Writing by Mike Vaughan
Take a better question back to work.
Learning designs to examine. Decisions to practice. Evidence you can use without claiming more than it shows.
15 pieces
Thinking
The AI-Ready Leader
AI can improve output while leaving judgment underdeveloped. This article examines what leaders need to protect, practice, and observe as AI changes how work gets done.
19 min read
Effect
Ready for what?
Replace a broad readiness label with a responsibility, conditions, evidence, and a clear statement of what is still unknown.
2 min read
Effect
The same evidence, two useful conversations
One record can guide a person's next practice and an organization's decision about responsibility. Keep the purposes visible.
2 min read
Thinking
The Most Expensive Mistake in the AI Era Isn't Tokens. It's the Wrong Question.
A practical case for asking better questions with colleagues, at home, and with AI, using Explorer mode and the Iceberg to look beneath the first answer.
12 min read
Thinking
Are You a Knowledge Worker or a Value Worker?
AI can make early output look like capability. The Value Continuum distinguishes surface productivity from the judgment and adaptability that hold up when work changes.
10 min read
Thinking
A project management course rebuilt around decisions
Keep the useful knowledge. Give learners a project where scope, staffing, and deadlines compete for the same resources.
2 min read
Effect
What practice can tell us about readiness
A practice record can support a specific decision about responsibility. It cannot turn one performance into a verdict about a person.
2 min read
Thinking
Turn a course objective into a decision worth practicing
A worked redesign: move from explaining a process to choosing what to do when its demands conflict.
2 min read
Thinking
Find the assumption behind the decision
A practical way to examine a mental model: make its prediction explicit, test it, and specify what would change it.
2 min read
Thinking
Insight is a start. What changes on the next attempt?
An insight becomes useful when someone can explain it, try it, and examine what happens under different conditions.
2 min read
Thinking
A debrief that changes the next decision
Use the decision record to examine an assumption, compare a prediction with an outcome, and plan another attempt.
2 min read
Thinking
When help at work replaces the chance to think
Just-in-time support can improve a result while leaving the person no better prepared for the next decision. Here is the design choice that matters.
2 min read
Thinking
Ask a question that changes the decision
A good question earns its place by exposing something the decision depends on. Here are four ways to find one.
2 min read
Thinking
Three ways to examine a difficult decision
Critical, creative, and systems thinking do different work. Use one decision to see where each changes the next step.
2 min read
Thinking
When the work changes, what carries forward?
Adaptability has to show up in a new task. Look at what people notice, what they need to learn, and how they use help.
2 min read
Bring a real problem
What does your learning need to change?
A role people are struggling with. A decision that keeps going wrong. A capability you need to see before giving someone more responsibility. Start there.