Don’t Lose Your MAGIC to AI 

Don’t Lose Your MAGIC to AI 

By Sharon Darmody, Clinical Director

In my book “Work Your Magic”, the second pillar of the MAGIC model is Authenticity. Up until only recently, I felt that over the course of my working life that we have edged closer and closer to being able to turn up at work and be our authentic selves. To have our own voice in the workplace. 

When I started working, it really felt like you had to put a mask on. It felt like there was your “home self” and your “work self.”  This was as simple as what you wore, as there appeared to be some sort of “uniform” either formal or informal, and there certainly was not a sneaker in sight. This of course extended to unwritten rules of who you could and could not be at work.  Ultimately, I think this was exhausting as people morphed themselves into some sort of shape that was deemed acceptable to turn up at the office every day. 

For me, it felt really exciting that we were chipping away at change and that I could see workplaces that were happy to genuinely engage with understanding and embedding diversity into their organisations. In saying this, I also recognise there is a long way to go and that many people still feel that their workplaces do not want to see them as they are, they just want some sort of human robot with no nuances, no individual flares; they are purely interested in the work getting done, not the person behind the work. 

Unfortunately, I feel recently there has been a change in direction again, dare I say pivot, and this is not a good change from my perspective. I feel that back then when I started work and we donned the masks, it was all a little vanilla as we were all expected to be the same. As we stepped out of that, we stepped into full colour. I thought that was pretty exciting because when people aren’t exhausted trying to be something they are not,they have more energy.  

Also, when we bring all aspects of ourselves to work, we have a greater capacity for creativity, innovation and lots of new ideas. This is, of course,timely as I feel we need all the innovation that we can muster as the world seems to be more complex than ever before, and that means the strategies we have (successfully) employed in the past may not have the same impact in the current environment. 

When everyone starts running everything through AI then it starts to sound the same. It feels like some of the sparkle has left the building. This makes me a little concerned.

What I have started seeing that really concerns me is that we are returning a bit to that vanilla space with the use of AI- moving from robots to chat bots. When everyone starts running everything through AI then it starts to sound the same. It feels like some of the sparkle has left the building. This makes me a little concerned.  

I think in these uncertain complex times that we are living in we need innovation and new ideas more than ever before. And yes, these chat bots may have some answers, but I think we also have to trust ourselves and our capacity as it is a dangerous road we go down when we ignore our just how brilliant we are! 

I also know that part of this overuse comes from self-doubt; surely this machine is going to be able to deliver a more polished perfect versions of the product. What I am seeing is people who are capable and, in fact, beautiful writers continuously turning toward AI so that it can be “perfect”,but for me it was perfect when I could hear their voice when I could almost see them when I was reading what they had written. When everything goes through AI we lose that sense of the person behind the work.  

If we can just say to ourselves “you know what we are doing the best we can with the resources we’ve got available and that is enough.” If we can accept that sometimes we will not have the perfect word or the perfect turn of phrase, but it does have a bit of our personal “magic” and we do not need to be polished or perfect all the time. It feels like we are putting the mask on again.   

Perhaps my challenge to you is, the next time you go to put something through AI maybe just pull back and ask if it is good enough the just the way it is, and send through something that sounds like you. 

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