Tiffany Sunday

Author | Speaker

Tiffany Sunday – Featured Guest on The Dyslexia Quest Podcast

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On Thursday, August 10, I was a guest on Elisheva Schwartz’s Podcast – The Dyslexia Quest.  Her show is ranked in the top 30 iTunes podcast shows.  We talked about a range of topics from my experiences as a student in school to how technology is creating more career opportunities for dyslexics.

Quote from Elisheva –

Guest Tiffany Sunday quests with us on the fascinating topic “Dyslexia 2:0 The Gift of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Mind”. We uncover dyslexic strengths and wonder why having these strengths can sometimes cause overwhelming pressure instead of motivation.

Tiffany is an author, innovator, entrepreneur and mom of a dyslexic child. She writes and speaks on multiple topics from the digital revolution, to the future of work to personal development and the relationship between dyslexia and entrepreneurship.

Tiffany reminds us that every one of us has a passion…. even our kids. It’s what “makes our tail wag”. We talk about dreaming big and innovation. Tiffany shares from her own unique experiences – you won’t want to miss it so stay tuned till the end!

LISTEN HERE | iTunes | Stitcher Radio 

 

Tiffany Sunday is Speaking at the Dallas Book Festival, April 29, 2017

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Tiffany is a featured speaker at the 2017 Dallas Book Festival.

She will be talking about her book, Dyslexia’s Competitive Edge and how individuals can use their dyslexia as a competitive edge.

Following the discussion, she will be answering questions from the audience.

Signed copies of Tiffany’s book will be available to purchase.

Dallas Public Library is located at 1515 Young Street Dallas, TX 75201

 Click here to view more information about the event and to see a complete list of authors and presenters.

IBM Latest Restructuring is the Canary in the Well

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Last month, the CMO of IBM announced the elimination of working remotely for the company’s marketing department.  If you were one of the unlucky distant workers, you were suddenly seeking new employment.

IBM’s CEO has discussed how the company is restructuring its business to increase profitability by becoming an agile company.   One of its objectives is to foster innovation by having everyone move back to offices.  Some suggest that IBM is seeking to increase innovative collaboration from the water cooler effect.  Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to share ideas when standing around in the kitchen taking a break. 

The problem with this theory is that bringing people together into an office does not instantly create innovation.  What if the innovative employees were the ones living in the smaller cities and the less creative ones happened to live in the city.

Randomly selecting individuals by geography to remain on the marketing team appears more like a decision to cut cost than to create a “Steve Jobs” atmosphere.  Granted I am not privy to information on which employees were offered incentives to stay.  On the surface, the decision is counter-intuitive to innovation.

We constantly refer back to Steve Jobs.  Why, because he was and will be one of the world’s greatest visionaries.  Whether you agree or disagree with his methods, he had a vision and was brilliant in the execution.

IBM is a scientific development and research company.  The company is gifted in developing technologies, many of which, we use today.  In today’s rapid moving digital economy, companies no longer have the luxury of time.

I believe the restructuring of the company and its departments is the canary in the well, IBM has to find a path to profitability or it will not survive in the digital economy.  Even though the company appears large, its market capitalization is smaller than its competitors. 

When I think about IBM, I think about the last time I was in a Best Buy.  When you walk in the store you are there for one or two reasons nothing else.  Looking around, it appears as a graveyard of soon to be obsolete technologies or products.  Everywhere you look, the company seeks to gain some profit from products that have lost their market share.

IBM is operation in much the same fashion, there are several highly profitable practice areas and then the rest of the company is holding space in its relative market.

If these latest employee cuts (layoffs) do not work or if management cannot find a way to monetize its latest technologies where are cutting edge.  The company will remain stuck, unable to move forward and catch up in the market.

To building a sustainable business in our new digital economy requires more than being innovative and having everyone camped out at the office kitchen sharing ideas.  CEO’s, management, and employees must think completely different.

Complacency is the biggest risk to companies today. 

The digital transformation is cleaning house, companies that were inefficient and lacked a sustainable vision and purpose will have a very difficult time competing.

We’re Not Ready for Artificial Intelligence and Automation

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For the past six years, I have been studying, researching, and talking with individuals around the world about the digital revolution.

As an avid runner, I use my runs to mentally digest and sift through all the information I’ve absorbed.  I think about the future, the potential paths we could take and then overlay human behavior to obtain practical viewpoint.

Imagine full automation real-time calibrated advancing AI. 

We’re not ready….nowhere close to being ready.

I’m not the only one thinking this thought either.

Last week, I attended an event hosted jointly by the French-American Chamber of Commerce and the Global Chamber – DFW Chapter.  In Stephane Mallard’s presentation, Artificial Intelligent Will Disrupt Everything; he repeated “we’re not ready” multiple times too.  Mallard provided one of the best and realistic presentations I’ve seen on the topic.

I think about potential employment for my son, who’s in high school.  I think about new markets and businesses that will need to be launched and created.  I envision how we will develop classes and train students and workers for the future.

I mentally twist and turn automation and AI backward and forward to imagine our world I would not recognize now.

Instead of waiting to see what happens, I believe in taking a proactive approach and have learned the hard way, when people say, “Oh, don’t worry about it.  It will all work out okay.” The opposite tends to occur as you are later blindsided.

So, why should we wait? A tech inventor, I know said, “the cats out of the bag” we need to plan now on how to manage this massive disruption that’s about to happen.

Action Plan for AI and Automation 

End Our Love Affair with STEM

STEM helped raise the awareness and increase the number of technology workers. However, we have reached a level where machines are creating software systems and languages internally without human assistance.

Many of the tech programming positions will be automated. Each day AI and robots manage more and more complex human activities from driving semi-trucks to being a personal home healthcare assistant to help your grandmother with her daily chores.

Tech workers of the future will be responsible for managing the IoT or teaching systems and robots how to learn. Imagine a room at Google or another tech center, where tech teachers teach robots, similar to children at a pre-k school, how to learn basic human functions. I believe we will have schools for robots and as they advance in their learning.  Similar to how humans learn now in public schools.

For anyone who has ever taught school, the job demands more skills than reading from a power point presentation.   It requires both a technical and liberal arts background.

Develop New College and Associate Degree Plans for All Forms of Higher Education

Many colleges have already taken this approach and have combined technology with liberal arts (thinking) classes to form ATEC degree plans.  We need to expand these offerings and include required classes in philosophy and ethics.

About once a week I read an article discussing the need for more philosophy majors. I would include history and art as well to ensure we do not make the same mistakes again.

Jeff Selingo has been talking about creating and promoting more career options instead of focusing solely on the four-year college degree route.

Vocational Training Will Be a Necessity

Who will fix our Internet of Things when they crash? A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post that listed possible jobs in the future related to the drone and robotics industry.

We will need individuals to develop a scalable business model for repairing these technologies and serve new undeveloped markets – the need will be there.

In 2016, the FAA issued 23,000 new drone licenses in three months.  Not everyone who purchased a drone will replace it when it crashes.  Think industrial drones for agriculture, construction, and similar industries.

So, who will be the first person to start a drone or robot repair service?

“Your One-Call Robot – Drone Solution” “We’ll Have Your Drone Back in the Air in Now Time!

Call today at 1-800-Fix-MyBot

I believe in the near future we will see more and more businesses open to serve areas we could not have imagined three or four years ago.

Time moves quickly when AI and automation are accelerating at exponential speeds, I would bet the line of acceleration is almost vertical.

We can’t wait longer. Nor can we keep our fingers crossed and think these jobs will magically appear when we need them.

As a former entrepreneur, starting and launching new businesses especially in undeveloped markets is extremely difficult.  However, we must move forward to ensure these new jobs will be available.  If we wait, I doubt will be satisfied with the options.

Your Competitive Edge is Not What You Think

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Growing up in Houston, one of my weekly chores was mowing and edging the yard. At first, I didn’t like the boring task of going back and forth across our yard. By high school, I welcomed the mental alone time to work through what had happened during the week or to solve a homework problem.

Finishing the yard was satisfying. Work completed. Today, I continue to mow our yard, even though my teenage son has a lawn service business.

A couple of weeks ago, while thinking through one of the book chapters, I thought about where we are today. I thought about work. I thought about how we all need to build a sustainable income. I thought about what should I tell my son when I see so many more changes coming.

As digital knowledge workers, we are all a commodity in the digital economy. Every time, I scroll through LinkedIn, the job titles and words used to describe our work is the same.

I thought about what do I tell the readers of the book while another voice said – what makes you different from the other strategists?

The first to word pop in my mind was experiences – all of them from elementary school to now.

What makes us different are our experiences and personality. In everything we do, it comes down to the decisions we made when faced a challenge or problem. All of our experiences matter, as they seamlessly incorporated in our brain for future reference.

The knowledge gained is cumulative and transferable. Too often we copy thought leaders whom we seek to emulate instead of being ourselves. But the real competitive edge is our unique experiences and personality. No one else on this planet has lived your identical life or has had to solve the exact problems. There are people who may be close to you but there is no one exactly like you.

We allow fear to keep us stuck from being who we are. What would you do if you were not afraid?

I think about the people who tell me they feel left behind. I think about how do we create a personal brand that ensures long-term sustainability. I think about these questions because they need to be solved.

Then I think about the students at speaking events, what do I tell them when we all know the old story “go to college and get a good job” is almost obsolete.

Here is what I thought of while mowing two weeks ago. I will tell them to focus on obtaining real experiences where you solve human problems, where you gain an understanding about yourself in difficult situations and then determine how you can use this experience in your career.

This is not about solving pre-canned problems to pad your resume or college application; this is about doing the real work. To have the guts to be yourself.

I will tell you to do the same. The world needs us to be ourselves, not a carbon copy of someone else. 

Instead of using another buzz term to describe what makes you different – share an experience instead.

When we have more time to chat, I’ll tell you the story about what I learned from removing wildlife from the backyard.