Even in an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence, human mindset makes all the difference.
Jay Shetty, bestselling author, award-winning podcast host, and motivational speaker, spoke to attendees at Ingram Micro ONE earlier in the month about the power of connected thinking, and how it can make a pivotal difference in the age of AI. “In an age where it feels like technology is in charge, I want to talk about the power of human connection,” Shetty said. “Becoming a connected thinker is not only integral or important, it’s necessary.”
Shetty defined a connected thinker as: “someone who has the ability to view limitless potential—to think as broadly and deeply as they please.” In a recent Harvard study, researchers asked 3,000 executives what they believed was the No. 1 skill needed to be a great leader.
The top answer was associating, or “the ability to spot connections where everyone else sees anomalies, to see patterns where everyone else only sees disconnection,” Shetty said. “They said the No. 1 skill for a leader was the ability to see things that connected across departments, across industries, across countries, across the world that other people would miss.”
Here are the four mindsets leaders need to become connected thinkers.
Mindset 1: Community
The name of the game is a community mindset, namely, a community of unique connections. While having a strong network is good, having a strong network of unique connections is better.
“When you know lots of people who know each other, you create an echo chamber,” said Shetty. “This means your ability to be innovative, be impactful, have unique ideas, and be creative is reduced. If you always email the same five people, if you [ask questions of] the same 10 people in your group chat, you are creating echo chambers.”
In a study by MIT, researchers found that employees with more unique connections “were more innovative, impactful, and effective within their organizations because they knew people from different backgrounds—different walks of life that didn’t intersect,” Shetty said.
“If we’re all using the same platforms, following the same people, watching the same TV shows and movies, it’s very difficult to create something unique and powerful and innovative,” Shetty explained. “A connected thinker is someone who’s willing to change the map that they’re following. Someone who’s willing to change the people they’re surrounded by. Someone who’s willing to add diversity to the ideas that are coming through to them. I want to challenge you to … expand your community to become a more connected thinker. That simple step can transform how your mind functions. We are so conditioned for consistency and certainty that we don’t know how to deal with change and uncertainty, and this simple mindset can make a huge shift.”
Mindset 2: Coach
To demonstrate what a coach mindset looks like, Shetty sorted the audience into four major personality types, each with their own skill set and goals. To do this, he asked attendees to categorize themselves with two questions: Are you more outgoing or more reserved? And, are you more task-focused or more people-focused?
The Doers
“Outgoing and task-focused people are doers,” Shetty said. “They’re planners and schedulers. They get things done. They care about deadlines, timelines, and projects. These people fire before they aim because they’re so ready to get going—and they’re proud of it.”
The Inspirers
“The [outgoing and people-focused] group are inspirers and influencers. They negotiate well, persuade people, and bring energy into a room. They’re all talk, talk, talk—[focused on] thinking and visioning,” Shetty said.
The Perfectionists
“Reserved and task-oriented people are quality and detail focused,” Shetty explained. “This is the group that finds the spelling mistakes in your emails. They’re ready, aim, aim, aim, aim … They’re perfectionists; they’re going to get it right. They want to make sure things work.”
The Supporters
“The reserved and people-focused group are stable, supportive, and emotionally intelligent. They care [most] about how people feel,” Shetty said. “If you want a hug at the end of the night, this group is ready.”
Someone with a coach mindset is able to speak a different language to each of these kinds of people. Shetty explained, “If I’m talking to [the Doers], it’s all about deadlines, goals, and targets. If I’m talking to [Inspirers], it’s all about ideas and energy. When I’m talking [to the Perfectionists], it’s all about precision and focus and quality. And if I’m talking to [Supporters], it’s all about humans and people.”
“If I don’t learn, as a connected thinker, to speak that language, I’m making it harder to lead,” Shetty said. “It’s easy to try and talk to everyone the same and hope that they understand your language. [But] when we do that, we lose the ability to make an impact. We lose the ability to build trust and be true, empathetic leaders. As a coach, as a leader, you don’t have to be the best [at specific tasks]. You don’t have to know how everything works. You have the ability to bring [experts] together, to create magic.”
Mindset 3: Child(like, not -ish)
Children are incredibly creative; give them an open-ended task like “draw 30 unique circles in 30 seconds,” and you’ll get all kinds of results, from drawings of soccer balls to bubble wrap. But give the same task to adults, and you typically end up with plain circles, labeled 1 through 30.
“[Adults are so focused on getting the task done that] the lateral right brain switches off. Now all you have is your logical, task-focused brain active,” Shetty explained. In children, however, “the lateral brain goes crazy.”
“It’s fascinating what happens when you tap into that childlike mind,” Shetty says. “And, thinking about innovation and creativity and connected thinking, [that’s what we] need to tap back into. I challenge you to find ways you can bring that childlike mindset into the workplace, lives, and home, so that you too can tap into that creativity, curiosity, and discovery that children naturally have.”
Mindset 4: Coder
The founder of Pokémon Go created the game because when he was young, he and his dad would explore nature together—find insects and animals and learn more about them. But his kids didn’t want to go outside; they wanted to play video games indoors. He built Pokémon Go to get his kids outside and exploring the city.
That’s exactly how the most impactful innovations happen: “Someone has a personal experience and finds a way to humanize technology,” Shetty said. “AI’s already doing its thing. Technology’s always done its thing. All we can do is humanize the way we use it and what we use it for. One of the most common questions I get is, ‘Do you believe AI will ever have a soul?’ I don’t know if AI will ever have a soul. I just hope the people building it and using it have a soul.”
“Ultimately, the machine becomes us. We can’t be scared of anything that we created. A part of us is in [AI],” Shetty said. “If we can humanize the way we use these technologies—the way we see their value and engage with them—[the mindset] transforms to how we can have a relationship with it. [AI’s problems] are only going to be solved when we get up close and personal and add our humanity to it.”
A Mindset for the Future
Shetty believes these four mindsets tie directly to what are predicted to be the four most important skills for 2030: “complex problem solving, which requires community thinking; critical thinking, which requires the mindset of a coder; creativity, which requires the fresh eyes of a child; and people management, which requires the leadership of a coach,” he explained.
“These four are the most critical human skills needed at a time when it feels like humans are less and less important. But these four skills are skills that humans do prolifically well,” Shetty said. “And, they have such a huge impact on the people that experience them.”
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