A couple of years ago I was on the sales advisory board of a leading AI company which focused on selection and management of employees with the goal to create better employee satisfaction, increase productivity and to reduce turnover. The idea behind it: Let algorithms determine the general psychological profile of candidates and match them to the “right” teams. Who is the best fit? What personality traits are useful and desirable to have in certain areas of an organization? What components are lacking and could be purposefully introduced. Perhaps we will want to add a certain level of internal competitiveness, or may want to have some employees which are options oriented versus having a procedures orientation. No doubt AI has some usefulness, however the biggest hurdles so far are legal and compliance issues. But what is not taken enough into consideration is our human capability to grow, transform, change and adapt. We may not be aware of it, but we are running literally 50-60 mental programs (perceptional filters) in our background which will determine which of our perceptions are being selected for attention. This happens mostly on an unconscious level. As a consequence these background programs frame our interpretation of events, shape our experience and therefore determine emotions and reactions. Last weekend I offered a retreat workshop, addressing and practicing some of these perceptional components and the impact they have upon our lives. Particularly, how we use language to create our reality – sometimes empowering but much more often limiting. This was done in combination with sensory awareness of our physical body and mind in the form of yoga. It was a beautiful and deeply gratifying experience for me and the participants involved - a holistic approach to our transformation. While AI has developed in a breathtaking speed and will have its usefulness in a wide array of topics and circumstances, let’s keep the human aspects in our life and take more control. We do not need to have machines and algorithms shape our experience. Rather let’s use it for verification and overlay purposes in data analytics and organizational design, not as a standalone tool. With good and steady practice we can become aware off and identify which mental programs are running us in the background. Then we can choose the ones to keep and utilize in a contextualized ecological fashion. It’s a matter of sensory awareness.

From my series: Limiting thought patterns

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