How to Apply Transformative Thinking in AI Applications

“Treating AI like a tool instead of a transformation…” - has been coming to the forefront this week in a number of great conversations with Paul Gonzalez, Ryan Kurt, John Winsor, and Debbie McCarthy. Here are some #symptoms, #consequences, and #interventions for addressing treating #AI like a tool, a fairly common condition these days. 🔍 SYMPTOMS - Signs that an organization is treating AI as just another tool: 1. Isolated Pilots with No Enterprise Integration: Teams experiment in silos without strategic alignment or cross-functional visibility. 2. Lack of Executive Engagement or Ownership: Leadership delegates AI to IT, innovation, or digital teams rather than championing it as a core shift. 3. Training Focused Only on Features, Not Mindsets: Enablement efforts emphasize prompts and mechanics, skipping over mental models, ethics, and role evolution. 4. No Reexamination of Work, Process, or Strategy: AI is slotted into current workflows rather than prompting a redesign of how work gets done. 5. Success Measured by Usage Stats, Not Business Value: Metrics like prompt counts or log-ins dominate while productivity, creativity, and impact remain unmeasured. 🚨 CONSEQUENCES - What happens when AI is treated as a tool, not a transformation: 1. Low and Superficial Adoption: Employees dabble but don’t deeply embed AI into their daily problem-solving or decision-making. 2. Missed Opportunities for Competitive Differentiation: While others rethink their business models, you're just speeding up status quo tasks. 3. Change Fatigue Without Strategic Progress: Energy is spent experimenting with AI, but there's no visible value or momentum to show for it. 4. Workforce Confusion and Misalignment: Without a coherent narrative, people are unsure whether AI is optional, risky, or central to their future. 5. AI Initiatives Get Sunset Before They Scale: Without framing AI as a transformation, initiatives lose funding, attention, and champions. 💡 INTERVENTIONS - How to reframe and re-energize your AI approach: 1. Anchor AI to Strategic Intent: Define how AI enables your core strategy, mission, and market positioning. Make it a business imperative, not a tech experiment. 2. Develop an AI Integration Approach: Develop an approach to help teams and individuals understand when and where to bring AI to the table. Prosci’s AI Integration Framework provides the foundation anyone needs to identify when to partner with a digital collaborator. 3. Elevate Executive Ownership: Position leaders as the narrators of the AI story, modeling usage, creating urgency, and aligning investments. Prosci’s AI Adoption Diagnostic elevates the AI-sponsor role. 4. Invest in Mindset Shifts, Not Just Skillsets: Train for adaptability, ethical reasoning, prompt literacy, and AI teaming—not just tool proficiency. 5. Measure Transformation, Not Just Activity: Track AI’s impact on outcomes: decision speed, innovation velocity, employee empowerment, and customer value. “To what end!”

Most people are using AI wrong. They ask it to clean up emails, write social posts, or fix grammar. Then think they understand AI. You're using a supercomputer to check the weather. The people crushing it aren't using AI to work harder. They're using it to think smarter. Here's the system that's changing how top performers approach every big decision. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 4-𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗔𝗜 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 1: The Pre-Mortem Partner Use AI to kill bad ideas before they kill you. Share your plan → Ask AI to play your biggest critic → Fix weak spots early 𝗧𝗿𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀: "I'm about to [your decision]. You're my most experienced advisor who's seen this go wrong. What are the 3 biggest risks I'm not seeing?" 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 2: The Context Multiplier Create a custom GPT that knows YOUR world. Include your frameworks, team dynamics, past failures. Get personalized insights, not generic advice. 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 3: The Scenario Simulator Rehearse tough conversations before they happen. Practice delivering bad news, negotiating budgets, pitching skeptical executives. 𝗟𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 4: The Decision Debugger After big choices, ask: "What biases influenced me? What did I overlook?" The Reality Check:  Month 1: Stop obvious mistakes  Month 6: People ask how you're always ahead Month 12: Wonder how you decided anything without this Pick one decision you're facing this week. Spend 10 minutes letting AI poke holes in your thinking. Then execute with confidence. The goal isn't using AI more. It's thinking better, deciding faster, and avoiding career-derailing mistakes. What's your best AI thinking idea?  Share it below... we all need new approaches in this fast-moving world. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 for weekly AI thinking strategies that actually work 𝗦𝘂𝗯𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗯𝗲 to never miss practical insights that upgrade your decision-making 𝗗𝗠 𝗺𝗲 if you build this system - I'd love to hear how it works for you

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺—𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗹𝗼. Turn ChatGPT into your 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝘀𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗺 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺: Tackle tough problems by simulating a room full of experts—CEO, CFO, Innovator, Customer, and more. Think like a team. Decide like a strategist. Solve like a pro. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 𝗟𝗲𝗻𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 Role Lens Insights is a powerful way to swarm problems, expose blind spots, stress-test ideas, and generate better solutions. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗳𝘂𝗹 • Turns solo thinking into 𝗺𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶-𝗱𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 • Builds 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗮𝘁𝗵𝘆 for different stakeholders • Surfaces 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝘁𝘀 • Helps you 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀-𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 and 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 decisions fast • Amplifies your 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗰 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝗜𝘁 1. 𝗗𝗲𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲 Clearly state the problem, decision, or idea you want to explore. 2. 𝗖𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 Select 3–5 expert lenses relevant to your challenge (e.g., CEO, CFO, Innovation Expert, Customer, etc.). 3. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗽𝘁 𝗘𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗲 Ask ChatGPT to respond from each role's perspective (e.g., “As the CFO, what risks do you see?”). 4. 𝗙𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 Have the roles "discuss" the idea as if in a team meeting. This dialogue reveals tensions, assumptions, and synergies. 5. 𝗘𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗜𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 Identify key themes, trade-offs, blind spots, and opportunities across perspectives. 6. 𝗦𝘆𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘇𝗲 & 𝗔𝗰𝘁 Integrate the learnings into a better, more rounded solution. You can also apply thinking tools like 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝘀 or the 𝗕𝘂𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗮𝗻𝘃𝗮𝘀 to guide deeper analysis. 7. 𝗜𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝘀 𝗡𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗲𝗱 Adjust roles, reframe the problem, or simulate new strategies to explore further. 𝗤𝘂𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲: 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗽 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮 You prompt ChatGPT to form a virtual team with 5 roles: • 𝗖𝗘𝗢: Focuses on vision and market opportunity. • 𝗖𝗙𝗢: Analyzes financial risk, ROI, and funding needs. • 𝗜𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘁: Evaluates uniqueness and feasibility. • 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱: Assesses customer fit and positioning. • 𝗔𝗜 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁: Explains the technical approach and scalability. Together, they discuss an AI-driven platform that predicts customer needs in real-time. Through their dialogue, you surface: • 𝗢𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀: Personalized, proactive CX is a differentiator. • 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸𝘀: Cost of real-time data processing, competitive landscape. • 𝗡𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀: Build a lean MVP, target e-commerce, and validate with early adopters. You then 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗛𝗮𝘁𝘀 to explore the idea emotionally, logically, creatively, and cautiously—sharpening the strategy even further. What challenge will you swarm today?

I asked the smartest people I know about AI... I’ve been reading everything I can get my hands on. Talking to AI founders, skeptics, operators, and dreamers. And having some very real conversations with people who’ve looked me in the eye and said: “This isn’t just a tool shift. It’s a leadership reckoning.” Oh boy. Another one eh? Alright. I get it. My job isn’t just to understand disruption. It’s to humanize it. Translate it. And make sure my teams are ready to grow through it and not get left behind. So I asked one of my most fav CEOs, turned investor - a sharp, no-BS mentor what he would do if he were running a company today. He didn’t flinch. He gave me a crisp, practical, people-centered roadmap. “Here’s how I’d lead AI transformation. Not someday. Now.” I’ve taken his words, built on them, and I’m sharing my approach here, not as a finished product, but as a living, evolving plan I’m adopting and sharing openly to refine with others. This plan I believe builds capability, confidence, and real business value: 1A. Educate the Top. Relentlessly. Every senior leader must go through an intensive AI bootcamp. No one gets to opt out. We can’t lead what we don’t understand. 1B. Catalog the problems worth solving. While leaders are learning, our best thinkers start documenting real challenges across the business. No shiny object chasing, just a working list of problems we need better answers for. 2. Find the right use cases. Map AI tools to real problems. Look for ways to increase efficiency, unlock growth, or reduce cost. And most importantly: communicate with optimism. AI isn’t replacing people, it’s teammate technology. Say that. Show that. 3. Build an AI Helpdesk. Recruit internal power users and curious learners to be your “AI Coaches.” Not just IT support - change agents. Make it peer-led and momentum-driven. 4. Choose projects with intention. We need quick wins to build energy and belief. But you need bigger bets that push the org forward. Balance short-term sprints with long-term missions. 5. Vet your tools like strategic hires. The AI landscape is noisy. Don’t just chase features. Choose partners who will evolve with you. Look for flexibility, reliability, and strong values alignment. 6. Build the ethics framework early. AI must come with governance. Be transparent. Be intentional. Put people at the center of every decision. 7. Reward experimentation. This is the messy middle. People will break things. Celebrate the ones who try. Make failing forward part of your culture DNA. 8. Scale with purpose. Don’t just track usage. Track value. Where are you saving time? Where is productivity up? Where is human potential being unlocked? This is not another one-and-done checklist. Its my AI compass. Because AI transformation isn’t just about tech adoption. It’s about trust, learning, transparency, and bringing your people with you. Help me make this plan better? What else should I be thinking about?