"I went from a blank to having a pretty good rough draft that I can go then and edit, and makes my time much more productive." — Dirk Tussing
Here's the business problem that kicked this off: small and mid-sized companies know leadership development isn't working. Classroom training isn't building AI-ready leaders. And the people who do understand AI can't always translate it into what a 500-person manufacturing company actually needs to do differently on Monday morning.
That was the challenge Mike Grubich brought to ELE's April 10th Design Charrette — Stop Talking, Start Building Leaders. The charrette generated raw peer insight and a partially filled action planning worksheet. April 16th was about turning that raw material into something a leadership team could actually use.
This one was open to anyone — members, guests, and curious colleagues alike. No slides, no formal structure. Just Dirk walking through the live workflow with a small group willing to watch AI do the heavy lifting in real time.
The workflow: Charrette → Action Plan → Playbook
ELE's new sprint model is a three-step sequence. The Design Charrette starts with a real business problem and generates peer-tested insight. That becomes the input for an AI Action Planning hour — where AI tools help complete Aaron Olson's Action Planning Worksheet (from Strategy and Change), a structured tool designed for exactly this kind of high-disruption, hard-to-focus moment. The completed worksheet then feeds an AI Practical Lab, where the community co-creates customized implementation playbooks.
As Patti Ouzounian put it during the discussion:
"You're taking what was done in the charrette and all of the transcript items and pieces to come up with a new and improved, updated action planning worksheet — so it can stand as the premise for the AI practice sessions, and then ultimately the playbook."
That's the architecture. And the April 16th hour was proof it works.
AI doesn't replace the thinking — it accelerates it
Dirk walked the group through the live workflow: drop in the Zoom transcript, the group chat, and the partially filled worksheet; run a CRIT prompt (Context, Role, Interview, Task); let the AI interview you with three targeted questions to sharpen the focus; then watch it fill out the worksheet with situation framing, insights, choices, risks, opportunities, and measurable actions.
The output wasn't perfect. It wasn't supposed to be. The point was to go from blank page to credible rough draft — fast — and then scrub it before sharing.
"Senior leaders need to stop treating AI leadership as a content rollout and start treating it as an execution choice."
That line came out of the AI-assisted worksheet completion, drawing directly from Mike's business challenge. It's the kind of reframe that takes a room an hour to land on. The AI surfaced it in minutes — because the charrette had already done the real work of naming the problem.
The part that surprised the room
David Scherer raised something worth flagging:
"I love these features — I really appreciate how we can leverage ELE in so many different ways outside of the organization."
That's not just a compliment about the platform. It's pointing at something real: when you contribute to an ELE Design Charrette, you're building a documented, shareable artifact of your thinking. One you can actually point to. For senior leaders navigating career transitions or gig work, that matters.
What to try next
- Run your own CRIT prompt on a current challenge. You don't need ELE's full workflow to start. Take a business problem you're stuck on, give an AI tool the Context, assign it a Role, ask it to Interview you (max 3 questions), then name the Task. Notice how different the output is from a generic prompt.
- Use the worksheet as a pre-read filter. Before your next leadership team conversation about AI adoption, run the Action Planning Worksheet on the situation yourself — even partially filled. It forces you to separate symptoms from signals before you walk in the room.
- Identify whose "business why" is missing. In most organizations, AI adoption stalls because senior executives haven't articulated why it matters for this business, this team, this year. Name one executive in your organization who should own that framing — and who isn't yet.
Early evidence signal: Within two weeks, can you get one senior leader to articulate AI adoption as a business execution decision — not a training initiative?
If any of these insights resonate — and you've got a top-of-mind talent business problem you'd like the ELE community to work on — send it our way.
Members can submit their business challenge here: Submit My Business Challenge Now
Looking to turn these ideas into action? Access the Idea Exchange Post-chat for an updated Action Planning Worksheet.
