189 - Dr. Sabba Quidwai - Come for AI and Stay for Design Thinking!
Nov 14, 2023
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Dr. Sabba Quidwai, an expert in AI and Design Thinking, discusses the challenges of short-term technology solutions. She emphasizes the importance of questioning large organizations and the significance of alignment for advancing visions. The podcast also delves into personal branding, empathy, and the obsession with LinkedIn. The intersection of design thinking and AI integration in education is explored, along with the importance of reconnecting with human values in the age of AI.
Building a personal brand and showcasing work online can open doors and create more choices in personal and professional growth.
AI can amplify the process of design thinking, allowing individuals to generate ideas that align with their values and spark confidence.
Deep dives
The Power of Mindset and Non-Negotiables
In this podcast episode, the guest discusses the importance of mindset and non-negotiables in personal and professional growth. She emphasizes that 80% of success is a mindset game and highlights the significance of having people around who encourage and reinforce one's strengths and possibilities. Understanding one's non-negotiables and having clarity on what is intolerable is also crucial for making decisions aligned with values. The guest stresses the importance of building a personal brand and showcasing work online to open doors and create more choices. Finally, she shares the positive influence of her father and his constant highlighting of individual strengths and working together as a team.
AI as a Catalyst for Design Thinking
The conversation shifts to the role of AI and how it can amplify the process of design thinking. The guest believes that AI has been a catalyst in getting people interested in design thinking and its benefits. Design thinking, which begins with empathy, allows for the exploration of meaningful and sustainable solutions rather than simply plugging in AI tools. The guest highlights the importance of reconnecting with human values, finding alignment, and addressing the habits and biases built around technology integration. By leveraging AI and design thinking, individuals can generate ideas, spark confidence, and design solutions that align with their values.
Harnessing the Potential of AI
The guest discusses the potential of AI to support and enhance various aspects of education. By prompting the human before prompting AI, individuals can identify their challenges, hopes, and dreams. AI tools, such as chat GPT, can then be used to brainstorm and generate ideas within a constrained timeframe. However, the guest emphasizes the need to evaluate and critically analyze AI-generated ideas, considering personal criteria and environments. She also cautions against fostering dependency on AI and highlights the importance of maintaining integrity and alignment with human values in AI integration.
The Path to Purposeful Education
The conversation concludes by emphasizing the need to prioritize human values, connection, and alignment in education. The guest suggests that education should not solely focus on technology, but rather on meaningful work, authentic learning, and essential human experiences. By connecting with non-negotiables and engaging in conversations around values and aspirations, individuals can lay a strong foundation for educational change and innovation. The guest encourages proactive discussions about AI, focusing on the positive outcomes it can facilitate when combined with empathy, design thinking, and human-centered approaches.
Given our last 10 years with ipads and chromebooks, if people had used ipads, the way they should have been used AI would be non issue in terms of plagiarism, student work and all these other kinds of things. And so it's an issue for us today because we have always latched on to these short term solutions that bring us even more long term problems.
It's really also important to question these large organizations. These really large big organizations that we look to.... Where have you been in the last 20 years? Where is that check in? Why have things not evolved and why are people so flustered? Where is the advocacy?Who's gonna take the step back and ask what is the missing piece here? Because if you just blindly follow these organizations, you will get what you've got in the last 10 years.
Surprising Takeaways
And I always tell people it doesn't matter whether somebody agrees or disagrees. If you don't have alignment, you have a problem, you're not gonna be able to advance your vision, your solution or anything, regardless of what the scenario is or how excited you may be.
We don't make the time for [it] and that is a choice that is an active choice we make, whether you realize it or not, where we choose to dedicate our time and dedicate our focus. Those are the seeds we're choosing to plant. What you do is going to get you the outcomes that you get.
Prompt the human before you prompt the AI
Emerging Patterns
Importance of personal branding in opening doors for opportunities
Maintaining a growth mindset towards taking risks
Emphasis on human connection and values in all aspects of life - from personal relationships to professional settings
Importance of questioning large organizations
Key Moments
1) "I think it's an 80% mindset game…that idea that anything is possible…you truly have to believe that that's actually the case for you if you are going to trust yourself."
2) "Being able to really understand your non negotiables…what are the things I just will not tolerate?"
3) "One of my biggest reasons I advocate for having a personal brand…is it's very difficult to have those choices if the only people who know you are the people in your building."