Hi ,
Would you believe that sharing a conversation in the lunch room could be more valuable to your data science career than spending countless hours behind a computer, perfecting your latest model?
I wouldn't have either, until I stumbled across this strategy by pure chance - and reaped the resulting rewards.
During the many years when I worked in an office, I would pack a cheese sandwich every day. And every day I would go to the lunch room and toast that sandwich.
It takes 5 minutes for cheese to melt to the point where it's suitably gooey. With nothing better to do, I would talk to whomever was there - about anything from Marvel movies to sports.
But more often than not, things eventually turned back to work.
For months, I saw those 5 minute chats as simply idle time. It wasn't until I started to notice that projects with my "sandwich buddies" always seemed to run smoother than usual, that the pattern finally became clear.
Those casual chats were actually building the foundations of successful collaboration.
Through just 5 minutes per day, I was able to learn the business needs and wants of my stakeholders better than any formal meetings could achieve.
And my stakeholders walked away better able to understand what my team did - destroying the "ivory tower" mystique.
According to AI strategist Gregory Lewandowski, success in AI and data science is 90% people and only 10% technology. This example illustrates how you can put this principle to work and the benefit of your career.
I recently recorded a (8 minute) Value Boost episode of Value Driven Data Science with
Gregory where we discuss the 90-10 rule further.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- Why focusing purely on technology creates a dangerous blind spot
- The critical success factor that most data science teams overlook
- The "toasted sandwich strategy" for building crucial
relationships
Transform your data science impact in the time it takes to toast a sandwich. Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or click the link below:
Episode 61: The 90-10 Rule for Transforming Data Science Impact
Talk again soon,
Dr Genevieve Hayes.
