From Legos to Leadership: The AI-Driven Mindset Shift in Modern Work
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on Dec. 19, 2024
Legos were my favorite toy as a child.
I still remember spending hours on the basement floor, transported into a fantasy world of my own making. That sleek speedboat of my dreams never quite matched my vision; the square and rectangular blocks with their rigid angles didn’t make the smooth lines I pictured in my head. Legos demanded imagination. And created suspense: Running my fingers through piles of loose bricks on the carpet, searching for that perfect piece, I wondered:
What if I can’t find the right piece?
What will this look like?
What will it be?
Will I have to build a boring old house instead?
Playing with Legos in those days—before all the sets had specific designs and step-by-step directions—required an open mind. Uncertainty transformed into possibility. Each challenge became an accomplishment.
I recently learned the company began producing wooden toys in 1932 and officially adopted the name “LEGO” in 1934 and produced the first plastic interlocking blocks in 1949. The name is derived from the Danish phrase that means “play well.”
I’m thinking about this because when it comes to the way we use software tools for work we’ve all been playing with wooden toys.
Ever since Lotus 1-2-3 became the app to use for numbers in the 1980s we have thought about solving our problems with distinct tools that are not integrated. Forty years later, when Slack exploded in popularity the founders promised it would replace email. It hasn’t, we just added it to our increasingly full plate, along with Zoom, Trello and many others. Each time we added a new software tool we created a new information silo.
This is a problem. One that can now be solved, thanks to AI.
The end of information silos 🧑🌾
Imagine information flowing seamlessly across devices and platforms—like water. Your Slack conversations, email attachments, meeting agendas, one-on-one notes in OneNote, and Zoom chat logs could combine into your personal treasury of work knowledge. Now imagine every colleague having their own collection, all interconnected with each other.
Beyond mere efficiencies and time-saving workflows, powerful new insights will emerge. You now have access to a supercomputer that processes and organizes information 300 million times faster than a human brain. It's time to reimagine how you work, lead your team, and prepare for future opportunities.
I started using Notion earlier this year and it now encompasses more than 90 percent of my digital life, both work and personal. While I can't predict which software tool will dominate the future, I'm certain that how we organize, process, and communicate information will transform dramatically.
It’s not about learning a new tool. It’s about adopting a new mindset.
Continuous evolution ✈️
I often remind myself that doctors were making TV commercials for cigarettes as recently as the 1950s to help wrap my head around our rapid evolution. Smoking wasn't completely banned on U.S. commercial flights until 2000!
What we accept as status quo today—including using separate software tools for words, numbers, messages, projects, tasks—will inevitably change.
I can already imagine leaders having quick and constant awareness of the bottlenecks in their team’s processes and the ability to replace friction with flow.
I picture teams collaborating in real-time with AI assistants that can identify patterns, suggest solutions, and automate routine decisions. (Humans will make the important decisions, of course.)
I envision organizations where knowledge flows seamlessly across departments, breaking down silos that once limited innovation and growth.
I envision a future where training and upskilling aren't constrained by budget cycles. Instead, learning opportunities are continuous, timely, and relevant to each person's needs.
Historical context becomes readily available—decades of institutional knowledge from seasoned employees is instantly accessible to everyone.
Collective intelligence will emerge as a new management paradigm—shifting from individual performance reviews to real-time evaluation of teams based on their collaborative speed and quality.
The future of work isn't just about incremental gains in speed, efficiency, or reducing app clutter. Rather, it's about reimagining what becomes possible when we break down artificial barriers between data, people, and insights—connecting humans through information that empowers them to fulfill their core mission.
Choose your own adventure ⛰️
The future doesn't come with an instruction manual. Instead, it's a choose-your-own-adventure where you build what you need. The founders of Notion say they built their software to be like Legos—rather than giving you a finished toy, they give you the pieces to build your own.
Using Notion this year has shown me the power of having all my information in one place, with the freedom to organize it exactly as I need. I maintain task lists, spreadsheets, written documents, databases, and other formats—all securely isolated from the open internet. The AI assistant synthesizes insights across my personal knowledge base, drafts emails that match my voice, extracts key development areas from months of client meeting notes, and identifies important questions for upcoming meetings.
I have no stake—nor prediction—in whether Notion will supplant Microsoft Office or Google Workspace, or if another company will create the future of work. What I firmly believe is that the future of work will be more like Legos and less like wooden toys, with humans learning to truly "play well" together.