RAVIN JESUTHASAN AND

JOHN BOUDREAU'S
REINVENTING JOBS
MEMORIZATION BOOKLET

MentorBox

CHEAT SHEET
REINVENTING JOBS
BY RAVIN JESUTHASAN
& JOHN BOUDREAU
“Technologies like self-driving cars, chatbots,
automated parking lot attendants, and robotic home
caregivers are enticing and attention grabbing,
but experts say that the pivotal factor in realizing
their value is increasingly how leaders optimize the
combinations of human and automated work, and
then organize and lead to support those combinations.”
30-SECOND SUMMARY
It’s in the media all the time: Some unknown interview
subject or politician is lamenting about the loss of jobs to
automation and robotics. The robots are taking over, and
they’re leaving traditional workers behind. By all means,
we should be concerned about the growth and impact
of technology, but the answer isn’t to simply grieve or
adopt anti-technological practices. The answer is in our
own personal and organizational mindset and structure.
Many kinds of automation, including robotics and the
highly anticipated artificial intelligence, are already having
massive impacts on our industries. In most cases, they
don’t remove humanity from the job, the re-define and
refine exactly what humans should be doing, optimizing
us and our organizations in the process. Reinventing Jobs
teaches us how to adopt and best take advantage of these
technological advances, as well as how to anticipate future
advances.
WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
1. Artificial Intelligence and all forms of automation are here
to stay, and it’s essential to adapt our own skill sets and
professional pathways to make us and our organizations
as effective as possible.
2. Most organizations are simply not taking the steps
they need to effectively incorporate AI. This creates an
opportunity to get ahead of even the most established
companies.
3. AI ultimately creates both opportunity and demand for
humans to became better performers than ever before.
WHY SHOULD I LISTEN TO RAVIN & JOHN?
MANAGING DIRECTOR AT WILLIS TOWERS
WATSON RESEARCH FIRM
FEATURED BY DOZENS OF LEADING MEDIA,
INCLUDING CNN, WALL STREET JOURNAL, AND
FORTUNE
RATED A TOP-25 MOST INFLUENTIAL CONSULTANT
BY CONSULTING MAGAZINE
BIG IDEA #1
THE WRONG QUESTION
KNOW THIS — When it comes to the automation and
digitization of work, we’ve been asking the wrong question,
which is: How and when will automation take over (our) jobs,
and which jobs will they take?
WHAT TO DO — Understand that automation doesn’t
affect jobs: It affects tasks. Your skill set and that of your
organization’s personnel must allow for augmentation by
automation, not avoidance or neglect of it.
BIG IDEA #2
DECONSTRUCT THE JOB
KNOW THIS — A majority of organizations have neither
deconstructed its work to search for automation opportunities
nor established re-skilling pathways to prepare personnel to
best work alongside automation.
WHAT TO DO — Ask yourself the following three
questions regarding the tasks performed in your organization:
Is the work more repetitive or variable? Is the work performed
independently or interactively? Is the work mental or physical
in nature?
BIG IDEA #3
AUTOMATION PAYOFF
KNOW THIS — There is a general belief that there is a
direct correlation between the quality of performance of a
job and its value to an organization. This is an erroneous and
over-simplified understanding.
WHAT TO DO — Understand that there are ultimately
four types of nuanced relationships between job performance
and value: High performance that is compulsory, high
performance that maintains, high performance that benefits,
and high performance that grows exponentially.
 BIG IDEA #4
RPA
KNOW THIS — The most established form of computerized
automation is robotic process automation (RPA). RPA “bots”
allow for the large-scale aggregation, organization, and simplified
analysis of data.
WHAT TO DO — RPA is ideal for replacing independently
performed, rules-based, mental tasks. Consider looking into RPA
to reduce the errors and time spent working with massive data
sets.
BIG IDEA #5
COGNITIVE AUTOMATION
KNOW THIS — Cognitive automation (artificial intelligence)
includes two major developments: machine learning, wherein
machines optimize their own processes through analysis of data,
and natural language processing, wherein machines engage with
humans in terms familiar to us.
WHAT TO DO — If your organization is reliant upon
large quantities of tasks that are variable and interactive or
interpersonal, adding AI machine learning could drastically
improve the value of personnel’s work.
BIG IDEA #6
SOCIAL ROBOTICS
KNOW THIS — Social Robotics refers to the processing
within what we commonly know as robots. Whereas robots
began as simple, immobile assembly units, they now have
physical bodies that can move and interact with people and other
autonomous robots.
WHAT TO DO — The major benefit of social robots is
their flexibility in task performance and ability to work with
humans. Consider implementing robots where tasks are variable,
independent or interactive, and primarily physical.
IF NOTHING ELSE—REMEMBER THIS:
1. AI, machine learning, computers, and robots are NOT
simply taking our jobs—they are augmenting US.
2. The most successful businesses of the future will focus on
skill over jobs, embrace automation, and do much of their
work collaboratively.
3. The most successful individuals will be constant learners,
especially when it comes to emerging technology and
systems.
BIG IDEA #7
OPTIMIZE WORK
KNOW THIS — Automation is creating opportunities to
optimize work in three different ways: By substituting human
work, augmenting human ability, or creating demand for new
types of skills in humans.
WHAT TO DO — Look for ways that automation can bring
human interaction BACK to your work or industry. Can
the streamlining of processes allow your personnel to spend
more time with customers developing, empathy, brand, and
relationships?
BIG IDEA #8
THE NEW ORGANIZATION
KNOW THIS — The most impactful organizations no longer
operate in an insular fashion. You must now decide what the
most efficient use of personnel is, alongside options like RPA,
machine learning, gig work, and partnerships.
WHAT TO DO — Keep everything on the table. Become
familiar with outsourcing and freelancing platforms like Upwork,
know tools that utilize RPA, take advantage of team learning,
and don’t feel obligated to keep all your work internal.
BIG IDEA #9
THE NEW LEADERSHIP
KNOW THIS — It is no longer the role of leadership to simply
fill and manage positions with optimal talent. Leaders must now
learn to coordinate personnel and skill with the many other
options available for accomplishing elemental tasks.
WHAT TO DO — Rather than focusing on personnel’s
qualifications, job performance, position fit, and opportunity
for advancement, focus on job readiness, skill set, task fit, and
opportunity to continually learn emerging and relevant skills.
BIG IDEA #10
REMAIN RELEVANT
KNOW THIS — Modern professional culture is predicated
upon a notion that you learn for a designated period of time
(school), work and advance for a period of time (career), and
then retire. You must alter this mindset to embrace ubiquitous
learning.
WHAT TO DO — Embrace “perpetual obsolescence.”
Automate self-education and take advantage of new technology if
you wish to be relevant and prosperous.
 WELCOME TO MENTORBOX

GETTING STARTED ABOUT RAVIN

Congratulations! By receiving this MentorBox,
you’ve already proven you’re ahead of the game.
You’ve demonstrated your desire to pursue an
education more practical and imperative than any
other. You’ve identified the most effective way to
develop an innovative, creative, and resourceful
spirit. So, again, congratulations.
BUT, that’s only step one. This is simply the toolbox
you need to repair the problems you see in the world.
Now, you must learn to use those tools—consume
the knowledge and experience of these experts,
reflect on the import of their successes, and decide
how you will join the ranks of thought-leaders and
world-changers.
Ravin Jesuthasan is one of the world’s most
sought-after experts on artificial intelligence and
automation. He has been a featured speaker in every
major continent and contributed written work to The
Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Fortune.
His writing repertoire also includes three books:
Transformative HR, Lead The Work, and
Reinventing Jobs.
He has been recognized as one of the top 25 most
influential consultants in the world by Consulting
Magazine, and currently holds the title of Managing
Partner at Willis Towers Watson, a multinational
advisory company.

That’s right—you decide how you’re going to be

great. But that decision, like all action, demands
erudition, dedication, and inspiration. That’s
where we come in, and it all starts with these
materials, these books, and these voices. Welcome to
MentorBox. Enjoy your rise to the top.

NEXT STEPS

1. Access all media related to this course at:

download.mentorbox.com. There you will find the
corresponding Audiobook Nugget, Video Book Lesson,
and Audio Lesson. If you have any difficulty logging in
contact: support@mentorbox.com.

2. Start by listening to the Audiobook Nugget which is an

audio overview of the lesson ahead. By previewing the lesson
in advance, you’ll have a thorough rundown of the lesson
plan—allowing your brain to spend less time wondering
what’s next and more time focusing on the task at hand.

3. Scan the Cheat Sheet. NOTE – Reading Reinventing Jobs will give you the
full breadth of Jesuthasan and Boudreau’s research,
4. Begin the Video Book Lesson, keeping your Memorization expertise, and personal experience. However, we have
Booklet in hand to follow along and make notes.
constructed these resources so that you can access,
5. Break between lessons to fill out the corresponding learn, and apply the book’s key points without a
sections in the Memorization Booklet. traditional read-through.

MentorBox
 BIG IDEA #1: THE WRONG QUESTION
The first goal of Jesuthasan and Boudreau in
Reinventing Jobs is…complex. They ask you to
redefine the new technologies of artificial intelligence
and automation (which will be referred to generally
as automation in this workbook), reframe your own
mindset around these technologies, and alter your
behaviors accordingly. Because, to put it frankly, up
until now we’ve been afraid of automation.
It’s in the news, in hushed conversations at work,
or maybe one of your more outspoken relatives has
complained at length as well: “Robots and machines
are taking jobs away from humans! How do we stop
this?”
Well, this book is the answer.
First of all, understand that automation does not
replace jobs, it replaces tasks. It fundamentally
alters work in ways that have resulted in employees
APPLICATION TO LIFE
You must be willing and able to work with automation. Is your skill set flexible, adaptable, and broad enough to
technologically augment and enhance the work you do?
List your strengths, skills that will help you work new technology into your personal and professional success habits.
1
losing their jobs, but that’s not the technology’s
fault! Automation is one of the most promising
augmentations (not replacements) to human work,
ever.
In many ways, this calls for a paradigm shift in how
we think of work. It’s no longer safe or smart to hold
down an easy job without seeking advancement or
self-betterment over many years—this approach to
work may be dying out. But, is that necessarily a bad
thing? Isn’t it best for humanity to constantly push the
boundaries of our own abilities and intellect?
Of course, because this technology is complex, it’s
a lot to ask of individuals to prepare themselves
for this technological revolution. The remainder of
this workshop not only will give you the essential
vocabulary and understanding of automation, but it
also offers systemic and organizational solutions for
helping employees adapt, adopt, and improve.
 BIG IDEA #2: DECONSTRUCT THE JOB
Perhaps because of the fear we seem to have about
new technology taking over jobs, a vast majority
of companies are way behind in adapting to and
adopting AI and automation. Also, the technology
itself is still new and constantly developing, so
it certainly isn’t an easy task to prepare an entire
organization to take advantage of social robotics
(which we’ll talk about later).
There are essentially two major tasks that leaders of
organizations must do to properly integrate and take
advantage of automation and AI: 1) Deconstruct the
work done by the organization to identify potential
automation opportunities, and 2) Establish re-skilling
pathways for employees to best develop alongside
automation.
APPLICATION TO LIFE
What are the fundamental tasks to the work that you
do? List them here.
Make a two-columned chart. On the left list those granular tasks, and on the right list whether the task is variable or
repetitive, independent or interactive, and mental or physical.
2
As mentioned in Big Idea #1, you must first identify
the elemental tasks that make up the jobs you or your
organization do. Then, to deconstruct the work you
must ask the following 3 essential questions of those
tasks: 1) Is the work repetitive or variable? 2) Is the
work performed independently or interactively? 3) Is
the work mental or physical in nature?
As you’ll learn later in the workshop, no matter your
answer to these 3 questions, just about everything can
be improved by automation (or will be augmentable
in the near future). It’s just a matter of assigning
the right kind of automation to the task, and then
adapting the work of the employees involved with
that task.
Now, take another look at the list you just made: Can
you break down these tasks into even smaller tasks? It
is important to get to the most granular level possible.
 BIG IDEA #3: AUTOMATION PAYOFF

True or false: The better someone is at their job, the What does all this mean? Well, simply that not all
more valuable they are to their organization. Seems automation is equal. It doesn’t really make sense to try
natural to answer true, right? Well, it’s important to automate every task of a person’s job. Rather, you
that you erase that belief from your mind. While must be deeply strategic in the things you and your
the answer isn’t simply false, it’s best to think of this organization automate. Replacing a task to save time
question and conversation with much more nuance. could mean that you end up with more errors—and
vice versa!
Think about it: There are plenty of jobs where
individual performance is directly correlated to Note: We STRONGLY advise you watch Ravin’s video
greater company performance. Sales and anything on this topic and read the related chapter in Reinventing
that promotes product or market growth are simple Jobs!
examples. However, there are also jobs where high
performance is compulsory. In other words, employees
are required to be high performers in order for the
company to survive. A good example of this is pilots,
who, because they’re required to be highly skilled
aircraft operators, don’t necessarily move the needle of
their company by being great.

APPLICATION TO LIFE

What kind of impact does your performance have on your company’s success? Is high performance necessary for the
company to operate, but not correlated to growth? Is high performance a driver of growth?

What about poor performance? Does that endanger the bottom line?

Now think about why, not necessarily how automation within your role could help the company: Would improving
your positive output benefit the bottom line? Or maybe reducing the errors you make would reduce the risk of your
company becoming legally or otherwise at risk?
3
 BIG IDEA #4: RPA

Ok, now on to the good stuff: Types of automation.
The most common and currently active kind of
automation is robotic process automation (RPA). RPA
is the use of programming “bots” to better work with
large data sets.
RPA bots might combine data from different
databases or software programs, extract particularly
defined information from massive databases, or
otherwise aggregate, organize, and analyze collections
of numbers or other bits of information. There are
three key ways that RPA can greatly reduce cost and
increase efficiency.
First, bots can do repetitive tasks in a small fraction of
the time that humans could do the same. This allows
human workers to either save their energy and work
on other tasks, or to become more deeply analytical
decision-makers about the data presented by the bots.
Second, bots can also address redundancies in business
processes. In the past, many processes have required
some sort of additional check by a person—an audit,
approval, edit, final check, something along those
lines. RPA can replace many of these review steps,
again giving humans freedom to work elsewhere.
Finally, RPA is perfect for reducing risk. Companies
are subject to many, many regulations, and having
humans ensure that these are followed is not only
cumbersome, but dangerous, as humans have
emotional and ethical biases. As Ravin and John
say, “Who better to apply these rules… than an
unemotional, unbiased, inexhaustible, unforgiving
block of software code?”

APPLICATION TO LIFE

Are you or your business working with large data sets? If so, have you employed any software to help make working
with that data easier?

If you don’t work with data, theorize some ways that you could optimize by drawing information from the work you
do and subjecting it to highly capable software code.

What could you learn about your job? Ways to improve efficiency? What kinds of solutions work? How do your
customers feel about your service or product?

4
 BIG IDEA #5: COGNITIVE AUTOMATION

Cognitive automation is more popularly known as
artificial intelligence. When we talk about AI, we
are referring to one of two things: Machine learning,
wherein machines optimize their own processing
behaviors by observing and analyzing data; or natural
language processing (NLP), which is the ability of
machines and computers to engage and communicate
with humans in our own language systems.
Cognitive automation is often debated as the most
concerning of technological developments, as it means
that machines could theoretically become exactly
like humans. However, whether this is truly even
possible is a debate in and of itself. The utility of AI
and machine learning in industry thus far has been
outstanding, so it’s worth seriously learning about!
Through abilities like image and pattern recognition,
AI can streamline business process—much like RPA,
only AI can handle more complex processes. In many
ways, RPA is actually a prerequisite to AI. With large
amounts of data appropriately organized, cognitive
automation can use that data as educational material
to develop efficient behaviors.
Because AI can communicate with human language,
it offers a good opportunity to perform tasks that
are variable, interactive, and very high volume or
repetitive. If you’ve ever called Apple, you may have
had a conversation with their AI customer service
representative!

APPLICATION TO LIFE

What tasks do you or your organization have to do a lot of, and that involve interpersonal communication?

What are the most arduous and difficult tasks of your job? Remember: think granular tasks.

Now, think about what kind of data and information you thought of collecting in Big Idea #5: Using this data, what
would you ask (yes, ask) an AI to do to facilitate the difficult tasks you listed above?

What tasks do you or your organization have to do a lot of, and that involve interpersonal communication?

5
 BIG IDEA #6: SOCIAL ROBOTICS

Finally, robots. You’re probably familiar with all
kinds of robots, both real and fictional, that have a
wide range of abilities. The first robots were simple
assembly line units that expedited manufacturing,
and did very little if any interacting with people. The
difference between these robots of yore and social
robots is the ability of social robots to move and to
interact with humans and other autonomous robots.
Social robots excel at performing tasks that are
variable and primarily physical. They can do so
independently, but more and more they are becoming
successfully interactive. More recently, collaborative
robots, or “cobots,” have become popular.
Cobots benefit the workplace in many ways. First and
foremost, they can reduce safety concerns by replacing
humans in hazardous workplaces. For example, you
may have seen bomb-diffusing robots on TV or in
movies. Robots are also highly trainable and flexible,
often capable of performing many different tasks with
the ability to reprioritize easily.
As their name suggests, cobots excel at working with
others—both humans and other robots. In fact,
some have been coded to observe and learn from
the behavior patterns of humans, which they then
emulate and optimize! This combination of all 3
categories of automation is an engineer’s dream, as the
social robots can be coded, placed into a working an
environment and then get to work, just like a human
employee!

APPLICATION TO LIFE

Is there any heavy lifting or undesirable physical labor in your business?

Does your organization produce physical goods, or have a manufacturing process of any sort?

How could a mobile, interactive robot make your organization’s processes easier? How could one make your own life
easier? (Feel free to have fun with this one)

6
 BIG IDEA #7: OPTIMIZE WORK
Yes, we finished the last Big Idea with the phrase “just
like a human employee!” This is a bit of a red flag,
considering how we’ve discussed the importance of
avoiding replacement talk in favor of augmentation.
So, now is a good time to get into the nitty gritty of
how you can target spots for improvement in your
work.
As we’ve stated, automation does sometimes substitute
for human work entirely. In addition, automation
impacts work by augmenting human capabilities and
by driving demand for new skills in humans. Again,
we are being encouraged to be better.
Some of the best modern examples of workers
bettering themselves while automation handles more
dirty work is in a return to great customer service.
APPLICATION TO LIFE
Where have you felt like your clients or customers could have benefitted from more interaction with you?
How could you benefit from being free to engage more directly with the market and with customers? What could
you learn? What skills would you try to develop?
7
Humans are infinitely, and perhaps permanently
better at empathizing than machines are. By
increasing the number of touch points you have
with your customers, you improve not only those
individual business relationships, but your brand and
product knowledge as well.
While you’re spending more time engaging directly
with customers, machine learning and automation
will also help you learn and automate. Not only can
you be more available to customers, but you can take
information based on complex data processing and
analysis into the conversations you have with them.
Note: This is another section to read and watch
the content for. The permutations of task types and
automation categories are many!
 BIG IDEA #8: THE NEW ORGANIZATION

In combination with technology that connects people
more effectively, automation is slowly bringing about
a new kind of organization. Because so much can
be done by computers and machines, and because
we have access to virtually anyone else in the world
through our phones, companies are no longer insular
bodies of personnel and processes.
The most successful companies of today and the
future will take advantage of vast and disparate
resources for accomplishing tasks. For instance, many
American companies outsource their IT and customer
service duties to workforces outside the country.
Content of any sort can be created by freelancers,
many kinds of projects are best accomplished by
one-off gig workers, and there are more opportunities
for inter-company partnerships than ever before.
And, of course, the most successful companies will
also use automation. As corporate competition
becomes fiercer there will come a time when all
businesses are going to be forced to audit their
efficiency and improve or fall far behind.
The answer to the most efficient workforce and
operations plan will no doubt be a complex,
confusing, but ultimately efficient combination
of internal and external personnel, alliances and
partnerships, robots and AI, all subject to constantly
evolving procedures and best practices.

APPLICATION TO LIFE

How often do you or your company take on creative new ideas and tests? Anything “out of the box?”

If you’ve done these sorts of pivots or experiments, could they have benefitted from an outside contributor?
(Sometimes it’s best to hire someone who is highly skilled, but only temporarily)

Could you outsource any departments at your organization? Or any components of your life? (Think 4-hour Work
Week by Tim Ferriss.)

8
 BIG IDEA #9: THE NEW LEADERSHIP
The role of manager, executive, or director - often
amounts to high-level decision-making, followed by
the proper allocation of personnel and resources to see
those decisions through. However, because corporate
structure is so deeply engrained, this often means that
leaders are simply filling traditional positions with the
best talent they can find.
What hiring teams have focused on in the past is a
rather rigid set of standards: First off, most employees’
past experiences and education are highly emphasized.
Instead of this, new leaders should be focused
on a new hire’s specific fit to the tasks they’ll be
performing, and how ready they are to get to work.
APPLICATION TO LIFE:
When you make judgments about someone else’s strengths and weaknesses, what are the qualities you typically think
about?
How should you change the way you assess others as a leader?
What can you do to encourage an innovative, adaptable mindset in yourself and those around you?
9
Similarly, when hiring and managing personnel, most
leaders focus on employees’ overall job performance
and how fit they are to advance in rank and position.
These factors are increasingly less important than the
more nuanced aspects of an employee’s performance.
As a leader, you should be focused on developing skill
sets that not only align with the tasks they perform,
but which also are likely to hold value in the face of
innovation and change.
You’ll see new departments that reflect these values are
popping up in the most cutting-edge corporations.
For instance, friend of MentorBox Tiffani Bova is
Salesforce’s “Global Customer Growth and Innovation
Evangelist.” You too should be an evangelist for
growth and innovation, in whatever capacity you can
be!
 BIG IDEA #10: REMAIN RELEVANT

First, you go to school. Probably for about 8 years,
perhaps less. Maybe you go for more than 12 years
and get an advanced degree. Then, you take all that
knowledge you’ve (hopefully) accrued in your youth
and you put it towards a career. You work, work,
work, maybe get a promotion or two, make more and
more money, then you retire.
Or, at least this is what we’re told is the most
conventional and acceptable life path. But, like
everything else in the face of automation and
emerging technology, school-work-retirement won’t
be around much longer.
As MentorBox ubiquitously advocates, you must turn
yourself into a learning machine. So don’t only finish
your education at school—even when you’re in school
you should be learning independently as well!
Ravin uses the term “perpetual obsolescence” to refer
to the fact that skills and knowledge are constantly
going to become useless as technological advancement
quickens. Embrace the fact that your abilities and
expertises may eventually lose their worth. Therefore,
you should automate your education in such a way
that you are not only fully aware of coming trends,
tools, and technology, but also capable of engraining
them into your habits and practices.

APPLICATION TO LIFE:
Other than MentorBox, how are you practicing continued, lifelong education?

What skills of yours do you expect not to have value forever? How can you augment or adapt these skills to become
evergreen?

Pick a new skill that requires advanced knowledge of technology, and go start learning it right now. Some ideas are
design, coding, video/photography, SEO and web traffic—just get started!

10
MY OWN NOTES

11
MentorBox