PPP 520 | Are Smarter AI Tools Making Us Less Capable?, with LEGO Serious Play co-creator Johan Roos

Summary In this episode, Andy sits down with Johan Roos, professor and executive advisor at Hult International Business School, Executive Director of the Peter Drucker Society Europe, and co-inventor of the LEGO® Serious Play® method. Johan is the author of Human Magic: Leading with Wisdom in an Age of Algorithms, and he has spent decades studying how people think, create, decide, and lead together. Andy and Johan explore the two paths Johan calls erosion and amplification, starting with a question Andy has been wrestling with as he hands more of his manual driving over to Tesla's self-driving. You'll hear what an eroding project manager actually looks like day-to-day, why practical wisdom matters when the analytically optimal answer is not the wisest one, and how AI feeds one kind of curiosity, the laser, while starving another, the radar. Johan also explains the difference between becoming an AI concierge and practicing what he calls professional citizenship, and he shares what parents can do to help their kids hold onto the messy, hands-on curiosity that machines cannot supply. If you're looking for a thoughtful, hopeful way to use AI without surrendering your judgment, this episode is for you! Sound Bites "Almost every good idea I've had was not in front of the screen." "I know what to do, but I've stopped understanding why.".... The eroding project management can no longer explain the why." "So in a sense, they argue that the better the system, the stronger pull down the erosion curve." "So the message is really when the machines are taking over more and more of some of these subtle, very valuable capabilities we have, we have to climb the value creation ladder." "So a complexity is exactly where our wisdom gets exposed." "So every metric said fantastic, but nobody asked why, and is this right?" "If AI can write a document that is important to you, the document was never where the value lived." "But we just have to be careful to not sort of delegate too much of our brain power and sort of erode our jelly bean." "When you lean back and you haven't struggled enough, you may be super smart and, and the best brilliant individual in the world, but, you know, friction is good." "Are you able to argue for your case without holding on to the AI-produced slide?" "Protect the wandering curiosity, unstructured exploration, questions with no immediate payoff, the freedom to follow something nowhere in particular." Chapters 00:00 Introduction 02:35 Start of Interview 02:44 Growing Up Inquisitive and the Power of "Because" 06:04 Self-Driving Cars, GPS, and the Erosion of Our Abilities 10:31 Becoming an Active Supervisor Instead of a Passive Passenger 13:55 What an Eroding Project Manager Looks Like Day to Day 18:52 When the Optimal Answer Is Not the Wisest One 22:03 Intuition, Gut Feel, and When Something Does Not Smell Right 25:54 The Laser and the Radar: Two Kinds of Curiosity 27:52 Creating Independently Before Consulting AI 30:44 What Happens in the AI-Free Time 35:18 Is It Intuition or Is It Ego? 37:48 Turning the Models Loose on His Own Book 40:00 Asking AI to Be Brutally Honest 41:02 AI Concierge Versus Professional Citizenship 45:51 Advice for Parents Raising Kids in the Age of AI 49:26 Staying Human: Theater, Walks, and Getting Your Hands Dirty 50:44 End of Interview 51:15 Andy Comments After the Interview 54:46 Outtakes Learn More You can learn more about Johan and his work at humanmagic.one. For more learning on this topic, check out: Episode 500 with Steve Brown. Steve is a former Google DeepMind futurist, and he has a unique perspective on where we've been and where we're going with AI. Episode 479 with Matt Mong. Matt shares his take on the AI skills we need to stay relevant in the years to come. Episode 463 with Faisal Hoque. Faisal helps us go beyond the fear and the hype around AI to a helpful way to think about the human-AI relationship. Chat with PMeLa You can chat directly with PMeLa, the podcast's AI persona, to get episode recommendations and answers to your project management and leadership questions. Visit <a href= "ht