The AI Rollout Mistakes Leaders Keep Making

This transcript has been generated by AI and may contain slight discrepancies from the audio or video recording.

Sponsor: [00:00:00] This episode is sponsored by General Assembly. General Assembly found that 93% of leaders encourage AI use, but fewer than a third apply it strategically. Visit ga.co/ai for leaders to close that gap and build AI-first teams at scale

Alex: Employee experience is evolving. Organizations are using AI to tailor learning, feedback, career growth, and wellbeing journeys in ways

Alex: that meet employees where they are. The goal isn't simply speed or efficiency. It's building trust, fostering connection, and creating equitable experiences that empower people while maintaining human oversight. Our guest today is Woody Woodward, or Mike Woodward as I [00:01:00] know him, Chief Coaching Officer at BetterUp, a human transformation platform.

Alex: He's seen firsthand how AI-powered personalization, when done well, can transform engagement, retention, and performance across

Alex: the employee spectrum. In this conversation, we'll explore how HR leaders can move beyond one-size-fits-all programs to truly personalized trust-building journeys and what it takes to make AI a tool that supports people, not just processes. Woody, welcome to the AI + HI Project.

Woody: Well, Alex, thank you for having me here, and I can't believe you outed my real name.

Woody: Oops. Uh, y- you know, most people don't even know my real name is Michael. I've gone by Woody since I was 14 years old. Uh, and, and only, uh, my wife and my mom I think call me Michael, and my wife it's when she's mad, so.

Alex: I'm not surprised. Uh, obviously I've known Woody since grad school. We went to grad school together.

Alex: So it... this is a real joy and a pleasure 'cause I actually get to do this [00:02:00] with not only a, a buddy, but somebody who I really consider an, an old friend.

Woody: Absolutely. No, I'm- Yeah ... the pleasure's all mine.

Alex: We've got a fascinating conversation ahead right after this brief message.

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Alex: Trust is becoming something that is sort of the operating system of a really good workplace culture, right? Yeah. It is, without question, what allows organizations to really adopt AI in the workplace without having kind of negative reactions or, or things like that from their [00:03:00] workforces. What do you think actually enables them to really apply those things, and what role does personalization actually play in building that kind of trust model- Yeah

Alex: that trust quotient with your workforce?

Woody: Yeah. I mean, to kind of ground the conversation, I wanna share a little bit of our own research- Sure ... because I know you're a scientist. Well, yeah. Always a scientist first- Yeah ... Alex, uh, ever since I've known you. And so, uh, our, our BetterUp Labs team, so we have a whole- Yeah

Woody: uh, s- scientist, a group of scientists in, in what we call BetterUp Labs, uh, had conducted some research, and what they found is looking at over 200,000 US workers We noticed there's been a steady decline in the willingness and comfort of employees to raise concerns about leadership, and that steady decline has been since 2020.

Woody: So as we start this conversation, we gotta remember there's a trust deficit already, right? We have a problem in organizations when it comes to trust. [00:04:00] And so what, what do we do about it? You know, if we wanna have conversations around the use of AI, and in particular, you know, where your interest here is in customization and personalization, I- we're struggling just to have conversations in general right now.

Woody: So I think when I hear these blanket mandates about, "You gotta use AI," right? "Just start, start using AI right now." What does that mean, right? I, I think nobody knows. And so when you give people these very vague blanket mandates, you create more anxiety, which creates more distrust because they look at you and they say, "You're asking me to do something you don't even understand."

Woody: And so with that, I think we need to take a step back and think about how we help leaders have better conversations about how to use these tools and why these tools are helpful, and then you can get into some of the personalization conversation. Um, does that make sense? I- [00:05:00] It

Alex: makes complete sense. Yeah.

Alex: And it's not surprising in the least, right? Right. I think specifically about your research and the Better Up Labs team- Yeah ... and the work that they put out, which is sensational.

Woody: Yeah.

Alex: Right? And one of the things that strikes me is it very much correlates with what we're seeing just with trust in institutions in general, right?

Alex: You see, for instance, the Edelman Trust Barometer speaks to how institution, i- institutional trust is eroding, and ironically, the one group that's still leading in that trust more often than not is employers, right? 'Cause our organizations are the one institution that we can be in as opposed to things like government, like churches, like other things like that, right?

Alex: Yep, yep. Um, so y- you, you set the stage beautifully, and I, I, I'm grateful that you did. One of the things that strikes me though is employ- employees' expectations, right? Let's talk about them 'cause many of them are shaped by forces outside of work, right? How is it that that actually pushes or should push an employer towards, uh, personalization in some way?

Woody: I mean, I think when you [00:06:00] look at all the chaos around us, and let's just be very honest, it's a, it's a chaotic- challenging world, right? Um, some like to use the old '80s term VUCA environment, volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous. And with that, you know, e- every human shows up to work a- as their whole selves.

Woody: They, they, they, they, they can't just segment out what I saw on the news, some of the, the challenges and fears and frustrations I have with the way the world's working right now, or my own personal family situations. You can't just check that, you know- Mm ... at the door when you walk in. You have that with you.

Woody: But, you know, as an org psychologist, right, I like to believe that an organization can be a place where you can f- flourish and thrive, a place where you can be around people who are supporting you, where you can even be vulnerable with people. Um, and I think any organizational leader owes it to their people to try to create those kind of circumstances and environments that feel safe.

Woody: A- a- in an [00:07:00] unsafe place, you should walk in there and feel safe, or log in if you're remote, right, a- and, and feel like you're in a safe environment. And that's where I really believe, you know, coaching comes into play. Because the, you, the way we deploy coaches is to help individuals flourish and thrive at work, right?

Woody: To help them find The best in themselves and how to connect that to the mission, the purpose of the organization. And so coaching is a safe container, right? By definition. That conversation between you and coach where you can unpack certain challenges that you have. You could, you can think about, you know, tough conversations that you need to have.

Woody: You can figure out what kind of goals and behavioral changes you wanna make in your life a- and how you show up in your organizations. And so to, to go back to your question about personalization, coaching is the ultimate personalized experience. [00:08:00] But, uh, both the AI and HI combination, right? That artificial intelligence, human intelligence.

Woody: And what I mean by that is when your coach shows up, they're not there to provide advice. They're not there to give you an opinion. They shouldn't be, at least. Yeah. The, the coaches that work for me are not. Mm-hmm. Um, and those that I train for sure do not. Uh, they're not there to be that subject matter expert.

Woody: They're there to hold space for you to help you figure out what you need. And so by them asking the right questions, by them hearing you, reflecting back what you're, how you're showing up, helping you think about what kind of actions you need to take to get better, you're talking about personalization.

Woody: Now, in addition to that, where AI comes into play is that, look, as a coach, you know, I, I coached for 17 years. You can't remember everything, right? And you can't be available twenty-four/seven, and you can't always, uh, uh, [00:09:00] be nudging and poking and prodding your clients. So you do need tools for that. And smart AI that's customized along with the way the coach personalizes the conversations can take that data and remind you, right?

Woody: H- here's what you committed to. Here's what you said you were gonna try to do. This is that experiment you were gonna try in the flow of work. So to me, that's where you combine AI and, and HI together to have, I think, a truly personalized experience, but not one where you're using the data for nefarious reasons, right?

Woody: Yeah. It's literally there just to help the coach and the member. Or we call members, uh, the cust- uh- Yeah, the customer ...

Alex: the

Woody: person being coached.

Alex: Person being coached, yeah. So it's interesting that you raise that because it also talks about the perspective, the, not only their expectations, but the notion of building personalization and trust.

Alex: And I think specifically about examples where I've seen that really pay off over the years, right? Yeah. Coaching is one example. I think I've seen it pay off in terms [00:10:00] of learning and development when done the right way more broadly than just coaching. Uh, what, what strikes me is, though, we are also at a, at a unique inflection point.

Alex: Even when I kicked off today's conference, right, one of the things that we talked about was an inflection point where workers are both looking to us to provide them with Uh, the, the kind of tools they need to be truly successful- Yeah ... but at the same time living in the, under a paradigm that is about what I might be displaced, I might be replaced, I might have those things, right?

Alex: And I think about this, right? 'Cause think about what it's like to work in that environment, right? How do we build trust when, y-you know, amongst workers, we're encouraging them to adopt AI tools, and at the same time, they're recognizing that they could one day actually be displaced by those tools?

Woody: You know, I've seen this movie before.

Woody: Yeah. So I worked in manufacturing for 10 years, and I could tell you, in the manufacturing space, certainly, uh, I [00:11:00] would say globally, but certainly here in the US, that automation's been happening for decades, right? The introduction of, uh, machine tooling, of robots and robotics on assembly lines, this has been going on for a long time, right?

Woody: And I got to walk factory floors. I got to see the, the, the challenges. I saw more tools, machines, and less people, for sure. But what happened was we started just shifting what kind of work do the humans need to do versus what the machines need to do. They were replacing a lot of, uh, tasks that were very prone to repetitive motion injuries and other things that cause people harm, right?

Woody: And so we don't want people always doing that stuff. So we're moving them, but that's where the upskilling comes into play. It's how do you become, uh, uh, the person who manages and operates the tools and machines that are replacing the tasks that you used to do, right? So I, I think that's an important [00:12:00] distinction when we talk about, like, the existential threat of AI.

Woody: Um, you know, it's just that now AI is, is basically the automation of, like, white-collar workers, right? Or knowledge workers. And so with that, I think leaders need to be open with their people about, we know that there are tools that can do a lot of the tasks that you do in a, in a much faster, probably more accurate way.

Woody: We're getting there. So let's think about what should you be doing? Because, uh, as you mentioned on stage, right? Judgment, trust, human interactions, those are all still distinctly human right now. I can, I can speak for the near future right now. And so let's lean into those things and help continue to upskill people there, because AI is here.

Woody: It's getting better, and it's not gonna get any worse, right? So it's a, it's a matter of figuring out where and how to deploy [00:13:00] these tools. So I think- AI is not gonna replace people necessarily. What it's gonna replace are people who are not effective users of AI, right? So super users of AI are not gonna be replaced.

Woody: Like people who learn to use the tools and technologies just like we saw in manufacturing, not gonna be replaced. Um, yeah, I'll, I'll share an interesting story that, uh, in 2018, uh, so years before the release of generative AI, I was at a conference and, uh, I got-- I had a chance to sit down and, and speak with a machine learning expert.

Woody: Her focus was on, uh, human brain machine interface, right? And they were talking about AI, but not like the way we do now. And after listening to her, I, I asked her, I said, "You know," I have at the time is, I have a, a four, five-year-old son. I said, "What is he... What future is he going into? Like, what should he be learning?"

Woody: Right? Because it's not coding, right? It's not like [00:14:00] development of software. And she's like, "Woody, you're a psychologist. You should know better. You know what he needs to learn is social skills. He needs to develop his social skills." Because kinda like you had alluded to with talking about ju- uh, judgment and trust and interaction, people are always gonna need to negotiate, to persuade, to connect, uh, to support, and communicate with each other no matter what we do.

Woody: And so that's where I'm really bullish on the coaching world because who better to support the continued development of social skills than human coaches assisted by AI?

Alex: You know, it doesn't surprise me in the least that that would be the answer that you were given. And, uh, and I share that not, uh, all kidding aside, right?

Alex: I, I share that in large part because when you look at where it is that displacement is even happening today or more likely to happen by looking at what parts [00:15:00] of work are actually automatable by occupation, our own research actually points to the fact that the, the group that's most displaceable is programmers and coders, right?

Alex: Yeah. Yeah. The folks who are doing relationship work, who understand those psych- psychodynamics are the least replaceable at this point in time. Um, I, I guess it's a good time for us to be organizational psychologists, right? It's, it's, But, uh, self-serving 100%, right? Yeah,

Woody: yeah, yeah. No, I love it. It's great.

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Alex: So I'm gonna ask this question, and, and I say this in large part because I know that this is obviously core [00:16:00] to your work. It is the core of BetterUp. Yeah. Right? But having known you for two decades now- Yeah, yeah

Alex: I know that it's actually core to Woody, right? And it's coaching and leadership development, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They are remarkably personal experiences- Yeah ... as we've talked about- Yeah ... and sort of alluded to here. Right. But they're also about human connectivity, right? How do you ensure that you introduce AI into those experiences for personalization, but also maintain that human connectivity, that connection?

Woody: Yeah, and, and one thing I, I do wanna touch on, right, is it's about mindsets also. So, you know, we've been talking a lot about the leadership side and what leaders need to do. We also need to remember that, you know, there's the employee on the other side, the, the person who's receiving the message, who needs to do the work.

Woody: And our research at BetterUp Labs has shown there's a kind of spectrum of, uh, mindset and adaptability. So we, [00:17:00] we call it, like, o- on one end passengers, on the other end pilots. And so about 36% of employees, based on our research, are in that pilot category, and the pilots are those that have both agency and optimism.

Woody: In other words, they're-- they believe that these tools are helpful and that being kind of mastery of these tools will help me get better and flourish, and they also believe they have some level of control and autonomy over what they do. Mm-hmm. So I, I guess in our IO speak, it'd be locus of control, right?

Woody: Yeah, locus of control. Uh, so they-- so which, you know, you could argue is, is a personality trait. Sure. So they have that. But then you've got two-thirds of workers who are not there- Mm ... and who are more fearful and, uh, feel like things have been predetermined for them, right? And don't feel they have the agency.

Woody: And I think those are the folks you have to really figure out how do you get through to them. Because the pilots are gonna naturally adapt and adjust, and you wanna [00:18:00] bring them along, give them the training, the n- you know, what they need. But I think when you get to the passengers, that's, that's a real challenge, and it's understanding what's underlying those fears.

Woody: And so now this is where I come back f- to the leadership side. I think it's the responsibility of, of any leader to create certainty in circumstances where there is no certainty. Um, it's to be that rock, you know. And I've certainly been on that journey as a coach for a long time, and now as an executive leader, um, where I have to live and take my own medicine.

Woody: Uh, and that is, all right, you know, when, when we don't really know where we're going Let's pick some focus. Let, let's, you know, let, let's take some shots at where we think we should go. So as an example, instead of a blanket mandate, "Everyone's gotta use AI. Let's figure out what AI tools..." Sit down with your team, ask them, "What work do you do, do you have?

Woody: What tasks do you have [00:19:00] that we could look at figuring out maybe how to use AI to automate? What would make sense for you?" And you'll get some that'll be like, their tasks a- and their jobs are so integrated into their identity, they're like gatekeepers and holders of certain things in organizations, that they don't want, like, someone to peek under the hood and see it, especially in AI.

Woody: But it's like, look, if I could free that time up so you could do other work, still own it, but the AI agent works for you, right? Let's think about that. So you gotta break it into bite-sized pieces as to what are we gonna go tackle and try instead of just a blanket, "Just use AI. Figure it out." I think that just causes anxiety and frustration.

Woody: But if you're like, "Tell me where we can-- where the opportunities are. Let's figure out how to pick a focus, and let's, let's go after it." And, and that to me, it's, it's the mentality of, you know, hearing your people, challenging your people, supporting them, and giving them the resources they need to empower them.

Woody: [00:20:00] And I know that sounds awfully a lot like a coach. Uh, but that, that's where I come from.

Alex: You know, it's fascinating. I'll share an example for you that comes from my shop, right? Yeah. 'Cause like you, I'm an executive leader of- Yeah ... researchers and, and your coaches and more. Yeah. But one of the things that strikes me is we actually took that approach of...

Alex: 'Cause we, you know, like any organization, we, we started to look at, okay, how are we gonna mandate the use of AI? And we took a, a, a pause. I took a beat right from-- It's actually from a playbook that you shared with me once, and said, "Just take a step back. Let's think about specifically what it is that we really want to accomplish," right?

Alex: And with my researchers, it was fascinating, right? We created what we call round one. Round one in anything that we produce starts with some form of a generative AI, right? And in particular, around two key areas. N-no analytics. We don't use it for analytical purposes. We want the mind to be there to, to-- so it doesn't hallucinate in many cases or, or do anything like that.

Alex: But we [00:21:00] started with, if I have this research question, give me a survey, help me develop a questionnaire that's gonna help me capture that as well as a sampling strategy And that gave us our first round one, so much so that it's unlocked a whole other world of efficiency with the team, but also thinking differently about some of the problems that they've actually explored.

Alex: It changed their business process to some degree, but also made them a little bit better at what they do, which I think that many of them appreciate.

Woody: Yeah, 'cause there's like a level of metacognition- Yeah ... of thinking about how you think and how do you prompt, right? Yeah. 'Cause you have to articulate that.

Woody: I... W- it's funny, Alex, 'cause I had a, an example on my team-

Alex: Yeah ...

Woody: where one of my team members came to me and was looking for a, like a contractor resource to, to manage some stuff that, you know, her plate had gotten really full. Sure. Partly my fault. Um, and what I, I challenged her, I said, "Well, you know, let's break this down.

Woody: Are there ways that we can use some AI tools that would actually be able to make you more [00:22:00] efficient and still manage to oversee this, but we don't need to bring in additional resources." And I said, "By the way, there's an engineer you can talk to," because, you know, we're f- very fortunately, we have a lot of machine learning and AI engineers at, at BetterUp, so I, I have that luxury.

Woody: Um, and I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I just wanted the thought experiment to challenge her. She came back three weeks later, had developed a tool and a dashboard that completely automated the process, freed up all the time that she needed to do some of the other work, and we didn't need the additional resource.

Woody: And that same individual then went on and came back to me with a whole other, uh, uh, AI-based technology using Claude Code to solve another problem that we had been grappling with that I didn't even ask her to take a look at. So I think when you have someone with the mindset, but you're willing to support them, it's amazing to see what they can do.

Alex: So let's, let's nerd out for a little bit if we can, right? You and I are both behavioral scientists. You're not a nerd, but I am. Right? One of the things that [00:23:00] strikes me is, w- you know, we talk about coaching, we talk about leader development, we talk about all the things like feedback, right? What is the, the science today?

Alex: What is behavioral science? 'Cause you sit at the, the forefront of arguably the largest data set in the world around coaching, right? Mm-hmm. And, and specifically coaching and what we're seeing in terms of performance development, right, or performance management. I'd love to hear what the behavioral sciences team over there is kind of cooking up.

Woody: Yeah. So, so, uh, there are two things I'll share. Uh, one is some research that our, our labs team has done around work slop, which has been super fascinating. And, uh, uh, we had an H- HBR article recently come out around this where this is an example of when you're giving these blanket mandates and you're telling people, "Go use, go use AI," without any real thought behind it.

Woody: They freak out. They put in low effort. They don't understand the tools, and you get, like, this [00:24:00] really crappy work that comes out of it, right? That's just not very good, and we call it work slop. And about 40% of employees have experienced that. And that actually, per deliverable, uh, that is o- of work slop feel, costs about two hours of time for corrective action or review to get it right.

Woody: Mm-hmm. So, so we know that's a problem. Now, gu- I, I wanted to make mention of that because that is, that is the byproduct of poor leadership- Mm-hmm ... and not giving good focused direction like the way you've done with your Round One concept. Sure. When it, when it comes to what our behavioral scientists have found, particularly around coaching, uh- It's really fascinating.

Woody: So one of the things that really excited me about coming to BetterUp was in one of my initial conversations, it was about little like almost a year and a half ago, with, with some of the BetterUp team members, was this research around what makes a [00:25:00] great coach great, and what does the best of coaching look like at BetterUp?

Woody: Because we have a ton of data, right, on coaching. Mm-hmm. And, and the largest data set in, on coaching in the world, the, the, the largest coaching network. So I got to spend time with Dr. Hunter Black. He's our, our principal behavioral scientist and just an all-around really cool guy. And he shared with me this framework that he had developed based on his research where he looked at qualitative data from 16,000 people who had been coached and mapped that to 2,500 of our coaches who are coaching.

Woody: And then we have a lot of data around satisfaction and efficacy and other, other measures and, th-that we can pull, right, from our data. And from that, he was able to derive a framework of what the best of coaching looks like. So it's called GUIDE. So, uh, the GUIDE framework, uh- is really how we define what coaching looks and feels like.

Woody: So when I talk [00:26:00] to, um, the companies we work with, particularly CHROs, about coaching, I, I walk them through the GUIDE model because I'm like, "This is what you're gonna experience." So GUIDE stands for, the G is guiding the process. So coaches are there as sh- you know, as your Sherpa to take you through this process of coaching because most people have never been coached, or they've had other experiences with coaching that don't map to what we do, like they grew up with a sports coach, or they've had some kind of performance coach or trainer, right?

Woody: Mm-hmm. Um, so there's, there's the guiding the process as a professional coach. The U is understanding and, and context. So the coach has to understand who you are, how you're coming into this, and then figure out the context you operate in. So we're able to get context through a lot of different places. Um, our AI can ingest, like, the values, the philosophies, the, the competency models, all of that stuff in, into, into, um, into our platform, so our coaches know [00:27:00] how to use it, the AI knows how to use it for context.

Woody: The, the I is inquiry and reflection. No surprise, those are classic techniques. So that covers really a portfolio of different techniques that coaches use that make them effective, that keep them away from being advisors or gui- subject matter experts, but more around drawing information out of you and, and, and creating insights.

Woody: And then there's the D, which is designing goals and actions. I have a strong bias to action. I always did as a coach. My feeling was, throughout the arc of an engagement, I've got to make sure you know what to go do. How do you take and create an experiment where you're gonna try it back at work? Because if you can't integrate what you learn in the coaching conversation and put it back into the flow of your work, I don't know what we've really accomplished, right?

Woody: It may feel good. You may have some great insights, but if you don't do anything with them, it doesn't matter. Um, I, I typically do like to share, [00:28:00] we, we, we call it the D in the GUIDE model. It's probably- Mm ... more co-designing than designing, but we needed a D. Yeah. Uh, and then- And then the last one is expanding possibilities, the E- Sure

Woody: in, in the GUIDE framework. 'Cause most folks have perceptions about blockers that may or may not be real. And as a coach, how do you help challenge people's assumptions about what they can and can't do? Challenge those mindsets, particularly those passenger mindsets where, "I don't know how to do this. I'm not sure what to do.

Woody: I don't know where to go. The-- I, I can't get past that obstacle. This-- They're not gonna let me do this." It's like, "No, no, no, stop." Like, "Let's explore this and figure out," 'cause there may be a greater world of paths and possibilities than you understand, and that's where I think a coach really helps you out.

Woody: So, so that's our GUIDE framework, which is based on our own internal research, uh, of what coaching looks like, and that's something that really excited me.

Alex: At the end of the day, we need to be able to tie coaching, [00:29:00] development, and personalization to key business outcomes, right? What do you see or what do you respond with when thinking about your research and how personalizing that experience, personalizing coaching in particular, whether be it through AI or not, right, how do you see that actually help employees b- be seen- Mm-hmm

Alex: and feel like they're part of the organization, but at the same time, delivering on things like retention, firm performance, uh, th- those kinds of things? What are you seeing in that front?

Woody: Yeah. It, it's a great question, and, uh, Alex, I get it all the time, for sure. Here's what I'll say. One of my biggest frustrations with coaching, you-- I've been in the industry a long time, whether it was, uh, me as a coach, me as a professor at NYU, or now the chief coaching officer at BetterUp, my frustration was always this notion of black box coaching.

Woody: So when I say black box coaching, I mean people hire [00:30:00] coaches, organizations, they, they've got all these coaches running around, and they're not exactly sure what they're doing, what they're working on, how they're working, but what they know is they're, they're meeting their people where they are. And I'll say, "Do you even know where your people are and where they're meeting them?"

Woody: And the answer is usually no. And so I think the advantage we bring, right, is that we ha- we provide individualized support by professionally trained coaches using our, our GUIDE framework that is connected to and in the service of larger organizational transformations or initiatives. In that, we take a team of coaches approach, right?

Woody: So our coaches come in. They understand why they're there. They understand that we've been brought in because you have, say, a leader development program. You've developed a whole new set of competencies and behaviors that you believe are gonna help your leaders be adaptive to this coming future, say, of AI.

Woody: And so our coaches know [00:31:00] that. They're armed with that information. We have a lot of conversations with the executive leaders about what this means. And so we arm our coaches with that so they know when they go into their sessions, they understand the frame, right? And the context of the coaching that needs to happen.

Woody: It's not just, "Oh, you know, how you doing today? Everything okay? You know, uh, sorry, y- y- your cat peed on your carpet." Like w- that, that's not helpful, right? And so That approach, I think, has been incredibly strong for us. So executive leaders know, "Hey, uh, here's where we need help, and your coaches can help us do that."

Woody: So that is very different than a wide variety of coaches running around doing a lot of independent things.

Alex: So I do have a follow-up question to that- Yeah, yeah ... in particular, right? What's the one thing you would advise executives, right, when thinking about this? 'Cause they're gonna make-- Let's say we're making the case to make that AI powered [00:32:00] kind of shift towards a personalized developmental experience, right?

Alex: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Especially in the space of coaching. What is the one thing you would advise them to be cautious around and, and/or really make sure they do?

Woody: Understand, like, the purpose of the tools and how you're deploying them and why. Um, I think they shouldn't be broadly applied. They should be very narrowly applied.

Woody: So what kind of tool am I using? How has it been trained and adapted? How is it adapted to our environment, our context? And is it helping the person, right, get better? Better at what they do, better focused, perform better, whatever it is, right, that, that the, the organization, their rationale is for, for getting coaching help or using AI tools.

Woody: Just, uh, like be focused. Wh- why am I doing this? Don't just do it for the sake of it. And like I say, there's a sort of this strange keeping up with the Joneses mentality of like AI investment right [00:33:00] now, uh, in organizations. I'm like s-s take, take a step back, right? The challenge is not the availability of tools.

Woody: The challenge is understanding what you wanna use them for. Mm-hmm. And I think the more focused you can be and the better, uh, grasp and understanding of h-how these tools are grounded and engineered. So we put together, we call it our Future Ready Coaching series, to help train our coaches to understand what's going on in large scale enterprise organizations that are being asked, right, to integrate AI really rapidly.

Woody: Um, so we're doing that for our coaches and, and, uh, training our coaches on our own, uh, grow AI tool.

Alex: I love it. I love it. Woody, it's been such a pleasure. I always enjoy spending time with you, my friend, and I can't wait for us to grab our next set of transfusions on the golf course.

Woody: Absolutely. Looking forward to it.

Alex: I love it. Thank you.

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