Proud of Your Analytical Skills? Watch Out for AI!!

Are you proud of your analytical skills? The authors of Framers: Human Advantage in an Age of Technology and Turmoil (2021) warn that this skill may be less valued in the future. You want to develop a reputation as a “reframer.”

The authors are Kenneth Cukier, senior editor at The Economist, Victor Mayer-Schonberger, professor of internet governance and regulation at the University of Oxford, and Francis de Vericourt, professor of management science at the European School of Management and Technology.

In this blog we will summarize the key ideas of the book and provide our perspective.

Reframer Ben Bernanke

In 2008, U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke was confronted with the bankruptcy of the global investment bank Lehman Brothers. The Fed let Lehman Brothers collapse. AIG, a large insurance company, also faced bankruptcy. Why should the Federal Reserve bail out AIG when it had decided not rescue Lehman Brothers?

In analyzing this problem from one perspective, using taxpayer dollars to bail out a failing company goes against the capitalist notion that companies should rise or fall on business merits. We live in an economy based on creative destruction. In analyzing the problem from a liberal perspective, the federal government’s bailing out wealthy capitalists who make bad decisions was unethical. It only encourages more risky decisions.

Ben Bernanke, however, reframed the problem. If banks and insurance companies become fearful of providing business credit, economic chaos would ensue. He reframed the problem as what needs to be done to prevent a system-wide credit crunch.

With the benefit of hindsight, we can appreciate the wisdom of Ben Bernanke’s reframe of the issue.

Framing at the Individual Level.

The authors argue that we are at the beginning of the confluence of Big Data, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robots. We are far enough into the process, however, to understand that no human or team of humans can be more efficient than AI in analyzing large quantities of information. If your unique value proposition is your ability to analyze data, you are on a path to a short career.

If you want a winning career strategy, focus on what AI systems cannot do: Change the conceptual framework. In a previous Psychology Today blog, we gave an example of how we reframed an issue for a client:

A physician’s father-in-law had invited her husband, son, and her to spend ten days at a cabin in rural Michigan. She framed the trip with the focus on her discomfort with her father-in-law. She focused on how to avoid stress for herself. We helped her reframe the purpose of the trip as providing happy memories for her son. This reframe allowed her to enjoy her vacation in Michigan. (Stybel Peabody, 2021).

Another way to conceptualize reframing is to consider the figure-ground effect. Reframing takes the image that appears to be in the foreground and places it in the background. AI cannot do this.

Creating a Corporate Culture Open to Reframing.

As a company moves towards the growth phase of its life cycle, there is a tendency to want to hire like-minded individuals so that the company can focus on operational efficiency/scalability. The authors warn leaders that this natural desire is dangerous.

They recommend continuing to hire for diversity of perspectives. Our experience with Boards of Directors would confirm the importance of conceptual diversity: We see too many boards that are racially diverse and have powerful male and female directors. But if they approach problems from tone cognitive framework, real diversity of thinking is lacking.

Diversity of faces looks good in a photograph. Homogeneity of thought looks bad in a balance sheet.

The authors recommend that companies institute policies to have team members show a variety of options from different frames of reference. Ask a plan’s major champion to take the role of the plan’s biggest critic. Ask a plan’s biggest critic to take the role of its biggest champion. Create multiple scenarios of success. Create multiple scenarios involving failure.

Artificial Intelligence Essential Reads

AI and the Probabilistic Self

The Attraction and Potential Hazards of AI Lovers

You might consider designating one team member as the Reframer. As the team closes in on a solution, the designated Reframer should look for alternative paths to the same solution. For example, one of the writers was working with the Finnish company Nokia. At the time Nokia had a mobile device on the market that was losing customers to market leader Blackberry. The foreground was “develop a new product to beat Blackberry.” Many of the engineers, however, were using the iPhone as their personal mobile devices because they could do so much more with it.

A Question to Ask in Considering an Employment Opportunity.

In considering employment, ask yourself how open is the culture? We recommend you ask current and former employees this one question:

One a scale of 0 (Never) to 10 (Always) how open is the corporate culture to new ideas?

If responses tend to clump around the 8-9 range, that is good. If responses clump around 6-7, be cautious. Anything below six is a warning.

You can find current and former employees by doing a LinkedIn search. Check your online college alumni database.

Summary and Conclusions:

Are you proud of your analytical skills? You may be on a path towards being replaced by Artificial Intelligence. The future belongs to those who can reframe.