Coach Shawn

� If your team’s boldest “innovation” is changing the status slide color, you might not be ready for AI.

Safe tweaks won’t move the competitive needle. And with AI, your competition is going to innovate even faster. AI magnifies the creativity of teams that explore, test, and learn in fast cycles. If new ideas die in committee or get watered down to “more of the same,” you’ll miss real upside of implementing AI.

Create space to experiment: small bets, short cycles, clear measurable success criteria, and permission to learn from misses without blame.

What I’ve seen work: Quick ideation jams (aka hackathons), creative techniques and processes to unlock fresh thinking, lightweight pilots with a 2–4 week window, and demos that show outcomes—not just updates. Reward the attempt, not just the win.

Ready to spark real innovation instead of slide makeovers? Drop a comment or DM.

This is 9 of 10 in the series! Missed earlier ones? Subscribe at www.predaxis.com and I’ll send all 10 in one issue.

Also I will be following this series up with a LinkedIn Live event to let you ask questions: https://www.linkedin.com/events/doyouthinkyourteamisreadyforai7373514507379167232/theater/

🤹‍♂️ If “collaboration” means forwarding files around, you might not be ready for AI.

If your team’s idea of working together is an endless game of “who has the latest version” or tag-you’re-it-by-email, you’re not ready for the next level. AI feeds on clean, real-time data. Manual handoffs and disconnected tools just create a big ol’ mess that needs to be sorted out. 🚩

You need truly shared spaces: a single source of truth where updates happen in real time, everyone’s on the same page, and friction disappears. That’s when collaboration turns into progress, and AI can finally lend a hand by tapping into the known authoritative information.

What I’ve seen work: Shared digital workspaces (Google Workspace, MS Teams), regular alignment huddles, and actually ditching the version-8-final-FINAL.xlsx madness for good. Really, it may seem like overkill, but having naming standards as well as folder structure standards will make your life, and your journey to AI, much smoother.
And when the whole team can see what’s happening—boom, the magic starts.

Ready to move from spreadsheet chaos to true teamwork? Drop a comment or DM!

This is 5 of 10 in the series! Missed earlier ones? Subscribe at www.predaxis.com and I’ll send all 10 in one issue.

Also note that I will post the last 5 starting next Monday. Enjoy your weekend!

🔥 If your employees spend more time fixing mistakes than creating value, you might not be ready for AI.

If the team's daily ritual is chasing errors and cleaning up yesterday’s mess, pause the AI hype train for a sec, you're headed for a crash.

AI is basically a supercharger… for whatever system you’ve got. If what you’ve got is poor quality, guess what you’ll get? Poor quality at breakneck speeds.

First you need systems that work and turn out quality. Root out the bottlenecks, errors and overlooked checks. Set up good habits, and let people focus on building, not firefighting. Get your house in order, and only then think about adding AI to turbo charge the mix.

What I’ve seen work: Classic root cause analysis (5 Whys, fishbone, fault analysis), iron-clad standard work, and continuous improvement cycles where every small win frees people up for bigger things. The real magic? Involving the people who do the work they know where the fires start.

Ready to stop fighting fires and start building something better? Let’s talk.

This is 4 of 10 in the series! Missed one? Subscribe at www.predaxis.com and I’ll send all 10 in one issue.

"If you have ever you use a fishing license as a form of I.D. you might be a red neck" ~Jeff Foxworthy

Am I dating myself be referencing Jeff Foxworthy? Oh well :)

I am going to share 10 "If you .... then YOU might not be ready for AI" statements over 10 days.

Everyone’s talking about AI, but here’s the truth: not every company is ready to get real value from it yet. Implementing AI without the right foundation can make things MUCH worse and be an expensive mistake

Over the next 10 days, I’m sharing a daily series inspired by Jeff Foxworthy’s “If you…” jokes, but with a leadership twist:

Each post will spotlight a common warning sign (and a little humor) that your organization may have some groundwork to lay before diving into AI, automation, or advanced tech.

I’ll also share practical things I have seen work so you can take steps to get your team, processes, and leadership truly AI-ready.

Whether you’re a tech leader, business owner, or just curious about what it really takes to make AI work, you won’t want to miss this!

Follow along, join the conversation, and get ready for some honest insights (and maybe a few laughs). First on Monday 9/8.