Humans Are For Deep Work

What people often refer to as an overnight success is usually the result of years of private struggle and perseverance.

Why it matters: Before an NBA player successfully shoots a three-pointer or an NFL quarterback makes a game-winning pass, they spend countless hours practicing alone, learning from coaches, and refining their skills.

• Similarly, the successful implementation of an Enterprise AI initiative requires significant effort that is often outside of public view.

Between the lines: The main distinction is that this process involves a team of individuals who continuously make minor improvements, with many employees acquiring new skills, and executives who leverage their leadership to motivate and transparently highlight their development.

Catch up quick: Before ChatGPT became a household name, it was just one of many ideas being explored behind closed doors.

• For years, it existed as a collection of research papers, sample projects, and a dedicated team of researchers working toward a common goal.

• What the public ultimately fell in love with was the result of years of hard work, numerous obstacles overcome, and many late nights filled with frustration, concerns from board members, and anxiety from investors.

State of play: For knowledge workers and business professionals, work is primarily cognitive rather than physical, requiring intense and uninterrupted focus on a series of challenging tasks.

• This level of concentration is known as deep work.

• Popularized by Cal Newport, a computer science professor at Georgetown, this approach involves intentionally distancing oneself from distractions such as emails, chats, and multitasking.

• The team that consistently exceeds expectations often works during early mornings and late evenings with closed doors, dedicating months or even years to the disciplined time blocking of demanding tasks.

Zoom in: Deep work fundamentally changes the way your brain functions.

• By concentrating intensely on learning new concepts or developing a skill, you strengthen your brain's neural connections.

• This enables you to learn and master complex information more quickly.

• Moreover, creativity tends to flourish in a distraction-free environment.

• When your mind is fully engaged with a problem, it can form novel connections and generate original ideas, which is challenging to achieve when your focus is fragmented.

Yes, but: Shallow work is increasingly being taken over by machines, and this is beneficial.

• Administrative tasks, quick emails, and brief meetings often fill our days but provide little lasting value. These can be accomplished with AI, allowing people to focus on more cognitively demanding tasks.

• The capacity to produce high-quality, mentally demanding work is becoming a crucial competitive advantage for both employees and the organizations they work for.

• This represents the future for employees in skills-based organizations, where humans focus on deep work and machines take over the more mundane tasks.

What's next: As companies shift toward a skills-based workforce that's less restricted by traditional roles and titles, the ability to engage in deep work has become increasingly valuable.

• However, for organizations to fully value deep work, employees must first learn to collaborate effectively with AI, thereby minimizing less valuable tasks in their workload.

• Changes in the workplace are happening rapidly, and now is the time to evolve from role-based employees to focused, deep workers.

Go deeper: Reach out to Todd Moses & Co for a complimentary book on the future of work, additional information on this topic, or to schedule a consultation.