December 9, 2025 • 38 mins
It’s our favorite Reality Bites tradition: the end-of-year panel! Tom and Tim bring the whole crew together—Megan, Ariana, Sean, and Dina—for a joyful, honest, and insight-packed reflection on 2025. From global travel and AI breakthroughs to personal milestones, hard-won lessons, and the music that carried us through the year, the team shares what defined a transformative moment for DEX, for Nexthink, and for each of us. Expect candid takes on AI balance, ambition, slop, mediation, vibe-coding, human connection—and a full round of “song of the year” picks from the whole panel. A warm, funny, heartfelt wrap to a huge year.
LISTEN AFTER THE MUSIC FOR TOM’S WORD OF THE YEAR AND SONG PICK
Learn more about Spark, The World’s Most Powerful DEX Agent for Employees hereÂ
Download The First Annual Workplace Productivity Report hereÂ
LISTEN AFTER THE MUSIC FOR TOM’S WORD OF THE YEAR AND SONG PICK
Learn more about Spark, The World’s Most Powerful DEX Agent for Employees hereÂ
Download The First Annual Workplace Productivity Report hereÂ
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom McGraw.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hello, change Makers, Welcome back to the Deck Show, Show
within a show, Reality Bites. It's it's our tradition to
have a year's end panel discussion regular listeners to both
the Deck Show and Reality Bites and over. Tim and
I have the other tradition of talking to Jeff Wright,
(00:30):
and we've already recorded that, and now we're very excited
to bring the whole panel back together because we have
seen an amazing year for Next Think, for decks, for
technology in general. I would see, I would say, thinking
specifically about decks, we've seen another Gardener Magic Quadrant this year,
another leadership position for Next Think. We've seen incredible Next
(00:53):
Think innovation unveiled such as Spark and Assistant AI Driver.
As we've covered quite extensively on the show. We've had
record breaking events in London and Boston, and we've had
we're proud and humble to say, another record breaking year
here at the deck Show and of course on Reality Bites.
(01:15):
So we're gonna we're gonna welcome everybody, all of our
all of our regular panelists are here with us, for
our end of year party, and we're gonna go one
by one. We've got some fantastic and fun questions for everybody.
I've loved the answers I've seen put in the chat,
so excited to get to everyone. But let's start with you,
(01:35):
Tim Flower, Tim Hayden.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Good time?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
How about yourself doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, yeah, excited, excited just to go through the questions.
We've got a little music for everybody, We've got a
little a little fun and of course we're going to
be asking what you know first and foremost, most substantially,
what defined twenty twenty five for you? So let's let's
begin with this one. Tim, before we get to our
quick five aroun how would you put your finger on
(02:03):
the last twelve months.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I think you're going to hear a lot and the
answers and conversation about AI. So I'm not going to
start with AI. What to find it? I We've talked
about it on the show before. I write a couple
of both business and personal milestones in time related age
and time with the company. And I look back at
my twenty years at Hartford was all sitting at a desk,
(02:27):
and my ten years here at Next Think have primarily
been living out of a suitcase and traveling to all
corners of the world, talking with people both distant coworkers
and IT executives and strangers along the way, and being
immersed in different cultures like Tokyo and Sydney and Melbourne
and too many to mention all around Europe, and it
(02:51):
gives you. I contrast that with sitting at a desk
for twenty years, and it just changes your worldview, not
just in the business that we're in and how next
Thing can help all of these people everywhere they live,
but in your personal life too. In a larger sense.
It also connects me directly with the business of Next Think, right.
I think we can get lost in our chores and
(03:11):
our tasks and our to dos when we're sitting at
a desk. But being out and talking with people and
experiencing what they're dealing with and what next Think is
doing to help, I think, really invigorates me. And this
past year. This year it was probably the most travel
in my career. The first half of the year, I
was on the road maybe eighteen weeks out of the
(03:34):
twenty six nine weeks all at once, not coming home
for nine weeks. I left my home last February it
was frozen over and I came home in April and
the grass was out in the leaves around. So it's
a huge part of my job and my career and
my life is that travel around the world. But this
year really really peaked with some new places. But then
(03:57):
AI as well. Right, it defines almost everything that we
did this year. It's become for me. It's become that
knowledgeable collaborator rather than just a searcher for answers. Right.
It helps me form concepts for research and think about
things I might have missed or you know, even in
(04:20):
my personal life, helped me research some retirement Q and
A questions and planning and modeling, help with road trip advice. Hey,
I want to go to these three cities over the
course of two weeks, map it out for me and
what should I see. All kinds of things that would
just take days and weeks or even months to do,
it can do in seconds. So, you know, I even
uploaded a solar contract. I'm looking at solar for my house.
(04:43):
Uploaded the contract and said give me all the red
flags and it listed everything out that I should be
concerned with from a legal standpoint, So its just having
access to instant knowledge that that really woke woke my
senses up this year.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, it sounds a bit like I had the same
thing by in a second hand car. I was just
uploading service histories of the cars. I was breaking it
down for me, and I thought, I'm no longer blind
in this process. I'm no longer as vulnerable as I
always otherwise, I am not being much of a car person. Tim,
coming back to your the global nature of your year,
(05:20):
which is of course indicative of the global creep of decks,
right and that we live in, and it's reaching new
new markets and new and new horizons. If you had
to just think of one place that you were most
pleased to have seen with your own eyes, could be
very specific, could be a country, and obviously not casting
(05:43):
Shade and all the other wonderful places you went. What
what what? What was? What were you most grateful for
having seen?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My favorite is Sydney because I've been there several times now,
But the one that really made me set up and
pay attention to was Tokyo because going to Japan, it's
such it's not a European based culture. It's very different
in the way they operate, if you will. And the
questions I had going in and flying into into Tokyo
(06:11):
were is dex going to translate? And it's almost h
It's almost a perfect metaphor because you've got to do
so much translation of the language as well. Right, You've
got to when you're in a meeting, you talk for
two or three sentences and then they translate it, and
then they translate it back to you, and then you
talk for another two or three sentences. So the will
(06:33):
decks translate for me was the perfect metaphor because you've
got to you gotta do the language translation first and
then make sure the concept also translates to to how
they operate. But Tokyo just as a culture, clean, inviting, quiet,
so respectful, friendly people. I would go back over and
over and over again. The food was great, too.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Beautiful, beautiful, Okay, quick fire around Tim, I've got so
many people to get for you. But what's a was
your word?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It just came up the last earlier this week, Tom,
and it was one that you coined, and I think
it fits perfectly.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Ai Fi.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Well, it was the first time I heard it was
from you, so Ai if I just take it. I'll
take it of you know where the world is being
AI fied it is.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Indeed, that's for sure personal use case if you have
you already touched upon that when you mentioned your.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Probably my personal use case is just as you know,
as you hit that age, you start to think about
the future and what retirement might look like. Having instant
access to to modeling and advice. Now you obviously got
to run it by humans to make sure you're on
the right track, but just get your thinking about what
what consumption of your savings might look like and how
(07:49):
to model it.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
That was mine, absolutely and the musical flavor to today's song,
and it doesn't have to be from this year, just
a song that spoke to you. You may have listened
to it a lot, or it may have just just
vaguely or specifically defined the year in some way.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
So I don't I have a tough time getting into
some of the more modern songs, especially current year songs,
so I tend to go into the wayback machine. My
taste strange from when I when I need to kind
of get it all out. Judas Priests and Scorpions and
Iron Maiden and led Zeppelin and Floyd, But then I'll
swing over to David Sanborn and Tower of Power. But
(08:29):
when I have a busy week and I want to
just come home and decompress, I always go back to
Pat Metheni group. So if you haven't heard of Pamatheni's
awesome guitar player, great music, music, aptitudes, and there's one
specific album. All the albums are great. If you haven't
heard of Patmatheini, go listen to any album You'll you'll
enjoy it. But it's just mellow, real relaxing. So the
(08:53):
album as we Live Here and the song is Here
to Stay, and it's just that song I go back
to whether I'm on a plane and I need to
kind of calm the nerves, or I get home and
I want to relax. Here to Stay is kind of
my go to.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Terrific Terrific and I have I'm gonna almost choose it random.
We've got Meghan, Dina, Ariana, and Sean with us two.
I'm gonna choose them at random other than Dinah, who
fair Warning is going to come last, just because I
want to end the discussion with Dina's musical choice.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
I think it's really happy, It's.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Perfect the way to go out. It's a way to
go out. So there's a teaser for listeners have to
try and guess what it might be. Let's go to
you next, Meghan, since you have the last to drop
your takes with a year into the chat, and they're
and I'm excited to I think to read them, to
be honest with you, So I'm excited to hear what
they are. How is your year and what defined twenty
(09:49):
twenty five in your view?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Coming in blind? Let me talk second time. That's brave,
all right? My year twenty twenty five, twenty five is
a great year, I think for me personally, but also
I think for Decks and for our customers and at
least the people that I got to work with, which admittedly,
if you're a Next Thing customer and you've met me,
you're probably a happy Next Thing customer, but hopefully hopefully
(10:12):
they all are. But yeah, for me that there were
sort of like two contrasting words that came to mind
when I was trying to think about this year, and
they were balanced and ambition. And I think I'm going
to go with the ambition first. Right, I've said this before,
but when I was preparing content and working with customers
(10:33):
on their sessions for our conference experience. Twenty twenty four,
there was a lot of hype around AI and what
it could do in the workplace and what agentic AI
could do, and they all wanted to build these sort
of employee facing self service portals and that all these
grand plans, but none of it had actually happened yet.
(10:54):
And then this year we started to actually see that
come to reality. As I was putting the content together
this year, you know, we have actual organizations coming to
was saying, hey, we actually were setting this up. It's
really working. We're hooking it up to all these different
data points, like things are coming into it reality. So
for me, that's the ambition piece of it is that
people had this ambition in twenty twenty five and the
(11:14):
tools to make it a reality. And then for me personally,
I started the year by doing my first ever I
don't know if this aspect of my personality has made
it onto the reality by its podcast, but I'm a
very outdoorsy person in my personal life. So I did
my first ever technical mountaineering summit at the start of
the year in Patagonia. I ran, I did my first
(11:36):
triathlon this year started backcountry ski touring. So for me
personally too, a lot of my ambitions kind of came
to reality. But I think, yeah, it was fun, it.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Was a good year.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It was a good year in my person in my
free time, did a lot of stuff. But I think
with that, and with you know, the overall sort of
heavy usage of AI that we saw this year, at
least for me my perception of it, it seemed to
really pick up in twenty twenty five, comes that balance, right.
I think along with the rise of AI, comes the
(12:10):
rise of AI slop, comes the rise of the awareness
that sometimes the stuff that AI gives you is garbage
and you have to approach it with balance. I think
we've seen that in the professional world where and this
will my word of the year is related to this,
but people have started to lose faith in some of
(12:30):
the content that they find online. I think people have
started to lose a little bit of patience with some
of the results that AI churns out for them. I
think that we need to remember to strike a balance,
and I think this year you definitely saw that. I mean,
everyone that I spoke to about setting up their interactive
(12:51):
employee self service. They were all very optimistic about it,
but they also understood that, you know, it's it needs
to actually still provide a good experience. We can't just
go into this hog and say this is the best
thing we've ever made, because what if it isn't? We
have to leave room for that, for that balance. And
so that's kind of my I'm not the biggest fan
(13:12):
of AI personally. I think people know that about me.
So I think approaching it with balance was something that
I saw people doing, and I saw people sort of
becoming a little more cautious and frustrated with the output
that you can get from AI and sort of asking, like,
you know, is the juice worth the squeeze kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It's why people have been tuning in in record numbers
to a deck show in reality. But where we can
we can guarantee six humans in the loop? No, not
a single one of us is not a single one
of us is being replaced by AI just yet. So
you alluded that to the word of a year, But
(13:53):
did you give us it?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I did not. My word of the year is m Dash.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because m dash beautiful show. Just love it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
No, I just like to think I'm personally responsible for
how much AI uses an M dash because I am
a huge fan of it as a piece of punctuation.
I think it's a beautiful piece of punctuation. And now
we all as copywriters have to go through and systematically
delete every M dash we ever use or that if
we're using, like, that's the trick right now.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No you don't. You can tell it now, Meghan, you
can tell it.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Meghan replaced it with the Oxford comma.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You'll be Also, I've been using a semicolon a lot
more than I ever did before. Listen.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's so funny because that whole story, because I was
totally cool. Oh god, I know I've been blindly sending
my dash. But the thing was, I just think it
highlights it illuminates the paradox, the paradox called nature of
AI work. Right, we're all using it. I like to
(14:55):
think I use it fairly, carefully and well, and then
we're all try and cover up our tracks. It's just
it's just a silly situation, isn't it. It's a it's
a it's a paradoxical scenario.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I mean, I definitely use it at work, and then
I have to go through and be like let's not
make it so obvious. I used it.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
It work.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, I think I'm quite proud, you know. I think
I'm quite quite good at it. But okay, well, my
own dashes I'll keep. I'll keep them in point of principle,
And what about a personal I here's something I do
know about about your megan as well as your your
intrepid mountaineering and triathlon earring and such like, which is
(15:35):
not big on personal use usages in AI, but which
which could scop me entirely? Or is there one you
succumbed to this year?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So I, on principle do not use AI in my
personal life. I think that it is cousin.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I won't go into what I think because this is
a professional podcast, not my personal take. But I did
out of curiosity. I had it build me a training
plan for a ski mountaineering race that I am doing
in February, and I thought, wow, that's interesting. And I
haven't looked at it again since, so I'll be honest,
I I thought, cool, good suggestions, CHATCHYBT, thanks, and I
(16:13):
sort of yeah, I don't. I don't use a I
sorry N word.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I like it. I like it. It's a good. It's
a good take, and it's a it's a nice a
nice thing to stick with. Good good luck to its endurance.
Finally getting off the AI track, at least a song
of the year.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I had a hard time picking this because a lot
of the music I listened to I really love is
all these like you know, girly pop singers and sort
of sapphic music like another member of this podcast, but
none of it felt super appropriate to say on a
work podcast. So instead I will say uh, won't be
Possible by Odd Mob, which I had on heavy repeat
(16:55):
for a lot of the year, and it's a good
song to reinforce, you know, setting boundaries with people.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Very nice.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
We did have a really good conversation about how amazing
it is that there is more sic pop on the
theme by this question.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, there's a real renaissance of girl pop happening out there,
But all of the songs have themes that I would
not want to discuss on this podcast. So I'm not going.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
To you know, reality by sapphic pop playlist? Why why not?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Why not put it in the description?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And I just want to say I want every every
panelist to give me their unvarnished takes, because if it
does cross a lot, I can always just edit you out,
me you take, and I'll be the judges where it's professional.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It has happened before he has edited me out.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Members of the panel. Thank you so much, Megan. Wonderful responses,
and let's go next. Since we've just heard from you,
and since it will allow us, as you've alluded to,
the staffhic pop theme to recur in the musical round,
how are you? How's your year been.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
It's been a really good year this year. I got
to work a lot on AI drive, as many of
our customers will know, because you've probably gotten an email
for me asking how's it going. If not, email me
tell me how it's going. But as a result, I've
had the chance to speak to so many different people
about their motivations, their challenges around using AI, around getting
(18:32):
other people to use AI. And it's been interesting to
see how the hype of the past two years has
turned into this very systematized, operationalized, extrinsic set of motivations
where organizations are really pushing the adoption of AI in
a way that I think is starting to be at
(18:52):
odds with the intrinsic motivators that I think will actually
drive the work to make it useful, to make it impactful.
And I think that that is going to also lead
into twenty twenty six. I want to talk too much
about this because I'm excited for us to share predictions,
but I do think that we're going to start to
(19:13):
see some of this reckoning we're starting to hear about.
You know, we can't just ride the hype train, right,
we have to actually figure out what we're doing with
this and be really intentional about it. So that's been
a really big defining thing for me professionally this year.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, I like what you said. Everyone's been quite positive
about this year. And I was just listening to you
say that as well, Oriana, and I thought, maybe this
has been like obviously, everybody can have personal circumstances in
any given year which suck, right, and putting that to
one side, could twenty twenty five have been like the
first generally positive year we've all seen since COVID, Do
(19:52):
you know what I mean? We're more often than not
people like, yeah, it was quite good. It was quite good.
I quite like this year.
Speaker 6 (19:57):
Personally, Like I'm in the US and I'm on a
professional podcasts, so I'm not going to answer.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
The US.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I'll be editing myself out of it's a fat point.
But everyone seems quite cheerful. Everyone seems quite I mean.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
I will also say that, like, fundamentally, the the ideology
that I most despise is nihilism. So not to get
overly philosophical, but I do think that in any situation
where you know, especially as somebody who is very passionate
about many topics, I think that's the most important thing
(20:39):
to me is not you know, despairing at the problems
in the world, but rather like what are we doing
about it? And actually going to my word of the year,
my word of the year is going to be a
mediation because I don't know, I know often word of
the year is like a new word, but this has
(21:00):
been like the theme for me, shall we say so.
I did the course on mediation at the beginning of
the year, and as a really fascinating experience, is something
that is motivated to do as a way to give
back to my communities, and I've already found it incredibly
useful personally and professionally to just be a better facilitator
(21:21):
to help people have more effective conversations. And it's also
made me think a lot about you know, what mediates,
what feel facilitates our experiences?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right?
Speaker 6 (21:31):
How do we interact with the world? And AI is
one of those things, right, And it is a filter
through which we interact with the world, right, And I
think it's made me reflect a lot on what are
the filters that we don't realize that we have, what
are the filters that we do realize that we have.
(21:51):
How do these shape our experiences? And so, you know,
even having a lot of thoughts and feelings and opinions
on what's going on on the thing that's important to
me is okay, and how do I choose to engage
with that?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Right?
Speaker 6 (22:05):
So that's that's my my reaction to.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
All of that.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
The perfect dovetailing of your personal and professional focus there
isn't it. You know that that question of mediation is
is your is your area of professional expertise and passion
as well as as well as as well as the
sort of personal extra professional one.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Awesome And do you have a personal AI use case?
You got one of those for us?
Speaker 6 (22:34):
So I also don't really like to use AI in
my personal life. I've definitely experimented with it because I
need to learn about it, right, I want to be aware.
But honestly, one of the things that I find is
that if I need help with the project, if I'm
lacking a relevant skill to me, that's a great opportunity
(22:55):
for me to connect with other human beings. I am
surrounded by me community, and every time I ask somebody, hey,
I need the skill I need to work on this project,
It's helped me build stronger bonds with people. It's taught
me new skills rather than having a machine do it
for me and having to just trust that it was good.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Right.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Like, the feedback cycle of working with people is fantastic,
and I highly recommend hitting with creative people around you
to solve interesting problems. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I like it a sort of a not using AI
used case of for you if that's cool too?
Speaker 6 (23:31):
And yeah, yeah, Like anytime I'm attempted to use AI,
I'm like, okay, but how do I know that it's good?
Who can help me with that? And then I talk
to a human and then you know, I don't know,
maybe there's an application fore I, but I've gotten more
out of it by starting with other people.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
And I know you submitted in the chair a song
for you? Is it sapphic pop? Because I didn't know
a song, it's not actually a song hearing.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
So I do love suffic pop. That is a lot
of my playlists. But the other thing that I love
is actually trad folk, so it's these are not the
same at all. But this year I started hosting house
concerts in my home and it has been an incredible experience.
(24:23):
The last concert was last night, which is why I
popped that in the chat extremely late at night, because
I had just finished up and was just full of
the joy that comes from being in a room with
live music, with you know, a packed space full of
people singing along to the choruses. And it's another reminder
(24:44):
of just how important those those human experiences are. And
the word I said was collective effervescence, which is a
term that was coined to describe that experience when you're
experiencing something with a group of people together. You know,
you're moved by the music, and a re single artist
that has performed in my house has told me, Wow,
(25:04):
that was such an amazing experience because when you have
such an intimate show. You have that incredible feeling of
like connection and vibing together.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
That's just truly peak awesome. We're all assuming you've got
the most amazing home. Now are honor as well?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
You know, well, don't be too impressed. We had to
cramp some people onto an hear match just because we
ran out of chairs.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Not necessarily lavish, but you know, able to capture a
vibe like that, it must be it must be a
special place. Wonderful though. Thank you so much, Arianna, And
it does sound like you had a nice year, regardless
of you know, all the Shenanigans in the background. And
since we know dinner is last, it means Sean is
(25:50):
of course next. And you know, like many people on
this pod, Sean I would say, you know something of
something of the AI skeptic. It's a little bit AI resistant,
but maybe this year has seen you teach a little
bit nearer to a dark side. Tell us about.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
It, false incorrect?
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I like it.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
I just have reservations. No, I've been using it a
lot this year. That's what kind of defined the year
for me, both in work and in personal life. But yeah,
I just find like most people have already said in
the pod, like sixty to eighty percent accurate, which brings
up like bigger philosophical questions what happens when it gets
to one hundred percent accuracy? How do we find our
(26:35):
own agency in the work we do, et cetera, et cetera.
But I think it's an awesome tool. I'm just always
slightly skeptical of what comes out.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
As well as well. One might be healthy. Yeah, any
any other detail from the year that stands out to
you show you want to I mean, I like a
quick fire around here, you go for me, you can
do it, but it's to you. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
No, I mean we focused a lot for in terms
of research this year and like what defines workplace productivity
and for businesses and how do they trace it to
value and what does that mean? But I think, like
we're all saying, you know, it's pretty positive. I think
next year is going to be We're going to have
more data and research out there, both from next Think
and externally about like how are these tools really living
(27:25):
up to their names? And that's going to be pretty
cool and interesting. And we're just going to continue to
kind of change the definition of work like individually and
then organizationally, how people are getting things done and how
they find value. So it's a very interesting topic that
I like.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Working on super word of for year.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Sean Oh, we talked about this a couple of weeks
ago Vibe coding, but just personally because I'm I'm too
stupid to understand coding, so I thought this is great,
but I definitely recognize the dangers that exist, and we
talked about our prior episode please it out checking that podcast.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, absolutely, personal AI use case of.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
So this is really geeky, but I'd like to ask
it like history questions, and I do this thing. I
used to do this in Wikipedia, where I would just
scroll to the bottom or I'd find like a certain
figure and click on that person's profile and then I
just kind of go in a rabbit hole. Now I
just go to CHATCHYBT and I'll ask, like, who else
was alive during Genghis Khan and where and when? And
then I just go down thirty minutes of that just
(28:31):
asking it historical questions.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So that's how cool I am. No, bro, I really
relate to that, like I could. I kind of build
I'll build up like a little shortlist of historical topics
I want to talk to chat about, and then I'll
just be like, Okay, I've got spare forty minutes, and
I'll just, like you say, just go from one one
to the next time.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I mean, it's cool to be like, all right, so
what was going on during the Aztec Empire over here
in Europe or what was just kind of hop around?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I love that?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, yeah, I could. And I get like a real
sense of fulfillment from it being I'd come away thirty
forty minutes and that was fun. That was fun in
that that like filled a lot of little gaps in
my head, you know. Yeah, I love that one.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Yeah, forget it on. Then I go back and do
it again the next day.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Absolutely, I see you got it. You got a song
fresh on?
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
My song of the Year is seased for Cookie by
the original Cookie Monster, Sesame Street. My daughter and I
listen to that every morning on the way to take care.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It's gonna be stuck in my head all day now, Sean.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, it's a gym. How's it good. I'm gonna get
on this.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
Corporate podcast, you know how.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I am pretty fresher. I want the melody. Okay, I'll
let you have wonderful thank you so much showing and
of course, last but not least, Dina, how are you?
How was twenty twenty five?
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I'm all good. It was a mix of everything, just
like every other year. Uh not so great. On the
personal side, I lost my dad this year year, so
that's that one is one of the biggest heroes I've
ever had in my life. However I have been when
(30:08):
that's on the personal side. So on the professional side,
it has been motivating me to actually go back and
find the matrix of everything. Pun no pun intended, you're
gonna You're knew I would mention the matrix was going
to come up always always because so when when when
you're confused, you want to go to back to the basics, right,
(30:29):
And this is one of the things this year has
defined was exploring what are our basic measures for success
for innovation, for how to automate what to automate, what
not to automate the use of AI and actually go
back to the basics, build some pillars. We're going to
be using AI unfortunately fortunately sometimes right, but we have
(30:51):
to have some pillars, which led us to agree as
a team, maybe on most of the cases on looking
at quality, efficiency, and comple lines. These are our pillars.
We're going to use AI, but we don't want to
be losing our human fingerprints along the process to fall
into sloppiness, which now i'll lude into my word of
(31:13):
the year's AI slop or work slop.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And I think you introduced us to that.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Yes, it's been there and few and few articles have encountered.
And actually the more people are going to start to
use a new tool. So AI is just an automation tool,
just one more cool way two automate what you are
repeating most of your time. So it will lead to
some efficiency, but it's drawing the boundaries, finding those lines
(31:43):
as in what should I use AI for and what
should I not use a I for? Also not to
use your human touch into it at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
MS and work slop kind of kind of close, I
think is a word.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, the more the more I use E, the
more I don't want to use AI. So that's just
how it is, like both ends of the extremes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Was there a personal use case for your dinner?
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Where plenty plenty? So I use it in my personal
life to help me brainstorm, to help me arrange travel trips,
recommendations on where to go, what to where not to go,
when to go, what's the best places, and such things.
So basically arranging and getting my thoughts that are all
over the place into one spot, help me focus on
(32:31):
some things and highlight value of whatever we're trying to articulate.
So basically summing everything back to those three pillars, quality deficiency,
under compliance of everything that you want to do.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Phenomenal and you know, we reach for your song and
your dinner in just a second. But we'll say that
part of the reason I was like, well, Diana has
got to go last, it's partly because the song just
is just it's just got such a kind of culmination
quality to it, you know, culminate in this song in
my in my opinion, And so tell us, tell us
(33:05):
what it is and why it's your song, not only
as I understand it twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Five, but every year almost Yes, it's my favorite favorite
song of all times. I think it's my way Frank
Sinatra because it really takes you back to the bits
and pieces of everything. It has a journey, it has
a beginning, it hasn't and it has a sweet, melancholic
feeling into it as well, so and it's not so
(33:31):
sub centered. So it's in the respective of the name
that I ludes to my way, it's just mine out
of the highway. But that's not the case. On the contrary,
it's the other way around, where it's just a journey
that you're feeling through. So everybody could could go through
it in their own different kind of ways. But yeah,
(33:52):
irrespect of how many songs I fall f on for,
I go back to the matrix.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Which is my way.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Excellent, excellent, Thank you, Thank you, Dinna, thank you for
bringing the perfect way to conclude our collective reflection on
twenty twenty five. One thing I would I would say,
and I think it's I think what's been common to
the show and obviously common to us all as individuals,
is a very kind of real sense that we're living
(34:21):
through a period of genuinely historical change for the world.
I think they'll forever be a pin in the mid
twenty twenties as being a time of some significance for humanity,
hopefully hopefully one that's seen in hindsight as more good
than bad. And I think the Deck Show has reflected this,
(34:43):
and I think reality bites in general, and certainly today
has reflected that too. We hope we've been able to
contribute to the discussion and contribute to all of our
listeners the way our listeners look at the development of
all this technological development and the development of professional lives
and the digital workplace in general. It's certainly so many
(35:05):
for people we've spoken to, and so many for people
we get to speak to here and on a regular basis,
have influenced how I've seen things and how I've approached
my own my own planning and future, and and my
planning for my own future. And it's always been a great,
great pleasure to work on the show with you, Tim
(35:26):
and with everybody here. And shout out to our shout
out to our producers Ella and Catherine as well as
always who do such a phenomenal job in the background,
and shout out to the listeners. We appreciate you all
very much, and the Reality by Its team look forward
to seeing you next year and a happy new year
to everybody.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
To make sure that you never miss an episode, subscribe
to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, your favorite podcast player,
and if you're listening on Apple podcasts, make sure to
leave a rating of the show. Just have the number
of stars you think the podcast deserves. If you'd like
to learn more about how next Thing can help you
improve your digital employee experience, head over to next think
(36:12):
dot com. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Until next time, everybody, well, Tim in particular called me
out having shuffled off the state sharing my own song
for year and and and and what do you want?
Do you want all of them? Tim?
Speaker 4 (36:31):
The word the word what the year meant to you
is really articulate, really well done, But you skipped out
on the places where we can actually ridicule you.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay, okay, so exactly they're not very fun that okay, ridicula.
Good luck to you with these solid with these solid suggestions.
Word for you decentralization. Yeah, comes back to that episode
we did on it Take a I with with Rob Wilson,
(37:05):
and he just it just was so striking to me,
this notion that the the conventional sense of a career,
the day days are probably numbered, the conventional sense of
what it means to work for an organization, to have
a to have a job, as we've understood our whole lives,
it's probably are probably numbered, you know, sooner or later, right,
(37:26):
But that doesn't mean Also, if you think about it
as decentralization, it's not that that's necessarily a negative, because
there's something potentially quite liberating in that, you know, totally
new way of maybe of approaching our lives and and
and our and and and how we make a living,
and how we and how we think of us what
our skills are. So it made me feel kind of.
(37:46):
It struck me, but it made me feel very kind of.
It gave me an optimism at the same time, something
very new and my my song of the year. So
I encourage everybody to check out Freddie Gibbs and Alchemists
Alfredo two album. It was really a a It's a
sonic delight. But there you go, everybody, anyone want to
(38:07):
mock me, mock away.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
We've got to listen to the song. But I think
you're I think you're on solid ground.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Okay, you're good, You're past.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Disappointed. I shouldn't have had something more cringe. I promise
next year I will have cringe Arama for you. Okay,
So see y'all next year.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Everyone
Welcome it, change Makers to the Deck Show with Tim
Flower and Tom McGraw.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Let's get into it.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
Hello, change Makers, Welcome back to the Deck Show, Show
within a show, Reality Bites. It's it's our tradition to
have a year's end panel discussion regular listeners to both
the Deck Show and Reality Bites and over. Tim and
I have the other tradition of talking to Jeff Wright,
(00:30):
and we've already recorded that, and now we're very excited
to bring the whole panel back together because we have
seen an amazing year for Next Think, for decks, for
technology in general. I would see, I would say, thinking
specifically about decks, we've seen another Gardener Magic Quadrant this year,
another leadership position for Next Think. We've seen incredible Next
(00:53):
Think innovation unveiled such as Spark and Assistant AI Driver.
As we've covered quite extensively on the show. We've had
record breaking events in London and Boston, and we've had
we're proud and humble to say, another record breaking year
here at the deck Show and of course on Reality Bites.
(01:15):
So we're gonna we're gonna welcome everybody, all of our
all of our regular panelists are here with us, for
our end of year party, and we're gonna go one
by one. We've got some fantastic and fun questions for everybody.
I've loved the answers I've seen put in the chat,
so excited to get to everyone. But let's start with you,
(01:35):
Tim Flower, Tim Hayden.
Speaker 4 (01:37):
Good time?
Speaker 3 (01:37):
How about yourself doing great?
Speaker 4 (01:40):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yeah, yeah, excited, excited just to go through the questions.
We've got a little music for everybody, We've got a
little a little fun and of course we're going to
be asking what you know first and foremost, most substantially,
what defined twenty twenty five for you? So let's let's
begin with this one. Tim, before we get to our
quick five aroun how would you put your finger on
(02:03):
the last twelve months.
Speaker 4 (02:05):
I think you're going to hear a lot and the
answers and conversation about AI. So I'm not going to
start with AI. What to find it? I We've talked
about it on the show before. I write a couple
of both business and personal milestones in time related age
and time with the company. And I look back at
my twenty years at Hartford was all sitting at a desk,
(02:27):
and my ten years here at Next Think have primarily
been living out of a suitcase and traveling to all
corners of the world, talking with people both distant coworkers
and IT executives and strangers along the way, and being
immersed in different cultures like Tokyo and Sydney and Melbourne
and too many to mention all around Europe, and it
(02:51):
gives you. I contrast that with sitting at a desk
for twenty years, and it just changes your worldview, not
just in the business that we're in and how next
Thing can help all of these people everywhere they live,
but in your personal life too. In a larger sense.
It also connects me directly with the business of Next Think, right.
I think we can get lost in our chores and
(03:11):
our tasks and our to dos when we're sitting at
a desk. But being out and talking with people and
experiencing what they're dealing with and what next Think is
doing to help, I think, really invigorates me. And this
past year. This year it was probably the most travel
in my career. The first half of the year, I
was on the road maybe eighteen weeks out of the
(03:34):
twenty six nine weeks all at once, not coming home
for nine weeks. I left my home last February it
was frozen over and I came home in April and
the grass was out in the leaves around. So it's
a huge part of my job and my career and
my life is that travel around the world. But this
year really really peaked with some new places. But then
(03:57):
AI as well. Right, it defines almost everything that we
did this year. It's become for me. It's become that
knowledgeable collaborator rather than just a searcher for answers. Right.
It helps me form concepts for research and think about
things I might have missed or you know, even in
(04:20):
my personal life, helped me research some retirement Q and
A questions and planning and modeling, help with road trip advice. Hey,
I want to go to these three cities over the
course of two weeks, map it out for me and
what should I see. All kinds of things that would
just take days and weeks or even months to do,
it can do in seconds. So, you know, I even
uploaded a solar contract. I'm looking at solar for my house.
(04:43):
Uploaded the contract and said give me all the red
flags and it listed everything out that I should be
concerned with from a legal standpoint, So its just having
access to instant knowledge that that really woke woke my
senses up this year.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, it sounds a bit like I had the same
thing by in a second hand car. I was just
uploading service histories of the cars. I was breaking it
down for me, and I thought, I'm no longer blind
in this process. I'm no longer as vulnerable as I
always otherwise, I am not being much of a car person. Tim,
coming back to your the global nature of your year,
(05:20):
which is of course indicative of the global creep of decks,
right and that we live in, and it's reaching new
new markets and new and new horizons. If you had
to just think of one place that you were most
pleased to have seen with your own eyes, could be
very specific, could be a country, and obviously not casting
(05:43):
Shade and all the other wonderful places you went. What
what what? What was? What were you most grateful for
having seen?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
My favorite is Sydney because I've been there several times now,
But the one that really made me set up and
pay attention to was Tokyo because going to Japan, it's
such it's not a European based culture. It's very different
in the way they operate, if you will. And the
questions I had going in and flying into into Tokyo
(06:11):
were is dex going to translate? And it's almost h
It's almost a perfect metaphor because you've got to do
so much translation of the language as well. Right, You've
got to when you're in a meeting, you talk for
two or three sentences and then they translate it, and
then they translate it back to you, and then you
talk for another two or three sentences. So the will
(06:33):
decks translate for me was the perfect metaphor because you've
got to you gotta do the language translation first and
then make sure the concept also translates to to how
they operate. But Tokyo just as a culture, clean, inviting, quiet,
so respectful, friendly people. I would go back over and
over and over again. The food was great, too.
Speaker 3 (06:54):
Beautiful, beautiful, Okay, quick fire around Tim, I've got so
many people to get for you. But what's a was
your word?
Speaker 4 (07:01):
It just came up the last earlier this week, Tom,
and it was one that you coined, and I think
it fits perfectly.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
Ai Fi.
Speaker 4 (07:12):
Well, it was the first time I heard it was
from you, so Ai if I just take it. I'll
take it of you know where the world is being
AI fied it is.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Indeed, that's for sure personal use case if you have
you already touched upon that when you mentioned your.
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Probably my personal use case is just as you know,
as you hit that age, you start to think about
the future and what retirement might look like. Having instant
access to to modeling and advice. Now you obviously got
to run it by humans to make sure you're on
the right track, but just get your thinking about what
what consumption of your savings might look like and how
(07:49):
to model it.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
That was mine, absolutely and the musical flavor to today's song,
and it doesn't have to be from this year, just
a song that spoke to you. You may have listened
to it a lot, or it may have just just
vaguely or specifically defined the year in some way.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
So I don't I have a tough time getting into
some of the more modern songs, especially current year songs,
so I tend to go into the wayback machine. My
taste strange from when I when I need to kind
of get it all out. Judas Priests and Scorpions and
Iron Maiden and led Zeppelin and Floyd, But then I'll
swing over to David Sanborn and Tower of Power. But
(08:29):
when I have a busy week and I want to
just come home and decompress, I always go back to
Pat Metheni group. So if you haven't heard of Pamatheni's
awesome guitar player, great music, music, aptitudes, and there's one
specific album. All the albums are great. If you haven't
heard of Patmatheini, go listen to any album You'll you'll
enjoy it. But it's just mellow, real relaxing. So the
(08:53):
album as we Live Here and the song is Here
to Stay, and it's just that song I go back
to whether I'm on a plane and I need to
kind of calm the nerves, or I get home and
I want to relax. Here to Stay is kind of
my go to.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Terrific Terrific and I have I'm gonna almost choose it random.
We've got Meghan, Dina, Ariana, and Sean with us two.
I'm gonna choose them at random other than Dinah, who
fair Warning is going to come last, just because I
want to end the discussion with Dina's musical choice.
Speaker 5 (09:23):
I think it's really happy, It's.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
Perfect the way to go out. It's a way to
go out. So there's a teaser for listeners have to
try and guess what it might be. Let's go to
you next, Meghan, since you have the last to drop
your takes with a year into the chat, and they're
and I'm excited to I think to read them, to
be honest with you, So I'm excited to hear what
they are. How is your year and what defined twenty
(09:49):
twenty five in your view?
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Coming in blind? Let me talk second time. That's brave,
all right? My year twenty twenty five, twenty five is
a great year, I think for me personally, but also
I think for Decks and for our customers and at
least the people that I got to work with, which admittedly,
if you're a Next Thing customer and you've met me,
you're probably a happy Next Thing customer, but hopefully hopefully
(10:12):
they all are. But yeah, for me that there were
sort of like two contrasting words that came to mind
when I was trying to think about this year, and
they were balanced and ambition. And I think I'm going
to go with the ambition first. Right, I've said this before,
but when I was preparing content and working with customers
(10:33):
on their sessions for our conference experience. Twenty twenty four,
there was a lot of hype around AI and what
it could do in the workplace and what agentic AI
could do, and they all wanted to build these sort
of employee facing self service portals and that all these
grand plans, but none of it had actually happened yet.
(10:54):
And then this year we started to actually see that
come to reality. As I was putting the content together
this year, you know, we have actual organizations coming to
was saying, hey, we actually were setting this up. It's
really working. We're hooking it up to all these different
data points, like things are coming into it reality. So
for me, that's the ambition piece of it is that
people had this ambition in twenty twenty five and the
(11:14):
tools to make it a reality. And then for me personally,
I started the year by doing my first ever I
don't know if this aspect of my personality has made
it onto the reality by its podcast, but I'm a
very outdoorsy person in my personal life. So I did
my first ever technical mountaineering summit at the start of
the year in Patagonia. I ran, I did my first
(11:36):
triathlon this year started backcountry ski touring. So for me
personally too, a lot of my ambitions kind of came
to reality. But I think, yeah, it was fun, it.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
Was a good year.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
It was a good year in my person in my
free time, did a lot of stuff. But I think
with that, and with you know, the overall sort of
heavy usage of AI that we saw this year, at
least for me my perception of it, it seemed to
really pick up in twenty twenty five, comes that balance, right.
I think along with the rise of AI, comes the
(12:10):
rise of AI slop, comes the rise of the awareness
that sometimes the stuff that AI gives you is garbage
and you have to approach it with balance. I think
we've seen that in the professional world where and this
will my word of the year is related to this,
but people have started to lose faith in some of
(12:30):
the content that they find online. I think people have
started to lose a little bit of patience with some
of the results that AI churns out for them. I
think that we need to remember to strike a balance,
and I think this year you definitely saw that. I mean,
everyone that I spoke to about setting up their interactive
(12:51):
employee self service. They were all very optimistic about it,
but they also understood that, you know, it's it needs
to actually still provide a good experience. We can't just
go into this hog and say this is the best
thing we've ever made, because what if it isn't? We
have to leave room for that, for that balance. And
so that's kind of my I'm not the biggest fan
(13:12):
of AI personally. I think people know that about me.
So I think approaching it with balance was something that
I saw people doing, and I saw people sort of
becoming a little more cautious and frustrated with the output
that you can get from AI and sort of asking, like,
you know, is the juice worth the squeeze kind of thing.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
It's why people have been tuning in in record numbers
to a deck show in reality. But where we can
we can guarantee six humans in the loop? No, not
a single one of us is not a single one
of us is being replaced by AI just yet. So
you alluded that to the word of a year, But
(13:53):
did you give us it?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I did not. My word of the year is m Dash.
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Because m dash beautiful show. Just love it.
Speaker 2 (14:05):
No, I just like to think I'm personally responsible for
how much AI uses an M dash because I am
a huge fan of it as a piece of punctuation.
I think it's a beautiful piece of punctuation. And now
we all as copywriters have to go through and systematically
delete every M dash we ever use or that if
we're using, like, that's the trick right now.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
No you don't. You can tell it now, Meghan, you
can tell it.
Speaker 4 (14:28):
Meghan replaced it with the Oxford comma.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
You'll be Also, I've been using a semicolon a lot
more than I ever did before. Listen.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
It's so funny because that whole story, because I was
totally cool. Oh god, I know I've been blindly sending
my dash. But the thing was, I just think it
highlights it illuminates the paradox, the paradox called nature of
AI work. Right, we're all using it. I like to
(14:55):
think I use it fairly, carefully and well, and then
we're all try and cover up our tracks. It's just
it's just a silly situation, isn't it. It's a it's
a it's a paradoxical scenario.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
I mean, I definitely use it at work, and then
I have to go through and be like let's not
make it so obvious. I used it.
Speaker 6 (15:12):
It work.
Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah, I think I'm quite proud, you know. I think
I'm quite quite good at it. But okay, well, my
own dashes I'll keep. I'll keep them in point of principle,
And what about a personal I here's something I do
know about about your megan as well as your your
intrepid mountaineering and triathlon earring and such like, which is
(15:35):
not big on personal use usages in AI, but which
which could scop me entirely? Or is there one you
succumbed to this year?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
So I, on principle do not use AI in my
personal life. I think that it is cousin.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
I won't go into what I think because this is
a professional podcast, not my personal take. But I did
out of curiosity. I had it build me a training
plan for a ski mountaineering race that I am doing
in February, and I thought, wow, that's interesting. And I
haven't looked at it again since, so I'll be honest,
I I thought, cool, good suggestions, CHATCHYBT, thanks, and I
(16:13):
sort of yeah, I don't. I don't use a I
sorry N word.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I like it. I like it. It's a good. It's
a good take, and it's a it's a nice a
nice thing to stick with. Good good luck to its endurance.
Finally getting off the AI track, at least a song
of the year.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I had a hard time picking this because a lot
of the music I listened to I really love is
all these like you know, girly pop singers and sort
of sapphic music like another member of this podcast, but
none of it felt super appropriate to say on a
work podcast. So instead I will say uh, won't be
Possible by Odd Mob, which I had on heavy repeat
(16:55):
for a lot of the year, and it's a good
song to reinforce, you know, setting boundaries with people.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Very nice.
Speaker 6 (17:01):
We did have a really good conversation about how amazing
it is that there is more sic pop on the
theme by this question.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Yeah, there's a real renaissance of girl pop happening out there,
But all of the songs have themes that I would
not want to discuss on this podcast. So I'm not going.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
To you know, reality by sapphic pop playlist? Why why not?
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Why not put it in the description?
Speaker 3 (17:30):
And I just want to say I want every every
panelist to give me their unvarnished takes, because if it
does cross a lot, I can always just edit you out,
me you take, and I'll be the judges where it's professional.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
It has happened before he has edited me out.
Speaker 3 (17:48):
Members of the panel. Thank you so much, Megan. Wonderful responses,
and let's go next. Since we've just heard from you,
and since it will allow us, as you've alluded to,
the staffhic pop theme to recur in the musical round,
how are you? How's your year been.
Speaker 6 (18:08):
It's been a really good year this year. I got
to work a lot on AI drive, as many of
our customers will know, because you've probably gotten an email
for me asking how's it going. If not, email me
tell me how it's going. But as a result, I've
had the chance to speak to so many different people
about their motivations, their challenges around using AI, around getting
(18:32):
other people to use AI. And it's been interesting to
see how the hype of the past two years has
turned into this very systematized, operationalized, extrinsic set of motivations
where organizations are really pushing the adoption of AI in
a way that I think is starting to be at
(18:52):
odds with the intrinsic motivators that I think will actually
drive the work to make it useful, to make it impactful.
And I think that that is going to also lead
into twenty twenty six. I want to talk too much
about this because I'm excited for us to share predictions,
but I do think that we're going to start to
(19:13):
see some of this reckoning we're starting to hear about.
You know, we can't just ride the hype train, right,
we have to actually figure out what we're doing with
this and be really intentional about it. So that's been
a really big defining thing for me professionally this year.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Yeah, I like what you said. Everyone's been quite positive
about this year. And I was just listening to you
say that as well, Oriana, and I thought, maybe this
has been like obviously, everybody can have personal circumstances in
any given year which suck, right, and putting that to
one side, could twenty twenty five have been like the
first generally positive year we've all seen since COVID, Do
(19:52):
you know what I mean? We're more often than not
people like, yeah, it was quite good. It was quite good.
I quite like this year.
Speaker 6 (19:57):
Personally, Like I'm in the US and I'm on a
professional podcasts, so I'm not going to answer.
Speaker 4 (20:06):
The US.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
I'll be editing myself out of it's a fat point.
But everyone seems quite cheerful. Everyone seems quite I mean.
Speaker 6 (20:16):
I will also say that, like, fundamentally, the the ideology
that I most despise is nihilism. So not to get
overly philosophical, but I do think that in any situation
where you know, especially as somebody who is very passionate
about many topics, I think that's the most important thing
(20:39):
to me is not you know, despairing at the problems
in the world, but rather like what are we doing
about it? And actually going to my word of the year,
my word of the year is going to be a
mediation because I don't know, I know often word of
the year is like a new word, but this has
(21:00):
been like the theme for me, shall we say so.
I did the course on mediation at the beginning of
the year, and as a really fascinating experience, is something
that is motivated to do as a way to give
back to my communities, and I've already found it incredibly
useful personally and professionally to just be a better facilitator
(21:21):
to help people have more effective conversations. And it's also
made me think a lot about you know, what mediates,
what feel facilitates our experiences?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Right?
Speaker 6 (21:31):
How do we interact with the world? And AI is
one of those things, right, And it is a filter
through which we interact with the world, right, And I
think it's made me reflect a lot on what are
the filters that we don't realize that we have, what
are the filters that we do realize that we have.
(21:51):
How do these shape our experiences? And so, you know,
even having a lot of thoughts and feelings and opinions
on what's going on on the thing that's important to
me is okay, and how do I choose to engage
with that?
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Right?
Speaker 6 (22:05):
So that's that's my my reaction to.
Speaker 5 (22:08):
All of that.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
The perfect dovetailing of your personal and professional focus there
isn't it. You know that that question of mediation is
is your is your area of professional expertise and passion
as well as as well as as well as the
sort of personal extra professional one.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Awesome And do you have a personal AI use case?
You got one of those for us?
Speaker 6 (22:34):
So I also don't really like to use AI in
my personal life. I've definitely experimented with it because I
need to learn about it, right, I want to be aware.
But honestly, one of the things that I find is
that if I need help with the project, if I'm
lacking a relevant skill to me, that's a great opportunity
(22:55):
for me to connect with other human beings. I am
surrounded by me community, and every time I ask somebody, hey,
I need the skill I need to work on this project,
It's helped me build stronger bonds with people. It's taught
me new skills rather than having a machine do it
for me and having to just trust that it was good.
Speaker 5 (23:14):
Right.
Speaker 6 (23:14):
Like, the feedback cycle of working with people is fantastic,
and I highly recommend hitting with creative people around you
to solve interesting problems. It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 3 (23:26):
I like it a sort of a not using AI
used case of for you if that's cool too?
Speaker 6 (23:31):
And yeah, yeah, Like anytime I'm attempted to use AI,
I'm like, okay, but how do I know that it's good?
Who can help me with that? And then I talk
to a human and then you know, I don't know,
maybe there's an application fore I, but I've gotten more
out of it by starting with other people.
Speaker 3 (23:51):
And I know you submitted in the chair a song
for you? Is it sapphic pop? Because I didn't know
a song, it's not actually a song hearing.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
So I do love suffic pop. That is a lot
of my playlists. But the other thing that I love
is actually trad folk, so it's these are not the
same at all. But this year I started hosting house
concerts in my home and it has been an incredible experience.
(24:23):
The last concert was last night, which is why I
popped that in the chat extremely late at night, because
I had just finished up and was just full of
the joy that comes from being in a room with
live music, with you know, a packed space full of
people singing along to the choruses. And it's another reminder
(24:44):
of just how important those those human experiences are. And
the word I said was collective effervescence, which is a
term that was coined to describe that experience when you're
experiencing something with a group of people together. You know,
you're moved by the music, and a re single artist
that has performed in my house has told me, Wow,
(25:04):
that was such an amazing experience because when you have
such an intimate show. You have that incredible feeling of
like connection and vibing together.
Speaker 3 (25:15):
That's just truly peak awesome. We're all assuming you've got
the most amazing home. Now are honor as well?
Speaker 6 (25:23):
You know, well, don't be too impressed. We had to
cramp some people onto an hear match just because we
ran out of chairs.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Not necessarily lavish, but you know, able to capture a
vibe like that, it must be it must be a
special place. Wonderful though. Thank you so much, Arianna, And
it does sound like you had a nice year, regardless
of you know, all the Shenanigans in the background. And
since we know dinner is last, it means Sean is
(25:50):
of course next. And you know, like many people on
this pod, Sean I would say, you know something of
something of the AI skeptic. It's a little bit AI resistant,
but maybe this year has seen you teach a little
bit nearer to a dark side. Tell us about.
Speaker 7 (26:10):
It, false incorrect?
Speaker 4 (26:13):
I like it.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
I just have reservations. No, I've been using it a
lot this year. That's what kind of defined the year
for me, both in work and in personal life. But yeah,
I just find like most people have already said in
the pod, like sixty to eighty percent accurate, which brings
up like bigger philosophical questions what happens when it gets
to one hundred percent accuracy? How do we find our
(26:35):
own agency in the work we do, et cetera, et cetera.
But I think it's an awesome tool. I'm just always
slightly skeptical of what comes out.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
As well as well. One might be healthy. Yeah, any
any other detail from the year that stands out to
you show you want to I mean, I like a
quick fire around here, you go for me, you can
do it, but it's to you. Yeah.
Speaker 7 (27:02):
No, I mean we focused a lot for in terms
of research this year and like what defines workplace productivity
and for businesses and how do they trace it to
value and what does that mean? But I think, like
we're all saying, you know, it's pretty positive. I think
next year is going to be We're going to have
more data and research out there, both from next Think
and externally about like how are these tools really living
(27:25):
up to their names? And that's going to be pretty
cool and interesting. And we're just going to continue to
kind of change the definition of work like individually and
then organizationally, how people are getting things done and how
they find value. So it's a very interesting topic that
I like.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
Working on super word of for year.
Speaker 7 (27:44):
Sean Oh, we talked about this a couple of weeks
ago Vibe coding, but just personally because I'm I'm too
stupid to understand coding, so I thought this is great,
but I definitely recognize the dangers that exist, and we
talked about our prior episode please it out checking that podcast.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
Yeah, absolutely, personal AI use case of.
Speaker 7 (28:08):
So this is really geeky, but I'd like to ask
it like history questions, and I do this thing. I
used to do this in Wikipedia, where I would just
scroll to the bottom or I'd find like a certain
figure and click on that person's profile and then I
just kind of go in a rabbit hole. Now I
just go to CHATCHYBT and I'll ask, like, who else
was alive during Genghis Khan and where and when? And
then I just go down thirty minutes of that just
(28:31):
asking it historical questions.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
So that's how cool I am. No, bro, I really
relate to that, like I could. I kind of build
I'll build up like a little shortlist of historical topics
I want to talk to chat about, and then I'll
just be like, Okay, I've got spare forty minutes, and
I'll just, like you say, just go from one one
to the next time.
Speaker 7 (28:50):
I mean, it's cool to be like, all right, so
what was going on during the Aztec Empire over here
in Europe or what was just kind of hop around?
Speaker 4 (28:57):
I love that?
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Yeah, yeah, I could. And I get like a real
sense of fulfillment from it being I'd come away thirty
forty minutes and that was fun. That was fun in
that that like filled a lot of little gaps in
my head, you know. Yeah, I love that one.
Speaker 7 (29:08):
Yeah, forget it on. Then I go back and do
it again the next day.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
Absolutely, I see you got it. You got a song
fresh on?
Speaker 4 (29:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 7 (29:15):
My song of the Year is seased for Cookie by
the original Cookie Monster, Sesame Street. My daughter and I
listen to that every morning on the way to take care.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
It's gonna be stuck in my head all day now, Sean.
Speaker 3 (29:26):
Yeah, it's a gym. How's it good. I'm gonna get
on this.
Speaker 7 (29:31):
Corporate podcast, you know how.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
I am pretty fresher. I want the melody. Okay, I'll
let you have wonderful thank you so much showing and
of course, last but not least, Dina, how are you?
How was twenty twenty five?
Speaker 5 (29:48):
I'm all good. It was a mix of everything, just
like every other year. Uh not so great. On the
personal side, I lost my dad this year year, so
that's that one is one of the biggest heroes I've
ever had in my life. However I have been when
(30:08):
that's on the personal side. So on the professional side,
it has been motivating me to actually go back and
find the matrix of everything. Pun no pun intended, you're
gonna You're knew I would mention the matrix was going
to come up always always because so when when when
you're confused, you want to go to back to the basics, right,
(30:29):
And this is one of the things this year has
defined was exploring what are our basic measures for success
for innovation, for how to automate what to automate, what
not to automate the use of AI and actually go
back to the basics, build some pillars. We're going to
be using AI unfortunately fortunately sometimes right, but we have
(30:51):
to have some pillars, which led us to agree as
a team, maybe on most of the cases on looking
at quality, efficiency, and comple lines. These are our pillars.
We're going to use AI, but we don't want to
be losing our human fingerprints along the process to fall
into sloppiness, which now i'll lude into my word of
(31:13):
the year's AI slop or work slop.
Speaker 3 (31:17):
And I think you introduced us to that.
Speaker 5 (31:20):
Yes, it's been there and few and few articles have encountered.
And actually the more people are going to start to
use a new tool. So AI is just an automation tool,
just one more cool way two automate what you are
repeating most of your time. So it will lead to
some efficiency, but it's drawing the boundaries, finding those lines
(31:43):
as in what should I use AI for and what
should I not use a I for? Also not to
use your human touch into it at the end of
the day.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
MS and work slop kind of kind of close, I
think is a word.
Speaker 5 (31:57):
Yeah, yeah, the more the more I use E, the
more I don't want to use AI. So that's just
how it is, like both ends of the extremes.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
Was there a personal use case for your dinner?
Speaker 5 (32:08):
Where plenty plenty? So I use it in my personal
life to help me brainstorm, to help me arrange travel trips,
recommendations on where to go, what to where not to go,
when to go, what's the best places, and such things.
So basically arranging and getting my thoughts that are all
over the place into one spot, help me focus on
(32:31):
some things and highlight value of whatever we're trying to articulate.
So basically summing everything back to those three pillars, quality deficiency,
under compliance of everything that you want to do.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Phenomenal and you know, we reach for your song and
your dinner in just a second. But we'll say that
part of the reason I was like, well, Diana has
got to go last, it's partly because the song just
is just it's just got such a kind of culmination
quality to it, you know, culminate in this song in
my in my opinion, And so tell us, tell us
(33:05):
what it is and why it's your song, not only
as I understand it twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (33:09):
Five, but every year almost Yes, it's my favorite favorite
song of all times. I think it's my way Frank
Sinatra because it really takes you back to the bits
and pieces of everything. It has a journey, it has
a beginning, it hasn't and it has a sweet, melancholic
feeling into it as well, so and it's not so
(33:31):
sub centered. So it's in the respective of the name
that I ludes to my way, it's just mine out
of the highway. But that's not the case. On the contrary,
it's the other way around, where it's just a journey
that you're feeling through. So everybody could could go through
it in their own different kind of ways. But yeah,
(33:52):
irrespect of how many songs I fall f on for,
I go back to the matrix.
Speaker 2 (33:59):
Which is my way.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
Excellent, excellent, Thank you, Thank you, Dinna, thank you for
bringing the perfect way to conclude our collective reflection on
twenty twenty five. One thing I would I would say,
and I think it's I think what's been common to
the show and obviously common to us all as individuals,
is a very kind of real sense that we're living
(34:21):
through a period of genuinely historical change for the world.
I think they'll forever be a pin in the mid
twenty twenties as being a time of some significance for humanity,
hopefully hopefully one that's seen in hindsight as more good
than bad. And I think the Deck Show has reflected this,
(34:43):
and I think reality bites in general, and certainly today
has reflected that too. We hope we've been able to
contribute to the discussion and contribute to all of our
listeners the way our listeners look at the development of
all this technological development and the development of professional lives
and the digital workplace in general. It's certainly so many
(35:05):
for people we've spoken to, and so many for people
we get to speak to here and on a regular basis,
have influenced how I've seen things and how I've approached
my own my own planning and future, and and my
planning for my own future. And it's always been a great,
great pleasure to work on the show with you, Tim
(35:26):
and with everybody here. And shout out to our shout
out to our producers Ella and Catherine as well as
always who do such a phenomenal job in the background,
and shout out to the listeners. We appreciate you all
very much, and the Reality by Its team look forward
to seeing you next year and a happy new year
to everybody.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Everybody.
Speaker 1 (35:52):
To make sure that you never miss an episode, subscribe
to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, your favorite podcast player,
and if you're listening on Apple podcasts, make sure to
leave a rating of the show. Just have the number
of stars you think the podcast deserves. If you'd like
to learn more about how next Thing can help you
improve your digital employee experience, head over to next think
(36:12):
dot com. Thank you so much for listening.
Speaker 3 (36:15):
Until next time, everybody, well, Tim in particular called me
out having shuffled off the state sharing my own song
for year and and and and what do you want?
Do you want all of them? Tim?
Speaker 4 (36:31):
The word the word what the year meant to you
is really articulate, really well done, But you skipped out
on the places where we can actually ridicule you.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Okay, okay, so exactly they're not very fun that okay, ridicula.
Good luck to you with these solid with these solid suggestions.
Word for you decentralization. Yeah, comes back to that episode
we did on it Take a I with with Rob Wilson,
(37:05):
and he just it just was so striking to me,
this notion that the the conventional sense of a career,
the day days are probably numbered, the conventional sense of
what it means to work for an organization, to have
a to have a job, as we've understood our whole lives,
it's probably are probably numbered, you know, sooner or later, right,
(37:26):
But that doesn't mean Also, if you think about it
as decentralization, it's not that that's necessarily a negative, because
there's something potentially quite liberating in that, you know, totally
new way of maybe of approaching our lives and and
and our and and and how we make a living,
and how we and how we think of us what
our skills are. So it made me feel kind of.
(37:46):
It struck me, but it made me feel very kind of.
It gave me an optimism at the same time, something
very new and my my song of the year. So
I encourage everybody to check out Freddie Gibbs and Alchemists
Alfredo two album. It was really a a It's a
sonic delight. But there you go, everybody, anyone want to
(38:07):
mock me, mock away.
Speaker 4 (38:09):
We've got to listen to the song. But I think
you're I think you're on solid ground.
Speaker 5 (38:12):
Okay, you're good, You're past.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
Disappointed. I shouldn't have had something more cringe. I promise
next year I will have cringe Arama for you. Okay,
So see y'all next year.
Speaker 4 (38:26):
Everyone
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