Francis Wade | Tapping staff-thinking with AI prompts

As a chief executive, you are a custodian of the future. However, as you look forward to stellar accomplishments, you are anxious about falling short. How can you vault yourself above daily distractions using powerful LLMs or large language models?

In the past, you took comfort in the idea that you could perform long-term thinking later.

There always seemed to be time available just beyond the latest crisis. When things settle down, you thought, we’ll step back and look at the big picture. That conviction calmed your anxiety.

But lately, you realise it has been ages since it last happened.

Instead, you have been acting as if being superagile is everything. Getting your team to work late hours, weekends, and on holidays has become the norm. Fortunately, they understand and have responded willingly. This is the best I can do for now, you think, during lonely nights.

However, deep down, you recall stories of companies whose current executives are cursing prior leadership teams.

Why? They are upset. And highlight the folly of past C-suiters who ignored the not so obvious. Case in point: Imagine Cable & Wireless, where the success of Digicel probably provokes finger-pointing even today. In fact, there are many stories of C-suites that fell asleep.

Then, suddenly, some new technology, competitor, regulation, or tariff yanked them awake. By the time they stirred, their organisation was five or 10 years behind. Unable to catch up, their worst fears were realised.

Cases in point: Think of today’s Canadian firms that trusted the United States to be a reliable trading partner. Or Intel, now facing a steep learning curve versus Nvidia and TSMC.

In response to such stories, you may object: ‘I rely on my own smart thinking’.

To prove it works, you recall times when your company used your ideas to produce a miracle. You can always do so again.

Unfortunately, things have changed.

Even if you spend a month living with the world’s foremost management guru, there are new limits to your abilities to act alone. Why?

• Your competitors can all use LLMs and local data-driven insights to outsmart you and your guru; and

• Notwithstanding your finding the ‘right’ answer alone, stakeholders weren’t part of the process. Informing them of your brilliant solution will fail to engage.

Instead of being a Lone Ranger, provoke your staff, board, and others to think differently. To offer insights only insiders possess.

Thinking in prompts

If you have been using LLMs, you know that a powerful prompt makes all the difference. How can you, in turn, prompt staff and board effectively?

Start by breaking a reliance on weak prompts: all-staff town halls, church or beach outings, SWOT surveys, or ‘managing by walking around’.

Instead, design ultra-prompts with these ingredients:

• List the five to 10 toughest issues your organisation is facing. Pick one, such as attracting top talent;

• Collect data from internal sources and external case studies. Examples include your firm’s hiring history, pulse reports, exit interviews, compensation reviews, and performance-management system;

• Introduce – that is, teach – a new framework like ‘jobs to be done’ or ‘category design’;

• Form cross-functional, mixed-tenure teams to tackle the issue within a single 60-minute session; and

• Coach attendees to brainstorm fresh insights using the inputs listed above, plus an LLM prompt like this one:

LLM: Imagine you’re an outside consultant hired to diagnose and fix our persistent difficulty in attracting top-tier, under-35 talent. Based on our industry, culture, location, internal and external data, what hidden barriers might be repelling candidates? What overlooked strengths could we amplify? Propose at least three bold, practical insights, supported by your thinking. Also, recommend strategic shifts to make your ideas sustainable. Be provocative but relevant– find insights beyond our echo chamber.

You may even deepen the prompt, further requesting that the LLM mimic a famous author like Peter Drucker.

What can you expect?

In their audible and written debriefs, you might ‘unconceal’ some employees who are awake, ‘early idea’ people. They could be provocative.

As such, you should anticipate fireworks. And discomfort. Why? This exercise will unleash dormant possibilities, and more.

In summary, you will never find time to think strategically. That fantasy is over. The long-term winners provoke real insight now – even in the chaos.

And while competitors drown in distractions, busywork, and outdated tools, you will be the one gathering your team around sharp prompts and deeper thinking. Not because you’re smarter. But because you had the courage to ask important questions openly, in the right context.

Longevity isn’t guaranteed. With appropriate prompts, you won’t sleep through the next wake-up call.

Francis Wade is a management consultant and author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity. To search past columns on productivity, strategy and business processes, or give feedback, email: columns@fwconsulting.com