Lever Talent, Inc.

As founder & CEO of Lever Talent, Inc. - the talent strategy agency - I get to lead our efforts to help leaders implement strategies to bring their best selves to work and take control of the biggest lever in business.

Our mission is to help leaders realize they are capable of more than they could ever imagine. We believe individuals make a business, not the other way around, and all business is personal.

The employee-employer relationship is broken. Thankfully, employees are gaining leverage. Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and Web3 are shifting the power dynamic. We’re flipping the script by helping businesses lean into this shift - bringing humanity back to business in the future of work.

At Lever Talent, we help businesses deploy technology-enabled talent strategies that empower leaders to find leverage in themselves and their teams to spur growth in any market. Maximizing team performance while ensuring they maximize their greatest asset - their career.

We help with:

- Talent Strategy: We help leaders align their people strategy to their business strategy and accelerate growth with talent optimization.

- Career Development: We give people the training and coaching they need crush their current job and achieve their goals.

- Leadership Communities: We bring growth-minded leaders together to share ideas, learn from each other, and grow.

Detailed Services Overview:
- Leadership & Strategy Alignment Consulting
- Mission, Vision, Values & Culture Transformation
- Hiring Process and Strategy Consulting
- Management Training
- Leadership Coaching 
- Team Building Workshops
- Career Development Communities
- Employee Engagement / Performance 
- The Predictive Index Software sales and client service - we are a PI Certified Partner.

Founder & CEO

The Lever with Drew Fortin Show

With a goal to redefine your understanding of the future of work, "The Lever with Drew Fortin" launched on YouTube and your favorite podcast streaming app starting on August 7, 2023.

Over the first half of 2023, Connor Lewis, Executive Producer and founder of Studio Lewis, and I set out to find experts to dive deep, not just into the technology but its implications on our world of work, investment, academia, economics, and businesses.

There is a lot of fear-mongering out there on the rise of AI and robots are coming to take jobs. It's important to remember that every major platform shift before AI has led to more prosperity and further innovation. The Lever is designed to challenge current thinking and highlight the transformative effects of AI, robotics, and Web3 on the traditional employee-employer relationship. It emphasizes the good things these advancements mean for workers.

Each of the six episodes in Season 1 of The Lever is about 10-20 minutes long and is a carefully crafted composition of news, research, and expert commentary on future of work trends. With pre-drafted episode summaries in hand, we set out to interview leaders, innovators, and trailblazers across work tech, investing, academia, economics, and business. We then carefully analyzed 25 hours of footage and transcripts from 23 interviews and dozens of news and research articles to finalize the show scripts for Season 1.

Learn more 👉 Levershow.com

Co-creator, Host, and Future of Work Researcher

The Predictive Index

The Predictive Index (PI) is a private-equity-backed talent optimization software and services company.

I was promoted three times in my tenure:
- Chief Growth Officer 7/2021 - Present (1 yr)
- Senior Vice President, Sales & Marketing 11/2018 – 7/2021 (2 yrs 9 mos)
- Vice President, Sales & Marketing 9/2017 - 11/2018 (1 yr 3 mos)
- Vice President, Marketing 5/2015 - 9/2017 (2 yrs 5 mos)

As Chief Growth Officer, I reported directly to the CEO and was responsible for maintaining their unified vision and go-to-market plans by keeping tight collaboration and cross-functional alignment - breaking down silos and challenging the status quo.

I was part of the senior leadership team since my start. We achieved over 550% revenue growth since 2015 (28% CAGR - breaking $100M ARR in 2022!), 100% growth in the paying subscriber base (achieving 11.5K), and 2,000% growth of the PI certified partner network (achieving 1.1K partner firms).

I led the development of our strategy to create the talent optimization (TO) category and evangelize the TO discipline, which led to the $50M growth equity investment from General Catalyst in 2019.

My charter was to navigate the transition from sales-led to product-led growth (PLG). We successfully launched our first PLG product in 2021 called PI Design - which quickly grew to 2K paying business subscribers and grew our client expansion billings over 50%. Followed by PI Hire and PI Diagnose in 2022.

I spent most of my time focused on PI’s long-term growth plan and goals to develop the TO category and remain the industry-leading SaaS platform. Healthy growth was the name of the game, so there was constant, necessary conflict to manage between long-term/short-term goals and results. (👈 That was the fun part. I love that stuff!)

I was extremely fortunate to work with a dream team of direct reports who led our sales, partner recruitment & activation, demand generation, product marketing, brand, and content marketing functions (of 100 PIoneers).

Chief Growth Officer

In Confidence Podcast

Difficult co-worker? Meddling micromanager? Tough team? Sabotaging self-talk? No doubt, work perpetually challenges everyone’s confidence causing us to feel uncomfortable, unworthy, and unengaged. Get science-backed confidence coaching from two of the best in the biz.

I co-hosted this leadership and personal growth show with Alyssa Dver of the American Confidence Institute. We take calls from real callers and help them work through workplace issues that are getting in the way of them being their best.

Podcast Host

PennySaver USA

The California PennySaver was a local advertising and classified media icon from 1962-2015. I joined at a time of great risk and change - we had the strategy to introduce digital products to fill the ever-growing void created by declining print ad revenues. It was my first executive leadership position reporting directly to the CEO. We were generating $175M in annual sales revenues from 12K business clients and millions of consumer classified ads. 

While there, I led a strategic revamp of our full-service local digital marketing and SaaS website service to a monthly subscription model, integrated 3rd party applications, and kicked off a 3rd Party Reseller Program that increased our growth rate 90%. We also introduced new digital ad products on our classifieds website, which grew revenue from our online listings & classified product by 100%.

I managed many different teams of many shapes and sizes - including a field sales team, product management, engineering, development, and design teams in Poland, India, and Arkansas. I also set up and managed our strategic partnerships with companies like Google, Bing, and Yext.

In 2013, I was tasked with downsizing efforts, restructuring, and assisted the company through a pitch and spin-off of ownership from Harte-hanks, our parent company, to any acquiring private equity firm. Although it was an amazing learning opportunity, I was exposed to the dark side of business when our owners shut the company down in 2015 with little notice - they were subsequently sued for not providing proper notice before firing hundreds of employees.

Vice President, Marketing & Digital

HubSpot

The growth and success we were achieving at Compete caught the eyeballs of HubSpot's CMO and I and jumped at the opportunity to join this growth-stage SaaS start-up on their marketing team. Although brief (the team dynamic was admittedly not for me!), I learned so much and made long-lasting relationships.

We were able to grow our already gargantuan monthly lead flow by 20% while I was there to 45K leads. I managed all of our advertising and search marketing. I implemented mobile marketing, affiliate marketing, and ad retargeting programs. I also wrote a lot of content and held presentations to educate our users on topics that were near and dear to me like SEO, search engine marketing, and content generation. 

Check out this top-ranking article I wrote when I was there (which was accompanied by a 20+ page guide I also wrote) been since been updated several times and generated thousands of views and leads.

Inbound Marketing Manager - Advertising Programs Lead

Compete, Inc.

Compete was a competitive web analytics start-up co-founded by David Cancel (current CEO and co-founder of Drift). I joined as their first dedicated marketing manager responsible for running demand gen programs for their SaaS start-up product called Compete PRO (competitive intelligence and market research tool). This was product-led growth before product-led growth was cool! I reported directly to the GM of Compete PRO. 

The freemium client firehose was on and the problem of the day was figuring out how to convert this free client base into paid subscriptions and monetize our products. 

I created a multi-channel marketing and go-to-market strategy that leveraged our brand strength in the marketing technology space (we had an AdAge Top 25 ranked marketing blog) across all digital channels.

In less than a year, we grew our freemium base 83% to 220K accounts and increased free to paid conversions by 30%+! The result was 50% growth to $6M ARR while maintaining 85% retention rate - this was in 2010! 

Compete was acquired by WPP's Millward Brown Digital, formerly Kantar, formerly TNS just as I started there. The Compete PRO product was eventually folded into other products and assets were sold off as M&A activity evolved.

See the attached presentation I prepared and presented at a Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (aka MassTLC) meeting in 2010.

Senior Manager, Internet Marketing (SaaS)

Staples

I developed and executed growth strategies to drive e-commerce sales and revenue on Staples.com. This was a very exciting time in retail and e-commerce. Staples.com generated about $500M in annual revenues from over 30K+ products - it was one of the world's largest online retailers at the time. Amazon was starting to gain traction and disrupt, but no one had a clue just how significant and transformational the rise of e-commerce would be.

This was also the beginning of the SEO movement. I had the unique opportunity to spearhead Staples.com's first SEO task force. We met regularly to talk about how to implement site-wide optimizations and execute a transformational strategy to democratizing our product data. 

I also managed our affiliate marketing and comparison shopping engine programs which generated over $60M in annual revenues. We had over 1,000 affiliate publisher websites. 
 
I quickly fell in love with web analytics and learned about website architecture, programming, and merchandising products online. I became obsessed with digital marketing, analysis, and growth modeling and projections.

Online Marketing Manager - Staples.com

Online Marketing Specialist - Staples.com

Corporate Communications Coordinator - Staples Copy & Print Center

Picture this… I had just graduated with my music degree, I landed an interim choir director gig at my old high school. I was in a band and we played many times a week. I needed health insurance, so picked up a shift at my local Staples store in Acton, MA (Store #1219) in their copy and print center. 

I’ve always been infatuated with business (I set up our band as a general partnership, ran our books, and admin stuff). I quickly became passionate about running this copy and print center too.

When my choir gig was up I became manager of the copy and print center. I had my own $650K P&L. I managed a small team. I ran the business, kept the engine humming, went knocking on doors to increase business, managed the books, ordered supplies, covered gaps in shifts, etc.

This was truly an amazing experience that led me to becoming an assistant store manager and attracted the eyeballs of our corporate offices.

Assistant Store Manager

Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | Host of The Lever Show | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

You're capable of more than you could ever imagine.

I started my career impatient, driven, and naive - pushing hard to climb the corporate ladder and eventually found myself fired from a highly coveted growth-stage start-up in my mid-20s. 

That moment sent me on a journey of self-discovery. I realized I'm a fixer, visionary leader, relationship builder, and goal setter. I’m fascinated by the human condition and the impact that technology is having on humans at work.  

Innovations in AI, robotics, and web3 stand to scale our potential, strengthen our superpowers, and free us up to focus on the more human elements of work. Over the last 20 years, I've learned that if you paint an inspiring vision, surround yourself with people you admire and trust, and embrace technology, you’ll be amazed at how quickly you can grow.  

In 2022, I decided to follow my passion and became the Founder & CEO of Lever Talent, Inc. - the talent strategy agency. I spend my time helping business leaders deploy talent strategies and tools to find leverage in themselves and their teams to spur growth in any market. Join the movement at levertalent.com. 

I use my LinkedIn to network, learn from others, and share any wisdom I've gained along the way.  

With technology, our leverage is limitless. Let's embrace and change the world. ⚡️🌎 

Specialties: Talent Strategy, Growth Leadership, Cultural Transformation, Mission Vision Values, Team Building, Talent Optimization, Go-to-Market Strategy, Digital Transformation, Consulting, The Predictive Index, Engagedly

Drew Fortin

I’ve seen a lot of posts from leaders talking about how hard layoffs are for them.

They’re right, it is brutal to sit across from someone and tell them their job is gone. 

I’ve done it more than once. It never gets easier.

But here’s what I don’t see enough of: 

Acknowledgment that the person being let go has it far, far harder.

They’re the ones facing an insurance crisis, mortgage payments, daycare costs, food bills, and the emotional gut-punch of losing purpose overnight.

As leaders, we talk a lot about empathy and “doing it the right way.” 

But if we’re being honest, most layoff comms are designed to protect the company’s emotions, not the individual’s livelihood.

We’ll say things like “this was the hardest decision I’ve ever made” while the person we’re letting go is quietly wondering how to tell their family.

Layoffs are sometimes necessary. But if you have to do them, don’t center your pain.

Center their reality.

If you’ve ever had to do layoffs, reflect on this:

Who carried the real weight of that moment, you or them?

Founder & CEO @ Lever Talent | SHRM-SCP | Helping leaders develop talent strategies that leverage a tech-empowered future.

Amazon doesn’t pretend to have a great culture.

That’s exactly why their strategy works.

Andy Jassy has been blunt: automation is driving results, and they’re doubling down on it.

This shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Amazon’s culture has never been warm and fuzzy; it’s designed for efficiency, precision, and relentless execution.

And for them, that alignment works.

Where leaders go wrong is pretending their company can act like Amazon but feel like Patagonia.

You can’t build a cutthroat, hyper-optimized operating model and then talk about “psychological safety” and “belonging” like it’s in your blood.

If your business is tightening up, getting lean, and optimizing for efficiency, own it.

If you’re trying to grow through experimentation and empowerment, build the space for that.

But don’t sell one and live the other.

No, your coworkers are not your family. 

And the “workplace family” is one of the biggest lies we keep telling ourselves.

Sociologist Sarah Mosseri’s new book, Trust Fall, takes that myth head-on, and I’m here for it.

For decades, leaders have used “we’re a family” as shorthand for belonging, loyalty, and trust. 

But as Mosseri’s research shows, it’s often a cover for imbalance: companies say “family,” but act like corporations.

Her work reminded me of how often I see teams confuse trust with comfort.

True trust is risky and vulnerable. It means giving people the freedom to question the system without being punished for it.
 
Most workplace "families" rally during a crisis, “bond in the trenches,” and call it teamwork, but never stop to ask why they're always in crisis. 

That’s a leadership problem, not a culture win.

The best workplaces are communities built on shared accountability and mutual respect.

If you have to call it a family to keep people around, you’ve already lost their trust.

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Talks about #culture, #leadership, #futureofwork, #humanresources, and #transformation

No one cares more about your career than you do.

It is the single greatest asset you own.

Yet most people treat it like a group project, waiting for someone else to tell them what’s next.

Promotions, stretch projects, mentorship, even recognition, none of it just happens because you deserve it. 

It happens because you’ve made it clear what you want and you’ve done the work to prove it.

If you haven’t taken the time to define your next move, no one’s coming to do it for you.

And if you haven’t told anyone what you actually want, don’t be shocked when the world stays quiet.

When you do speak it out loud, when you say “this is what I want, this is who I’m becoming,” the universe starts to rearrange itself around you.

So stop waiting for permission.

Own your path.

Your next chapter starts when you decide what you want.

I wish someone had told me that in my 20s.

So I’ll tell you:

Don’t outsource your trajectory. You own the asset, so start managing it that way.

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Every leader should be able to say:

"Here’s what I’m great at, and here's where I need help.”

Imagine if every team normalized that kind of honesty. 

No need to guess, just strengths out in the open and gaps named for what they are.

Success doesn’t come from trying to be great at everything. 

It comes from doubling down on what makes you exceptional and building systems that let others do the same.

It's common knowledge that the best athletes don’t play every sport. They find the one that amplifies their strengths, and they go all in.

The same goes for leaders. 

As technology evolves and AI expands, being more human is becoming a leadership advantage.

The future belongs to teams that know themselves deeply, celebrate their natural talents, and build around them.

Let’s start with transparency and build well-aligned teams.

AI layoffs are a cop-out.

Let’s stop pretending otherwise.

The economy’s rough right now.

So when I see companies announcing “AI-driven layoffs,” I can’t help but roll my eyes.

No one’s getting a commensurate productivity lift from AI in 2025 or 2026 for that matter. 

At least not yet.

What we are seeing is leaders using AI as the scapegoat to justify tough calls they don’t want to own.

“I’m sorry, it’s just automation.” No, it’s economics.

AI will absolutely reshape jobs and displace workers. It’s already changing how we work and what value humans bring.

But most of these cuts have nothing to do with true AI efficiency. They’re about maintaining needed profitability in a weak market.

And when leaders hide behind “AI transformation” instead of admitting that, they erode trust even faster.

Let’s be honest with our people.

Let’s say, “The market sucks right now, and we have to make hard choices to survive.”

Because the story of AI shouldn’t be about fear and headcount cuts.

It should be about how we redesign work to make humans more valuable than ever.

Everyone says the hardest part of layoffs is losing people.

No one talks about what it’s like to be the one who stays.

Some folks in my network shared what it’s like to “survive” multiple rounds. There’s the obvious: survivor’s guilt.

But then there’s the post-anxiety layoff that no one really talks about.

Because the truth is, no matter how loyal you are to the mission, surviving multiple RIFs changes you.

You might still want to help the company rebound, but once people start scanning for exits, the culture’s already cracked.

Culture doesn’t survive that kind of fear intact. In many cases, you have to rebuild from scratch.

And this is where most companies overcorrect.

They double down on wellness, celebrate using PTO, and hang posters that say “It’s okay to not be okay.”

The intention is good, but it becomes the new avoidance strategy. If everyone’s recovering, no one’s building.

Healthy organizations don’t glorify burnout, but they also don’t treat ambition like a bad habit.

Real balance means creating an environment where people want to give their best because they believe the effort still matters.

If you want your people to stop running scared, give them something they can't help but run toward.

A lot of companies are only adding AI to their title because it makes for a better headline.

And honestly, that’s not a bad thing. AI holds massive promise. 

And if you’re not actively adopting AI tools and building your company’s AI fluency, you’re falling behind. 

AI is a huge opportunity. The issue is that most companies are chasing “AI strategy decks” instead of asking better questions like:

- How can we use AI to optimize what already works?

- Where can it automate the repetitive stuff so our people can focus on higher-value work?

- How do we teach our teams to experiment and adapt as AI tech evolves?

That last one is key.

HR has a huge role to play here.

AI is an organizational change problem, and right now, HR is being asked to lead that charge, often without the tools, confidence, or seat at the table they deserve.

Now’s the time to use AI as the catalyst to build a culture of learning, agility, and human adaptability.

It’s the basic, day-to-day work of evolving how we work with AI that actually paves the way for the kind of strategic, differentiated applications everyone’s chasing.

Because the future of leadership is about using technology to help humans become more capable, creative, and resilient than ever.

Empathy became the new performance metric.

And now no one knows how to say the hard stuff.

Since COVID, we’ve seen a cultural overcorrection. And somewhere along the way, performance and clarity got left behind.

Caring for people doesn’t mean cushioning them from reality. 

We still operate in a capitalist system. Companies exist to grow, compete, and win. 

When your culture forgets that, it starts to drift.

You can feel it when a company faces tough calls, layoffs, restructures, and missed targets. 

Suddenly, people are shocked. Disillusioned. “Wait, how could this happen?”

Because no one said the hard stuff when it mattered.

Strong cultures don’t hide from reality. They help people understand the business, the risks, and the road ahead.

And it falls on leaders to do two things at once:

1) Build a humane culture that treats people like adults.
2) Stay ruthlessly focused on the strategic imperatives of the business.

Empathy matters. But empathy without clarity only creates confusion.

Specialization is killing innovation in HR Tech.

For 15 years, HR leaders have been told to “find their niche.”

Hyper-specification was the smart move. Now, they’re paying for it.

Last week, a digital marketing partner told me,

“You call yourselves a full-service talent strategy agency, but no one else does that.”

Exactly.

Because the industry has spent a decade unbundling itself into a thousand micro-experts.

Now we’re entering the great rebundling.

Just like streaming: first came Netflix, then the flood, now everyone’s craving cable again.

HR is no different.

Leaders don’t want 10 vendors solving 10% of the problem.

What they really want is one partner who can help them with the whole system, not just a piece of it.

That’s why we built Lever Talent, Inc. as a full-service talent strategy agency.

Whether you need cultural transformation, org design, leadership training, fractional HR support, or HR software management, you can start small and scale with us.

If your company vanished overnight and you had to rebuild it tomorrow…

Would your org chart look the same?

Now imagine applying that to your workforce strategy.

If you were starting your company today, in a world of AI agents, async collaboration, and 10x productivity per person, how would you design your org?

Would you still define “manager” the same way?

Most wouldn’t.

And that’s the point. 

We’ve built orgs layer by layer for decades,  adding roles, tools, and policies like barnacles on a ship, without ever scraping them off to see if the structure still floats.

A “zero-based” approach to human capital would force us to rethink how work actually gets done now.

If you’re not familiar, it’s when companies start their budgets from scratch every year.

No “last year plus 10%.”

It’s a thought experiment worth doing, especially for HR and people leaders trying to design the next era of work.

If you were rebuilding your org from zero today, what would you keep… and what would you leave behind?

Everyone loves to say HR is “slow to adopt AI.”

HR is the only team smart enough to ask what happens after the adoption.

This is the function responsible for compliance, documentation, process, and most importantly, people. 

Of course, they’re going to measure twice and cut once. That’s our responsibility.

AI is moving so fast that “measured” can start to look like “left behind” if leaders don’t stay curious.

Every HR leader I talk to should be getting fluent in the language of AI right now.

The HR leaders who figure out how to make AI work for people are the ones every CEO will want on their team.

We’re already seeing it in logistics, where people collaborate with software and robots every day. 

That’s just the beginning.

HR’s role in the AI era isn’t to keep up.

It’s to lead the integration responsibly, strategically, and humanely.

Stop saying “AI won’t replace you; someone who knows AI will.”

That’s not true.

If 15% of your workforce gets cut overnight, it’s not because every manager suddenly became a prompt engineer. 

It’s because the CFO did the math.

Tenure, pay bands, performance stack ranking… that’s the calculus, not who’s best at ChatGPT.

Yes, AI is replacing people. But not in the way LinkedIn gurus want to sell it.

It’s commoditizing everything except distinctly human ability.

So yes, AI will force displacement.

But what it’s really forcing is a reckoning with what makes us valuable in the first place.

You don’t survive this shift by becoming “AI fluent.”

You survive by becoming more human than ever.

If a candidate’s first touch is a faceless agent, you just told them exactly how much you value people: not much. 

Automation is efficient. But hiring isn’t a spreadsheet exercise.

Candidates want speed and someone accountable for decisions that shape their careers.

Tech is not strategy. People still are.

As someone obsessed with what AI and robotics mean for the employer–employee relationship, I’ll die on this hill: 

The more tech we adopt, the more our differentiator becomes distinctly human judgment, trust, context, and dignity.

If you’re racing toward “AI-run hiring by 2026,” start here:

1) Human decides, AI informs. 

Use models to structure, summarize, and surface signals. Final calls belong to accountable humans.

2) Radical transparency. 

Tell candidates where/when AI is used and how it influences outcomes. No black boxes. (Trust is the currency.)

3) Bias isn’t “fixed,” it’s governed. 

Treat bias as a system problem: data audits, adverse-impact monitoring, and escalation paths that real people own.

4) And most importantly: Train the humans. 

Most teams don’t know what “AI skills” even means. Make fluency part of manager enablement and recruiter craft.

I’m not anti-AI. I’m anti-abdication.

You didn’t hire more people to slow things down...

But that’s exactly what happened.

Scaling should make things smoother, but it rarely does. The habits that helped you win early on don’t serve you later.

When companies start, they’re agile, experimental, and fueled by belief.

Then, they hit product-market fit. Now they’re in growth mode. 

That’s when process, discipline, and focus take over. Meetings multiply, and decisions slow.

The business becomes about precision: tightening systems, reducing errors, building consistency.

But when you over-optimize for process, you lose the agility that made you successful in the first place.

At a certain point, you need to redesign how your organization works.

At Lever Talent, Inc., we use the Competing Values Framework to help companies do exactly that.

If your team feels stuck in “slow motion growth,” this is your signal to recalibrate.

Because every stage requires a different kind of leadership, culture, and operating model.

CEO turnover is spiking in 2025, and it’s not because CEOs are failing. 

It’s because the job changed faster than they did.

New data shows high-performing companies are now almost just as likely to replace their CEO as underperformers. 

In the S&P 500, 2025 turnover in the top three performance quartiles hit 12%, nearly matching the bottom quartile at 14%.

Boards aren’t waiting for a downturn or a misstep. They’re finally acknowledging what many of us inside organizations have felt for years:

AI transformation is reshaping every role, and yesterday’s leadership profile doesn’t map to tomorrow’s demands.

The leadership equation has shifted: agility, digital fluency, and stakeholder orchestration now matter more than tenure.

That's why external CEO appointments nearly doubled this year. 

If the last few years taught us anything, it’s that strategy fails when leadership, structure, and decision-making can’t keep pace. 

The companies built for the future are the ones redesigning leadership for it, before the market forces them to.

And if your org isn’t building future-ready leaders, your board will go shopping for one.

Most companies hide bad news.

Amazon broadcasts it, and it wins them loyalty. 

When they make tough calls like layoffs, restructures, or pivots, it’s rarely a surprise.

Internal memos are written for public consumption. Leaders get out ahead, set expectations, and communicate the why behind the what.

That doesn’t make it easy. But it does make it clear.

Most leaders think people can handle bad news. What they can’t handle is being blindsided.

Trust isn’t built on inspirational speeches or glossy “values” slides.

It’s built when your team sees your strategy in action, and when your decisions line up with the story you’ve been telling all along.

So, before your next big announcement, ask yourself:

Have we shown the team how our strategy is actually working?
Are we building trust through clarity, or confusion through silence?

Trust isn’t a communications exercise.

It’s a pattern of visible alignment between what you say and what you do.

SHRM tried to teach authenticity.

Now it’s being called out for faking it.

You can teach compliance, frameworks, and best practices all day long… but if the people leading the charge aren’t living it, the whole thing collapses.

An organization built to help HR leaders model inclusion and trust… now under fire for failing at both.

That’s a strategy issue.

I say this as someone who went through SHRM certification.

The material’s solid, and the intent is good. But it reinforced something I already believed:

HR is not the star of the show.

The best HR leaders are the supporting cast, the ones who make everyone else better.

Your job isn’t to make HR “matter.” It’s to make the business unstoppable.

So when I see stories like this, I don’t pile on.

I just hope someone inside remembers: 

Your credibility isn’t earned through policy or optics; it’s earned by aligning words, actions, and outcomes.

And right now, HR as a profession needs that alignment more than ever.

The biggest mistake businesses make about their AI strategy?

Is thinking they need one.

AI isn’t something you strategize for, it’s something you adapt to.

AI is evolving faster than any strategy document can keep up.

If you are a business, your strategy needs to be about how your organization adapts to it:

- How you experiment.
- How you absorb what works.
- How you can exploit it for strategic differentiation.
- How you operationalize it into how you build, decide, and lead.

This is why HR is suddenly at the center of the AI conversation,  helping the business get good at change.

AI’s showing up in every board meeting, every strategy deck, every investor call. 

The market’s on fire with it, even while the workforce feels the drag of uncertainty.

So here’s my take:

Stop trying to make a “five-year AI plan.”

Start building a system for transformation, one that helps your people, your leaders, and your org evolve as fast as the technology does.

Mineral, part of Mitratech

●	Led a $25MM+ strategic growth initiative, developing a next-gen HR compliance SaaS platform, enabling a shift to a product-led growth model and unlocking new revenue channels.
●	Led discovery, assessment, and launch of an AI-powered HR agent enabling SMBs to self-serve regulated HR guidance, laying the foundation for scalable, enterprise-wide AI adoption.
●	Reduced vendor renewal costs by 30% through formalizing vendor management processes, enhancing service quality, and embedding continuous improvement practices.
●	Drove strategic alignment across the executive team by defining and operationalizing corporate strategy through OKRs, increasing cross-functional cohesion and value delivery.
●	Established and scaled a high-performing PMO to oversee critical transformation initiatives, ensuring governance, agile execution, financial discipline, and long-term operational excellence.

Vice President Strategic Transformation

Tyeideas, LLC

● Entrepreneur / Inventor / Owner @ Tyeideas, LLC B2C eCommerce retailer
● Invented and patented the DogTye® hands-free dog leash harness (patent granted Oct 2018), leading the full lifecycle from concept through market & competitive intelligence market validation through design, prototyping, and production.
● Built and operated a B2C e-commerce business on Amazon, managing product sourcing, listings, FBA fulfillment, and customer support.
● Drove go-to-market execution, including customer and competitive research, pricing, branding, and online launch, using reviews and performance data to refine the product and increase adoption.
● Owned P&L, inventory planning, and cash-flow management while coordinating with overseas manufacturers and logistics partners to maintain margins, quality, and in-stock performance.

Entrepreneur / Inventor / Owner / B2C eCommerce retailer

Slalom Consulting

●	Mineral Inc. - Led a multi-year transformation program to develop a new SaaS platform, consolidated two legacy systems, and increased annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 244%, with improved user experience, operational efficiency, and in-platform sales.
●	XPO Logistics Inc. - Led HRIS integrations using Boomi during strategic acquisitions of 150+ companies. Optimized HRIT workflow with ServiceNow to reduce manual work by 40%.
●	Portland General Electric (PGE) – As primary project lead for CSOC, led critical infrastructure OT SIEM security logging program to provide real-time threat detection and security monitoring to reduce cyber/operational risk by ~30%.

Senior Management Consultant

North Highland

●	Nike Inc. - Increased e-commerce efficiency by 60% in 3 months by optimizing Nike’s first-article digital imagery program, setting new benchmarks for digital marketing and boosting global online sales by 23%.
●	Lattice Semiconductor Inc. - Enabled scalable growth by leading a comprehensive current-state evaluation for Oracle ERP implementation, improving business performance and operational readiness.

Management Consultant

Advisicon

●	Led the consulting, design, & implementation of EPM systems for Fortune 500 clients, improving project delivery efficiency by 15–20%, enabling data-driven decision-making across business units, and equipping executives with real-time portfolio insights for cross-functional alignment.
●	Built and scaled PMO and portfolio governance frameworks that connected corporate strategy to project selection and resource allocation, improving on-time delivery and enabling leadership to manage tradeoffs across competing strategic initiatives, with advanced MS Project practices (dependencies/critical path/resource plans).

Director of Professional Services

Metro

●	Increased on-time project delivery by 30% by building and leading a centralized PMO, establishing project management governance, and improving cross-business unit alignment.
●	Enhanced organizational transparency by establishing consistent capital project reporting frameworks, improving stakeholder visibility, and accelerating decision-making and delivery.

Manager, Project Management Office

KBR, Inc.

●	Ran the regional QA program supporting the Department of State and U.S. military operations across six remote Iraq sites with a 55+ person team of SMEs, driving continuous process improvement efforts through 1,250+ monthly contractual inspections to ISO 9001 (Quality), 45001 (OSHA), DCMA (Defense Contract Management Agency) contractual standards.
●	Increased Quality Audit monthly on-time reporting by over 34.2% within a seven-month period using performance metrics and organic competitive incentives.
●	Built metrics and KPI dashboards to track nonconformances across construction, engineering, basic life support (food, fuel, water), logistics, fire services, medical, laundry, MWR, power gen, housing, waste disposal, airfield operations, property accountability, subcontractor compliance, operations and management (O&M) and contract compliance.

Senior Quality Management Leader

United States Army

Honorably Discharged. (Veteran)
Lead 87+ Soldiers

Officer

I turn strategy into outcomes by building the systems, teams, and operating rhythms that connect executive intent to measurable results. 
Former VP of Strategic Transformation with 15+ years across SaaS and consulting, I align C-suite priorities, product, and operations so organizations move faster and execute better. I have led a $25MM+ next-gen SaaS platform build, scaled ARR from $24MM to $86MM, launched an AI HR agent with real adoption and ROI, reduced vendor spend by 30%, and built high performing PMOs that drive cross-functional delivery.

𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀:
•	Corporate & Business Strategy
•	Strategy Execution & OKRs
•	Enterprise & Digital Transformation
•	AI strategy & Adoption
•	Portfolio & Program Management
•	PMO Leadership & Governance
•	Operational Excellence & Process Improvement
•	Change Management & Adoption
•	Roadmap & Investment Prioritization
•	KPI & Dashboard Design
•	Benefits Realization & Value Tracking
•	Risk & Dependency Management
•	Executive & Board Communications
•	Cross Functional Stakeholder Alignment
•	Vendor & Partner Management
•	Team Leadership, Coaching, & Development
•	AI Program & Use Case Delivery

Tye Trepanier

This Thanksgiving, I’m grateful for the conversations that pushed past small talk. People in my network took the time to ask better questions, challenge my thinking, and remind me to give back. That kind of support has given me real momentum during this career transition.

One thing I’ve noticed: a lot of professionals are quietly doing the same work. Whether they’re employed or between roles, they’re testing assumptions, sharing what they’ve learned, and helping others move forward. That kind of generosity compounds.

I won’t pretend it’s been effortless. Reaching out can feel vulnerable, but it builds resilience. For me, that’s looked like hosting short “strategy office hours,” swapping playbooks on OKRs, AI fluency, and transformation, and sharing lessons I wish I’d learned sooner.

I’m heading into the next chapter with gratitude and a clear intention: keep learning in public, keep serving, and keep connecting with purpose. If you’re on a similar path and want to compare notes, I’m always open to the conversation.

And to everyone who showed up for me this year... thank you.

~Tye

Continuing my learning journey to deepen my understanding of AI’s impact on strategy and transformation in the business world.

I joined a couple of my network buddies (Graeme Rudd & KC O'Carroll, fellow military veterans), and Spenser Meeks at AI Portland last night. What a blast!

I also ran into two former colleagues who are on their own AI learning journeys and giving back in their domains (Suzame Tong & Aimee Pedretti,).

We heard from two fantastic speakers from DevSwarm, CEO Mike Biglan, & CTO Trevor Dilley. They walked through high velocity engineering (HiVE) using their AI-assisted development platform and showed how they’re leveraging Toolhive.dev for secure MCP integrations to rapidly share a live AI development use case for MCP (Model Context Protocol).
 
I'm grateful to keep learning alongside smart people who are building, experimenting, and sharing what works.
 
❓If you’re experimenting with AI in your domain or transformation work, drop a note, I’d love to hear what you’re trying.

Executive alignment is not a meeting. It is a system.
LEADING EXECUTIVE ALIGNMENT: 5 Steps That Make All The Difference

Alignment at the top is not about a nice slide deck or checking a box in a strategy session. I have learned the hard way that misalignment, even among smart leaders, can stall initiatives before they leave the boardroom. Getting executives truly on the same page requires more than meetings. 
 Here is how to make it stick:

 1. AGREE ON THE OUTCOME, NOT THE PROCESS.
 Leaders often argue over “how” instead of “why.” Start with the end in mind, what success looks like for the organization. Once the outcome is clear, process debates are easier to resolve. Just as important, once your teams understand the “why,” they can better endure the “how.”

2. ESTABLISH A CLEAR, SHARED LANGUAGE.
Terms like “agility,” “innovation,” or “value creation” mean different things to different leaders. Define the language upfront so conversations are about substance, not semantics. This often requires a simple “terms” dictionary to keep teams aligned.

3. BRIDGE THE STRATEGIC-OPERATIONAL GAP.
Executives think in big moves, teams think in tasks. Regularly translate strategic priorities into concrete, operational objectives that everyone can act on, then feed the results back up. One way to do this is by agreeing on three simple metrics for each major bet, Original, Target, and Actual. Track them honestly so the discussion centers on “what did we learn” rather than finger pointing and excuses.

4. CREATE VISIBLE ACCOUNTABILITY
 Assign clear owners for each critical initiative. Public dashboards, weekly check ins, and simple accountability charts prevent “alignment by assumption” and keep execution on track. Socialize the actual owners of the deliverables, and give them room to grow by having them report the learnings directly to the executive oversight group. This builds both ownership and capability.

5. TREAT ALIGNMENT AS A JOURNEY, NOT A ONE-AND-DONE TASK.
Alignment is not permanent. Revisit it regularly, adjust for new insights, and reinforce shared goals through action and communication. Leadership cohesion is maintained, not assumed. Setting clear metrics up front, by defining the Original, agreeing on the Target, and openly sharing the Actual, creates real alignment and shifts the conversation from blame to what was learned.

If your exec team is “aligned” on paper but not in practice, this is the work I help lead.
I have been there... I have done that…

"Action Favors the Bold"

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗼𝗻 𝗮 𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗱𝗺𝗮𝗽. 𝗜𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀.

Transformation is not magic. It is a series of uncomfortable, intentional choices backed by a clear picture of the future. I share a simple way to visualize success and lead by example so your team moves with you, not after you.
 
 If you lead people, you lead emotions, stories, and choices. This video shares how to align all three so change sticks, not just starts. Save it for your next kickoff.

Drop one change you’re committing to this week in the comments so others can borrow it.


"Action Favors the Bold"

I’ve learned something about myself over the years: feeling completely out of my depth isn’t an “early career” memory for me. It’s a pattern. It shows up every time I jump into something new.

And honestly, that’s been true across my entire career.

Whenever I’m in that space, the skill that saves me every time is becoming a subject matter expert as fast as possible. Not pretending to know it all, but closing the gap quickly enough that I can add real value.

For me, that looks like digging deep into the research. Reading everything I can find—articles, books, case studies. Asking the people who have been there and done it. Taking a ton of notes so I can make sense of what I’m learning and connect it back to things I have done.

Consulting teaches you this the hard way. You get put in situations where you say, “Yeah, we can help with that,” and then immediately have to figure out how. And you do, because you have to! And because the team you’re supporting needs to feel like you’re invested enough to learn their world quickly. 

It’s a mix of keeping a smile on, figuring it out fast, and being honest about what you bring to the table.

And I’ve realized something important: Being out of your depth isn’t a sign you don’t belong. It’s a sign you’re stretching into the next version of your capability.

"Action Favors the Bold"

BUILDING PEOPLE: How I helped someone grow

Most leaders say they develop their people. Here’s what it looked like in real life.

I’ve noticed that our desire to learn comes in cycles.
We go from “head down, just surviving life” to short bursts of curiosity, to real excitement about going deep on a new skill.

One of my team members helped oversee a key program I managed. He was good at his job, but I knew formal certifications would boost his credibility, confidence, and long-term marketability.

I started by asking where he wanted to grow in the role. He wasn’t sure.
So I shared my own pattern: seasons where I binge on learning and certification, followed by seasons where my brain just needs to coast for a bit. I asked him to sit with that idea.

A few weeks later, I asked again. This time I came with options: specific classes and certifications that would strengthen the muscles he needed and make a bigger impact on the organization. I also made it clear the company would pay for it.

Then I backed off and gave him space.

On our next 1:1, his energy was completely different. He had picked a course, was excited to start, and finished the week-long class quickly. He immediately applied what he learned and leveled up the program in ways we hadn’t considered before.

The real point here isn’t the certification.
It’s recognizing the natural cycles of learning, catching people in that curiosity window, and guiding them toward opportunities that benefit both their long-term career and the organization.

As leaders, our job is to help people catch that next learning wave and leave them with skills that open doors long after they’ve left our team.


"Action Favors the Bold"

Not too long ago, back in 2010 or 2011, I was saying goodbye to a boss who was transitioning to a new role. I thanked him for his time, and he said something that stuck with me ever since:

"Tye, you know what makes you so great?"

I tilted my head and asked, “What’s that?”

He said, “It’s because you don’t take yourself too seriously.”

At the time, I thanked him and moved on. But looking back now, I realize how profound that advice really was.

It’s not about being casual or underestimating the work. It’s about leaving ego at the door and being truly authentic. 

I try to talk to people like human beings without heavy vocabulary, flashy talk, or trying to impress them into submission. The goal is to make people feel comfortable having real conversations.

I’ve seen so many leaders bring ego into the room. “I’m in charge. You’ll do what I say.” That rarely works. What works is meeting people where they are, respecting their perspective, and earning trust through authenticity.

That one comment forever changed how I lead. It reminds me to keep ego in check, focus on connection, and be real.

"Action Favors the Bold"

You don’t need better AI. You need to stop pretending your data is fine.

Scaling AI is brutal because it exposes every crack you've been hoping no one notices.

AI feels magical.

Until you try to scale it.

Bain & Company makes the point bluntly: "Many companies have yet to invest; or are just beginning to invest; in critical enablers for AI value realization, including end-to-end process redesign, disciplined AI governance, solid change management, executive commitment, and an effective data strategy."

And this isn’t new. Bad data has been the kryptonite of digital initiatives long before AI showed up.

The companies that actually win with AI aren’t just chasing the newest model; they’re investing in the data behind it. They set clear ownership, build governance into everyday workflows, and treat data like a real strategic asset.

The bottom line is this: AI will amplify what you already have. Weak data? Weak results. Solid data? Transformational results.

"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱"

Open article: Why AI Stumbles Without a Solid Data Strategy by bain.com

Most AI pilots stall before they scale. Data strategy and governance are not new, but they’re even more critical in the AI age.

Why AI Stumbles Without a Solid Data Strategy

One of the myths I wish more executives would let go of is the idea that AI adoption is all about efficiency or cutting costs.

Sure, AI can automate tasks and reduce time spent on repetitive work... but the real value comes from improving decision-making and empowering employees to do higher-value work. 

If leaders focus narrowly on efficiency, they risk sidelining the people who actually make AI successful: critical thinkers, problem-solvers, and those who understand the customer experience.

History is full of lessons here. Remember the outsourcing wave in the ’90s? Companies cut costs by moving IT and help desk roles overseas... only to bring them back when they realized some roles can’t be automated without damaging customer experience. 

AI is different, but the principle is the same: tools amplify humans. They don’t replace them.

"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱"

AI, digital transformation, strategy… we all chase the next shiny tool thinking it’ll fix everything. But the truth is, a lot of leadership problems existed long before AI showed up.

Bill Flynn hits it on the head: “Many leaders who excel early in their careers eventually become the very reason their organizations stall.”

Think about it. Early on, being the hero by solving problems personally, making snap decisions, and pushing hard can work. You get results. You rise. You feel unstoppable.

Then your organization grows. Complexity spikes. And suddenly those same “hero” behaviors are holding you back. 

I’ve seen it firsthand. Leaders default to "doing" when "building" would serve better. But what really scales is building systems that empower others to make strategic decisions without waiting for your stamp of approval.

"Action Favors the Bold"

Open article: Great Leaders Empower Strategic Decision-Making Across the Organization by hbr.org

Great Leaders Empower Strategic Decision-Making Across the Organization

If your team doesn’t understand your strategy, you don’t have a strategy... you have a memo.

I’ve seen it often. Teams get handed the “perfect plan” and promptly check out because the plan doesn’t tell them why it matters. It doesn’t connect the dots between their day-to-day work and the bigger picture. That’s where stories come in.

A good story does three things: it shows the problem, it lays out the path forward, and it makes each person’s role clear. 

When you do that, people don’t just comply... they actually care. And they start thinking creatively about how to make the change work in real life.

The teams I’ve witnessed embrace change fastest are the ones who hear the story and say, 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺, 𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘵. 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘐 𝘮𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘪𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦. They see the impact on customers, on the organization, and even on themselves.

"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱"

I’ve always thought the principles of building AI or driving transformation would translate neatly from one industry to another. Turns out…not even close.

Reading Sol’s reflections on pharma reminded me of the first time I stepped into a highly regulated, science-driven business. My instincts told me to start where I’d been most effective before: in commercial operations, customer experience, and revenue impact. 

I quickly learned that wasn’t where the leverage was.

It’s a humbling lesson I’ve seen replayed countless times across industries: the playbook that works in one context can be entirely the wrong tool in another. 

Your leverage points (the places where change actually sticks) are defined by the mechanics of the business, not by your assumptions.

"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱"

I thought building AI in one industry would be almost the same in others…phew. 😅

Pharma was a completely different beast.

- In consumer goods, the product drives everything. 

- In entertainment, it's the creative output.

- In travel, it's the experience.

But pharma? Pharma is different.

Here's what I learned:

In pharma, urgency is dictated by patents and molecules. And it starts with R&D. Let me elaborate.

Because if a pharmaceutical company owns the patent for a molecule, they control a drug or vaccine for 10, 15, 20 years. 

That gives them control of an entire therapeutic area and dictates market functions for a decade or more. If someone needs the drug and you're the only one who makes it, you already won.

This insight changed where I focused my energy as a change agent.

Here are the 3 lessons this experience taught me.

1. Don't assume one playbook works everywhere.

2. Every industry has its own center of gravity. In pharma, it's the science to start. Follow the money and the power structure.  My effectiveness depended on understanding how they made their margin and profit. Not just understanding the business, understanding the actual drivers of profit.

3. Pick your battles based on leverage, not just opportunity.  There was plenty to do in commercial, , plenty of ways to add value. But those big leaps? They were harder to sell internally.

If I could do it over, I'd have focused my energy on R&D and manufacturing from day one based on the circumstances. 

Which industry surprised you the most when you got inside the engine room?

I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

Measuring Real Competitive Advantage from AI: 5 Steps That Make All the Difference

I’ve seen organizations celebrate reduced headcount or faster reports, only to realize months later that their competitors had pulled ahead with entirely new business models powered by AI. Measuring real advantage means going beyond efficiency and asking if AI is actually shifting the game! 

Here’s how to do it:

1. Track impact on revenue and market share, not just cost. Look at how AI drives new sales, expands into untapped markets, or improves customer retention. If the bottom line moves only because of lower expenses, you’re optimizing for survival only. 

2. Measure time-to-market advantage. Competitive edge comes from speed. Track whether AI reduces the time from idea to launch, enables faster decision-making, or accelerates innovation cycles. A tool that simply automates a report doesn’t count; one that shortens your go-to-market by weeks does. 

3. Evaluate customer experience lifecycle gains. AI should enable more meaningful interactions. Measure engagement lift, churn reduction, or adoption rates of new AI-driven features. Customer impact often signals real strategic value faster than internal metrics.

4.  Link AI outputs to business objectives. Raw accuracy or model performance is meaningless if it doesn’t move the needle. Create explicit KPIs for strategic outcomes: revenue growth, market expansion, or customer loyalty.

5. Review and adjust with frequent loops. Regularly assess whether AI insights are still translating into better decisions than your competitors. If not, iterate!

"Action Favors the Bold"

Ever wonder how your custom AI agent actually decides what to say?

I had to share this visual from Tom Yeh on the unseen math behind vector databases.

In simple terms:
When you ask a question, your AI is not “searching documents” the old way. It is:

* Turning your question and all the source documents into vectors (numbers).
* Storing those vectors in a special database.
* Using math to find the closest match so it can pull back the most relevant chunk of knowledge.

That pipeline is called Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), and it is what powers things like:
* A customer service agent that can answer from your help center
* An internal chatbot that knows your policies, playbooks, or SOPs

I worked on this back in late 2023 when wiring up vector databases for real use cases was much harder than it is today. Now we have services that handle most of the heavy lifting so teams can focus on the strategy of what knowledge to load and how it should be used.

If you are experimenting with AI in your org, this is the mental model to keep in your back pocket.

Credit: Original post and visual by Tom Yeh

14. Can you calculate a vector database by hand? ✍️
[Like] if you can follow the calculation.

Vector databases are revolutionizing how we search and analyze complex data. They have become the backbone of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG).

How do vector databases work?

[1] Given
↳ A dataset of three sentences, each has 3 words (or tokens)
↳ In practice, a dataset may contain millions or billions of sentences. The max number of tokens may be tens of thousands (e.g., 32,768 mistral-7b).

Process "how are you"

[2] 🟨 Word Embeddings
↳ For each word, look up corresponding word embedding vector from a table of 22 vectors, where 22 is the vocabulary size.
↳ In practice, the vocabulary size can be tens of thousands. The word embedding dimensions are in the thousands (e.g., 1024, 4096)

[3] 🟩 Encoding
↳ Feed the sequence of word embeddings to an encoder to obtain a sequence of feature vectors, one per word.
↳ Here, the encoder is a simple one layer perceptron (linear layer + ReLU)
↳ In practice, the encoder is a transformer or one of its many variants.

[4] 🟩 Mean Pooling
↳ Merge the sequence of feature vectors into a single vector using "mean pooling" which is to average across the columns.
↳ The result is a single vector. We often call it "text embeddings" or "sentence embeddings."
↳ Other pooling techniques are possible, such as CLS. But mean pooling is the most common.

[5] 🟦 Indexing
↳ Reduce the dimensions of the text embedding vector by a projection matrix. The reduction rate is 50% (4->2).
↳ In practice, the values in this projection matrix is much more random.
↳ The purpose is similar to that of hashing, which is to obtain a short representation to allow faster comparison and retrieval.
↳ The resulting dimension-reduced index vector is saved in the vector storage.

[6] Process "who are you"
↳ Repeat [2]-[5]

[7] Process "who am I"
↳ Repeat [2]-[5]

Now we have indexed our dataset in the vector database.

[8] 🟥 Query: "am I you"
↳ Repeat [2]-[5]
↳ The result is a 2-d query vector.

[9] 🟥 Dot Products
↳ Take dot product between the query vector and database vectors. They are all 2-d.
↳ The purpose is to use dot product to estimate similarity. 
↳  By transposing the query vector, this step becomes a matrix multiplication.

[10] 🟥 Nearest Neighbor
↳ Find the largest dot product by linear scan.
↳ The sentence with the highest dot product is "who am I"
↳ In practice, because scanning billions of vectors is slow, we use an Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) algorithm like the Hierarchical Navigable Small Worlds (HNSW).

Daniel Svonava, co-founder of Superlinked, generously lent his immense knowledge about vector databases to me by reviewing a draft of this post and providing valuable feedback. Follow him to learn more about vector databases.

#vectordatabase #rag  #deeplearning #llms #database #embeddings #aibyhand

Repost this ♻️  to help people in your network understand vector databases.

Hey my peeps, check out Raja dispel the AI productivity myths.
His message aligns well with the AI content I have shared here on LinkedIn

Thanks Raja.

Fractional Chief AI Officer | Creator of AWARE™ Driving AI ROI, Adoption & Revenue Per Employee | Ex-Deloitte

Myths are for bedtime stories.
Let’s dispel the AI productivity ones.

𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 𝟏 - AI Should NOT be Used just for Productivity Hacks 

I once led an ERP implementation where the sponsor kept saying: 
“We’ll start with the low-hanging fruit.”

But AI actually does have low-hanging fruit. And it’s immediate.

They buy back time. 
Time → becomes problem solving. 
Problem solving → becomes value.

With AI, the low-hanging fruit is the meal.

Your time saved is 𝑓𝑢𝑒𝑙 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 you seek.

(ERP implementations have no low hanging fruit, the sponsor got let go)

𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 𝟐 - You Need 47 AI Tools to See Results
Move over Fast & Furious, there are more AI tools being released than Vin Diesel sequels.

Here’s the truth: You don’t need a tool zoo. You need one or two tools - and fluency.

Your Copilot alone - used well - can unlock millions in value. 
(See post from Yesterday in comments)

𝐌𝐲𝐭𝐡 𝟑 (𝐦𝐲 𝐅𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞) - “AI is a Fad, We Can Wait and See”

AI adoption is not a tech race. It’s a behavioral race.

Your competition knows, believes that and is scaling accordingly.

Those who start learning now will think differently, work differently, and lead differently - long before the “wait and see” crowd even realizes the gap has formed.

By the time most leaders notice the shift, they’ll already be on the wrong side of it.

𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐵𝑙𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑟𝑦 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑖𝑃ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑.

Cheers - Raja Sampathi
Executive Coach | AI Leadership | AI Adoption

PS: Part 3: Mastery drops tomorrow

𝐏𝐏𝐒 - Which AI myth riles you the most?

Great post from George Paras. 

I also keep seeing the “𝗮 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆” mantra floating around LinkedIn, and it makes me pause. Not because I disagree, it’s absolutely true, but because so many posts stop at the catchphrase. Their one-pagers look like cool eye-candy, but miss the core elements of strategy.

It reminds me of times early in my career when I thought I had a strategy simply because I had a document full of bullet points and timelines. Looking back, that “strategy” didn’t guide tough choices. 

It didn’t force me (or my team) to make hard calls about where to play or how to win as defined by Roger Martin. It was a plan, yes, but it wasn’t strategic thinking in action. True strategic action is how we "Transform" our organizations.

What fascinates me is why so many leaders conflate the two. My experience tells me it often comes down to comfort. 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿. It's about imagining futures that don’t exist yet and committing to them even when uncertainty is high.


"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱"

Everyone is saying a plan is not a strategy.

But, do you know who said it first?

The answer is B) Roger Martin.

Lately, I've seen an influx of templated 'a plan is not a strategy' posts in my feed gaining suspiciously high engagement, some over 3,000 likes, and some of which has prompted Roger to comment with a polite reminder to give some credit to his thinking. 

But beside the issue of lack of giving credit, the increasing cut + paste 'a plan is not a strategy' posts on here are also pretty unhelpful. Why? Because they do not get into the core of why execs often mistake a plan for a strategy, and the "advice" is flawed and muddled. 

More helpful advice? If you really want to know why a plan is not a strategy, then go to YouTube, search for "a plan is not a strategy" and hit play on the original viral video from Roger Martin that has over 6 million views. 

Have you seen the video? What did you learn? Why do people confuse a plan and a strategy? Share your views and answers below. 

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P.S. A link to the video is in my first comment.
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𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗔𝗺𝗮𝘇𝗼𝗻... 𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗕𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝗯𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿.

In this article, Roger Martin makes that clear. 

I really like this quote from him: “Simply, what has changed most in strategy is the diminished efficacy of throwing spaghetti at walls and playing-to-play.”

We’ve been trained to chase multiple initiatives, hedge bets, and hope something sticks. But today, with customers discovering value instantly and fixed costs dominating investment, half-hearted plays get exposed fast. Winners now win bigger, and losers get crushed quicker than ever.

We also can't overlook AI as a powerful new accelerant in strategy today. But no algorithm is going to pick your Where-to-Play (WTP) or How-to-Win (HTW) for you. That’s the human part. 

𝗦𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝗺𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆: focus ruthlessly, invest decisively, and use AI to speed execution... not to make up for lack of clarity.


"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱"

Open article: https://www.fastcompany.com/91434102/whats-changed-most-strategy-44-years by fastcompany.com

https://www.fastcompany.com/91434102/whats-changed-most-strategy-44-years

AI is moving faster than most strategies can keep up with. But here’s the thing: AI won’t rescue a weak strategy. 

Shadow adoption is already happening, the barriers to entry are nonexistent, and the benefits are obvious. Employees are using AI tools every day. Some organizations are formalizing it with structured tool adoption. And then there are the rare few using AI to completely rethink how they operate.

The nuance? Incremental gains from tools feel good. They create momentum. 

But without anchoring AI adoption to a bigger strategic vision, to not only to improve efficiency, but to reimagine your organization, all that momentum can just be spinning wheels. 
AI is a lever. It can amplify your strategy, or accelerate failure.


"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝗹𝗱"

Open article: Does Your Organization Have An AI Strategy? by forbes.com

Your organization needs an AI strategy. The real question is: how do you develop a strategy when the disruption itself is still unfolding?

Does Your Organization Have An AI Strategy?

𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐄𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬: 6 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐀𝐥𝐥 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

Strategic plans are easy to write, but notoriously hard to execute. I’ve seen brilliant strategies die in endless meetings or get lost in a sea of competing priorities. 

Here are 6 steps to break your team out of THAT cycle, and create new cycles that actually help execute your strategies:

𝟏. 𝐂𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡-𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬. Don’t overcomplicate things. Identify the 2–3 outcomes that matter most, and make sure everyone understands them. Everything else is context. 

𝟐. 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐞𝐱𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐜𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐬. Monthly or quarterly check-ins are better than “annual strategy reviews.” Shorter cycles let you adjust early and keep people accountable without overburdening them. Think like John Doerr in the OKR process.

𝟑. 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐚𝐲-𝐭𝐨-𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤. If strategy feels like a distant memo, it won’t stick. Make sure team objectives, meetings, and reporting are connected to the bigger picture in a tangible way. "Perform" gets in the way of "Transform". Your efforts have to be selectively prioritized.

𝟒. 𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧-𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐜 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤. Use simple touchpoints: weekly stand-ups, team retrospectives, or one-on-ones. The goal is to catch obstacles, misunderstandings, or challenges before they grow into bigger problems. This is the learning phase: “What broke, and how can we fix it?” Remember, no finger-pointing here!

𝟓. 𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞. Instead of tracking everything yourself, create visible accountability. Teams should know who owns what, what progress looks like, and where they can step in to help. Publicly available live dashboards and stop light KPIs so anyone at anytime can see when a problem exists. Stop hiding failure, culturally adapt to using challenges as a warning tool to help guide the journey.

𝟔. 𝐓𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬. Expect change. Make review points for updates, test new approaches, and let the plan evolve. Strategy that can flex, is strategy that works.

"𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝘃𝗼𝗿𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗹𝗱"

I always appreciate it when Roger digs into parts of strategy that most leaders treat like an afterthought. His newest piece on management systems hit me harder than I expected. 

Not because of what he wrote (though it’s worth reading), but because of what it made me notice in my own work.

I’ve seen teams obsess over choices and capabilities, only to get tripped up by the invisible stuff: how decisions actually get made, how information moves, how people coordinate when no one’s watching. 

In my experience, those systems rarely break in dramatic fashion.

The part Roger made me reflect on is this: leaders love being architects of vision, but far fewer lean into being architects of systems. 

I’ve certainly had phases in my career where I thought the strategy was the “important” work and the operating rhythms, decision rules, and feedback loops were housekeeping someone else could worry about. But the more experienced I become, the more I realize how much leverage sits there.

"Action Favors the Bold"

#Strategy

Founder & President at Roger L. Martin, Inc. and author of A New Way to Think

I have just posted my latest Playing to Win/Practitioner Insights (PTW) piece, this one on the fifth – and oft-overlooked – box of the Strategy Choice Cascade and is called Revisiting Management Systems. https://lnkd.in/evz2Kvqr


For me, it is an historic and nostalgic post because it is the 250th piece in the series – a milestone I never imagined reaching. It revisits the first piece in the series, which was called The Role of Management Systems in Strategy. This piece is co-authored with friends and former Monitor Company colleagues, Steve Goldbach and Geoff Tuff, both senior partners at Deloitte. 

This piece argues that if Where to Play/How to Win is the heart of strategy, and Must-Have Capabilities the muscles of strategy, Enabling Management Systems (EMS) comprise the essential nervous system of strategy.

The piece points out the dangers of detrimental drift in EMS and how to counteract drift by continuously honing your EMS.

It argues that as a leader, a key part of your job is to act as Chief Systems Designer and lays out the four key components of that job. 

Enjoy! #strategy

Open article: Revisiting Management Systems by open.substack.com

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