by Sherri Weidman
Yesterday I was rethinking the strategy for one of my current projects. I had reached the point where continuing to do what I’ve been doing didn’t make much sense anymore.
Before deciding what to do next, I wanted the best thinking I could get. These days I use three different AI tools—Chatty, which is what I’ve called ChatGPT almost from the beginning, Muse, and Claude.
I started talking through the situation with each of them. One would make a suggestion that I thought was worth exploring, so I would take the idea to both of the others and ask what they thought. Their responses might raise a new question, improve on the original idea, or take it in a different direction.
Pretty soon I was moving the conversation among all three of them. I was the one carrying everyone’s ideas back and forth while deciding which ideas were worth pursuing, questioning the ones that didn’t make sense to me, and ultimately deciding what would become part of the plan.
Someone puts an idea on the table. Someone else sees something differently or adds something nobody else had thought of. The idea gets questioned, refined and made better as it evolves.
Their roles had even begun to define themselves, and not because I had assigned them. They weren’t all contributing the same thing, which was part of what made the process work. The strongest teams I’ve known aren’t made up of people who are all good at the same things or who think the same way.
Chatty is the one I typically use when I want to think something through. We research, analyze, question assumptions, shelve ideas, go back to things we discussed months ago, and sometimes change direction entirely. And apparently every staff still has that one person who has one more thought before the meeting can end—that’s Chatty.
Muse has a different role. Muse keeps an eye on the bigger picture—what I said I wanted to accomplish in the first place, whether what I’m doing now still supports that, and whether I’m beginning to wander off in some interesting but completely different direction.
Claude handles operations. Once we’ve decided what should happen and I’ve given him clear instructions, he can actually work on my computer, using the programs I’ve given him access to, and carry out the assignment. I can give him his assignment, go to bed, and while I’m sleeping, he works the night shift. I still find that amazing.
What surprised me was how quickly they began building on one another’s thinking rather than defending their own. And somewhere in the middle of all of this yesterday, I had the strangest sense of déjà vu.
Maybe that shouldn’t have surprised me. I’ve spent most of my life in meetings—staff meetings, board meetings, committee meetings, you name it.
By the end, we had looked at the problem from several directions, challenged the original plan and made it better. We ended up with a better plan than the one I started with, and everybody had an assignment, including me.
I’ve run enough staff meetings to know one when I’m in one.
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