Episode 16: Human By Design or Human By Default?

Brian Milner (00:25) Hello, hello, welcome back in to another episode of People Over Prompts Podcast. I'm here with you as always, Brian Milner. This is the podcast where we talk about the future of work and specifically teamwork in the age of AI. And this episode is going to be a little bit different because I wanted to just kind of share with everyone listening a little bit about what's about to happen for me here this week. I have kind of teased this a little bit in the in past episodes that I'm going to be speaking at a conference. I'm a keynote speaker at the regional scrum gathering taking place in Central America. It's going to be antique in Antigua, Guatemala, and I'll be speaking there on Friday, the week that this episode comes out. And I wanted to just give you a little bit about that. Not the event itself, but a little bit about what I'm going to talking about there. Because it it has a lot to do with some of the same things Things we talk about here on the show. This is obviously a passion area for me. I know it is for you if you're listening to this. So just a I wanted to give you a little bit of a a sneak peek a little bit into this. If you're going to be at the conference, then this gives you a little bit of a a sneak peek into what I'm going to be talking about on Friday. But first of all, why why would I do this? Why why am I going to Guatemala? well there's a couple of reasons. One is I was asked and I I think it's important to some support the community and try to you know touch base with real people so that's that's one reason the other reason is I think Central America is one of those I don't want to say untouched, but maybe untapped regions where I think there's a lot of potential there. there's just some really smart people that are there. And I I think that this s the topics and areas we talk about here on the show and that I teach about I think can be really really useful for for where they are right now. And so I see a lot of potential in that that part of the world. I think it's it's kind of sadly a little bit neglected by some of the the technology area. And I think that the the people that I've I've crossed paths with there, as I said, are brilliant. And I I've I've done work in Mexico City. I've been in Guatemala before. there's a f a few other places in Central America that I I've done some work in the past and have always really enjoyed it and and am really looking forward to to being there. the conference theme, by the way, is human by design. And that really struck a chord with me. I thought that was going to be something that really aligned very well with what it is I'm I'm trying to do. to talk about now. So the the title of my keynote is Human by Design or Human by Default. And I really am going to to try to dive into a little bit about the distinction there. you know, are we really doing this by design or are we allowing certain things to just take place by default? And I I I'm making the case that really we have to have an intelligent design, if you will, into the system if we want to make sure that humans play a front front row kind of front and center role in this. so I I I want to give a little sneak peek into this and I want to go over a little bit of what I'm going to talk about. I'm not going to give it all away because I I you know the the conference talk is much longer but I I want to make sure that you get a flavor for what we're going to talk about there. First of all, I think the kind of the big premise for what I want to talk about here is just the big th question is are we asking the wrong questions? Because I I think what we hear quite frequently is how do I replace fill in the blank with AI? sometimes that's a person. How do I replace this role with with an AI agent or with AI? Sometimes it is a function or a task, or sometimes it is even how do I improve this meeting? You know, if you're from the Scrum world, how do I improve, you know, my sprint planning session using AI? And what I'm kind of basing a lot of the talk on is is just pause. and saying are we asking the wrong question there? rather than asking how do I replace this maybe we should be asking whether that's still needed. I'm not I'm not trying to propose we throw everything away, I'm just trying to to say as a system thinker, I think we have to pause and say some of the things have changed, and if things have changed then maybe we need to re examine the system and think through this from a different angle. you know. the phrase I I like to use is i if if you're doing a math problem and you change the variables and the math problem, then you're gonna get a different answer. And that's the way I see the world of work right now is we're changing the variables that go into how we work. So if we change the variables the outcome is going to be different. We we have to take a look at the whole thing. So that that's kind of what this is all going to be based around is is that big question of are we asking even the right questions? because quite frankly, the the economics of work have changed on us. it's not the same workplace that it was five, ten years ago. it and it and the the pace of change is so rapid that i being comfortable with change is is such an important skill. y you know, I I think in the past what we've looked for is some kind of structure that we can use and and kind of grasp onto and say, well if I just follow this structure, then everything is going to be fine because it's worked for other people and we've defined this as the right structure. So we just are going to follow this and that should make everything okay. And what I'm talking about here in this talk is no, if you did define the right structure, then it wouldn't last for long because the pace is changing so fast. of of the variables than our equation that's really the skill we have to learn and embed in our organization is that adaptability right that that ability to roll with the changes as they come and incorporate them intelligently in how we do things. you know in in the past doing things was very expensive. if it took a a a team of developers you know, six months to build something, then obviously we we that required people and that required time and and money, specialist and coordination. And planning in that kind of realm was almost insurance, if you will. It was insurance that we weren't gonna make a costly mistake. Because once we pulled the trigger and started doing the thing, building it, well, there was really not a a a checkpoint to stop. we just kind of kept kept going. So planning was really important. And much of our process that we we kind of used in the workplace was evolving based around all these limits that came with this this coordination of doing that cost a lot of money. So what happens when that changes? what what if you can test a hundred ideas And the time that it once took to build one. See what I mean about how the economics of are changing? what if building a prototype cost less than a meeting to plan it? Right? When that's the case, what happens to our processes? What happens to our practices when the constraints they were built around are now changing and are completely different than they were in the past? That's the new paradigm. And if that's the new paradigm, then shouldn't we change the way we work as well, right? Because we have to fit into this new work stream. And kind of more importantly, the the the the area I'm gonna take this to is what happens to humans. in this equation. because we're shifting, we're changing how we do things. It's not just about what AI can do, because it's about what happens to the humans as part of this equation as well. Our teams are going to be different. If previously I had a team of, I don't know, five to ten people that would build something Is that going to be the same moving forward? Think about the skills that would need to be required to build something previously. Well, now that AI is in the equation, it's a different set of skills. You might still still need a few of the same skills. And you you need some verification built in there, but you also need people who can coordinate. AI agents, right? That know how to to build an agent and deploy agents and you know distribute work across a team of agents? These are going to be the skills that now will make up our team. And what will our team then look like? Will an agent be counted as a team member? Or are we only counting the humans? What if we have a human and twenty AI agents? Is that a team? What if you have five humans and each has an AI agent? What if they share a pool of AI agents? So this is part of what I'm trying to get at here is that the team is gonna look different. research in this is really interesting and it's one of the things I'm gonna go into in this talk is is really around the fact that people may end up working differently with AI teammates than they do with human teammates. I think we bring a lot of the the baggage that we carry around as humans to our work environment and and to our relationship with AI. I'll just give you one of the things that I've always found fascinating about this, and I I probably have mentioned this in a previous episode. If you name your your AI agent, right? If you give your AI agent a name, if the name that you give it is a male name versus a female name. People interact with and treat the agent differently, depending on if they've given it a male name or a female name. I mean, I just a for the listeners here, just pause for a moment. If you've given your AI agent a name, was it a male name or was it a female name? And whatever choice you made, pause for a minute and think, why did you choose that? Why did you decide to give it a male name? Or why did you decide to give it a female name? That's a really interesting question, right? And if it changes how we interact with it, well, what other baggage like that are we bringing to the table that maybe we're not even aware of, right? So that's part of what we're going to talk about here. you know, what happens to collaboration when when some of your teammates aren't human? we talk a lot about collaboration on teams. And teamwork. Well, what does that look like when you have AI agents as part of the team? More importantly, what happens to accountability? We see this every day, right? That there's these gaps where people think, well, the AI had that. Well, no, it didn't have that. And if it doesn't, who's at fault? It's not the AI, right? The AI doesn't get fired. it's the human who presented that product or that that work product, right? so that's part of what we'll be talking about here in the talk. And when I when I get to this you know overall idea of human by design or human by default, what do I mean by that? Well, if we're talking about creating systems that are human by default, we're looking at Things like adding AI to existing processes. Not not really examining the process, but just saying, let's throw a dash of AI in here. And I gotta tell you, this is right now, I think, the problem of our time. At this moment, 2026, rounding the corner, going into 2027, I think this is the problem a lot of organizations are dealing with. Is they have a mandate to implement AI. And there's no rhyme or reason to where AI should be. They're just given a mandate to we better have AI involved with our product. and that's that's a terrible approach. that's gonna lead to some some overkill and that's gonna lead to people having AI fatigue real quick. I mean Again, listeners, think about the products you use. How many products have you used right now that have added AI that you look at them and think, that's a worthless feature that got added with that AI? I never use that. It's never useful to me. I can name about 20 of them right now in products I use every day. That they have added AI features, AI chatbots, AI helpers. that don't help at all, that don't really do anything for me. And I will never use them. And so I just challenge you, think about that from from your perspective. And if that's what's going on with all the products we're using, what's going on with your product? Right? Are we throwing extra AI flavoring on top of everything that we're doing just because that's the new buzzword? Or are we really thinking about this as a system? So that's by default. changing as little as possible is human by default. Right? We're we're gonna just keep their existing structure and maybe just change the tiniest little bit. or allowing team structures and and human relationships to evolve almost by happenstance, like accidentally, right? But when I talk about human by design, I I'm thinking about things like Intentionally rethinking how work happens, how we show up for it. Stopping and saying now that we live in the world where AI exists, and now we live in this world where we have we can have agents that do things for us. If we were to design this system of work today, knowing everything that we know, is this how we would do it? And that's the question I don't think that's getting asked. I think people are stopping and saying, How can I piecemeal this thing out? How can I replace this or swap this with AI? And the question might be better served, is it even needed anymore? Or was that meant to solve a problem that only existed because it was all humans interacting? This is not in any way to belittle humans in the loop. Please don't misunderstand me. Right? That's not going to be the purpose of my talk. It's to say, if this is our system, where do we want the humans, where do we need the humans in the system now that AI exists? Where can we trust AI to do certain things? And where and what can that now free the humans up to do? Right? What are what are the things that AI can't do that we need the humans to do? And that's designing intentionally. That's by design. preserving human judgment, preserving human agency and and accountability. That's what we want to try to do. Design for the human needs, not just efficiency. I can efficiently churn out a bunch of stuff that no one's ever gonna use. But that's not gonna do my business any any good. Right? I was just talking with someone earlier tonight about this. The thing that AI can't do is understand your customer. It can give you a lot of data points, but it can't have those conversations with the customer and really understand and build the relationship. Right? So that's that's part of what I'm going be talking about here as well. I mean, kind of the central question there is just are we deliberately designing for the future of work? Or are we just letting it happen to us? That's what I want to talk about at this talk. And I gotta tell you, I've been researching and planning for this for at least six months. I think it's probably even longer than that. But there's been a lot of research that even before I knew I was giving this talk, I was pulling research for this because I knew this was an area I wanted to talk about. I wasn't sure where it was going to manifest and when. but I I'm very excited to be delivering this. and really think it's gonna be good. I'm I'm talking Friday, November sixth, It's going to be in in Antigua, Guatemala. and that's part of the regional scrum gathering for Central America. if you are in any way on the fence about attending and it's possible for you to attend, hopefully this encourages you. this episode is going to come out on Wednesday of the week, and that means that the conference will have started today, later today. But my talk will be on Friday, so you have some time to even get there if you need to. so that you can you can attend and I I look forward to reporting back to you a little bit about that. one of my favorite things about going to conferences is just having those human conversations. I think it's really important to be able to talk with others that are do doing this and struggling in the same areas and trying to find answers right now. So I am looking forward to having those those deeper conversations with friends that I know already and and new friends that I'll meet. while I'm there. And looking forward to kind of enjoying the hospitality there of of Guatemala. the as I said I've been there before and really enjoyed my trip there and I know that this one's going to be even better. really looking forward to it. So just as a final thought here, you know if you if you look if look at the way that your team works today, how much of that exists because it's the best way to work And how much of it exists because it's it's simply the way we've always done things. I think that's really the core of what this talk is gonna is about. And that's what I hope to explore. So just a a little bit of a shorter episode this week because of the conference. And you know, I I'll I'll happily report back to you on the next episode a little bit about it. I'm hoping to maybe have some conversations with people there that might influence what comes out here, maybe even be able to interview a few people while I'm there for the show as well. So if you are at the conference, please do come up and say hello and tell me that. You listen to the to the podcast, that would really mean a lot to me. I love to meet listeners of the show. sometimes you know, I've been at other agile conferences and people have come up and said, Wow, you don't look like I thought you would listening to the podcast. And I'm not ever sure how to take that, if that's a compliment or or not. but yeah, I it's still it's just fun. so do come up and say hello if you you you see me at the conference. you know, if you're you'd like to do something helpful for for us for the show. all the the kind of Standard ask still apply here. Like and subscribe to this. That really does help this podcast get found by others. If you're on the fence, you know, it only takes a second. And you know, it it really does it's really not that big of a a task. But if you like and subscribe to it, that'll really help us get found by others. and and you telling a friend is really kind of the best way that we spread news about this podcast. So please do tell someone else. If you have anything you want me to talk about here, or if you have a time topic area that you think would be good or maybe a guest that you think would be a good guest to have on the show, email me. It's Brian at agilityevolved.com and it's Brian with an I. B-R-I-A-N at agilityevolved.com. That's my email address. And I promise you I will reply to you. We'll get back to you you know as long as it's not a solicitation of some kind and it's a publisher who's just trying to get the latest you know their client's latest book promoted but if it's if it's an honest to God recommendation of someone else, I love to put those people on the show and really look forward to hearing from you about those kind of things. That'll wrap it up for this week. So I hope you're having a great week. I hope your November is starting off well, and we'll talk to you next time on another episode of People Over Prompts Podcast. Have a great week, everyone.