The brilliant jerk is running out of leverage
I'm watching something interesting happen with two teams I work with.
Both teams are filled with very intelligent people. Both have legitimate expertise. Both are very good at what they do.
You'd think that would make collaboration easy.
It doesn't.
Neither side particularly wants to acknowledge that the other side might know its own field better.
Pride gets involved. Expertise becomes territory. And instead of saying, "You know this part better than we do, and we know this part better than you do. Let's figure out where the lines are," they increasingly wander into each other's lane.
AI makes that incredibly easy.
Don't understand the other team's technology? Ask AI.
Need something that normally requires their expertise? Ask AI.
Think you can build their part yourself? AI will happily help with that too.
Sometimes it works.
Just enough to make the problem worse.
AI can make a smart person competent enough in somebody else's field to become dangerous.
Eventually something breaks. Each side becomes more convinced that the other doesn't know what it's doing. Trust gets worse. Communication gets worse. And now you have two groups of very smart people using some of the most advanced technology ever created to avoid talking to each other.
Progress.
The interesting part is that AI didn't create this problem.
Pride did.
AI just gave both sides a much more powerful way to work around each other.
Knowing more doesn't make you the expert
One of the things I love about AI is how quickly it can help us cross traditional knowledge boundaries.
I can understand unfamiliar technology faster. A developer can learn more about security. Someone in operations can prototype software. A business leader can analyze data without waiting weeks for a report.
That's fantastic.
But understanding somebody else's field better does not suddenly give you twenty years of experience in it.
Those twenty years include mistakes, judgment, context, pattern recognition, and probably a few scars.
Those count.
Sometimes the best use of AI isn't replacing the expert.
It's learning enough to have a much better conversation with the expert.
Draw the lines
The situation I'm watching doesn't need another tool.
It needs clarity.
In the military, we talk about left and right limits. Everyone needs to understand where they can operate and where somebody else's responsibility begins.
Business has plenty of ways to accomplish the same thing. Use a RACI. Define decision rights. Create a responsibility matrix. Draw boxes on a whiteboard.
I don't particularly care what you call it.
Just answer the questions.
Who owns what?
What can each team do independently?
What requires consultation?
What requires agreement?
Who has the final call when responsibilities overlap?
And when should somebody stop and bring in the actual expert?
This isn't revolutionary management theory.
It's adults agreeing on who does what.
The brilliant jerk has a problem too
There's a bigger career lesson in this.
For years organizations tolerated the person who was miserable to work with because nobody else understood the system.
"Yeah, he's impossible, but we can't lose him."
AI is changing that bargain.
Not because expertise no longer matters. It absolutely does.
But knowledge is becoming easier to acquire, explain, document, and transfer.
Being the only person who knows something is becoming less valuable.
Being the person who can share what they know, collaborate across disciplines, communicate clearly, recognize someone else's expertise, and make everyone around them better is becoming more valuable.
Maybe we should stop calling those soft skills.
There's nothing particularly soft about determining whether anyone wants you on their team.
My advice right now is pretty simple.
Learn AI. Build real expertise. Get really good with people.
Because AI can help someone else learn your technology.
It cannot make your coworkers enjoy dealing with you.
I wrote more about this in my newest Insight:
The Brilliant Jerk Is Running Out of Leverage
I'll leave you with a question:
As AI makes knowledge easier to access, what human skill do you think becomes more valuable?
— Matthew
Be A Decisive Leader
