Reader welcome back. Let's get started!

My goal this year is to give you fewer solutions and more ideas that make you stop, question, and think.

Because something has changed: AI has arrived.

When answers become cheap, questions become valuable.

Type in a question and bam. Answer!

I worry that the convenience and speed of answers will allow complacency and dull our thinking. The scarce resource is no longer information. It is the ability to ask a really good question.

AI can synthesize extraordinary amounts of information. But leadership happens in the subtleties: the hesitation before an answer, an unexpected word choice, a shift in tone, noticing the idea someone hasn't articulated well.

That's where you come in.

If you run with the first thing someone says, you may have compromised the result before you've even begun.

Ask another question. Pause.

Slow down.

When someone says, “We've reached a pivotal moment,” don't assume you know what they mean.

“What does pivotal mean to you?”

Their answer may reveal an entirely different conversation.

Don't assume shared words implies a shared meaning.

So how do we create alignment with a shared meaning and understanding?

Part of leadership is helping people articulate what they are actually thinking. Pulling at a word. Challenging an assumption. Staying curious long enough to get beneath the first answer.

Linger in the moments before the solution.

Play with the concepts. Resist the urgency to resolve. See the discussion as a puzzle with a piece still waiting to be found.

Become the person who asks the question that clarifies the conversation and creates stronger solutions.