What Data Misses About Work and Progress

Erika Mahterian challenged followers to post about who's leading AI at their company. Steve Arntz your patient coaching has paid off! We work in the leadership development space where everything we do is to meet the needs of humans and change the behavior of humans. So for a long time, I resisted. You can't teach AI to have the heart and mind that we do. When I'd bring Steve a challenge or something I was trying to do, he would asked me if I had used AI to help build, solve, question, challenge, or simplify. Or he'd ask how AI could help leaders in their development. Of course I hadn't used it. I didn't need it. I have my head and my heart and because I pride myself on being a hard worker, using Chat GPT, and now Claude, it kind of felt like cheating. And, I couldn't really think about how AI would help other leaders.. I genuinely struggled to see the vision.. But after a few months of patient coaching on his end, I saw the wisdom. It doesn't replace the research and needs analysis I do, the conversations I'm having first hand, and the unique solutions I build for customers, real time. AI won't replace the heart I put into things or my unique experience and perspectives. But it's given me a second set of hands and eyes on things to help make them more inclusive for global audiences, help me test activities and outcomes with new frameworks, and is enabling me to simplify and scale the amount of work I can do for leaders without losing the quality, to name a few things. We're also now using AI to create tools that help leaders practice behaviors outside of sessions in engaging ways, and finding more ways to help them be effective. My thoughts for anybody trying to get employees to use AI.. 🏋♂️ How will AI help them be a more effective version of themselves, not replace their unique perspectives and offerings? Highlight that. ❤️🩹 How could being asked to use AI feel for this person, and what insecurities or tender spots does that highlight? Are they worried about being seen as less valuable? Seek to understand that. 🏆 How does using AI contribute to them being able to better achieve outcomes? If that isn't clear, it just seems like something you're asking them to do. I don't think my thoughts are too unique, I would not say I'm an early adopter, but I'm someone who is excited to learn more and seeing the value. 💡 What's one principle you'd give to a leader who wants their team to use more AI? How can we really lead folks to use it? And, here's a meme about AI, a good example of what NOT to do (and yes.. my feed is full of AI humor so idk what that says about me).

I walked away from this experience looking at dashboards a little differently. Every number tells us something. I’m more interested now in asking what else I need to know.

In February, Scott Provence told our chapter to stop saying "AI" and start saying "prediction." It changed how a lot of us think about our work. Scott's argument: AI is really just fast, cheap prediction. The part that actually matters — judgment — is still ours. And most organizations haven't figured out where prediction ends, and judgment begins. He called it Judgment Mapping. The idea is simple: if your company has a purchasing policy that gates spending by dollar amount, why doesn't it have something similar for AI-generated decisions? What can your team greenlight on its own, and what still needs a human call? That one-hour session left people rethinking how they approach AI strategy, decision-making training, and where L&D fits in all of it. The chat was on fire. People were sharing books, swapping frameworks, and debating real examples from their own orgs. We're thrilled to announce that Scott Provence will be a keynote speaker at the 2026 Utah ATD Learning Insights Conference and Expo. 🗓️ Wednesday, October 7, 2026 📍 Karen Gail Miller Conference Center, Sandy, UT ⏰ 7:00 AM – 4:30 PM Early bird registration is open now: 💰 $230 public early bird 👥 $160/person for groups of 3+ 👥 $155/person for groups of 5+ 🎓 $150 student rate More keynote and breakout speakers will be announced soon. If the February session was any indication, you don't want to miss what's coming. Register here: https://lnkd.in/eVUGWiDh

A classic — and still incredibly relevant. The hardest decisions are rarely about finding the “best” number. They’re about understanding what we truly value and making the trade-offs between competing objectives explicit. A foundational read for anyone working with decisions under uncertainty.

The best time to give advice is when you are asked for it and paid really well for it. Otherwise… press pause, lean back, be quiet and listen. 🛑 Over and over again, when I am tired or unconscious and not mindful, I give unsolicited advice to people who double down their defenses. 😡 Then, they often become aggressive towards me. 😣 Has this happened to you? It hurts, and yet aggressive and passive aggressive behavior is a common pathway of the disempowered. I have learned and improved, and I credit myself. Yet, I must also admit that I often want people to calm down for selfish reasons: so that I can feel better. ❤️🩹 One of my students told me about a manager who had a stuffed duck in the corner of his office. Every time an employee would come into his office with a problem, he’d say, “OK , we can talk, but you need to talk to the duck first.“ Many times, people figured out their problems with the duck. Whaaaat? 😳 Yes. When human brains talk through their problems, the verbal processing helps them solve their own problems and rely less on you. This is why we love AI soundboarding! 😍 Leaders! Let people explain. Don’t try to solve so fast… unless you are explicitly being asked and paid very well to do that! 🤣🤓 Have fun trying to understand other unique bird perspectives. How will this duck solve this problem? 🤔 Many times, the answer is just a bit of quacking. 🙏 🦆

I used to think guesstimates were mainly about getting the math right. Turns out, the assumptions matter more. While practicing guesstimates, I noticed that a small change in one assumption can completely change the final estimate. For example, instead of immediately calculating a market size, I now pause and ask:“What does this number actually represent?”That simple question has helped me catch unrealistic assumptions much earlier. My biggest takeaway so far: In a guesstimate, the calculation is only as good as the thinking behind it.Still practicing — but starting to focus more on the logic behind the numbers than just the final number. #Guesstimate #DataAnalytics #AnalyticalThinking #Learning #InterviewPreparation

We spend a lot of time trying to eliminate uncertainty. Imagine eliminating uncertainty in strategy, in hiring, and even in decision-making. We hope for the perfect condition, and perhaps that’s the problem. In How to Not Know, Simone Stolzoff makes a compelling case that our obsession with certainty doesn’t make us better decision-makers. It often makes us more anxious, more rigid, and less effective. Because real leadership doesn’t happen in perfect conditions. It happens in ambiguity. Through research and real-world examples, Stolzoff shows how getting more comfortable with not knowing can actually sharpen judgment, reduce stress, and lead to more honest, resilient decisions. We’re excited to bring Simo into conversation with organizations, where teams can explore what it looks like to lead, decide, and communicate when the path isn’t perfectly clear. Let’s create a conversation your team can put to work. https://lnkd.in/exQMJFEX If you don't already receive our monthly Know Ahead List of new releases, sign up! #EmployeeEngagement #ProfessionalDevelopment #CompanyCulture #TCOBBooks

Most people think better Claude outputs need longer prompts. I used to think the same. - More context. - More instructions. - More examples. - More explaining. But sometimes, a tiny instruction changes the entire direction of the answer. That’s why I started experimenting with short prompt cues like: 👉 `L99` → go deeper 👉 `OODA` → think through a decision 👉 `XRAY` → look beneath the obvious 👉 `INVERT` → find how it could fail 👉 `OVERTHINK` → explore what you might be missing The interesting part? You don’t necessarily need a 500-word prompt. Sometimes you just need to tell Claude how you want it to think. That’s the difference between: “Give me some ideas.” and “Challenge my assumptions, find the weak points, and explore the angles I haven't considered.” Small instruction. Completely different output. I break down all 5 in the video below👇 P.S. I’m testing more of these Claude shortcuts right now. Some are surprisingly useful.