Culture and music critic Ted Gioia, the Honest Broker, writes:
“The rapid rise of AI is actually the most profound evidence yet of cultural stagnation.” – Ted Gioia, gated source
I like culture, and Ted’s work, because culture is a factor in production and Ted blends culture + economics beautifully.
Culture influences ideas, human capital development, organizational design, work habits and norms, the preferences around customer consumption behavior, and the preferences around what firms people choose to work at. Culture influences everything!
Principle: To get the most from talent, deeply embed yourself in the culture.
Now you have my thoughts and why I like Ted, let’s consider:
Why does Ted think the culture is stagnating?
- New and innovative music is not being introduced into the market.
- Consumption habits are regressing to the past versus consuming at the margin.
- Firms are optimizing for the formula that works. Look at the various remakes of old franchises: Marvel, Ghostbusters, and how much music sounds like hit music from days gone by.
What are some reasons Ted believes AI doesn’t help?
- AI is fundamentally backward-looking relying on analyzing and re-combinating existing data rather than generating truly novel ideas or content;
- AI recommendations biases existing preferences; and
- AI-generated content imitates rather than innovates.
Why does this matter?
- Growth happens at the margin.
- Growth happens when people become more curious about the unknown and under-explored. Ideas are good!
- Ideas gets the most utility when it’s tied to production. Talent needs to leverage their curiosity to make and ship new things.
What can you do about it?
- Ask talent: What have you been curious about lately? What ideas are you exploring? What ideas do you think are under-explored?
- Ask Talent: What do you think we’re missing here? Where do you think we need to spend more time and attention?
- Challenge Talent: What’s one thing you could do today to leverage that curiosity and produce something valuable for the business? How can I help?
Want an example?
I work in Customer Success. I asked a new hire two questions:
- Based on what you’ve experienced so far, what are we missing?
- Where are we going wrong? I want your gut reaction.
The new hire introduced ideas from their previous role — they took an idea from their last culture and suggested our culture adopt the idea. Good thing the ideas are implementable.
We’re we stagnating before I asked this question? No, we’re in hyper-growth mode and moving fast. However, like Galileo’s ship, having an outsider give you their perspective gives you insight into what you might be missing.
How does this connect to my principle?
By actively engaging with a new hire and seeking their fresh perspective, I wasn’t just observing our culture from afar – I was deeply embedding myself in it. This approach manifests the principle in several ways:
- I acknowledged that culture is not static, even in a fast-growing company.
- My openness demonstrates valuing diverse perspectives, including those from outside our immediate cultural bubble.
- I showed a willingness to question and potentially improve our current practices.
- I facilitated the cross-pollination of ideas between different corporate cultures, which can drive innovation.
If you deeply embed yourself in the culture this way, you can create an environment where talent can thrive, new ideas can emerge, and you can actively combat the kind of corporate cultural stagnation.
Talent Revolution 