Margie Meacham - AI in Talent Development

2021 ASTD DBA the Association for Talent Development (ATD)

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2020946220

ISBN-10: 1-95049-631-7

ISBN-13: 978-1-95049-631-0

e-ISBN: 978-1-95049-632-7

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How many books have you bought lately?

I realize that no matter how many books you buy, the decision represents an investment of your money and time, and I take your decision to buy AI in Talent Development seriously. So, Id like to ask you to think about how many nonfiction books youve purchased over the years. Play with me for a moment and write down a number. (Its OK if this is a wildly imprecise guess; its just a starting point for building your plan to get the most benefit from this book.) Now, how many of those books have you actually finished? Write that number down. Finally, of those books, how many practical ideas do you think you implemented as a direct result of reading them? I imagine that youre very busy, that the demands of your profession and the limited amount of resources available force you to make hard choices about how you spend your time. Because your time is precious to meand I want this book to make the final list of books that you have read and usedIm offering a few suggestions for maximizing your time and getting the most tangible benefits possible from your reading experience.

Tell Someone You Are Reading This Book

Why do organizations like Alcoholics Anonymous encourage their members to share their plans and challenges with other members? Its because they understand the power of social commitments to keep us on track. If you want to finish any project, one of the best ways to achieve that goal is to tell everyone you know what youre doing. Todays social media environment gives you a chance to let everyone in your circle witness your excitement and commitment. Its not just a nice photo op for your Facebook page; its an effective tool for stimulating creative ideas and putting those ideas into practice.

Take Notes by Hand

The note-taking process has a powerful effect on the learning process. While you are reading, youll form questions, ideas, and plans to apply what you read to your situation. These tenuous thoughts are the beginnings of true learning, the start of new neural pathways that you must nurture if you intend to get the greatest benefit possible from this book. If you already keep a journal, you know the power of this habit to focus your thoughts and shape your choices in life. If youve been thinking about keeping a journal, or youve fallen off the habit and would like to reboot this powerful practice, let this book be an opportunity to begin.

Review the Table of Contents as a Preview

No doubt you will feel more interested in some topics than others. Take note of those feelingsthats your brain beginning to link your prior experience to the new experience of reading this book. Its also a great place to start writing. Just capture questions, ideas, and other thoughts that flash into your mind as you review the titles of the chapters.

Pick a Place That Interests You and Start Reading

Some of you will want to start with and continue in linear fashion. (This is how I personally like to read an informational book, but that doesnt mean its the right approach for you.) Start with the chapters that seem most interesting to you. If you feel the need to go back to an earlier chapter to pick up some background information, you can always do so later.

Avoid Skimming

But heres the challenge: Just because youre turning the pages doesnt mean you are actually reading. You may be skimming. Skimming is a technique for skipping over letters, words, and even sentences and paragraphs to gain a general sense of reading material. It used to be taught in grade school as a first step toward reading a textbook or research paper, to prepare you to get as much out of the content as possible. When you skim something, your brain connects information you already know with information you see on the page. It is an excellent method for preparing you to understand and integrate new information. Unfortunately, many of us have learned to get by with skimming a webpage, an email, or a report and never quite get to the reading part.

Viewing text on screens tends to encourage us to skim, rather than take the time to actually read and think about what were reading. This behavior is becoming so common that college professors and employers are concerned that people may not even know how to read for deeper understanding anymore (Wolf 2018).

Access the Glossary Whenever You Encounter an Unfamiliar Term

While most of the terms used in this book have become fairly common knowledge, you may sometimes be surprised by the difference between the definition as you know it and the one you find discussed in this book. Dont be too concerned about these differences. In researching this book, I found that many experts disagree on the definitions. In the interest of consistency, Ive standardized my definitions using the Machine Learning Glossary published online by Google. No doubt there are many other sources available, but this one is frequently cited by artificial intelligence (AI) developers, so Im comfortable sharing it with you.

The angel of death. Beautiful, isnt it? A perfect sphere radiating from some kind of inner light, punctuated by trumpet-shaped protrusions that might be arms, sensor probes, ornaments, or even the eyes of a strange new insect or alien being. Is it a disco ball discovered in your grannys basement, an exotic planet in a distant galaxy, or an artificial neuron whipped up in a lab? It could be a Christmas ornament, or even a Christmas angel, sparkling with the message of hope and dazzling in its brilliance.