Good Will Hunting), but only if someone wrote about that in the data it was trained on. It does not really “know” what it smells like.

Somewhere here is a debate about what human intelligence is. Is it the person on Jeopardy who can answer any question? Is it the adrenaline junky with 1000 base jumps? Is it the woman with a PhD in aerospace? Is it the child who has not yet experienced the world? Is it the old man reflecting back on his lifetime? Is it the world traveler? Is it the teacher who inspires students? Is it the mom who raised her 3 kids?

In order to give you what you need, the question really is: 

  • Do you need/prefer a person who has been through a specific set of actual physical experiences? Maybe that is a conversation, a specific adventure, a medical internship at the Mayo Clinic, read a specific research paper, wrote a specific book of poetry, or led an entire life full of emotion. If so, then a human being is who you should interact with to get your answer.

  • Is actual physical experience not necessary, but in its place a command of the terminology and language used in a specific topic area? You don’t necessarily need an expert, but you need an answer, and don’t really care how the answer is obtained? Then an AI system that is trained on that data might be a good choice.

If you are like me, as with most things in human life, it will rarely be an either/or scenario, but more so a both/and. Or possibly neither/nor. And instead I should go have the experience, read the report, or get the information yourself.

ChatGPT gave me this, “…sometimes, even the most advanced algorithms can’t replace the magic of a real brain—especially when it comes to empathy, intuition, and that quirky thing called common sense!”

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The good ol’ days of AI Natives

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Doug Bergman

Digital natives have only known a world with cool technologies.

We call the most recent generation ‘digital natives’ because they have never known anything other than smartphones, smart watches, smart devices, and the internet. They have nothing to compare it to. They don’t shy away from technology and they are not freaked out about data privacy because they have never known anything other than a world of big data and social media.  They are not stuck looking back to the way things were, with antiquated laws and regulations for data and privacy. Their leaders ‘get’ technology and are comfortable pushing the envelope on using technology in creative ways. They are used to innovations rolling out in just months.

The generation that knows the world before, during, and after the digital age

I kinda like being right just before that generation because we got to experience the world pre-PC, pre-smartphone, and pre-internet. We got to see innovation happening all around us. So as we glided into our digital age, we always viewed technology through the lens of not-having-it-first.  We could appreciate the innovations, maybe even moreso than the digital natives because we could compare before, during, and after. The laws and regulations we are used to are based on a pre-digital world, which means we are playing catch up most of the time. Our leaders are oftentimes ill-equipped to lead in the technology age because they don’t understand the capabilities and potential of technology. We see innovation, but that sometimes took years to roll out.

AI Natives

This next generation will be AI natives who have never known anything other than ChatGPT. They won’t be stuck looking back to the way things were, with antiquated laws and regulations for AI, data, and privacy. They are comfortable with technology and rapid innovations. The leaders will be able to manage laws and regulations designed for this rapid-paced world. This generation will be used to new innovations rolling out in weeks and even days.

The meaning of the good ‘ol days is dramatically different for each generation. Every generation has to manage its own technology, laws and regulations, capability for leaders to relate to the people and culture in order to guide wisely, and rate of acceptance of innovation.

https://dispatchesfromthefront.net/blog/2019/7/7/the-good-old-days

Understanding and being in command of the technology that is in front of your face will always be one of the smartest ways to survive and thrive.

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The Cost of Learning

Posted on January 21, 2025 by Doug Bergman

The cost of learning is minimal, but the cost of NOT learning is HUGE. Business leaders, are you measuring the costs only in money?

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Do we still need Computer Science in an AI world?

Posted on January 10, 2025 by Doug Bergman

Absolutely.

The programs and applications that we use to access AI are written in code.
The algorithms that are used to train models for machine learning are written in code.
The data that are collected, and the data wrangling that happens before that data is used in training is all done using computer programs.

Humans wrote that code.

We are very much in the infancy of AI. Many people do not even really know what it is, and in some cases, even engineers don’t know exactly how it works.

If we want to improve the way AI learns through machine learning, then we need to continue to improve our current algorithms and develop new ones. If we want to increase the accuracy, reduce the bias, and eliminate hallucinations, then we have to continue to make new tools and improve existing tools for managing AI. If we want to improve and expand the ways in which we use AI, then Computer Science, code, and programming will be how we do that.

https://si.wsj.net/public/resources/images/B3-FE217_WEBROB_1000RV_20191009173148.jpg

AI stands on the shoulders of Computer Science. Because we are still very much in the infancy of AI, it is even more vital that our younger generations are highly trained in the ways of Computer Science.

AI is just one type of modern application. There are unlimited types of programs that are programmed in code. AI is not the end-all of technology.

Think about how many other amazing breakthroughs and technologies we have seen over the years…. like the Internet, the automobile, TV, GPS, cell phones, airplanes, microwaves, printing press, and so on. And hasn’t every one of those technologies improved, gotten better, faster, safer, more efficient? We figured out how each one fits into society.

AI fits right into that list. It’s not over, in fact we are just beginning.

So, yes we still need Computer Science, code, programmers. We need people who understand what we have, at the technical level, so we can innovate, improve, build upon, iterate on, and make AI better, faster, safer, and more efficient.

Oh yeah, and we also have to figure out how AI fits into our society.

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The place of AI in 2024

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Doug Bergman

Technologies that continue to change the world

The automobile The airplane The phone The internet The smart phone

And…..artificial intelligence

Every technology breakthrough from the last 100 years has transformed society. Some overnight, and some over decades.

Every one of these has incredible potential for doing amazing things and improving the lives of humans. But, yes we are human, which means there are some humans who are motivated by using these technologies in controversial, illegal, immoral, and even evil ways.

Sticking our head in the sand is not the way to approach new technology.

Is our head in the sand?

As you look at the list of technologies above, you see the technology getting more sophisticated and more powerful. And we find the technologies becoming accessible by the general public faster. That’s where our fear is partly stemming from.

We barely understand what we have, yet we are using it.

It’s like a 10 year old behind the wheel of a car. An incredibly powerful tool, with the potential to do great things, but in control of someone who has no sense of the tool, its power, its capabilities, its purpose, its potential for good, and yes its potential for harm.

Yes, while accidents are less common, car accidents still happen, cars also allow us to interact with humans outside of our homes. Yes, there are rare accidents, but airplanes have allowed cultures across the world to meet each other. Yes, there are scams, but phones allow us to communicate with people who live in a different city. While there is access to incredible knowledge on the internet, part of that knowledge is related to terrible and evil domains. While hacking is a threat, the smart phone gives the average person access to the world at their fingertips.

Even now, humans continue to figure out all of these technologies, decide societal-appropriate rules and regulations, improve how they work, and reduce the potential for bad.

In many cases, time is what is needed just to explore and experiment. This is where we are now. Literally, every week, we see a new use for AI and a new tool created using AI.
But, AI is also a different type of technology than all the others. The other technologies are physical entities, whereas AI is something that is inside of other technologies. While it can be used by many, there is a very small percent of people that have the capability to use it to create something new. We are putting a lot of faith into a very small number of people and companies. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is something we need to be aware of.

The key to figuring out the place for AI in our society is for the people to understand what it is , how it works, why it works, and where it can have an impact.

AI must be part of student learning

The ideas, terminology, and technology behind this powerful technology called AI must be a regular part of human knowledge and understanding.
AI is a part of every industry on the planet. AI must also be part of every subject area in our schools. It must be a part of every major in college.

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Story

Posted on March 31, 2024 by Doug Bergman

The human brain craves story. 

Creator: Easy-Peasy.AI Credit: Easy-Peasy.AI AI Image Generator
Copyright: Easy-Peasy.AI – AI Image Generator

Books, libraries, movies, poems, literature, myths, legends, even stories in science astrology signs, zodiac patterns, songs, novels, short stories, magazines, even religion. How many us can describe the scene in Titanic where Jack spread his arms like a bird on the front of the ship. Religious people can retell hundreds of stories from their core readings. We are happy to curl up on the couch, or lounge on the beach, and dive into a long novel. Astronomers remember hundreds and even thousands of stars through constellations, which are visual stories based on tiny white dots in the sky.

Our brain seems wired to remember things when it is attached to story. How? We remember the story, then the facts of the story are simply the details that support the story. Think about it. can you remember song lyrics of songs you have not heard in decades? While you may not remember all the facts, can you remember the storyline of most of the movies you have ever seen?

People even create stories in order to remember. Have you ever tried it? Write down a list of 15 items in the room you are in. Wait 15 minutes, then try to remember as many as you can. Now write down another 15 items. But this time, create a story around those objects. Wait 15 minutes, then retell that story and see how many items you recall.

Emotions are great story telling devices. Creator: Easy-Peasy.AI Credit: Easy-Peasy.AI – AI Image Generator
Copyright: Easy-Peasy.AI – AI Image Generator

And it does not stop there, humans also respond to emotion in that story. That can be happy, sad, angry, or scared.  If I asked you about an experience you had in your life with each of those emotions, no doubt you could recall the situation with incredible accuracy. Ask an older person where they were when JFK or MLK were shot. Some of you may even remember when the Twin Towers crumbled down. 

We talk about people getting lost in a book, where they are reading the pages, but their imagination takes them to a highly visual interpretation of that story. Or have you been in a movie where you were so immersed, it was as if you felt like you were part of the story itself. There are even stories where getting lost in a story IS the story; think about Never Ending Story with the boy riding on the back of a flying dog. 

Story telling is how generations passed down information.

And it makes sense why this developed; think about it, as humankind evolved there were things we needed to remember, to know, to pass down….and there was a time where writing was not a part of our capabilities, so stories were all we had. The verbal stories were our libraries and our Google.

What does this tell us? How does this apply to learning and education? If we know that story helps the mind remember deeper and better, then it makes sense to build a story around the lesson topics. 

Learning is about new vocabulary and terminology, new processes, foreign ideas,  new skills. A list of 3 of these. 4 categories of those. 5 steps to do this. The 6 reasons an event happened. That is one way of presenting and learning information. But, all this random information does (can) actually tell a story.  Depending on our target audience, when we create learning, we can build that story into the learning. An engaging instructor can weave story throughout the content.

What does that look like for modern learning creators?
Start out with a character of a story that has a problem to solve. As the lesson evolves, keep revisiting that story with the character getting the skills s/he needs in order to address the problem. And don’t stop there, add real emotion by incorporating real situations, real problems, real interactions, real places and events. Yes, I mean add happiness, sadness, shock, fear, and surprise. Let your learners ‘feel’ the learning by relating to it through a story. Let the important concepts, ideas, topics, steps, and skills be important elements of the story, in fact so important that they are vital to understanding the complete story.

Stories at Clemson University

I remember I had a college professor who had spent decades in business. He sat on the corner of the desk on the 3rd floor of Daniel bldg and told stories from his experiences in businesses.  We were not taking notes, not referencing the textbook, he was not drawing diagrams on the white board. He told stories, and then at the end of class, he would say, “Ok, we just got through chapter 3. Read the chapter tonight and the stories I told you will help you understand the topics.”

Did you have a teacher who told stories? 

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The Coming Wave

Posted on January 22, 2024 by Doug Bergman

As promised, here is a summary and reflection on the ideas in (co-founder of DeepMind, co-founder of Inflection AI) Mustafa Suleyman’s new book, The Coming Wave.

What the author does well in the book is show where and how AI is currently being used throughout the world. We all assume AI is being used in creative and innovative ways, and Mustafa uses tons of examples to demonstrate that. But, where he truly distinguishes himself is, because of his own background, he can share with us with insider knowledge, accuracy and confidence not only where we have been and where we are, but where this can(and most likely will) go…hence “the coming wave.”

His main point throughout the book is we have to find ways to contain AI. Not block it, but responsibly and proactively find ways so that we are controlling the technology and not the other way around, or worse….AI controlling itself. The majority of people do not have any idea what AI is, much less how it works. This makes containment that much harder – but also that much more important. We cannot just hand over the reigns of our society to a computer robot, and cross our fingers.

The book lays out the groundwork for how society, over the years, has made efforts to guide, control, regulate, and contain other technologies. So, this idea of containment is not something that is a new, but AI is different because AI learns and gets better at a rate far beyond anything we have seen before. Some technologies take years, even decades, to develop and progress,so we can develop reasonable safeguards and sensibly incorporate the technology into society. Literally every week, we see improvements and breakthroughs in AI.

These technologies are not perfect, and our safeguards and containment attempts are not perfect.

Think about automobiles and airlines. Each has safeguards, regulations, and controls to (somewhat) contain them. Even so, containment is not perfect, we still have issues, right? These technologies are not perfect, and our safeguards and containment attempts are not perfect.

Mustafa makes a great point that AI is different than technologies such as automobiles. An automobile is a single industry, while AI is more like electricity, in that it powers most other industries; so as AI improves and changes, it affects all areas of society, not just a single industry. That makes it even more important that we figure out how to contain AI.

What is being done now to address issues around AI? Unfortunately, society as a whole is not moving fast enough when it comes to AI. Blocking it, ignoring it, and not using it does not limit it’s progression. Regardless of how each country is handling their approach to AI, rest assured that there are other countries, people, groups, and organizations – both good and bad, who are pushing AI to the limits.

Trying to contain a technology that is changing so rapidly is hard.

But, trying to contain a technology that is changing so rapidly is hard. As he points out, predicting at the forefront of discovery is hard, but that is where we are now with AI. It’s a leading edge, bleeding edge technology. What guardrails are already setup and what do we need? Are those once-helpful guardrails still helpful or are they already outdated? Are we noticing the right things? For example, neural networks were not taken seriously for a long time, so we paid them no attention. Suddenly, a breakthrough happens, and they are huge. Even CRISP gene editing was not created to do what we actually use it for now, it was designed for something completely different. GPUs made by Nvidia were created for gaming realism, yet now are central to AI. So, even knowing what to try to contain is hard.

Is there any country which has fully embraced AI? China fully embraces AI and has declared their aspirations to be the clear leader in the world by 2030. And because of their style of government, with the control, finances and intelligence, China can very likely make that happen.

China has declared their aspirations to be the clear leader in the world by 2030.

Where is the United States in this? We barely have legislation, the people in leadership roles in government barely understand how a cell phone works, much less AI. I don’t know what’s worse, those same people making laws dealing with AI, or NOT making laws. The US government still has tape machines doing backups , while China has a quantum satellite. We are so occupied with middle school-level politics, juicy scandals, and the number of likes, that we are not noticing the coming wave. Meanwhile, China is polishing its surfboard.

What can we do right now? For starters, we must have AI literacy for people of all ages. We need to listen to people who understand AI, and ask them to help us figure out what questions we should be asking. Murphy’s Law tells us anything that can happen will happen (got that from Mathew Mcconaughey in Interstellar) that means both the good and bad. This AI wave is coming.

Now there are worldwide efforts to contain nuclear weapons.

What does runaway technology look like when it’s not regulated, no safeguards, or containment? In the 1940s, when we tested the nuclear bomb, we had no idea what to expect. One of the possibilities was a small back hole formed and sucked our world into it. Yet, we still pushed the button!!?? And only after tens of thousands of people were killed after two bombs were dropped, did the world say, “this is not ok.” Now there are worldwide efforts to contain nuclear weapons. Not perfect by any means, but at least we are trying. Countries and people are talking.

Because of the incredible potential power of AI, Mustafa notes that we as as society are facing the ultimate challenge for Homo Sapiens and Homo technologicus. How do we approach this challenge?

None of us like government regulating our lives. There are many instances in history where that did not go well. But, Mustafa says we do need gov’t, but we can do this differently than in the past, but we have to do something. There are some ‘good’ example of government containment: We have stiff regulations worldwide in the automotive industry, yet millions of people die every year. This has become an acceptable consequence considering the benefit.

This is the norm.

What’s missing there? Common sense. Regulation, guardrails, rules, laws, and protocols do not work if they are not based on common sense. We need “…norms, structures of ownership, unwritten codes of compliance and honesty, arbitration procedures, contract enforcement, oversight mechanisms.” That must be part of society, more importantly —people must buy into that. It involves governments, public and private businesses, industry leaders, scientists, and people coming together.

How we define containment must also change. In the first part of the book, Mustafa defines containment as “…a foundation for controlling and gathering technology, spanning technical, cultural, and regulatory aspects.” But, towards the end, he redefines it, “…more as a set of guardrails, a way of keeping humanity in the drivers seat when a technology risks causing more harm than good.”

Woah. Is AI that big of a deal? Yes.

Technology is not just a way to store our selfies, buy something online, make reservations for a taxi, and play video games—-technology “represents access to the world’s accumulated culture and wisdom. It’s not a niche; it is a hyper-object dominating human existence.”

Yes, we have attempted some guardrails and regulations, but it is also political, profitable, and hard to enforce.

It’s not gonna be easy. Look at another global issue: climate change. It’s right in our face, yet we have not really done much as a global society. Yes, we have attempted some guardrails and regulations, but it is also political, profitable, and hard to enforce. There are still people who do not accept that it is even a thing. At least we are trying, but containment is far off.

So, a first step for us to begin containment for AI is simply to recognize and understand it. Get people together to have real discussions. Great news, this is already happening! The major players in AI worldwide already gather to discuss, share, challenge, debate, and learn from each other. Just having these cross culture relationships means we can talk to each other, which is vital. We saw in the movie Arrival, what happens when countries close off their communication with each other.

Yes, people disagree and have different norms; countries use different economic models, and have different approaches to the unknown. Regardless of those differences, the wave is coming, whether we want it to or not. At this point, all we can really do is buy ourselves some time. Time to understand, make attempts at guardrails and setting norms, time to develop defenses, time to build alliances, time to partner and harmonize to determine the right decisions.

Could vs. Should. We have to make thoughtful decisions.

In Jurassic Park, Malcolm says, “the scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they never stopped to consider whether they should.”

This book is thought-provoking, and highly readable for the layperson, but also technical enough so those in the trenches can find value. It’s the beginning of a discussion that MUST HAPPEN.

I suggest that the coming wave of AI is already here.

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on The Coming Wave

Un-Learning Un-training, Un-workshop

Posted on December 16, 2023 by Doug Bergman

Ask yourself

  • Is there a lack of excitement and energy around learning and training in your organization?
  • Are learning and training viewed as a requirement and not an opportunity?
  • Is there a disconnect between training and the people being trained?
  • Are training topics of no interest to some of the people being trained?
  • Is training handed down from above with no input from the people?
  • Do people in your organization dread training and learning?

What is un-training?
Most people hate training because they don’t want to be there, they don’t have a connection with the topic, they had no say so in what is being presented, management barely knows training is even going on, and oftentimes the training itself is terribly delivered.

Un-learning and Un-training takes out all of those elements, It is based on a very successful ed-tech and education conference style, called unconference, where the attendees decide the agenda and topics for discussion, learning, and training on the day of training. Un-training is especially effective in generating discussions, brainstorming, idea generation, and team building, but can also be used in skills development and technical training. Managers are invited but they are there at the exact same level as other attendees. After topics are crowd-decided, people go to the sessions of their choice. The “results” and “output” of the sessions are decided by the people in the sessions. Yes, it involves putting the responsibility for learning in the hands of the people and also managers and HR giving up control.

This event works because it is a 100% grass roots, from the agenda, topics, session delivery, and outputs.

Can it be done virtually and in-person?
Yes, it can be done both. It works the exact same way except the sessions are in virtual rooms instead of actual rooms

In general , how does it work?
On the day of (or maybe a couple of days before if needed), all attendees are asked to submit 3 topics they would like to see on the agenda. Those ideas are consolidated, merged, synthesized, and categorized; each of those ideas represents possible learning/training sessions. From the newly synthesized list, attendees are given 3 ‘votes’, in which they can vote for any of the ideas they see value in. Depending on how many session slots are open, popular vote wins, and available session slots are filled with top-voted session topics. No one will need to necessarily be a session leader, although the person who suggests a topic might at least get the discussion started. Now the agenda is set and people can start to plan out which sessions they will attend.

Ok, what are the details?

Materials and location: You will need a large room where everyone can fit. You need some sticky-notes, stickers (like elementary school teachers use), and 3 rooms large enough to fit 1/3 of the people.(1 room for each session topic )

Step 1: Collect a group of volunteers who would like to be part of the un-training team. The volunteers will coordinate (not lead) the event. Once the topics are decided, the volunteers become regular attendees. You may be surprised at people who will take an interest and are looking for ways to lead.

Step 2: Sell it. Publicize it. Let people in the organization know what you are doing. Make sure they know that they are 100% in charge of the training topics. Clear the calendar. Minimize conflicts. Managers encourage your people to participate. Make sure people have every incentive (except requiring attendance) to attend. Managers, leaders, and supervisors- You will need to decide, based on your culture as it stands right now, whether your presence at the event is positive or negative.

Step 3 IDEATION: Solicit topic ideas for the training from the attendees. You can try to have an umbrella topic under which you’d like ideas to be related to. Or you can just let the ideas flow from the ground up. No limit to how many ideas each person can submit. If you are in-person, you can literally pass out sticky-notes and let people put them on a wall, which allows others to see the ideas as they are generated. If virtual, you can replicate the sticky-note style of ideas posting by using a tool such as www.mural.co, lucidspark.com, https://miro.com/online-sticky-notes/ . Take 15 minutes max to do this.

  • EXCEPTION: Technical Traning If some of the sessions will be specific software or other technical training, you will want to make sure you have someone in those sessions who might be willing to ‘lead’. In other words, they would have to be comfortable enough with the technology to be able to lead a mini-training session off-the-cuff upon finding out what people want to learn.

Step 4 TOPIC SYNTHESIS:

The volunteer group gathers all the ideas. Then as a group try to organize all related ideas into as few categories as possible. It ok to merge ideas together, reword, etc. but try to get the ideas into a reasonably-sized list under each category. So, maybe you reduced everything down to 5 categories, with 5-10 ideas under each. Volunteers Take 15 minutes max to do this. It does not have to be perfect.

Step 5: TOPIC SELECTION:

  • VOTE: Each attendee, including volunteers, now get 3 ‘votes’ for their favorite top ideas. (or whatever number, but keep it low so people have to make a choice). For in-person, the topic ideas will be posted on 4 separate walls, spread out so everyone can read and vote at the same time. For voting, pass out small stickers(.i.e. stars) to everyone. People browse the room and put stickers on the ideas they support. No rules on how people apply their votes. Take 15 minutes max to do this.
  • SET AGENDA: Volunteers meet for the last time to put the ideas into order based on votes. Ideally, they are spread out across categories, so you can take the top 3 from each category, or make whatever “executive decisions” that need to be made. It is OK to merge ideas together if it helps. Complete the public agenda with the selected topics. Make the agenda available to the attendees.

 

Sample 3-hour agenda

(8:00 – 8:15) 15 min Gathering and Greeting and Ice breakers
(8:15 – 8:30) 15 min Ideation
(8:30 -8:45) 15 min Topic Condensing
(8:45 – 9:00) 15 min Topic Selection
(9:15-10:00) 45 min Session 1 (topics A, B, C)
15 min Break
(10:15-11:00) 45 min Session 2( (topics D, E, F)
15 min Break
(11:15-12:00) 45 Session 3 (topics G, H, I)
Lunch

Step 6: Learn.

Make sure people know that they are free to roam from session to session, even if it means leaving a session mid-stream.

Learn with your Feet. If you get into a session and it is not what you needed or not what you hoped, or you really want to catch part of another simultaneous session, then leave–just get up and go. No explanation is needed. No one is “watching”. It’s not an insult to anyone. Go where you get the most value. Contribute where you can the most.

What happens next?
Well, you have placed the learning and training into the hands of the people. Why not let the people decide what happens next? Is specific follow-up training needed? Do some work-related procedures or policies need to be re-visited? Did new ideas arise that need to be fleshed out? In other words, let “what happens next” depend on what happens in the training.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Un-Learning Un-training, Un-workshop