The Question Layer: What Deserves an Answer in AI-Driven Decentralized Governance - Ivana Šedivá

Transcript

Okay. So, in 2020 there was an organization who had a beautiful beautiful product and service. And they raised nearly two billion dollars for that. Sounds great, right? It was a platform which delivered um on-demand short video clips for people on the go.

They hired Hollywood talent. They hired best engineers. And they spent all that money. And in 6 months they closed. Do you remember Quibi, anybody? Well, if you don't they failed even faster. And if you do, you know the disaster. Now uh it is horrible, right? A- And it's not the only example. We have so many examples of companies delivering beautiful beautiful things which actually nobody

needed. Now, imagine this level of disaster inside the systems which execute automatically. You know, the decentralized systems where ideas just do not get discussed, but it triggers responses, decisions. Tokens are used. And that space speed just doesn't help it. It makes it only faster.

Well, Sarah was asking me who I am, yeah. I spent uh many, many years in large corporations like uh Johnson & Johnson McDonald's. And I worked there on the C-suite in the leadership roles. And for the last 10 or more years, I'm actually mentoring startups. For last 6 years, I spent actually majority of my time mentoring startups around the globe with Google for startups, with Startup Yard. Maybe you have seen Cedric yesterday here.

And most recently also with Plug and Play. 2-3 weeks ago, I just returned from where in Yerevan I was mentoring 18 technological startups. And you know, whether it is the Fortune 500 company or three founders of a technological startups, I see the same pattern very often. Um teams just move too quickly to solutions and to answers.

And in this room, you are building systems which are designed to reduce friction and accelerate action. And AI is becoming part of those systems, making it even faster, more automated. Now, I asked at the very beginning when Sarah was talking to me, why should this lady, why should this Ivana be talking to you? Yes, I am actually a person who is a boomer, the first year of identified boomer. I was born in 1964. Probably your parents were born at at this decade.

Um so, what can she tell us actually? And yes, I worked in the large corporations. And of course, I may argue yet but but I studied um and I worked in AI at the time when it was not cool, you know? I have a scientific degree. It is not called PhD, but it's pretty much the same uh from '90s uh with Professor Mazique. Some of you may know him. But you know, after that, I joined the corporate world. So, how how am I actually relevant to you here?

Well, I've spent most of my career working with people in leadership and dealing with tough decisions. Before internet time, during the digitalization, and today. And from the outside, I don't see what I'm describing as a problem of technology and the story of technology. I see it as a human story. And technology, similarly like the teams, is just empowering us to have faster and often better, but sometimes not so relevant decisions.

And AI can um expand possibilities almost instantly. Networks can coordinate faster than ever. But more powerful the technology becomes, the more important it is that we humans understand what we are here for and what we are trying to achieve. And you know, sometimes I think shouldn't we stop for a moment and and start instead of focusing on the problem,

stop it for a moment and focus on questions instead. Otherwise, we are full of ideas, full of speed, but we need that moment of clarity and focus. It reminds me of the conversations which I have with startups. Um you know, when I have a mentoring with startups, they often come and if it is a speed mentoring, you know, you can imagine you have 45 minutes and sometimes you have like like uh 60 minutes maximum and you are supposed to give them some

meaningful advice, right? And help them in 1 hour. And the guys come and they start telling, "Oh, let me tell you what are we doing?" And they start describing their product or service, getting to very detail of their solution. And very often they come better prepared. And they say, "Hey, we are here so that we have this impact. This is our why."

And they start describing their problem. But what I realized over the time is that describing the problem doesn't help. And since that time, and it's many years now, I'm actually stopping them and I say, "Hey, don't tell me what is your problem please. Tell me what question do you have for me?" And uh maybe you remember it from from your studies or or from the conferences or whatever.

When we can formulate a question, it means we understand the problem well enough. So, this little switch into question instead describing my problem leads you to understand immediately that maybe this is not the right question I should be asking. Maybe I should ask another question. Maybe I should go deeper. Sometimes, if we do not have a question, it means that we may not understand the problem almost at all.

It's very powerful technique. And this is something what I just wanted to invite you to think about. And it's about maybe a step which we need to add at the beginning, a question layer, you know, a moment of clarity before systems move into actions. Are we clear what are we trying to achieve? And are we asking the right question?

And what solutions for what problem we want to have. We are surrounded by the systems which generate answers. But the future will not belong to the systems which generate the fastest answers. It will belong to people who know what deserves an answer. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you.