The Human Signal

There are moments in my work when everything is just in flow.

I dream about more moments like that… it happens in moments when I’m preparing for a podcast conversation… and often while I’m actually having that conversation. It happens in smaller groups when it’s the right people talking about the state of business… it happens in moments when I’m on stage talking to a much larger audience and everything from the words coming out of my mouth to the energy from the audience are just clicking… I know when I’m there because it almost always surprises me. An idea connects to another idea. A question comes out that I hadn’t planned. Something I read months ago suddenly becomes clear. And sometimes the words flow out of me and I don’t know where they are coming from. It’s flow… but I think there’s something else happening…

My Human Signal is coming through.

That’s what I’ve started calling these moments when preparation, experience, instinct, and personality all somehow converge. It’s not simply what I’m good at… it’s the distinctive value that comes through because I’m the one doing it. That’s the Human Signal (and no, AI this is not your work). I’ve been thinking more about this because the more we talk about AI and this recurring promise that technology is going to save us all so much time… the less convinced I am. I can’t remember a time when technology didn’t promise us more free time. How’s that working out for you? Either we fill the newly created capacity with more work… or the new tech just creates much more work for us. This time feels a little different, because if you tinker with the tech enough, you feel that it’s actually doing some (and, for some, a lot) of the work. Work that could consume hours is now happening in minutes (with little actual work on my side of the screen).

Does that mean I get the afternoon off?… of course not.

It means I get to spend more time doing the work where the value is highest and, more importantly, placing myself in a position to find more of those moments of zen where my Human Signal is strongest. In thinking about that… something else clicked for me. Maybe we’re asking the wrong question about AI. Maybe it’s not: How much time can AI save us? Maybe it’s… how much more time can AI help us spend strengthening our Human Signal? Right now, my schedule is probably a lot like yours… I respond to emails… organize/attend meetings… take calls to figure out whether I’m the right speaker for an event… get pulled into operational conversations and the backend of the many businesses I’m either running or invested in… and much more… all necessary… but little of that allows my Human Signal to shine through. That doesn’t mean everything outside of those moments should disappear (nor should I want it to). Preparing for a podcast is work… but that preparation strengthens the signal. Reading feeds it… research feeds it… thinking feeds it… spending time on a Zoom talking about an event feeds it…

So… the distinction may be between the work that strengthens your Human Signal and the work that simply gets in its way.

That distinction matters. The goal isn’t to automate everything that isn’t our Human Signal. Some of the work is what makes the signal possible. The opportunity is to become much more intentional about understanding the difference. And this is where AI could become very disruptive for leaders. As automation and agents take over more tasks, companies may be forced to understand their workforce very differently. Not simply: What does this employee do? But… what is this person exceptionally good at… and how much of the job we designed for them actually allows them to do it? Where is their Human Signal strongest… and how much of their work allows that signal to come through? Imagine discovering that someone you hired because of their relationships or ability to solve complex problems spends 80% of their week updating systems… sitting in meetings… preparing reports… coordinating calendars… documenting work… and navigating internal processes. We may discover that we’ve spent decades hiring people for their potential… and then designing jobs that keep them away from the very value we hired them to create.

That’s a job design problem.

Companies will have to confront it because this new tech will keep stripping tasks out of jobs. Agents won’t care that something has traditionally been part of someone’s responsibilities. If the work can be done faster and cheaper by technology, it will be done. As more of those tasks disappear, the Human Signal becomes much more interesting… and potentially much more valuable.

But there’s another side to this…

Organizations can redesign jobs. Leaders can rethink workflows. AI can remove work. Nobody can take responsibility for your Human Signal… except you. The trick is… you have to know what it is. You have to recognize what it feels like when it’s coming through. You have to understand which work strengthens it… and which work drowns it out. And then you have to ask a much harder question… Are you actually in a job that wants to pay you for it? Jim Collins famously talked about getting the right people on the bus and then getting them into the right seats. AI will force companies to rethink what those seats actually are.

But ultimately, we still have to decide whether we’re sitting in the right one.

The thinking behind this article was inspired by my conversation with Mike Michalowicz on this week’s episode of Thinking With Mitch Joel. Mike is the bestselling author of Profit First, and we sat down to discuss his new book, The Money Habit, along with AI, productivity and where human value goes from here.