Writing
Helping mission-driven leaders use AI responsibly, smartly, and powerfully to create impact you can feel good about.
Substack
Here’s a scenario most of us know too well. Someone on your team leaves. But, they were the one who remembered why the board shifted strategy two years ago, what came out of that one convening with partners last spring, and which funder conversations led to the current program design. They didn’t write most of it down (who has time when we’re moving so fast?), and what they did document lives in…
3 Simple Opportunities to Improve Your Thinking with AI
Have you ever opened an AI tool, typed something in, gotten something back, used it (or not), and closed the tab? Of course you have! We all have. We’re all pressed for time, and in those moments where the AI ‘easy-button’ is tempting, it’s effortless to fall into that cycle. You prompted, it responded, you moved on…
Learning to Work in the Overstory: AI as Leadership Development
The Meeting Was Great. Now What?
Everyone is tired. And we’re tired in so many ways. But, in the nonprofit sector, I see a deeper layer of that exhaustion. The kind that comes from feeling like what you’re doing might not amount to anything, like the ground keeps shifting, like the systems you’re operating in are working in directions you didn’t choose and can’t quite see. This makes it so incredibly challenging to meet this AI moment with imagination, agency, and…
How to Make AI Work FOR Your Thinking (Not Against It)
Once you've opened your AI tool and started the chat, the choices you make during and after that interaction shape whether AI deepens your thinking or actually undermines it.
In the last issue, I introduced the Approach-Engage-Output framework that Kelci Price and I wrote about together, and focused on the Approach stage. This issue is about Engage and Output. Most of us know we should be more intentional about how we use AI, but what does intentionality actually look like in practice? We think there are a few specific ways to engage that will support your thinking instead of replace it.
Your AI Results Start Before You Open the Tool
Most AI advice lives at the prompt stage. Better prompts, chain-of-thought prompting, giving AI a persona, etc. And it's all useful, but it's only part of the picture. Kelci and I have been intentionally experimenting with using AI in our consulting work for years, and when we started articulating how we actually work with it, we realized that some of the most consequential choices happen before we ever open a tool, and after we close it.
AI Notetaker Etiquette Guide
For the past year or so, I've been paying attention to how often AI notetakers came up in various conversations. This includes not just the tools themselves, but the feelings around them. And there are...like...a LOT of feelings (for good reason!).
I've experienced my fair share of notetaker faux pas. The auto-share setting that sent a raw transcript to someone who wasn't in the meeting. The friend who wanted to use a notetaker for accessibility reasons but didn't want to disclose by asking. The team that had three different bots joining every call because nobody had talked about whose job it was to manage the recording.
More Writing
What if my organization has no AI use policy?
published on Candid
The absence of a policy isn’t the absence of responsibility. You can take steps to use AI responsibly so you can make better decisions and provide valuable insight when (not if) your organization begins to work on a policy. If your organization is currently developing a policy, get involved. As an early experimenter, your perspective and risk-aware insight will be invaluable to the process.
Collective Learning in Philanthropy: AI, Trust, and the Future of Grant Reporting
published in The Foundation Review
This paper explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI), paired with Oral and Alternate Reporting (OAR) methods, can build equitable, human-centered reporting systems. We propose the E4 framework — Efficiency, Effectiveness, Expansiveness, and Equity — for intentionally leveraging AI in service of more equitable reporting practices.
How to Create an AI Policy: Tips for Nonprofit Consultants
published on Consultants For Good
Whether you call it a policy or set of guidelines, creating a guiding document around responsible use of AI can be a powerful and valuable exercise for consultants. It can help us articulate how we want to use these tools and, more importantly, connect it to our why.
Trust — The Invisible Infrastructure of AI Transformation
published on Center for Creative Leadership
AI is destabilizing the foundations of workplace trust at the exact moment organizations need unprecedented levels of trust to adopt it successfully. True transformation (experimentation, transparency about errors, rapid learning, and willingness to reinvent one’s role) requires deep psychological safety. Yet AI simultaneously threatens people’s professional identity, competence narratives, and job security.
