The Power of Heart in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

By Kirin Parmar, MCP, MSc, B.Arch, Certified Life Coach | Enneagram Consultant
Website: kirinparmar.com

Editors: Pam Thomas, M.S., PCC – Leadership & Mindset Coach | Faculty Member, Assessor & Mentor Coach for The Executive and Professional Coaching Certificate Program, The University of Texas at Dallas AND William J. Bertucci, B.Sc, retired Caltrans Engineering Geologist | Mentor

Comment: “(In this, and her companion article on Gender and Personality Empowerment in the Workplace, Kirin has) done a wonderful job of summarizing this important leadership dynamic and challenge”. Peter V. Neffenger, MPA, MA, MA, former Vice-Admiral of the US Coast Guard, Presidential Appointee as TSA Administrator (under President Obama) and now Motivational Speaker (Leadership), and a distinguished fellow at both the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience^[7] and Northeastern University’s Global Resilience Institute.^[8],

“In the past, jobs were about muscles, now they’re about brains,
but in the future, they’ll be about the heart.”

MINOUCHE SHAFIK, director, London School of Economics

Introduction

Looming concern:

When my brother first mentioned that his daughter wanted to study medicine, he expressed real concern about what to advise her about job viability. He anticipated that many fewer doctors would be needed as computers are able to churn out more accurate diagnoses. He questioned a similar concern for his field of Law.

We are exponentially increasing the proliferation of robots, machines and computers to take over ever more of our brawny and brainy tasks in all levels and industries.  Computer power allows for more variables to be considered in solutions than humans can easily recall on their own. Computers have no ego invested in protecting their self-worth. They don’t defend or rationalize, they simply recalculate and recalibrate in an instant.  And they are not going away.

So how do we solve the problem of making hordes of humans redundant and unemployed which will further ramp up the social ills that make humanity, unsustainable in other ways? According to Al Gore in The Future: “Capitalism requires acceptance of inequality of course, but “hyper” levels of inequality are destructive to both capitalism and democracy.” For here are interesting questions: As humans cannot afford to get educated let alone feed themselves, how many will be fit to provide the ingenuity and productivity that drives the best feature about capitalism? How many humans will afford the products of AI machines? Are leaders and the rich assuming buyers will magically continue to be present? Or do they assume masses of humans will starve to death and leave most of the land to the rich who will go back to having to barricade themselves behind fortress castles as in the Middle Ages?  (Fortress homes against social collapse have already begun.) Are enough leaders even thinking at all? As Jack Kornfield puts it: we unleash “this force within ourselves …the rigidity of aggression, the pain of rage, the contraction of fear (where) we become intimate with our frustration, anger, and blame”.  Have we not already seen the signs manifesting in increasing acts of both discriminate and indiscriminate violence?

Weighing in is Stuart Russell, UC Berkeley professor of computer science, leading expert on AI and author of Warning! AI is heading for a Cliff – Race Against the Machine https://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/fall-2019/berkeley-expert-warns-ai-is-heading-for-a-cliff , or www.Californiamag.org, Fall 2019: “If you just take the status quo and add AI to it, you get something like WALL-E, where people stop bothering about knowing anything or being able to do anything because machines know it, machines can do it. Why bother going to school? Why bother doing anything? I’m sure there will always be people who are happy being on the Barcalounger all day. But we have to make a real cultural effort to work against that tendency [toward laziness]. Because it’s sort of irreversible. Once we stop the whole process of learning and becoming capable and knowledgeable and skillful, it’s very hard to undo.”

Our Hope:

Al Gore, in his incredibly thorough book The Future (2013), distilled two priority goals to start us on the  path to addressing encompassing concerns and ideas to protect humanity: “Limit the role of money in politics and reform outdated and obfuscatory legislative rules that allow a small minority to halt legislative action in the U.S. Senate.”Without this, both democracy AND long-term sustainable capitalism are undermined. To these, I’d like to suggest expanding his insights into upfronting a third priority goal: We need to understand and tap into that underdeveloped territory that relates to what the heart represents, that is:

Anecdotally, it is estimated that only 10 to 20% of people are operating within their passion and full potential. (This is based on input from a counselor, a judge, and peers working alongside colleagues.) So the good news is that humans have enormous under-tapped potential that gives us a very relevant edge over artificial intelligence. First, let’s understand these limitations.

The Limitations of Artificial Intelligence

“In the age of artificial intelligence (AI) workers will spend more time on activities that require social and emotional skills, creativity, high-level cognitive capabilities, and other skills that are relatively hard to automate.” We need “human skills” such as emotional intelligence, leadership and social influence…effective …interpersonal communication skills, with an emphasis on communicating with authenticity, persuasion and advocacy.” Tsu-Jae King Liu, Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering, UC Berkeley College of Engineering, Spring 2019, based on a World Economic Forum Future of Jobs report. 

Getting into more specifics:

1) The answers computers provide are only as good as the questions that humans ask them.

Humans are able to gather encompassing questions related to understanding the problems – when they work in creative synergy with other humans.

2) Computers can’t read emoted nuances.

Humans can intuitively sense and feel undercurrents or notice subtle changes in body language. These are additional data points to understanding problems.

3) Computers are linear or logical in their solutions. And have you noticed that human behavior can defy logic?

We are all driven by conscious or unconscious fears about what we need in order to feel whole and happy. And what we perceive is missing varies widely from one core personality to the next – we don’t share the same concept of common sense or reality.

Now we are similar in one primal way. We all want and need to feel good about ourselves and to make our contribution. To feel accepted, approved and appreciated. But we have some pretty crazy-making views of what we think will fill those – based on illusory personality fears amplified by misguided messages we received from society. Such as we have to get them from things like having power, status, material goods, beauty, popularity, uniqueness for the sake of uniqueness, exhaustive knowledge, a fortress of protection, limitless fun and adventure, or being tough, or being easy, or perfect, or always right. To some extent, these actually do have their place to make our lives easier. They backfire when they are our masters. They are never enough because these wants are based on fears and do not fill the root of our needs. According to Susan Pinker’s TEDTalk, we are social animals that thrive most of all on social integration and close relationships. This prolongs life more than a host of other things including giving up smoking, booze or unhealthy eating. No fancy computer can replace the need for caring human touch and words. (Studies have shown that babies die where every need is met except for human physical and emotional contact.)

We are wired to need human empathy, compassion and loving-kindness. This gives us the connectivity that stabilizes our emotions. It gives us confidence about who we really are, and the bandwidth for presence for others. Emotions can be “challenging and need to be navigated with care, but our rich diet of emotions allows us to engage with others and to enjoy our world”. Dacher Keltner

Recommendations

So let’s get into what we need to do to leverage the potential of the heart:

1) We need to invest in uncovering our true values, passion, purpose and mission before we can develop vision, plans, goals and steps 

It is passion that keeps us consistently sponging up, processing, noticing tangential connections and recreating. Neural pathways then grow dense and vibrant. We hone radar for using our inherent gifts in innovative ways.

Have you noticed what’s been happening when you live or work without your passions being engaged?  Do you miss what top performers seem to notice? Are you forcing your efforts and partly asleep from being drained and bored? Do you get side-tracked? Do you feel like a servant/slave? Your work product might be functional, but is it high quality? Most of us suffer from not thriving in the roles we felt pressured to take, resulting in feelings of not being good enough and amplified fears of failure which have some truth to them if we are not working within our true areas of fit. We fear rejection and abandonment which carries the unconscious threat of death itself. It causes us to segue into strategies to protect our fragile egos. These include limiting our voices, using false confidence as a mask, complaining behind backs, or putting up defensive blockades.

By comparison, have you noticed how easy time flies when you are operating in the area of a passion? Less inclined to spend time in retail therapy or watching TV? You still work hard, because you love what you do. But do you instead feel like an accomplished master with a sense of joy? Do you love the journey, as well as the result? Are you more open-minded to collaboratively enjoying the synergy where one plus one equals a whole lot more than just two (I’ve heard 6-fold to 1,000).

2) We need to understand how to value ourselves and others

Now the practical reality is that not all of us will find employment in the direct work of our passions, but we can still be a great fit. We make valued contributions and feel fulfilled when we do work that engages our other strengths in combination with our true values. For example, we might value relationships and kindness, making us ideal to train in skills to become an excellent motivator and collaborator with those around us.  As in just one example from the Netflix series Suits, the conclusion was you can‘t measure someone’s value by just whether he or she ranks among the highest producers in billable hours per individual. Brian (in the story) is not the highest producer by this metric – BUT, through his holistic thinking abilities, kindness and supportiveness, “he makes everyone around him better” – i.e., more successful for the company as a whole.

As in Emotional Intelligence 2.0 by Bradberry and Greaves (endorsed by the Dalai Lama), the biggest indicator of success and organizational performance is a good EQ. Those with a good EQ and an average IQ usually do better in life than the other way around. They pick up and use information in other and very compelling ways that benefit more people.

The Enneagram personality system is an incredibly precise key for understanding and valuing the different strengths in order to see our wonderful light and begin our healing and growth. Two top enneagram educational centers (some differences in teaching style but of equally high and accurate caliber) are at: ( https://www.enneagramworldwide.com/) or (https://www.enneagraminstitute.com/). More can be found at https://www.internationalenneagram.org/. A growing number of life coaches and therapists have been trained in the Enneagram. This is important because the enneagram in itself is just the key- albeit a very important key. It has to be harnessed to a modality that uses it on a path of growth. Which leads is to the next point.

3) We need to use a growth path that amplifies the gifts and attenuates the challenges.

The path can be found through coaching which is a highly effective resource for spiraling growth into emotional intelligence and action, in alignment with values, passion, purpose and mission. Excitingly, our EQ is something we can really grow exponentially – IF we are willing and determined.

4) Being social creatures, we need to give each other the affirmative messages that show us genuine acceptance, validation, appreciation and encouragement. We need to see clear signs of mutual support.

Bone-deep self-esteem comes not from what we decorate ourselves with, but from valuing our inherent qualities AND expressing those to each other.  We are in fact, deeply affected by what the world mirrors to us about our inherent value. When these needs are taken care of, our energy rises because more than fascination with what we do, we also feel joy about simply being. We are freed up to live in the present, stay focused, or give ourselves permission to rejuvenate (relax, play, care for ourselves) and ironically to some, we thus become more creative. In work, life or love, it puts the song in our hearts to go the extra mile. We mirror positive energy.  Feeling deep joy is one of the purposes of our life. It’s so easy to give to others and see it mirrored back, yet we initiate so little of it. Even one kind comment can make someone’s whole day. A quick fix?!

When we do give, it’s amazing what the Universe flows back at us. As noted in Give and Take by Adam Grant, the great majority of human beings do care to give back the kindness and support they receive. As quickly as we can descend into our dark, we can ascend into our light – where most humans really prefer to be. Humans do value and take pride in things like genuine love or acceptance, support and flowing performance, creative individual expression, high-quality production and performance, integrity, loyalty and duty, joy, innovative synthesizing, providing compassion and close relationships and comfort and connectivity. While our fears get in the way of reaching our full potential and acting with integrity, that is where most humans would like to live.

Now I can attest to my own adventure of needed growth in all these areas. Being multi-capable and confused about what to value, it was hard for me to know which way to go. So I went this way and that, and having some perfectionism and self-pride, I managed to do well – but I would feel drained. I’d sense something was missing and try something else. Until the day I came to the end of all that I knew by myself and energy reached a demoralizing level. Like most people, I’d heard messages on the wind that made me fearful of opening up my fears fully to anyone. But it reached a point of getting by (maybe) or learning to swim differently. I sucked up my embarrassment, walked into the Doc’s with resolve, and announced “I need help”.  That was the beginning of the most amazing adventure (despite some scary work) of my life. What kept me going? I came to understand the fears I had to practice against could also be the illusions of my personality type. And I was buoyed by feeling incrementally stronger and more excited.

Today, I love the work I do so much that joy and presence also spills over into life and love. I have more energy. I feel like I’ve never been more honed: clearer, sharper, more intelligent, more alive, connecting, synergizing, secure, or joyful. Sure I still have growth squawks. We don’t get rid of our fears completely. Maybe that’s good for humility and empathy 😉 But the music plays more and I dance more in my heart and in my physical movements.

5) Leadership needs to evolve

“…at the same time as we’re worrying about machine learning and artificial intelligence taking jobs and dehumanizing work, we’re intentionally or unintentionally creating cultures that, instead of leveraging the unique gifts of the human heart like vulnerability, empathy, and emotional literacy, are trying to lock those gifts away.” What our current business leaders in particular have overlooked, is that we are not just linear brains or brains in general. “… we are head, heart and body and communicate with minds, feelings and gut senses….…humans will always be able to do better than machines if we are willing to take off our (self-protective) armor and leverage our greatest and most unique asset – the human heart.” Brene Brown, author of Dare to Lead. Brown’s TED talk – The Power of Vulnerability – is one of the top five most viewed TED talks in the world with over 35 million views.

“It is clear that a high EQ will be necessary for individuals to succeed in a rapidly evolving workplace. This is not to say that core competency in technical skills is not important, but rather that EQ is what makes a leader stand out among peers of comparable IQ.” Tsu-Jae King Liu, Dean and Roy W. Carlson Professor of Engineering, UC Berkeley College of Engineering, Spring 2019

We need leaders to:

a) Implement programs that include all the strengths of human beings. (See my companion article on Gender and Personality Empowerment in the Workplace)

b) Use more relevant criteria that include the assessment of passion and emotional intelligence when matching people to roles where possible. We have a growing population that is disenfranchised by the previous generations’ ethic of living to work. Their solution is to instead work to live. The problem with this polar opposite is that (except where true passion is engaged), work quality is declining. (My amazing dentist notes that younger dentists no longer want the responsibility of being tied to specific customers. They want to be part of larger companies where patients see whoever is available on rotation. What is the impact of failing to build the relationships that accentuate accountability for quality, and also create bonds that make work a joy? What is to keep workers connected to constantly innovating to improve the lives of others?)

c) Provide adequate investment (federal, state and private) in education and training so that affordable opportunities are provided to those who best fit the various roles to serve society as well as themselves. Studying dentistry for example, has gotten so expensive, that it is no longer seen as an affordable or beneficial investment to the individual. Yet decreased oral health has real repercussions for society.

d) Let go of control and perfectionism. Empower and stimulate minds to become great supports (unless it’s something like brain surgery, 80% is often good enough). This will free up leaders to do what they must do best. Seeing the big picture and navigating the ship that the other strengths can build.

e) Facilitate people into working in interdependent and synergistic ways. Make their happiness contingent upon their ability to work together rather than pleasing the leader. Being social beings, humans do their best work in collaboration with other humans. Studies have shown that a human being’s first impulse is not to be competitive but to share and have sympathy. “When we cooperate, share or express gratitude, reward circuits light up in the brain.” Dacher Keltner.

It’s our misperception of scarcity that makes us resist this first impulse and view each other as competitive threats. We have a culture that has put independence and competition on an overriding pedestal. It’s told us that our self-worth is to be measured by the external achievements and material acquisitions that we can each produce on our own. It assumes that if I can get ahead in the (limited) ways in which society currently values people, then so should you. And if you can’t, you are to be judged and left as irresponsible.  Alarmingly, these ways of viewing others are coming to a head with rising resentment, anger and violent backlash.

If we are to believe, as some of our wisest leaders do, that “we are each incalculably rich in potential and possibilities” (Muhammad Yunus, Nobel Peace Prize Winner, 2006), then in reality, tapping into this can spiral us upwards instead of downwards, creating enormous bounties to provide a life of abundance for ourselves and our communities.

f) Use constructive communication methods and provide caring support.  “…we don’t derive strength from our rugged individualism, but rather from our collective ability to plan, communicate, and work together. Our neural, hormonal and genetic makeup support interdependence over independence. ….we really weren’t born to walk alone.” Brene Brown

It is when we touch hearts and engage minds using kind, respectful, valuing, supportive, empowering, non-punitive and non-judgmental ways, that we shift them out of an avoidance mindset into the courage that dares innovation, creativity, experimentation, resourcefulness and accountability. It’s about supporting the mistakes that are necessary as the data points to achieve excellence. It is when we offer compassion and flexibility to fit all the needs of their lives around their work, that we inspire them into the joy and enthusiasm that engages their loyalty.

It is when we remove resentment by paying them a wage that relates to their effort and not what they can be scared into tolerating, that they do not sabotage indirectly or even directly. For if we do not protect their self-esteem, and their value with rest and rejuvenation, are we not killing the geese that lay the golden eggs? Most of us do not have the tools for constructive communication. Most of us did have parents who loved us, but they did not know how to role-model constructive communication from one generation to the next, so where were we supposed to get them? This requires intentional learning from trainers and coaches.

“You can buy their hands and back, but you cannot buy their hearts and minds.”

Stephen R. Covey

g) Genuinely embody kindness. Kindness cannot be faked. People don’t read others on just the surface. We have intuition based on radars for sensing and feeling different undercurrents. What some call their ‘bullshit meter’. This means we have to embody healthy self-acceptance, self-compassion, and self-care within ourselves in order to give it to others in a genuine and healthy manner.

Final Note

Look below at what our hopeful children are like before they hear misguided messages on the wind: The bright-eyes of engagement and enthusiasm – both equally adorable. We begin life as naturally, creatively, courageously and joyously wild with innocence, and we do indeed need to come up against limits and suffering to cause growth. Instead of using AI to push aside and shut down the human spirit and intelligence even more, what about stepping up to recognize the jewels within ourselves that have always been under our very noses, longing for us to notice, value and have the courage to invest in them? How about leading us back to being that wild, marvelously creative inner child, albeit with wisdom and compassion? Remember, we are EACH incalculably rich in potential. And by doing so, we can become integrated partners with AI.

“Those of us who are willing to rumble with vulnerability, live into our values, build trust, and learn to reset, will not be threatened by the rise of the machines, because we will be part of the rise of daring leaders”.

Brene Brown

I welcome constructive comments and additional insights which may be posted below. But first, here is a contribution:

Al Gore, former US Vice-President, taken from his book The Future, on WAYS TO PROVIDE MORE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES:

“In an age when robosourcing and outsourcing are systematically eliminating private employment opportunities at a rapid pace, the restoration of healthy levels of macroeconomic demand is essential for sustainable growth.” “The creation of more public goods-in health care, education, and environmental protection, for example, is one of the ways to provide more employment opportunities and sustain economic vibrancy.” “There is no shortage of work to be done (barring the obstacles of opposing self-interests)… in the creation of public goods in fields (that also include) …. environmental remediation (the redesign of agriculture, forestry and fishing)”, “the integration of sustainability into the design and construction of low-carbon, low-energy buildings, the use of sustainable architecture and design to make urban spaces more efficient and productive, and the redesign of urban transportation systems to minimize energy use and pollution flows…..The redesign of health strategies and income support programs (to manage aging populations) … mental health, family services, community building, and many other challenges that must be met.” While “high-quality, universal education is not only desirable but essential, it is not sufficient. Some of the worst atrocities in human history have been organized and perpetrated by well-educated villains.”  Our future depends on “how quickly individuals and groups committed to a sustainable future can gain sufficient strength, skill, and resolve by connecting with one another to express and achieve their hopes and dreams for a better world” for all people. With expanding bandwidth on the internet, there may be opportunities “in the use of hybrid public/private models for the support of excellence in Internet-based journalism”.  “What “the world community desperately needs (is) leadership that is based on the deepest human values.” What I interpret from that is that opportunities will be there for those who invest in growing the “wisdom (knowledge, integrity and character)” in themselves and others, “sufficient for far-reaching decision-making.”

Articles posted here are the result of intensive research, analysis, and synthesizing. The goal is to create value-rich, easy-to-read, insightful pieces that fit into busy lives. If you would like to participate in healing and empowering the global community, I would so very much appreciate your help in passing this gift along by forwarding or re-posting this. You will turn this gift into your gift to others.