Category: Principles

  • When LLMs help humans understand themselves

    When LLMs help humans understand themselves

    Yesterday I had a profound experience.

    It started with a small question: what the heck do I stand for as a leader?

    Like everyone else having an idkfa moment these days, I decided to test my principles using an LLM and the collective wisdom of people that have thought about this for much longer than I have (and without the crutch of AIs).

    Cue our panel of experts:

    1. Peter Drucker – Management pioneer who developed foundational concepts like management by objectives and knowledge work
    2. Simon Sinek – Known for the “Start With Why” framework and leadership that inspires action
    3. Brené Brown – Research professor specializing in courage, vulnerability, and empathy in leadership
    4. Jim Collins – Author of “Good to Great” who researches what transforms companies from average to excellent
    5. Daniel Goleman – Pioneered emotional intelligence application in leadership effectiveness
    6. John C. Maxwell – Leadership expert behind “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership”
    7. Patrick Lencioni – Organizational health expert focused on team dynamics and leadership clarity
    8. Adam Grant – Organizational psychologist specializing in originality, motivation, and meaning
    9. Amy Edmondson – Harvard professor known for psychological safety research in high-performing teams
    10. Marshall Goldsmith – Executive coach focusing on behavioral changes that drive leadership success

    Their mission, should the AI role-playing as them was to accept it, was to give me a series of questions that would help me articulate my authentic leadership approach.

    Starting with Peter Drucker, what questions would he ask me if he was guiding me through this process? Have the next expert review and iterate on the previous one’s answer, until they’ve all contributed and we’ve reached a final set of questions that would allow me to distill my philosophy in one paragraph.

    And so they did.

    When I asked the gang to review my answers, a particular comment stood out:

    Simon Sinek would commend your purpose-centered approach but might challenge you to articulate why this purpose matters to you personally to make it even more compelling.

    (the two books of Simon siting at my bookshelf, still unread, gave me disapproving looks)

    Out of curiosity, and a bit of guilt, I pulled on that thread:

    Ask Sinek to guide me through this via a dialog where he asks me a question, I respond, and then he considers my answer and moves to his next question. This dialog should continue until we’ve succeeded in articulating why this purpose matters to me personally.

    This journey you’ll have to experience for yourself, trust me.

    As for where I ended up, see the description in my profile.

    In the meantime, I’ve got some reading to do 😉

    references:

    Photo by Yosef Futsum on Unsplash

  • The true cost of principles

    The true cost of principles

    Sean’s voice crackled through the loudspeaker: “Can you hear me?”

    “Yes”, muttered the director.

    “Look Stacy, no one’s more upset than us. We’re in a tough situation, I know.

    The launch should’ve happened a month ago. Everyone’s been working non-stop.”

    “Then why didn’t it?” she interrupted.

    Sean continued.

    “This was supposed to be a quick experiment. Two sprints max.”

    “I know!” Stacy’s frustration carried over as if he were in the room.

    “But then we needed CRM integration. Product wanted customizable widgets. Compliance had a pile of checks. Engineering guidelines changed mid-stream… And when I tried reducing scope, nothing could be cut from the MVP.

    We must decide what’s more important. Either it’s an experiment with rough edges, or it’s a sure bet that we build properly. Moving the goalposts constantly helps nobody.”

    —-

    Most of us have experienced this conversation.

    When everything is a priority, nothing is.

    Time is finite. Demand always exceeds capacity. Teams without power to triage effectively won’t be able to deliver—the classic tragedy of the commons.

    Some leaders try to avoid the costs of hard choices by saying yes to everything. But this is just kicking the can down the road. Sooner or later, the non-decision will trigger a crisis.

    “Passion for excellence”, “Customer first”, “Bias for action”.

    Fine principles, but without ruthless prioritization they are nothing more than hollow words, worthless when facing a hard choice.

    And in unstructured environments, they become tools of control; swords hanging constantly above people’s heads.

    “Bring me a rock—no, not that one.”

    For a principle to have value, it must carry a cost:

    – User happiness over technical convenience.

    – System stability over delivery speed.

    Only when these choices are consciously made, and written down, they become useful.

    To do this, start by examining your constraints: budget, time, talent, compliance adherence. Anything that you can’t easily get more of.

    Which resource is most scarce?

    This scarcity is your guide for prioritizing.

    Compliment this by understanding what stakeholders actually need (yes, including those “pesky” end users).

    What is more important for them?

    Finally, consider the classes of deliverables.

    Should they all treated equally?

    Are there any that can tolerate compromises in the above?

    For example:

    – Does every experimental feature require the same rigorous test coverage as your core platform?

    – Does that quick experiment truly warrant the same legal scrutiny as your flagship product?

    – Should the rarely used feature have the same polish as the app’s main flows?

    We get in situations like the above, when we assume the answer is “yes” to all such questions.

    To avoid it, you must be willing to sacrifice some things for what matters.

    It’s simple but not easy. That’s how you get real principles.

    references

    Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash