Thought Leadership in AI and Robotics | Jen Cohen

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Using thought leadership guide the process of AI and automation production.

An interview with Jen Cohen about the processes used in developing AI and robotics at Toyota to benefit society and helping others find their Ikigai.

Today’s guest is Jen Cohen the Vice President of Engineering at the Toyota Research Institute (TRI). Jen has over twenty years of technology and operations leadership experience that she uses to make technology work for business.

Also, Jen shares how her work at TRI is helping to strengthen the research structure that is developing technology that amplifies humans.  In addition, this technology allows people to age in place.  People can continue to enjoy their lives with the aid of AI and robotics without replacing the human aspect.

After that, Jen discusses the ever-important need to create processes in the development stage that will guide a project to completion. With 50% of IT projects failing, she understands the need to have effective change agents in place. She explains how it is never wise to take shortcuts in development.

A reason for being

During our discussion of what successful thought leadership means to Jen, she shares the concept of Ikigai, a Japanese concept meaning “A reason for being.”  We chat about how our lives feel most fulfilled when we incorporate work that we love. Then, we discuss how TRI is helping people to achieve their Ikigai.

Three Key Takeaways from the Interview:

• Thought Leaders can include various forms of automation in their work. The key is to ensure it enhances the human experience and does not replace the human.
• When developing processes for anything, thought leadership should look at the end goal.  Then, ensure the steps to get there are developed early and nothing is skipped.
• Ikigai is a great concept for thought leaders. Finding ways to help others live their best life by doing work they love will increase the productivity and satisfaction of clients.

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Transcript

Bill Sherman Hello and welcome. You’re listening to Leveraging Thought Leadership. I’m your host, Bill Sherman. And today we’re talking about one of my personal passions, organizational thought leadership. How does an organization take original research ideas to enterprise scale? Recently, I sat down with Jen Cohen. She’s the VP of Core Engineering at the Toyota Research Institute, where they’re working on complex topics such as automated driving and helping people age in place at home through robotics. In this episode, I’m eager to talk with Jen about the intersection of thought leadership and operations. Ready? Let’s begin. Welcome to the show, Jen.

Jen Cohen I will. Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited.

Bill Sherman So you work at Toyota Research Institute. And I’m sure most of our listeners know Toyota from many different touch points. But what is the Toyota Research Institute? And give it a little bit of overview of what you do there. Yeah.

Jen Cohen So Toyota Research Institute or Tier I aims to strengthen Toyota’s research structure and develop technology that amplifies humans, not replaces them. And a lot of this we’re doing through automated driving technologies, robotics, material sciences. Our researchers use artificial intelligence to benefit society. And that takes a form for me. When I joined up thinking about the fact that most teen deaths in the U.S. are from driving accidents. And when I started it, too, I had two children who were teenagers, now only one of the teenager. But one of the reasons that I joined here, I was to be able to hopefully have some small contribution in helping to change that.

Bill Sherman And I think you touched on something. The thought leadership is essentially good at is spotting the problems where the status quo isn’t good enough. Right. And whether that we look and we say the number of fatalities for teenage drivers and not only the teenagers themselves, but others who are injured in accidents as well, as you talk about robotics, supported assisted living. Right. And how we can make life easier for people when they can’t do some of the day to day tasks. And those are things that sometimes feel like science fiction. We’re really on the cusp of them happening and coming into reality, right? Yes. So go ahead.

Jen Cohen So it’s for me, it’s been super exciting. When we used to be able to go in the office pre-COVID. I get to go in in the morning and see robots in the kitchen doing different tasks. And you think about how that can benefit somebody who wants to age in place. And right now in Japan, there’s a huge crisis around the elderly and how many people there are for caregiving. And that same crisis is going to come to the US and to other countries as well. And so the idea of robotics and helping elders to age in place for Toyota Research Institute is human amplification. We don’t want to take away people’s meaning. They want to make sure that they can do the tasks they want to do. I guess they love to make a meal. We want to help them do that and maybe do the things that they can no longer do but still be a part of it.

Bill Sherman And I think that’s. It’s a wonderful expression of what thought leadership can do. Right, is we’re not. How to stop things that people do, but how do we make the world or make someone’s experience better? Could you describe a little bit for us before we dive into the thought leadership world, What is your role? You got the title of VP of Core Engineering, but what does that mean? Sort of on a arc of role and responsibilities? What do you do within the institute?

Jen Cohen So within Tier I, when it comes to research, a lot of times you’ll have small, self-contained teams who might have all of the skillsets they need to do the capability research they’re doing. Or you can have larger teams who have a bevy of folks as Sarah has grown. And we’re going to hit our five-year mark in January. One of the things that we took a look at is how do we best support all these different research groups? Because we do have different kinds of machine assisted cognition, material science. And then like we talked about the robotics and the automated driving. So for core engineering, what we are is essentially shared services and that’s I.t teams, cybersecurity, project management, office, DevOps. But we’ve also added things like our data engineering team and simulation. So that’s simulating either for the car or the robot, different things that we need to see for data engineering as we have cars about doing miles on the road, it’s bringing back those logs and using that in useful fashions for researchers. So my teams, I’m proud to say, support those efforts so that we can support the researchers.

Bill Sherman Well, and let’s double click here for a moment. Right. You’ve got within the research institute, I don’t know how many researchers you have, but I’m assuming it’s a fair number, right? Many of them incredibly smart and deep expertise on what they need to do. And who is the customer for the research institute? Where does this research go? What’s the flow of knowledge creation on that?

Jen Cohen So our customer is Toyota. And I will say, when you think about it, going from a capability that doesn’t go straight into a product. So one of the things that I think is awesome about Tier II is that we’ve actually been involved in the first of two companies in the Toyota ecosystem, Toyota Air Ventures, which is our venture capital arm for AEI. And Jim Adler runs that company. He would be great on your podcast, by the way. And Toyota Research Institute, Advanced Development. And the idea there is we build capabilities to try. It can help to harden those and eventually get those into products in the Toyota ecosystem. So our customer is really one, which is Toyota, which for me is quite different because I come from corporate where you have many customers. So it’s a little bit of a different feel, but it’s a lot of fun.

Bill Sherman And you come from an operations background as well, right? So let’s talk about sort of the perspective you have from an operations perspective now melded with supporting research.

Jen Cohen So the bulk of my career was technology. And about maybe five years ago, I started to do operations leadership. And it’s really, I think, spend formative. I don’t think I knew how formative it would be. And that kind of meld together of technology and the good lessons you learn when you have to kind of operate, whether it’s operating a system or operating business have been super helpful, especially around things like the idea of process. You know, process can be the bureaucratic thing we all see in red tape that we want to run for from. But if we do it right, process can make our work go faster. And so I think that’s something I bring with me into my technology world. I also think one of the things that happens when you’re doing tech is we’re so in love with the tech. We’re going so fast that sometimes we forget that we need to build the scaling from the beginning. And so operations really taught me about scaling and how important it is to take a little extra time for those foundational elements before we try to scale up. And that’s been really handy because for four tier I in terms of the amount of data we do, the things that we do in the cloud scaling the importance of building those from the get go, I’m really critical. And I think without that operations experience, I don’t know if I value that so much.

Bill Sherman Well, and one of the ways that I describe for leadership is taking ideas to scale which to accomplish that, you have to have operations, discipline. You also have to have a sense of identifying where you will focus time, effort and resources and be purposeful. You cannot just sort of slide through it and wait for the moment or the rigor you. It is a discipline in thought leadership of getting ideas so that other people can lean in, say, we can use this to solve a problem. So talk to me a little bit. Maybe you can give an example of some of that from some of the work that tries doing of something that would help people contextualize how the ideas are reaching scale.

Jen Cohen Yeah, I think slightly to the side, it evolved in my efforts here. I was kind of in general when it comes to thought leadership. I was working on a speech talking about following the formula for big systems implementations. And a friend and mentor told me, Well, that’s not leadership. I have no idea. That was thought leadership. I thought with thought leadership, you had to have 100% unique ideas that no one ever heard before. And she shared with me that in general, it’s kind of like women applying for jobs. They want to have 100% of the qualifications. And in my head you had to have 100% unique ideas. What I found, though, is that the lessons learned truly from operations and from technology are ones that I can influence others and share with them. And actually one of the people come back to me and ask questions. So in the speech and also in how I approach things, I try, I think about when we implement technology to support our research teams, how do we make sure we follow all the right steps so we get the outcomes and the impacts that we want. And so a lot of my effort is to make sure that we are following the steps and that I’m helping others understand why we are. Maybe it takes a little bit longer to do something, but then we don’t have to maintain it as much going forward. So helping people get on board with that and seeing how success can look like, we follow those, formalizing those steps.

Bill Sherman And you talk about steps and process, right? And you and I share a similar passion in terms of operations, right? That skipping steps often leads to trouble down the line. And I know that’s an area that you’re sort of passionate about. Do you want to talk a little bit about the risk of skipping steps as you’re working on developing ideas and taking them to scale?

Jen Cohen Yeah, I would love to talk when I could talk about it for hours, but I’m not sure everyone wants to do that, right?

Bill Sherman Yeah. Yeah.

Jen Cohen I would say that I think everybody’s heard of large technology implementations that have failed and there are some surveys I’ve read where half of projects fail, a third of them are on time or on budget. We see this all the time. And actually I’m aware of a software company, for example, that put in an ERP system, enterprise resource planning system, and that couldn’t order shoes by size and couldn’t take orders of shoes by size. It ended up that while the CEO heard some of that, he skipped steps and they ended up with layoffs and a buyout because when they were implementing this technology, they didn’t follow kind of what I consider to be the formula. And so the formula for me is alignment, not on the cool, shiny technology, which I love. Trust me, I’m a technologist. I adore it. That’s not always the answer. It’s understanding the outcome of the outcome and the impact and the why I’m in the how am I just the what? I also think that one of the steps I see skipped a lot is empathy. Having teams kind of work together and really understand what the stakeholders, the users are going to do. Having supported and skilled change agents. One of the things I’ve seen a lot of in my career is I’ll go changes and I’ll support you and are there the executives there for the kick off and then they disappear and the poor change agents trying to force changes that people aren’t interested in. So I think there’s things we can do there to make sure they are skilled in that skillset, but then also support it. And finally, it’s my favorites. Whenever I say those people roll their eyes. But effective project management, not just somebody who can check a box, right? We’ve all seen that, but really somebody who understands the outcome of the impact, but then also understands the steps to get there and is helping that project along. So for me, I’m passionate about following those because without it, every time I skip my skip those steps I burned my hand. But as I’ve grown in my career, it’s not just me. The firms are hand, you know absolutely right.

Bill Sherman You have so many downstream consequences from a skip step, especially when you’re talking about core research, engineering, things that are fundamental to get right, that serve as almost the foundation for all the research and work that’s going on. Right?

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Bill Sherman So you mentioned something that I want to explore a little bit deeper. You were talking about the concept of human amplification and helping us do more through automation. And you’ve mentioned the term ikigai. What is if you go there and how does that fit into some of the work the institute is doing? Because I think it’s an interesting concept on its own from a thought leadership perspective.

Jen Cohen I love the concept. So studies of Ichigo teach us that we feel most fulfilled when our lives incorporate work that we love and help society. So one of the things we think about is how do we enable people to achieve their ego? And a lot of that we’re thinking about in relation to automation, where the human touch and human amplification we talk about. Let me give you an example. If you think it was two years ago we had a slalom track set up, so, you know, track with lots of turns and curves and done with cones. And they had a lot of us drivers get in the car and they said, go through the cones and go up to 30 miles an hour and turn up ahead of me. I didn’t get through 25 miles an hour and I still had cones counts. Yeah. Yeah. Then they turned on the automated driving and it was an assist. It didn’t drive the whole car. I was still driving, but I could go 30 miles an hour all the way down to the ground. And it helped me turn it assisted me and amplified my skills. And I didn’t hit one tone. And one of the things our CEO talks about is the joy of driving. I’ve never had so much fun because I had no risk. I wasn’t going to hurt anybody or the car, but I got to go faster those cones and not hit a single one. I think that’s human amplification, not human replacement.

Bill Sherman And that leads to the question of if you take out the risk or if you take out the danger and whether that’s, you know, aging in place or driving in that what new opportunities open up when we reduce the risk of negative consequences. And you talked about joy, but I think there’s a number of human emotions. And you talked about the empathy, you know, the work in the projects. There’s a very human part tied not only to the research that Toyota Research Institute is doing, but also the problems that are solved.

Jen Cohen Right? Absolutely. When I think about the elders that are aging in place and looking at how much care our researchers take in interviewing people and understanding problems and understanding that guy is important in this, that people don’t want just to have a robot running around the house doing everything those people want to be involved. And so this idea of having the robot help to make the meal and the robot, but still the human being able to be a participant in that, I think it’s such a key part of how we can leverage that empathy, that we can understand that people need purpose and it’s not just about replacing. And so, yeah, I definitely think that that’s in line with the way that we think. And if it’s automated driving, you know, every bit of safety we have out there doesn’t just help the person in that car. It helps all the people involved with that car. So I love that that’s that altruistic part is key to try and it’s one of the reasons I work there.

Bill Sherman It’s so many people who I see working on thought leadership and research development. That touchstone of why they do it becomes critically important because it’s not just knowledge for knowledge sake. It’s about solving problems that people encounter that have a material impact in the world. So let me ask you this question. Given your position in the institute, how are you measuring success for thought leadership? What is success? What does it look like? What are you doing to get there and how do you know you’ve reached it?

Jen Cohen So I will say, if I kind of think of this in two ways, I think about when I have an idea and I usually go into the year with an intention, not like a goal or a resolution because I want to be more organic as the year changes and very purposely choose the beginning of the year. And when I hear other people repeat those intentions that I’ve been talking about in a meeting, even better in all hands, I feel like I’ve gone viral and that ideas out there. So for me, I’m measuring to see that idea go further. I see. When it comes to try as a whole. When I first started five years ago, our CEO, Dr. Gill Pratt, talked about how difficult a problem automated driving is. And it’s been interesting as the years have gone by to see people agreeing and stating those things and saying that it’s going to be harder than we think. So I think whether it’s outside the, you know, the institute where people are seeing the ideas and incorporating them or if it’s insight. And I will say, my friend Elizabeth Bachmann says that, you know, and I’m a servant leader, that’s my kind of philosophy, that when an idea has a life of its own, that’s the essence of servant leadership. So for me, when I hear folks repeating those ideas, whether it’s mine or something that’s been done, it’s just it’s such a sense of satisfaction that I get from that.

Bill Sherman And this is a point I think that’s worth sort of dwelling on for a moment is can the idea stand on its own? And often in thought leadership, we wind up having to be the chauffeur for an idea. We take it from meeting to meeting, from presentation to presentation. And we’re almost not only chauffeur, but roadie, right? Setting it up, doing the act, all of that work.

Jen Cohen Yes.

Bill Sherman But ultimately, for an idea to reach scale, the idea has to take on a life of its own without you or the researcher in the room. How the. To explain it and breathe life into it. Right. And that’s the point when other people understand it and can adopt it, use it, put it to practice. That’s where the idea flourishes. Right. And there’s a lot of hard work that has to be done in the research phase four to reach scale. Right. Because most ideas, even if it’s a good idea, it doesn’t have an implementation. Or in the case of automated driving, we’ve been promised it for years and years. I mean, the first cruise control, I think, is from mid-century in the 20th century. Right. But it’s taken so long because the problem is hard.

Jen Cohen It is.

Bill Sherman And so we can think of The Jetsons and the flying cars are back to the future with hoverboards. We don’t have those things yet. We’re waiting for the engineering to solve it.

Jen Cohen I think the engineering and the science and you know, I’m not an expert on the autonomous driving. That’s why we have right ethic researchers. But being, you know, kind of observing and understanding how much work it took for me to be in that car and do that follow on track and having the cars, you know, assist me. It’s a huge amount of work. And so I love that people are realizing it. And that idea has kind of grown legs and people are talking about it. I think I agree with you. You know, I’ve been talking about the following, the formula for 20 years. And so, you know, and I’ve been on the road and I’ve met and I’ve been the chauffeur. And but when I know that it’s working is when I’m hearing my team members quote back at me, especially if I’m getting a little greedy and might want to skip a step, because sometimes those small projects you can get away with skipping a step. But as soon as something grows in scale way, it becomes really important to follow. And so when I hear folks, quote unquote, back to me, when I’m having a little moment, like, okay, that one had legs on its own, I didn’t have to stand it up. I didn’t have to rotate. They get it and or they say it to one of our internal customers. I love saying that because I was for that idea for a while.

Bill Sherman And you mentioned a good example there of when the when an idea is used to be able to push back, right? And you’re saying, here’s an area where we could make a mistake and the idea is strong enough that it’s stepping in to intervene and that people feel comfortable using it. In your case, you’re not the evangelist for it. You’re the recipient of the message on the don’t skip steps. Right. So I think that those moments are a great way to measure success. What happens when because we all try to take shortcuts in one way or another, we look for the easy way. But when the idea provides the strength, structure and support we need to keep going, then things are working. So as we start to wrap up here, I know that you didn’t plan to be at the beginning of your career to dive into the world of thought, leadership and research on this, but do you have any advice for someone who’s doing work in this space or considering, you know, diving into the world of thought leadership within organizations? What would you advise?

Jen Cohen So first I’d read up on it. I wasn’t as educated on it as I should have been. And there’s so many great resources, obviously, listening to your podcast, there’s great books out there. And then I think starting small, working with the teams that you work with, if you have an idea and you think it has legs. Try that out with folks. I think that’s an important thing to do. And then I will say, one of the things that’s been really beneficial to me is I’ve always had ideas, but the struggle sometimes can be and how to communicate them. And so I worked with a strategic speaking coach to help me really fine tune because it might be that I have 400 ideas, but not all of them are thought leadership ideas. And so working with someone who can help me narrow the focus, make sure that my messages are clear and concise, that’s really helped me. And oddly enough, not only does it help me with thought leadership, but I recently hosted an all Hands and I was such an executive presence. I’m like, I don’t I don’t know that that’s true, but I do. It’s because of the strategic speaking of help me get there. And I didn’t even know I’d grown. So I think it can help you get to communicate that thought leadership, right? Or it’s just sitting there.

Bill Sherman Exactly. If it’s only sitting between your ears and inside your head, then it it’s not thought leadership. It’s an idea. And that process of whittling down and saying which of the 400 is going to be the one that has traction, whether you’re a research institute and a team of researchers looking and saying, here are many possible ideas we could pursue which one or if you’re working independently on thought leadership to know which ideas are worth developing and investing. Time is a skill that you can spend a career working on and mastering.

Jen Cohen Absolutely. And it’s obviously a journey and I’m still on it, but I’m super honored to be speaking with you today. And I think that that helps me to consider myself occasionally a thought leader.

Bill Sherman Jen, thank you for taking time to share what’s happening at the Toyota Research Institute, as well as your journey on thought leadership. Really appreciate you joining us today.

Jen Cohen Love being here. Thank you so much for taking the time. I appreciate it.

Bill Sherman If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please join our LinkedIn group. Organizational Thought Leadership. It’s a professional community where thought leadership practitioners talk shop about our field. So if you’re someone who creates curates or deploys thought leadership for your organization, then please join the conversation in the organizational thought Leadership LinkedIn.