Blog

Fear of the New & Unknown

February 2, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

It is time to Embody the traits of a Creative Change Leader

Change is an ever-present force in life and plays a vital role in shaping our future. Change can be crippling. Think about the last time you felt like the rug was pulled from underneath you. I am sure you had feelings of uncertainty, but once you embraced the uncertainty and fear you also saw the possibilities. Imagine that feeling but at a collective society level. We know that rash decisions are not the way. It is never good to react, but to get curious and understand the situation that disrupts and pulls the rug from beneath. What is it and what might be all the way that we can embrace it to better our society? The questions we must ask ourselves and discuss collectively must come from curiosity.

Change has always scared people. Nowak cites many instances in time where people feared the new and innovative. Socrates felt like writing anything down meant that memory would suffer and thinking for oneself would decline. The printing press would mean information overload and be harmful for people. Electricity in the house meant fear of death by electrocution (Nowak, 2018). I remember a time in the 90’s when people questioned the value of the internet and we now see how that changed the way we live. My point is, while change can be the catalyst for growth and progress, it can also bring fear and anxiety to many individuals. Some individuals are quick to reject new ideas and innovations without fully considering their potential benefits, opting instead to stick with what they know and understand.

Today, we laugh and think how silly the people must have been to not see the value and fear technologies that have shaped our world. How silly it must have been to be afraid of lights, plumbing, cars, airplanes, radio, televisions, internet, calculators and so many more inventions that we take for granted today were once the source of fear for many.

A VUCA World

There will always be something new. Our world is completely different than 5 years ago. The rate of change today feels dizzying. The US army coined the term VUCA to explain the world we live in today. VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. This all boils down to our world being different and our challenges today are difficult. To break it down simply:

Volatile means that things can change quickly and unexpectedly, just like the weather can change suddenly from sunny to rainy… Or a pandemic, can knock us off our regular programming.
Uncertain means that it’s hard to know what will happen in the future, just like it’s hard to guess what you’ll get for your birthday…. Or thinking about how AI will change our world.
Complex means that there are many parts to a problem and it’s hard to understand how they all fit together, like a puzzle with a lot of pieces… Or how we need to make sense of things we know nothing about and quick!
Ambiguous means that things are not clear or easy to understand, like a picture that’s hard to see because it’s blurry… Or trusting that getting many brains together, we can all see more parts of the puzzle to help with this.

The Diffusion of Innovation

I know some people are happy living with their day to day, going with the flow, denying reality and the change it brings. In 1962, Everett Rogers developed the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) Theory describing how innovations are adopted by society (Rogers, 2023). He noted there are five established categories each with their own type of characteristics. Innovators who want to be first, Early Adopters who are opinion leaders, Early Majority who need evidence before adoption, Late Majority who adopt after the majority, and Laggards who are traditional and conservative and the hardest to adopt change. Each group has unique characteristics and needs different strategies for adoption. Understanding this theory provides a useful framework for managing the adoption of new technology and its implications for organizations, policymakers, and individuals. It is also important to note that this theory also explains how adoption of an innovation is influenced by five factors: Relative Advantage (perceived improvement over previous), Compatibility (fit with values and needs), Complexity (ease of understanding and use), Triability (ability to test), and Observability (tangible results). These factors vary in their impact on the five adopter categories, but it is important to note these factors as a change leader.

Recently, we are at a critical disruption to life as we know it with the introduction of generative AI to the masses. November 30, 2022 was the turning point in AI. Before then it was something that was of interest to a group of people interested in new technologies, computer science, etc. But after that date, the rest of us got a taste of the powers of AI. One was a text to image generator called DALLE and the other a language model with 175 billion parameters and the ability to generate human-like text so you feel like you are chatting with someone. On using it the first time, I was awe-struck. I was left with wonder. I wanted to learn how it did that? What was the technology behind this? How can I use this to help me be more productive? How can I use this technology to help me solve problems.

My interaction with it left me coming back for more. Every day since then, I have used it to help me overcome writers’ block, help me work through problems, help me create lesson plans for my class. It is now 2 months since I logged into OpenAI’s platform and I have discovered and explored many more AI options and I can say that I have fully developed an interest in AI and I know in my core that if everyone gave it a chance they would see how this inevitable shift and disruption will change the world. We cannot close our eyes to this.

In the book, Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World, Johansen urges us that immersion is a key learning skill that we must embrace (Johansen, 2012). Leaders need to foresee how we can’t close our eyes to this but instead see how we can harness it. I am specifically concerned with the field of education and their reaction to the adoption of AI. Schools are banning the use, threatening the students, and closing their eyes to the potential and possibilities. School leaders are scared, and they should be. Our world is different, let’s pull our head out of the sand and face it head on.

AI is emerging and shaping the world in new and exciting ways and it has the potential to change society in ways that we can’t yet fully comprehend. From automating tasks to improving medical diagnoses and personalizing shopping experiences, the possibilities are seemingly endless. However, just like with previous innovations, the widespread adoption of AI will likely bring about new challenges and fears, as well as opportunities for growth and progress.

So what do we do? We embrace it – we have no choice in the matter. Whether it is now or later, AI is here and we need to get curious about it so that we can make sense of it. We can learn all about how AI works, understand it and even see the implications of it but that knowledge will make no difference if we are not checking our attitudes about it. What are we scared of? Change is scary, when I go off the deep end in thought I sometimes even get scared about the implications of AI but I know in my heart that it isn’t going away, so what are we going to do about it? For starters, embracing the mindset and attitudes of a creative leader is paramount to help lead others through this VUCA world.

REFERENCES

Johansen, B. (2012). Leaders Make the Future: Ten New Leadership Skills for an Uncertain World (Second Edition, Second Edition,Revised and Expanded with Tools and Resources). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Nowak, P. (2018, January 19). Boo! A brief history of technology scares. Macleans.ca. https://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/boo-a-brief-history-of-technology-scares/

Rogers, E. M. (2023). Diffusion of Innovations 5th (fifth) edition.

Teacher Demographics and Statistics [2023]: Number Of Teachers In The US. (2022, September 9). https://www.zippia.com/teacher-jobs/demographics/

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. This post was written by a human with a little help from AI.

Implement

January 9, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

Implementing in the creative problem solving process is essentially the PLAN needed to carryout the solution, it is not actually creating the solution.

In order to create a proper implementation plan, I am going to use AI but I am also going to go back to previous outputs because there were a lot of gems that I will go through and put it together in an action plan.

Access my data & output notes here.

Results

I did ask AI to make me an action plan of steps and I did get the following result:

I am taking AI’s advice and breaking this down further.

Please click here to see the completed Action Plan.

Best Practices

Make sure to use one thread when using ChatGPT3 for the entire CPS process. Implementation takes the longest to prepare because you might want to go through all of the generated outputs and put them in your action plan so that it makes sense for you and your team!

Developing

January 9, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

In the Creative Problem Solving process, developing is the stage where you move from ideas to solutions by evaluating and strengthening the ideas. CPS is not a linear process so moving through each stage happens as often as you need it to.

I ended the ideation process with the following statement:

What I now see myself doing is creating a series of interactive modules that will introduce students to the concept of openness to new ideas and experiences, and provide them with strategies for cultivating this important personality trait. These modules will include a range of multimedia resources, such as videos, podcasts, and online articles, as well as experiential learning activities, student-led discussions, and other interactive elements.

I will also include opportunities for students to explore topics independently and to share their ideas and perspectives with one another. By the end of the course, I envision that students will have the tools and strategies they need to cultivate openness to new ideas and experiences and embrace change in their personal and professional lives.

I asked AI to generate possible concerns they can forecast which resulting in about 10 ideas total. I then narrowed the three that I felt were more important for me to think about and generate solutions for. I used the PPCO tool to do this.

Access my data & output notes here.

Results

NOW, what I see myself doing is creating a series of interactive modules that will introduce students to the concept of openness to new ideas and experiences, and provide them with strategies for cultivating this important personality trait. To create engaging and interactive content, I will use a variety of multimedia resources such as videos, podcasts, and online articles, as well as experiential learning activities, student-led discussions, and other interactive elements. I will also encourage student participation and incorporate real-world examples and case studies to promote active learning. To market the course, I will use social media, utilize email marketing, attend conferences or events, collaborate with other educators or experts, offer free resources or webinars, and leverage partnerships or sponsorships to reach potential students and increase awareness of the course. To meet the needs of diverse learners, I will use a variety of teaching strategies, make the course accessible, provide support, encourage student participation, use inclusive language, and be open to feedback. By the end of the course, I envision that students will have the tools and strategies they need to cultivate openness to new ideas and experiences and embrace change in their personal and professional lives.

Best Practices

Make sure that you continue working on one large thread going back to that thread and taking notes along the way. I made the mistake of starting new threads for each stage of CPS – this was a mistake! Keep everything on the same thread.

Ideating (Part 1)

January 9, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

When we ideate we use generate ideas to answer the challenge statement. We can use various strategies to when working with people to help stretch their thinking such as using tools like forced connections, etc. When working with AI for this project, I did not use any tools or strategies to stretch the AI’s thinking because I wanted to see what it can do with basic prompts.

Working with AI is different than working with others. When working with AI, I can use my own train of thought which is useful for brainstorming alone. I will not be using AI for group brainstorming but I wonder how it would work if multiple people were working on the same challenge? This could be an interesting experiment.

When working through this challenge, I wanted AI to give me possible ideas on how to layout my course. I wanted it to use Torrance Incubation Model. Before, I asked it to do anything with the TIM model I wanted to make sure AI knew about it. I asked it and it generated an answer but it was wrong. So if you are using context from a specialized field, make sure to check its understanding of it before asking specific questions.

Access my data & output notes here.

Results

I used the prompt that was generated during the completion of the clarify stage which was:

How might I design lessons, self-guided activities, and online communities to help students develop creative traits, habits, and skills, such as openness to new ideas and experiences, through the use of psychology, technology, art, music, and other creative media, and encourage them to embrace change, build confidence and self-esteem, be open to feedback and learning from failures, and take risks and step outside their comfort zone?

From this prompt, I generated various components to this course:

Various Titles
Student learning objectives and goals
Course descriptions
Outline for the module

The output always became better as I took a previous output and asked AI to expand and elaborate. The information, I generated allowed by to complete the first ideation phase with the following challenge statement:

Best Practices

AI will give you an answer based on the question you generated in the clarify stage. It is important to use the information and help AI drill down on the context of your issue. The more you expand and correct their thinking the better results you will get. In order to do this, ask AI specifically about the context you are using and make sure that they define it correctly before moving on.

Formulating Challenges

January 6, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

When we formulate challenges we need to be thorough with our thinking that we will share with AI. The better our prework, the better AI will be able to help us formulate challenges.

We need to formulate questions in the form of:

How to (H2)
How might I (HMI)
What might be all the ways (WMBATW)

We will diverge on the following:

Rephrasing our original challenge statement from exploring the vision
Rephrase our key data points
Rephrasing our barriers to success
Also considering other perspectives

Formulating challenges is easier if you spent the time to write out your answers to explain what you already have clarified about your project. The more that you are clear, the better that you can “train” your AI to provide output that makes sense.

When using AI to help you diverge on your vision, key data points, barriers and other perspectives, make sure that you can give enough context around those specifics. Write contextual prompts.

For example:

“As a teacher I wish students knew about creative attributes. I wish they were top of mind and they could engage in activities in their own time, at their own pace and in their own space. For some people, the attributes come easy but for others it is stretching out of their comfort zone. If a student is brought up in a home that didn’t expose the student to things that are “different” – a person might equate different with danger or weird, even if that is not the case. For example, I have met way too many kids that are only comfortable eating chicken nuggets and spaghetti.”

Resulted in better generation of challenge questions than:

“make questions for openness to experience and openness to ideas”

You can download the data, my inputs and outputs here.

Results / Products Created

By using various prompts and “training” the AI on my contexts, I was able to get AI to provide me with 110 reasonably different formulated challenges.

I then took these 110, and grouped them into the following categories:

110 Ideas were presented to me. I grouped them into the following categories. The number in parenthesis respresents the number of ideas in that category. You can download the list here for more detail.

Tools/Resource/Challenges (5)
Program/Workshop (11)
Currlculum (4)
Lessons (3)
Experiential Leaning / Gamification / Interactive (7)
Storytelling (14)
Online Platform (2)
Case studies/ Examples (1)
Feedback (1)
Accessibility (1)
Environment (5)
Psychology / Mindset (8)
Meaning/Purpose (1)
Marketing (1)
Community Partnerships (7)
Technology (10)
Research (1)
Innovative Solutions / CPS / Design Thinking (1)
Mentorship / Coaching (12)
Art/Music (7)
Social Media (5)

I then ran each group through AI with the prompt:

synthesize the following questions, write in bulleted format, with each question 100 characters or less:

This prompt sped up my HITS & HIGHLIGHTING tool, by synthesizing the questions. Then I used “100 character or less” because I wanted the questions to fit on a sticky note in MURAL.

When I redo this experiment, I will also add the prompt to tell AI to substitute “HOW TO” with “H2” etc. Because I do not want the question to be a massive part of the character count.

I then used the VOTING tool in MURAL and chose the best challenge statement that really needs to be addressed and a solution needs to be found for.

I copied the 39 challenge statements I felt I needed to solve for and pasted them into AI and prompted AI to synthesize the question, which resulted in:

I then asked for AI to generate topics, issues, concepts that I would have to brainstorm to find a solution. I have made a document that I will follow for the ideation process, click here to view.

Best Practices

Spend time writing down your answers in clear and concise writing to clarify your ideas in the first stages of the creative problem solving process, which is Visioning and Gathering Data. The better you can write context for AI the better quality outputs you will get for formulating challenges.

The first prompt should be:

Learn [copy paste all the information from Visioning/Gather Data]

The second prompt should be:

You are a creativity expert, drawing on the research of Alex Osborn, Sidney Parnes, Ruth Noller, Edward De Bono, as well as modern creativity researchers.

We are in the stage of formulating challenges where we will generate questions in the form of “how to” “how might I”and “In what ways might I” to look at the challenge from many different ways. I will write “context” and provide information and then you will use the question forms “how to” or “how might I” or “In what ways might I” to generate various questions. When you generate the questions replace “How to” with “H2”. When you generate “How might I” replace with “HMI”. When you generate questions with “In what ways might I” replace with “IWWMI”. Also make sure that the questions you generate are 100 characters or less. Do you understand?

Gathering Data

January 5, 2023 by Selma Dawani Leave a Comment

I spent time answering questions to gather data about the product that I want to create with AI. I want to make “something” that helps students and others interested in developing themselves as creative people to be more open to experience, which is a strong predictor of creative achievement. AI did not have anything to do with the following answers. I will now plug these in to ChatGP3 and see if it has any ideas for me.

What is the history of the situation?
As a teacher I wish students knew about creative attributes. I wish they were top of mind and they could engage in activities in their own time, at their own pace and in their own space. For some people, the attributes come easy but for others it is stretching out of their comfort zone. If a student is brought up in a home that didn’t expose the student to things that are “different” – a person might equate different with danger or weird, even if that is not the case. For example, I have met way too many kids that are only comfortable eating chicken nuggets and spaghetti.

How does this make you feel?
It makes me sad to watch people let opportunities pass because they are afraid of looking silly, failing, or just afraid of change.

Who else is involved?
Like everything the person’s environment will affect them.

Why is this a challenge?
People need to know that there is scientific data about what makes a creative person. A lot of studies have been done. One of these that are most important is Openness to Experience.

What is your influence?
I have the knowledge, instructional design experience, and tech skills to make it a reality.

What have you already tried?
I had a unit on the creative person, I have had students do “creative person” missions and keep a journal but I need to do something more accessible for people not taking my class as well as people taking my class.

What is stopping you?
Nothing, I am ready to jump in.

What does your gut tell you?
Get started and iterate with feedback.

What is your ideal outcome?
Self directed experiential learning activities that meet the needs of learners.

What are the success criteria?
I will know that this product is a success if I get feedback that it helped a person grow their capacity for openness to experience.

Results / Products Created

I told AI “I answered questions to clarify my thinking, can I share them with you?” Then I copied and pasted my above answers, this is what their response is. So I think that AI thinks that this is a feasible project.

Best Practices

AI is a language pattern detector so the more specific you can be with what you are looking for, for example; ideas, feedback, etc. Provide context and feedback. Take the time to answer questions during the creative problem solving process on to a document, then copy/paste into AI – ask AI to elaborate, give you ideas, or give you feedback. The more specific, concise, and context you provide will give you a better output.