Amplifying Cognition - Annalie Killian on serendipitous learning, the network as filter, finding voices at the edge, and value from deep connections (Ep13)

Annalie Killian on serendipitous learning, the network as filter, finding voices at the edge, and value from deep connections (Ep13)

03/16/22 • 33 min

“There are a number of people whom I respect and follow online because they are out-of-the-box thinkers. They might come up with something that I hadn’t encountered before. Then I pay attention because they are a trusted relationship.”

– Annalie Killian

About Annalie Killian Annalie Killian’s mission in life is to catalyze the magic of human ingenuity to make the world, and especially corporate life, a better place. She is currently VP of Strategy and Partnerships for Omnicom’s leading cultural intelligence agency Sparks & Honey, the founder of AMPlify innovation festival at the financial services giant AMP, and a Fellow of Aspen Institute’s First Movers program. LinkedIn: Annalie Killian

Facebook: Annalie Killian

Twitter: Annalie Killian

Instagram: Annalie Killian

What you will learn

If you’re curious and find lots of information, how do you deal with it? (02:15)
Why relationships can be a way to filter information (03:41)
How to find patterns in information (05:27)
Ways of capturing information patterns (08:15)
What is the process of pulling together information strands to see what is important? (11:03)
How to build your network within an information frame (13:39)
How much difference to expect between experts within a domain (17:20)
How to bring diverse opinions to form something holistic (20:04)
What are low filters? (24:50)
Use filters to surface, define, and explore what is most interesting (27:57)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Annalie, it’s wonderful to have you on the Thriving on Overload podcast.

Annalie Killian: Hi Ross, nice to see you again.

Ross: Annalie, you have been at the edge of the future in many ways for a long time now. How do you do it? What’s the heart of your ability to keep across change or where things are going?

Annalie: I think it all starts with curiosity; Curiosity is a characteristic that I have in spades. It’s almost inevitable that I’m always seeking the edge because I’m curious. Sometimes this curiosity has a nemesis, which is that you end up with information overload.

Ross: If you’re curious, and you find lots of information, there’s too much of it. How do you deal with that? How do you get value from that profusion?

Annalie: There is this complex answer to that. One is I think that some information is okay to discard but having consumed it, and processed it, when you encounter similar scenarios, the insight is that you can recognize a pattern. It’s probably at the point where I start to recognize a pattern that I start to pay attention to see, should I be capturing some of it, should I be saving some of it? That part of the curiosity is really about an open funnel. Then there is a process of recognition of patterns, which then would for me, indicate time to track this. That’s one way in terms of just serendipitous learning.
The other one is that I do a lot of my work around relationships. People to me are the way to scale lots and lots of information. Because I can’t hold it all; but if I have a network that holds much of it, and I can get to them, then it helps with the process of curation and just-in-time delivery. That is very useful.
For people, I have not found an ideal solution. We know that LinkedIn is supposedly the business network where we store our valued relationships but I found that the platform has actually become weaker over time rather than stronger. They used to have a feature that they eliminated a few years ago, where you could annotate a contact, that’s disappeared. I think that LinkedIn has a very one-dimensional view of how people use the platform. Perhaps, it’s part of the architectural problems but I do think that there is an opportunity for a premiumization product. I already have a premium account that doesn’t offer me these features but I would love more features in LinkedIn in terms of being able to categorize, filter, annotate my co...

– Annalie Killian

Facebook: Annalie Killian

Twitter: Annalie Killian

Instagram: Annalie Killian

What you will learn

If you’re curious and find lots of information, how do you deal with it? (02:15)
Why relationships can be a way to filter information (03:41)
How to find patterns in information (05:27)
Ways of capturing information patterns (08:15)
What is the process of pulling together information strands to see what is important? (11:03)
How to build your network within an information frame (13:39)
How much difference to expect between experts within a domain (17:20)
How to bring diverse opinions to form something holistic (20:04)
What are low filters? (24:50)
Use filters to surface, define, and explore what is most interesting (27:57)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Annalie, it’s wonderful to have you on the Thriving on Overload podcast.

Annalie Killian: Hi Ross, nice to see you again.

Ross: Annalie, you have been at the edge of the future in many ways for a long time now. How do you do it? What’s the heart of your ability to keep across change or where things are going?

Ross: If you’re curious, and you find lots of information, there’s too much of it. How do you deal with that? How do you get value from that profusion?

Previous Episode

Robin Athey on intellectual cocaine, the journey to purpose, slow leadership, and finding your North Star (Ep12)

“I would say purpose, oriented towards a really clear, focused filter to decide what to take in and what not to take in is how I’ve managed overload.”

– Robin Athey

About Robin Athey Robin Athey gave up her high powered corporate career including nine-years as Research Director at Deloitte to found Integral Growth where she guides founders and leaders to manage transformational change and trust their inner wisdom in fast-moving, complex, high growth environments. Website: Integral Growth

LinkedIn: Robin Athey

Twitter: Robin Athey

Medium: Robin Athey

Facebook: Robin Athey

What you will learn

How purpose can help you thrive on overload (01:19)
What to expect on your journey to purpose? (04:38)
A simple tool or framework to finding purpose (09:01)
Finding your purpose does not require radical change (12:23)
What are examples of a pathway and keys to finding purpose (13:14)
Why simplifying is crucial to avoiding the pain of overload (16:27)
Why and how to set limits to distractions (18:24)
Start your day eating the frog (21:31)
What is the maximum number of big project at any given time (22:46)
Why we needs frames and boundaries for sensemaking (25:04)
How truly wanting protects you from the constant assault of information (30:08)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Robin, it’s a delight to have you on the show.

Robin Athey: Ross, thank you.

Ross: When we think about overload, and how it is we can thrive off of it, what comes to you first, when you think about that, Robin?

Robin: I’m laughing because when you say the word overload, I have these flashbacks, actually, to the beginning of the internet. I don’t know if you remember, but the dawning of what was happening, and the impact it was going to have.

Ross: I do.

Robin: Everyone was just like flying around, talking about overload. Then all of a sudden, I remember that dread of feeling it. It was interesting. I was just reflecting on this and preparing for our interview, it had me really reflecting on how do we actually thrive? And what is that? I feel like I’ve learned to thrive, and there have been so many different dimensions of that happening.

Ross: I think one of those is purpose.

Robin: One of those for sure is purpose; I would say purpose and having a really clear filter to decide what to take in and what not to take in. But it had to be really focused or oriented towards how I’ve managed overload, even with my body, what I can possibly digest? I was having memories of the early days when not only was the internet happening, but you and I were connected in some similar circles around the early to mid-2000s. I was involved in so many different councils, and there were so many ideas flying around, and the Internet was propelling a lot of those around knowledge management, and how do we handle all of this. With sitting in those councils, I remember at one point feeling like, wow, this is intellectual cocaine, I can get so addicted to this.
At the time, I lived life largely from my head, taking in all of that information, it was intoxicating. I actually didn’t know how to digest it. At the time, I was practicing yoga and meditating, and all of that, but I was living life so much from my head that I felt myself ping-ponging through all the days, from one idea to the next, and the next. But not in a way that was really coherent, and not in a way that I could really make sense of a lot of it, and the impact that I wanted it to have, I really wasn’t clear at all, how it was going to channel through me as a human being who wanted to have an impact in the world. I was largely a broker; I could think of myself as a dealer of this intellectual cocaine but I was constantly connecting ideas, people with people, and ideas with ideas, and really spurring on the life, the addiction to ideas and information.

...

Next Episode

Marshall Kirkpatrick on source selection, connecting ideas, diverse thinking, and enabling serendipity (Ep14)

“I find it much more useful to pick a certain collection of trusted sources that have a demonstrated history of adding value around a given topic and subscribing to those.”

– Marshall Kirkpatrick

About Marshall Kirkpatrick Marshall Kirkpatrick was the first writer hired by TechCrunch and helped drive its early growth through the quality of his work, then moved to become Co-Editor of ReadWriteWeb, then one of the defining publications on the Internet economy. He left to found Little Bird, which uses network analysis to discover top influencers, experts, and insights. Little Bird was acquired in 2016. Marshall continues his work to improve the information ecosystem and develop better information systems.

Website: Marshall Kirkpatrick

LinkedIn: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Twitter: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Facebook: Marshall Kirkpatrick

Instagram: Marshall Kirkpatrick

What you will learn

Why source selection is essential in working with information (02:02)
Why source size depends on the topic (04:01)
Marshall’s guide to advanced Twitter search (09:31)
How to maximise the benefits of a news aggregator (12:30)
How to create a news article when you find a subject with high engagement (17:11)
How to store and catalogue content you want to consume (20:12)
Marshall’s method for connecting which he calls Triangle Thinking (26:41)
How to read a book for maximum synthesis (30:15)
How to create and use STEEP analysis (32:10)
Why it is increasingly important to search for and listen to people on the margins of political power (38:38)

Episode Resources

Transcript

Ross Dawson: Marshall, it’s wonderful to have you on the show.

Marshall Kirkpatrick: Ross, thank you so much for having me on the show. What a great opportunity for you and me to meet, and to compare notes. I can’t wait to listen to all the episodes.

Ross: They are coming soon. Marshall, you have always thrived on information as a journalist, at one point as a tech journalist, so you got to keep on top of stuff there. You’ve built a very interesting startup....