Use AI as a thinking partner. A three-step pattern for working through complexity in your real work.
AI as a thinking partner.
This module is designed to help you use GenAI as a thinking partner. A cognitive assistant that helps you move through complexity. Not just respond to simple prompts. You will work with a real problem you are facing and use AI to clarify the issue, surface insight from expert thinking and turn those insights into a practical, structured plan of action.
Each step is designed to mirror how experienced leaders approach difficult problems. They ask better questions. They scan for diverse input. They make decisions through structured execution. In this case, you are doing the same. With GenAI supporting each step of the way.
Why we are doing this.
Many people use GenAI for content or quick answers. But its real power lies in helping you frame problems more clearly, access diverse perspectives and take confident action. This module gives you a simple, repeatable method for doing exactly that. Instead of asking "Can AI help me with this?" you will be able to say "Here is how I use AI to move this forward."
Help you clarify your thinking by guiding the AI to ask smarter questions.
Connect you with insights and mental models from credible, expert sources.
Turn insight into execution through a structured, time bound action plan.
Build your confidence using AI for strategic, high-leverage thinking.
By the end of this module.
Four things you will be able to do.
Use GenAI to clarify a problem by guiding it to ask effective, structured questions.
Identify expert-backed approaches to solving the problem using AI-sourced summaries.
Translate insight into a 5-day action plan using GenAI as a planning assistant.
Work with AI as a strategic partner to accelerate real problem solving in your role.
How do the world’s smartest people solve problems?
Hint. Not by knowing more. By doing three things consistently. The same three things across every domain. We are going to use them as the structure for this session.
Three steps. Click to reveal.
The pattern under almost every important decision people make well. Whether they know it or not. We are going to do it explicitly. With AI as the structure that holds it.
Slow down. Ask better questions. Find what is really being asked underneath the surface symptom.
Borrow thinking from people who have solved this kind of problem before. Models. Books. Patterns.
Insight without action is just thinking out loud. Turn the insight into structured, time-bound steps.
Name your chat.
A small habit. Big payoff. Every conversation you have with AI gets stored. The ones with names are the ones you can find again. Set the name before you do anything else.
Start the conversation.
Paste this prompt into your new chat. It tells AI what session you are in, what you are about to work on and how the three steps will run. Replace the placeholders with your own details.
Clarify the problem.
What you are doing
You are inviting the AI to act as a structured thinking partner. One that asks. Not answers first. By prompting it to ask clarifying questions you are using the AI to slow down your thinking, surface assumptions and define the real problem. Not just the surface symptoms.
Why this matters
Leaders often feel pressure to solve quickly. But effective problem solving starts with clear framing. This step trains the AI to work like a coach or facilitator. Helping you sharpen your understanding before jumping to solutions. When you invest time in clarification, every solution that follows becomes more relevant, practical and aligned to what you actually need.
Find an expert.
What you are doing
You are using the AI to surface expert thinking. Not in abstract quotes or theory. But as actionable strategies framed in practical language. This step turns the AI into a synthesiser of wisdom from diverse sources, presented in a way that is directly usable for your situation.
Why this matters
One of the most powerful uses of GenAI is to act as a bridge between your problem and a library of expert knowledge. Instead of having to know the right book, author or model, you are using the AI to curate options for you. Grounded in credible thinking. This step builds your ability to access insight on demand and learn through comparison. Not just intuition.
Take action.
What you are doing
You are turning insight into execution. This step uses the AI to help you structure a detailed, short term plan that breaks down your chosen solution into manageable, task-based actions. You are no longer exploring possibilities. You are moving into delivery.
Why this matters
Ideas do not create impact. Action does. By using the AI to help design a time-bound plan you reduce decision fatigue and create clarity about what needs to happen next. This step builds your ability to apply AI not just as a source of content or knowledge. But as a collaborative partner in execution. It is where progress becomes visible and results become measurable.
Capture your plan.
Go back to the same AI thread you have been working in. Paste this prompt. Your AI has the context of your role, the problem you brought, the 5 expert solutions and your 5-day action plan. It will help you consolidate.
Look what you just built.
More than a problem solved. You have a reusable prompt library for your role. Every prompt you used today is one you can use again. Every prompt AI gave you for the 5-day plan is yours to keep. You did not just solve one problem. You built the system for solving the next one.
Sets context. Tells AI your role, your work, the structure of the conversation. Reusable for any session.
Gets AI to ask before answering. Use this for any new problem you face. The reframe makes the difference.
Pulls thinking from published experts in usable form. Use it on any problem where you want diverse perspectives.
Turns a chosen direction into specific tasks. The format works for any week. Any plan.
One prompt for every task in your action plan. AI gave them to you. Each one a tool you can adapt and reuse.
Helps AI surface what you learned. Use this to close any working session and capture the take-away.
Four things make a prompt work.
You have just done this. Without me naming it. Now let me name it so you can do it on purpose next time. The prompts you used today all had these four things. The prompts you write from here on should have them too.
Who you are. What you do. Where the work fits. The more context AI has the more relevant the response. Generic prompt in. Generic answer out.
Sequential steps. Not one big ask. Break the work into small steps and walk AI through them. Like you would brief a capable colleague.
Show AI what good looks like. The format. The tone. The length. A worked example does more than a thousand words of instruction.
Tell AI how to know it has done well. What to verify. What to refine. Build the feedback loop into the prompt itself.
What are you taking back.
Share the reframe. The expert idea that landed. The Day 1 action you are committing to.
How did clarifying the problem change what you saw. What did you almost solve that was not the real problem.
Which one of the five solutions stayed with you. What about it landed.
One specific thing you will do tomorrow. Concrete. Small enough to actually do.
What you have done.
Not a discussion. A worked problem with a real action plan attached. And a method you can use on every problem you face from here on.
Not an abstract case study. Your actual work. The thing you came in carrying.
Slowed down. Let AI ask before answering. Surfaced what you were really trying to solve.
Used AI as a bridge to published expert thinking. Concrete approaches. Not theory.
Committed to a direction. Made the call. Moved from options to decision.
Specific tasks. Each with its own AI prompt attached. Ready to execute Monday morning.
Not a search engine. Not a content generator. A partner in structured thinking and focused execution.