Failure to catch up on the developments in one’s industry or profession (or market) does not help executives and professionals progress. Reading and listening are key activities in this regard – especially reading.
According to a recent Harvard study conducted by Michael E. Porter and Nitin Nohria in 2018, a significant portion of a CEO’s workday is spent on phone calls and responding to written correspondence. In fact, their research, which involved collecting data on the schedules of 27 executives totalling 60,000 hours, found that CEOs spend an average of 15% of their time on these activities alone.
Furthermore, the study revealed that electronic communications, including email and messaging, accounted for 24% of their time, meaning that nearly 40% of a CEO’s workday is spent on reading and electronic communications!
(https://hbr.org/2018/07/how-ceos-manage-time)
Another survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit in collaboration with Peppercomm, involving 700 business executives from around the world, revealed some concerning trends in business reading habits. The study found that a staggering 69% of younger executives and 43% of more experienced professionals spend less than four hours per week reading for business purposes, equating to an average of just 48 minutes per day.
(https://www.wyliecomm.com/2021/07/whats-the-average-time-spent-reading-
statistics/)
Efficient material summarization can enhance executives’ efforts to gather information and read effectively, enabling them to review more content in less time. This, in turn, allows executives to allocate more time to critical tasks such as innovation and strategy development, which can significantly impact the success of their business.
ChatGPT’s potentials are numerous here.
“…For time-stressed managers, this AI (ChatGPT) means they have access to a
free, confidential, and well-informed advisor. Over time, ChatGPT will evolve to
support the work of functional departments such as HR, communications, and
marketing. In the long run, it may spell the end of many executive assistant
roles…” (How The New AI ChatGPT Can Help Leaders Make Time To Be Human by
Greg Orme – www.forbes.com)
For instance, ChatGPT can summarize, as of now, a corpora of text (in the future, it could well be summarizing video and audio).
ChatGPT’s speed reading/high-speed summarizing capability is no doubt a welcome reprieve for CEOsS, communication agencies and content creators (writers) who often have to absorb pages and pages of information prior to creating their first drafts.
What is even more impressive is ChatGPT’s capacity to deliver summaries of such
corpora in seconds! Michael King asked ChatGPT to condense his favorite book, “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind” by Yuval Noah Harari: Here’s his verdict:
“Overall, ChatGPT’s unique approach to speed reading has proven to be an
incredibly effective and efficient way to learn and absorb new information. Whether you’re a student, a professional, or simply someone looking to expand
your knowledge, ChatGPT is a valuable resource that you won’t want to miss..”
(https://medium.com/@neonforge/revolutionary-method-of-book-speed-reading-with-chatgpt-108c35bf0aab)
But let’s pause for a moment right here.
ChatGPT summarizes market reports, executive notes and documents well – kudos for that!
But despite its ability to analyze vast amounts of text, can ChatGPT interpret authorial emphasis and individual writing styles beyond executive reports? Is it capable of understanding complex and nuanced expressions that may elude a Large Language Model algorithm, similar to human readers?
A POSTSCRIPT:
In its entirety, I provided ChatGPT with this article and prompted it to summarize it.
Summarize the article below to one meaningful paragraph that does not have more than five sentences.
ChatGPT came back in less than 10 seconds:
“Executives and professionals need to keep up with industry developments and reading is a key activity to do so, yet many spend less than four hours a week reading for business. ChatGPT, an AI language model, can help by summarizing large volumes of text quickly and efficiently, potentially saving time for innovation and strategy. ChatGPT has already proven effective in summarizing market reports and executive documents.
However, it remains to be seen whether it can match human readers in understanding complex nuances and individual writing styles. Nonetheless, ChatGPT is a valuable resource for those looking to expand their knowledge quickly and easily..”
VERDICT:
I believe that ChatGPT stayed on message mostly..except for the last sentence
“Nonetheless, ChatGPT is a valuable resource for those looking to expand their
knowledge quickly and easily” with which, it unexpectedly went on to glorify itself!
After all, once in a while you need to pat yourself on your own back too, ain’t it?
