Latest / Chief in Tech Deep Dive Shortcast / Chief in Tech S1E38 - Stacy McCracken : Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Innovative Thinking

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Chief in Tech S1E38 - Stacy McCracken : Cultivating a Growth Mindset and Innovative Thinking · Chief in Tech Deep Dive Shortcast

• 0:00
  So imagine walking into work tomorrow morning,
• 0:03
  right? And you find out your newest BREC report
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  has read literally every book in human history.
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  OK, sounds like a pretty good hire so far. Right.
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  They've memorized every financial model ever
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  created. They never sleep. And they process data
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  at the speed of light. I mean, I'd take them
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  on my team in a heartbeat. Well, hold on. Because
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  there is a catch. This new employee has the literal
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  -mindedness and, frankly, the common sense of
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  a toddler. Oh, boy. Yeah, that's a dangerous
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  combination. Exactly. Because if you tell them,
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  say, fix the company, they might just delete
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  the entire database. Because mathematically,
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  zero data means zero errors. Right. Flawless
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  logic. Catastrophic result. And that right there,
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  that is the reality of artificial intelligence
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  entering the workforce today. If you try to manage
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  that entity like it's just a faster calculator
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  or a fancy spreadsheet, you are going to make
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  yourself obsolete incredibly fast. Yeah, treating
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  a generative AI model like a basic utility is
• 1:00
  just a fundamental miscategorization of the tool.
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  I mean, a calculator is inert. Yeah, it just
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  sits there. Exactly. It sits there until you
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  punch in the numbers and it gives you a singular
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  deterministic answer. But AI, on the other hand,
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  is probabilistic. It's totally dynamic. Which
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  means the output changes based on how you interact
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  with it. Precisely. The relationship you have
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  with the technology has to fundamentally shift.
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  You have to move from user and tool to, well,
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  collaborator and partner. And that shift is exactly
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  what we're getting into today. Welcome to today's
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  Deep Dive. We have our hands on some incredible
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  source material that tackles this exact dynamic.
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  Yeah, it's really fascinating stuff. We're looking
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  at excerpts from a micro master class led by
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  Stacey McCracken. She's the founder and CEO of
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  Impact and Lead, and her session is titled...
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  Let me get this right. Cultivating a growth mindset
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  and innovative thinking. Strategies for thriving
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  in AI driven workplaces. And what's so refreshing
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  about this material is what it doesn't do. Right?
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  Like McCracken doesn't waste time giving you
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  a list of keyboard shortcuts or like specific
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  software recommendations. Because the technology
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  just changes way too fast for that. A software
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  tutorial from last month is already outdated.
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  Exactly. Instead, she provides this deep psychological
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  and operational framework. It's about treating
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  AI as a collaborative partner in innovation.
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  And our mission for this deep dive is to extract
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  those foundational skills so you can stop feeling
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  overwhelmed by this crazy global marketplace
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  and actually thrive. And it's worth noting her
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  masterclass specifically highlights empowering
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  women leaders to thrive in tomorrow's workplaces.
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  But she's very clear that these underlying strategies
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  They apply to everyone. Oh, absolutely. Like
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  whether you are managing a global division of
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  500 people or you're just a solo freelancer trying
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  to navigate your own career path, the principles
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  of adapting to this environment are identical.
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  Yeah, because the foundational premise of McCracken's
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  work is that the barrier to thriving in an AI
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  driven marketplace, it isn't a lack of technical
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  coding skills. Right. It's not about learning
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  Python. No, it's an internal psychological barrier.
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  Right. We have to examine how we think about
• 3:10
  our own capacity to adapt. before we can even
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  begin to integrate the technology. Which brings
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  us to the first big concept from the source material.
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  It notes that creativity and innovation are the
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  absolute essential skills driving change right
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  now. Yeah, and McCracken has a specific formula
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  for unlocking that innovative thinking based
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  on her own original research. Right, she says
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  it requires two things. cultivating interests
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  and maintaining a growth mindset. But I want
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  to push back on this a little bit. OK, go for
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  it. Because, so what does this actually mean?
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  Growth mindset can sometimes sound like just
• 3:45
  another fluffy corporate buzzword. Oh, for sure.
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  It gets thrown around a lot on LinkedIn. Exactly.
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  How does McCracken's original research elevate
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  this beyond just, you know, thinking positive,
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  assuming we already know the basics that abilities
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  can be developed through hard work? Why is AI
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  such a massive disruption to that mindset? Well,
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  if you apply this to a day -to -day scenario,
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  the introduction of AI feels like a direct threat
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  to the ego. Yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. Right. Because
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  for years, the traditional workplace mindset
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  has basically been, I am the expert. My value
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  comes from holding the answers. Like, if I spent
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  five years mastering complex financial modeling,
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  and an AI can now generate that exact model in
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  three seconds, my first thought is, well, my
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  career is over. Yeah. A fixed mindset tells you
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  that you are being replaced. And honestly, That
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  ego threat is entirely rational. It's terrifying.
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  It is. When your value has historically been
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  tied to raw knowledge retrieval or processing
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  speed, a machine that outpaces you in both areas.
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  I mean, that feels like an existential crisis.
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  So how does McCracken's framework fix that? This
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  is where she demands a pivot. A growth mindset
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  in the age of AI means accepting that your professional
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  value is no longer about just holding the answers.
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  Wait, really? Then what is your value? Your value
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  is knowing how to direct the intelligence. It's
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  knowing how to apply the output and how to innovate
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  with the massive amount of time you just saved.
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  Ah, OK. And that requires a ton of cognitive
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  flexibility. Like, it's not about putting a positive
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  spin on the fact that the ground is shifting
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  beneath your feet. It's about being mentally
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  agile enough to survive the earthquake. That's
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  a great way to put it. And McCracken pairs this
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  growth mindset with cultivating interests, which
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  the source indicates is an active, rigorous process.
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  Rigorous is definitely the key word there. It
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  means you don't just like sit back and wait for
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  the IT department to mandate a new software rollout.
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  No, you actively choose to cultivate an interest
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  in how these models work. You poke at them, you
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  break them, you test their limits. It is a deliberate
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  practice of challenging your own assumptions
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  about how your job is supposed to be done. Cultivating
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  an interest in this context is not some casual
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  hobby. It is a professional survival strategy.
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  You are actively rewiring your brain to view
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  disruption as raw material for innovation rather
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  than a threat to your workflow. But OK, knowing
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  you need cognitive flexibility is useless if
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  you sit down at your keyboard on a Tuesday morning
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  and completely freeze. Right, the analysis paralysis.
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  Yeah. The philosophy has to translate into keystrokes
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  at some point. So how do we actually move from
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  this internal mindset to outward daily application?
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  How do we do that without just getting completely
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  overwhelmed? Well, McCracken bridges that gap.
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  by focusing heavily on what she calls power skills.
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  Power skills, okay. Yeah. In her interactive
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  master class sessions, she really moves away
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  from traditional lectures. She relies on reflective
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  exercises, group discussions, and application
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  -focused activities to build these skills. Because
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  you can't just listen to someone describe a new
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  way of working. Exactly. You have to run the
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  code yourself. So the source highlights two specific
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  power skill strategies. It says we need to be
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  asking better questions and overcoming friction
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  to drive results. Yeah, let's dig into that first
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  one. Because I think the traditional corporate
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  metaphor calling these an operating system upgrade...
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  I think that completely misses the mark. It's
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  a bit dry. It's way more useful to compare asking
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  better questions to being a film director. Oh,
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  I like that. Unpack that for me. OK, so the AI
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  is this incredibly talented, wildly capable,
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  but deeply literal minded actor. Think of like
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  Daniel Day -Lewis. OK, incredible actor. But
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  with zero actual life experience. Oh, wow. That's
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  a terrifying image. Right. If you just sit in
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  the director's chair, yell action. and say, give
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  me a sad performance, you are going to get a
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  terrible cliched output. No, absolutely. You
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  have to provide the motivation, the historical
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  context of the scene, the constraints of the
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  character, the specific tone you are aiming for.
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  That director analogy perfectly captures the
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  mechanics of interacting with large language
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  models. I mean, to understand why asking better
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  questions is such a vital power skill, you really
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  have to understand how the technology works beneath
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  the surface. Right. They aren't actually thinking.
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  No, not at all. These AI models are essentially
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  massive mathematical prediction engines. They
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  calculate the statistical probability of the
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  next word in a sequence based on the vast amount
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  of training data they've ingested. Which means
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  if you feed the model a generic low effort prompt,
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  you are mathematically guaranteeing a generic
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  statistically average response. Precisely. A
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  generic prompt leaves the probability space wide
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  open. The model defaults to the most common middle
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  -of -the -road phrasing it can find. Which is
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  why poorly prompted AI often sounds like it's
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  just generating hollow corporate jargon. Yes.
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  By mastering the power skill of asking better
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  questions, you're doing the work of narrowing
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  that mathematical probability space. You add
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  constraints. You specify the target audience.
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  You define the formatting. You might even add
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  negative constraints, like do not use the word
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  synergy. Exactly. And by doing this, you force
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  the model away from the statistical average and
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  compel it to generate a highly specific high
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  -value output. So the quality of the output is
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  entirely dependent on the rigor of the input.
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  Yes. But the source material makes it clear that
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  these power skills aren't just for interacting
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  with machines, right? They also change the dynamic
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  with human colleagues. Oh, totally. When you
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  develop the habit of articulating problems with
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  that level of extreme clarity and context, that
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  film director level of detail, it inevitably
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  bleeds into your human interactions. Give me
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  an example. Okay, so instead of a manager walking
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  up to a direct report and asking a basic binary
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  compliance question like, did you finish the
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  Q3 marketing report? Which just makes the employee
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  defensive immediately. Right. The mindset shift
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  dictates a totally different approach. An upgraded
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  power skill question sounds more like, what part
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  of compiling this marketing report felt the most
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  resistant today? And how could we leverage our
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  new data tools to alleviate that specific bottleneck
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  tomorrow? Wow. That immediately shifts the entire
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  conversation from task compliance to systemic
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  innovation. Exactly. It gives the employee permission
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  to identify problems without feeling like they
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  are failing. And that leads perfectly into the
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  second power skill strategy McCracken emphasizes,
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  overcoming friction to drive results. Yeah, friction.
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  It's the gritty reality of technological integration.
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  It is the absolute enemy of innovation. And honestly,
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  it's the most common reason organizations fail
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  to realize the benefits of new technology. purchase
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  some massive enterprise AI license, give everyone
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  a login, and expect productivity to double overnight.
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  And instead, productivity plummets for six months.
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  Because friction isn't just an abstract concept.
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  Friction is like a mid -level manager spending
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  45 minutes agonizing over a prompt, trying to
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  get an AI model to format a spreadsheet correctly,
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  failing, and finally just throwing their hands
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  up in frustration and doing it manually. Right.
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  Friction is the resentment a team feels when
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  a new tool disrupts a workflow they spent three
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  entire years perfecting. And if a leader doesn't
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  actively work to overcome that friction, the
• 11:09
  team will quietly abandon the technology entirely.
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  I've seen it happen. We all have. Overcoming
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  that friction requires you to stop fighting the
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  tool and start directing it. The human element
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  will always push back against rapid change. But
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  by utilizing those power skills, by framing the
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  integration as an active experiment, and asking
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  those highly targeted questions to isolate the
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  exact source of the frustration a leader can
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  actually start to smooth out the workflow. You
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  remove the bottleneck of user frustration, which
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  unlocks the team's ability to actually use the
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  technology as a partner. Exactly. Okay, so the
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  pieces are coming together. mindset ensures you
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  aren't terrified of the AI coworker. The power
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  skills like acting as the film director to narrow
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  the probability space. Those give you the actual
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  keystrokes to get valuable work out of it. Yep.
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  But if we're being completely honest, we all
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  know people who have read 10 books on generative
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  AI. They listen to all the deep dives. They philosophize
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  about the future of work. But they haven't actually
• 12:07
  changed a single thing about their daily routine.
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  Yes. Yes. The philosophy sounds great, but they
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  are paralyzed in the planning phase. Ah, analysis
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  paralysis is incredibly common when the landscape
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  is shifting this fast. I mean, when a new model
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  drops every two weeks boasting capabilities that
• 12:23
  completely eclipse the previous version, the
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  natural human instinct is to wait for the dust
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  to settle before committing to a strategy. But
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  in this environment, the dust is never going
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  to settle. Never. Which brings us to a really
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  fascinating paradox in the source material. When
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  you look at McCracken's background, she is a
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  certified business coach who specializes in strategic
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  planning and goal clarity. Right, very structured
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  stuff. Exactly. She has extensive leadership
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  experience guiding teams through diverse technology
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  -driven sectors. She understands the rigid metric
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  -driven mechanics of how a business actually
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  operates. But right next to that, the text states
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  she is fiercely passionate about helping professionals
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  embrace experimentation. Yeah, it's a huge focus
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  for her. On the surface, those two philosophies
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  are at war with each other. Don't those two things
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  fight against each other? I mean, strategic planning
• 13:14
  is a straight line. It's about minimizing variance
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  and hitting a defined target. Embracing experimentation
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  feels chaotic, messy, and inherently full of
• 13:23
  variance. How does a leader reconcile those two
• 13:27
  things without blowing up their department? It
• 13:29
  is arguably the central paradox of innovating
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  in an AI -driven world. The instinct is to view
• 13:35
  strategic planning and experimentation as mutually
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  exclusive. But true goal clarity actually provides
• 13:41
  the structured framework required to make experimentation
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  safe. Break the mechanics of that down for me.
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  How does a rigid goal make it safe to be chaotic?
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  Let's go back to your scenario of the AI as the
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  brilliant tireless toddler -like coworker. If
• 13:56
  you embrace experimentation without goal clarity,
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  you basically just hand the toddler the keys
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  to the company and say, go experiment with our
• 14:03
  client database. Oh, man. That is a catastrophic
• 14:07
  business decision. Totally. You will have data
• 14:09
  privacy breaches, hallucinatory outputs sent
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  to key accounts, massive liability issues. Total
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  disaster. That is experimentation without offense.
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  But. If you have done the rigorous work of strategic
• 14:21
  planning, you establish a non -negotiable objective.
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  You say, our immovable goal for this quarter
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  is to reduce initial customer response time by
• 14:30
  20 % without sacrificing resolution accuracy.
• 14:33
  OK, that is the goal clarity. Right. The strategic
• 14:36
  plan forms the boundaries of a sandbox. Inside
• 14:38
  that specific sandbox, you fiercely encourage
• 14:41
  your team to embrace experimentation. So inside
• 14:44
  the fence, they can do whatever they want. Exactly.
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  You tell them to try new prompting techniques,
• 14:48
  feed different variables into the AI, fail, document
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  the failure, iterate, and try again as long as
• 14:54
  the experimentation is driving toward that specific
• 14:57
  metric of response time. That makes so much sense.
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  The goal provides the boundaries and the experimentation
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  provides the velocity. Yes. Without the goal
• 15:05
  clarity, experimentation is just expensive flailing.
• 15:08
  But without the experimentation, your strategic
• 15:11
  plan is just a brittle document that becomes
• 15:14
  obsolete the moment a competitor figures out
• 15:16
  how to leverage a new language model. McCracken
• 15:18
  understands that tension perfectly. That structured
• 15:21
  play is what allows a business to innovate safely,
• 15:25
  which really explains why the ultimate deliverable
• 15:28
  of her interactive sessions isn't just, you know,
• 15:31
  a list of motivational quotes. Right, participants
• 15:34
  leave with a personalized roadmap for immediate
• 15:36
  application. And that roadmap is the cure for
• 15:39
  analysis paralysis because a roadmap isn't just
• 15:42
  a vision board. It is a sequence of authorized
• 15:45
  actions. It tells a professional exactly where
• 15:47
  they have permission to start breaking things
• 15:49
  and experimenting tomorrow morning. Yes. It provides
• 15:52
  the security needed to foster deep engagement
• 15:54
  in this fast evolving landscape because the experimentation
• 15:58
  is tethered to ultimate objectives. And the personalization
• 16:02
  aspect of that roadmap is critical, right? The
• 16:04
  way a solitary graphic designer implements this
• 16:06
  growth mindset to speed up their ideation phase
• 16:09
  that will look entirely different from the way
• 16:12
  a division VP integrates AI into a global supply
• 16:15
  chain analysis. Oh, completely different. The
• 16:18
  daily tasks change, but the underlying mechanics
• 16:22
  that formula of mindset, power skills, and bounded
• 16:24
  experimentation that remains constant. It's a
• 16:28
  highly pragmatic way to look at the future of
• 16:29
  work. It dismantles the fear. So let's pull all
• 16:32
  these threads together and distill what we've
• 16:34
  actually uncovered in this deep dive. Let's do
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  it. Thriving in an AI -driven workplace has almost
• 16:39
  nothing to do with technical coding skills. It
• 16:42
  is an internal psychological shift. You must
• 16:45
  consciously stop treating generative AI as a
• 16:48
  static utility and begin treating it as a dynamic
• 16:51
  collaborative partner. And to manage that partnership,
• 16:54
  you have to actively combat the ego threat of
• 16:56
  being outperformed by a machine. You employ a
• 16:59
  rigorous growth mindset and cultivate curiosity.
• 17:03
  You're reframing your professional value away
• 17:05
  from holding all the answers and toward knowing
• 17:07
  how to direct the intelligence. You translate
• 17:10
  that mindset into keystrokes by mastering power
• 17:12
  skills. You become the film director. You learn
• 17:15
  the mechanics of narrowing the probability space
• 17:18
  by asking better, highly contextualized questions.
• 17:21
  Both of your AI models to generate high value
• 17:24
  output and of your human colleagues to overcome
• 17:26
  the inevitable friction and resentment that accompanies
• 17:29
  technological disruption. Finally, you avoid
• 17:32
  the trap of analysis paralysis by utilizing goal
• 17:35
  clarity to build a safe sandbox. You define the
• 17:39
  strategic boundaries, and within those boundaries,
• 17:41
  you unleash relentless experimentation. Guided
• 17:45
  by a personalized roadmap that allows you to
• 17:47
  take immediate, tangible action. Stacey McCracken's
• 17:50
  material from Impact and LID demonstrates that
• 17:52
  these strategies are deeply personal. Whether
• 17:54
  you are leading a massive enterprise or steering
• 17:57
  your own freelance career, the friction of new
• 17:59
  technology cannot be ignored. and overcoming
• 18:02
  that friction always starts with the willingness
• 18:04
  to challenge your own existing mindset. The global
• 18:07
  marketplace will continue to evolve at an unprecedented
• 18:10
  rate. The capabilities of these models will only
• 18:12
  increase. The technology is the constant variable.
• 18:15
  The only variable you actually control is your
• 18:18
  psychological and operational readiness to evolve
• 18:20
  alongside it. Very true. Which brings us to the
• 18:23
  end of our deep dive today. But we want to leave
• 18:26
  you with something to examine in your own life.
• 18:28
  We spend a lot of time unpacking the mechanics
• 18:31
  of how asking better questions is the ultimate
• 18:34
  power skill for directing technology and uncovering
• 18:36
  friction. Right. The rigors the input determines
• 18:39
  the quality of the output. Exactly. So turn that
• 18:42
  power skill inward. If the quality of your future
• 18:44
  is entirely determined by the quality of the
• 18:47
  questions you ask, what is the most important
• 18:49
  challenging question you need to be asking yourself
• 18:51
  about your own career trajectory right now?