Post by Shivani Buchner, ICF PCC, MSc

What does it mean to be an expert now? For the longest time, expertise meant accumulating knowledge and being able to process and apply it effectively. But I’ve been exploring how that definition is starting to shift. At a Women in Big Data, AI, Leadership and Connection event I attended at Netlight last night, the brilliant Anna Polizzotto sparked and facilitated a lively discussion about this, and the following thought stayed with me. Perhaps expertise is increasingly about developing signal through vast networks of information and then knowing how to exercise judgment, leverage it, and execute well. That conversation connected with something else I’ve been noticing lately. A quiet pull back toward being in the same room together again. We embraced remote and digital connection fully, as we tend to do with anything that removes friction. The swing back was always coming. It rarely means abandoning what worked, it usually means finding equilibrium. Part of why I went is also because some of the best people I know and worked with, happen to be past or current Netlighters. Felix Alcala Johan Byttner , Maximilian Born and Lisa Kolbe . People who carry that rare combination of a sharp mind, genuine warmth, confident humility and empathy. The kind of colleagues who make you better simply by being around them. I dont think that is a coincidence. When a company has real clarity of values, and the discipline to embed those values into how it selects people, you get cultures with zero tolerance for brilliant jerks. Not as a slogan on a wall, but as a lived standard. And honestly, that may become even more important in the AI era, not less. Because when knowledge becomes increasingly accessible, judgment, character and the ability to work well with other humans become far more differentiating. And finally, a very big thank you to the following inspiring women I met last night, for your warmth, openness and so generously feeding my curiosity Anna Polizzotto Giulia Battiston Florence Koster Sayantani M. #FutureOfWork #Leadership #AI #CompanyCulture #HumanCenteredLeadership