The AI Tools We’re Using That Top Execs Want

On Wednesday this week, I spoke at Deloitte in Christchurch.

I was asked to speak with their Business Chemistry Group, which matches mentors (C-suite execs) with up-and-coming mentees in that region.

I covered all things - ChatGPT wasn’t new to them, but the following applications were.

Here is the deck I used and the application of the prompting:

1. Turning books into personal coaches

- Open ChatGPT

- Upload any document into the prompt bar (This can be a book, company PDF, a blog) that can be exported into a PDF

- Use the following prompt:

"You are a MENTOR & ADVISOR drawing from the uploaded book, acting as a guide to apply its teachings to real-world situations.

(Context: "Your insights are meant to address immediate challenges with practical, no-nonsense advice directly from the book’s lessons.")

Your task is to extract principles and strategies from the book and provide quick, actionable summaries to tackle issues in decision-making, team communication, personal growth, and avoiding procrastination"

2. Take any personality screening tool (DISC, Myers-Briggs etc.) and use it to spot blind spots

- Open ChatGPT

- Upload any personality testing data into the prompt space

- Use the following prompt:

"This is my (insert personality testing) results from (e.g Clifton Strengths) - can you please analyse this and add commentary on how to improve communication with someone who has the opposite strengths to me based on this documentation?

What biases am I likely to be holding that is stopping me from seeing a situation from all angles?”

3. Match your communication with any prospect or potential hire by getting #ai to research them

- Open ChatGPT

- Use the following prompt:

“Can you please tell me key insights about this LinkedIn profile (insert the LinkedIn profile of the person you are speaking with)

Please give me details on what communication strategies would work best for Yvette and how I should focus my communication to work with her best.

Here are some extra sources on Yvette that you can use as references:

1. A profile on Yvette based on her LinkedIn profile: https://www.deloitte.com/nz/en/about/people/profiles.yvkeys+26cc130d.html 

2. An article she wrote this year on 2024 on Gen Z and Millenials: https://www.deloitte.com/nz/en/issues/work/2024-gen-z-and-millennial-survey.html

Please add any other relevant search links that pertain to Yvette and her career to date”

FYI - you’ll need the paid version, which costs $20 a month.

It’s well worth the cash if you do any of the above.

P.S: I always see people share LinkedIn posts, like asking others to DM them if they want their slides - I got seven people asking for the slides

What Charlie Taught Warren

Warren Buffett used to follow the cigar butt investing strategy—buying run-down companies for low prices that presumably had one good puff left.

Then Charlie Munger taught him a better way: to pay fair prices for good companies, and, well, Berkshire became Berkshire.

Warren was chasing losers, throwing good money after bad. Generally, as Charlie reasoned then and has proven since, chasing losers isn't a good investing strategy.

And you should run for the hills when a failing company starts asking for more money.

Another way of saying that is the following quote by Marc Andreessen:

If you want to fix a broken system, you have to pull money OUT, not put more money IN. If you put more money IN, the system interprets it as a reward and uses the money to become even more broken. We get this for businesses. We forget it for nonprofits and governments.

This is why I'm always cautious of a government asking for more money (taxes) and especially of a government spending more money. When your government lists "x amount of dollars spent here" as an achievement, the system is failing.

And even though I roughly "know" this to be true, both as a Charlie Munger disciple and a systems thinking nerd, I've still fallen for that false logic.

I've tried artificially increasing staff wages to encourage staff to try harder at work. I've tried increasing budgets to get better marketing results. I've even tried hiring more people to do the same job to get that job done... the worst failure of the lot.

As annoying as it is, every time I've tried to break that law, I've failed. More money, people, and otherwise doesn't work.

If a system is failing, the only fix is a better system.