Your Team Already Has What It Takes

It’s Friday afternoon. A critical proposal is due on Monday. The traditional move? Rally a team, scramble through the weekend, and stress your way to the deadline. But one company made a different move.

Instead of throwing more people at the problem, they threw a better approach at it. Yes, they used AI, but more importantly, they used AI differently. Not to replace the team, but to empower them to work faster, smarter, and with less burnout.

The real story here isn’t about the AI. It’s about behavioral change. This team didn’t wait for some “perfect” AI platform or for an instructor to show them how to build the proper prompt.

They adapted how they worked. They knew the tools were already helpful. What needed to change was them. That’s the secret companies often miss when they focus on the tech and not the emotional aspects of the humans involved.

⚠️ The Big Misconception

You can’t outsource transformation to a vendor demo.

Giving your team access to AI isn’t the finish line. It’s the starting point.

Think of it like this: Buying a treadmill doesn’t get you fit. Showing up and building new habits does. Same with AI. You don’t need more tools. You need new behaviors around the tools you already have.

That’s where you, HR, step in. Because changing behavior is in your wheelhouse. HR has always been about unlocking human potential. And now it’s about doing that with AI as your co-pilot.

Paul helps you learn how to craft prompts that build real, useful outcomes. But prompting is just part of it. The real transformation comes when your people learn to think differently with the help of AI.

🧭 Why This Matters for HR Right Now

1. Because transformation isn’t about adoption — it’s about evolution
Your employees already know how to do their jobs. What they need is support learning how to do those same jobs with AI. That shift doesn’t come from more dashboards. It comes from coaching, peer modeling, and ongoing reinforcement—all core strengths of the HR function.

2. Because behavior, not software, drives business value
AI tools are evolving fast. But your people? They don’t need every new feature. They need to know how to integrate AI into their daily flow. HR can lead the charge in building pilot programs, feedback loops, and learning labs that encourage this experimentation without fear.

3. Because “human-first” companies don’t fear AI
The most AI-ready organizations are the ones that don’t treat AI like a tech issue, but treat it like a talent strategy. Helping employees become more confident, curious, and capable around AI will not only boost performance, it will reduce resistance and increase retention.

So what’s your next move?

Start small. Start human. Identify one workflow. Help one team rethink how they use AI in that space. Then, amplify and scale what works.

Need a prompt to get started? Ask AI:
"What small but high-impact tasks in [insert HR process] could be supported by AI to reduce manual effort and improve team confidence?"

You don’t have to wait for the future of work. You can build it today, one prompt, one mindset shift, and one behavior at a time.

Takeaways:

1. AI adoption isn't a tech problem — it's a behavior challenge.

2. Transformation comes from how people think about work, not just what tools they use.

3. HR is perfectly positioned to lead AI behavior change across the organization.

Ready to design those shifts? Keep reading this week's tips and test out a few prompts with your team. Paul’s here to help you shape the next evolution of work, one prompt at a time.

📄 Prompt of the Week

Use this prompt to support your HR team’s behavioral changes with AI:

ROLE:
You are an organizational development advisor with expertise in behavioral change and AI adoption in the workplace.

REQUEST:
Help me design a practical strategy to support my teams in developing new behaviors that effectively integrate AI into their daily work. Focus not only on using tools, but on changing how people approach tasks, solve problems, and collaborate with AI.

GOAL:
To shift team mindsets from tool use to transformation by encouraging habits and behaviors that sustain long-term AI collaboration and performance gains.

INSTRUCTIONS:

• Recommend specific behaviors that employees need to adopt to work effectively with AI (e.g., curiosity, iteration, critical evaluation).

• Provide a sample development plan for building these behaviors, including microlearning ideas, coaching conversations, and reflection prompts.

• Suggest ways to identify current behavioral gaps and track progress over time.

• Include communication tips for HR to engage both AI champions and AI skeptics.

• Propose one or two pilot activities that HR can run to reinforce behavior change using real AI tasks.

• Suggest how to use AI itself to support behavior change (e.g., personalized nudges, scenario simulations).

• Recommend strategies to reinforce these behaviors through feedback loops or team-based learning.

OUTPUT FORMAT:
Organize your response in the following format:

1. Key Behaviors to Cultivate

2. Behavior Change Plan (Step-by-Step)

3. Pilot Ideas for HR Teams

4. Measuring and Reinforcing Progress

5. AI-Powered Support Tools and Techniques

###TeamUses: [Optional – Insert info about your current AI adoption status or specific team use cases here]

Want to learn more about building great prompts? Paul publishes a Prompt a Day newsletter on LinkedIn!

Click Here to subscribe and get a daily idea of how to create powerful and effective prompts across a variety of topics, both personal and professional.

UPDATE: We have over 2,800 subscribers! Join the group today.

🤩  The Fun Side of AI

Using AI doesn’t have to be all work. Here is a fun way to interact with AI.

Explain It Like I'm Five

ROLE:

An expert communicator who specializes in simplifying complex concepts for young children.

REQUEST:

Help me explain a difficult or abstract concept in simple terms, suitable for a 5-year-old, using analogies, stories, and playful language.

GOAL:

I want to take something complex and make it fun and easy for a young child to understand. The explanation should hold their attention, make them curious, and help me improve how I teach or share ideas.

INSTRUCTIONS:

- The concept I want to explain is [gravity / the internet / money / climate change / germs / computers / emotions / AI / time / electricity].

- Use a fun and imaginative tone, with relatable comparisons or stories that make sense to a 5-year-old.

- Avoid technical terms, and if you need to use one, explain it like a story or through pretend play.

- Include a short story, analogy, or metaphor that brings the concept to life.

- Mention 1 question a curious child might ask about this idea and how to respond simply.

- Offer a one-sentence version of the explanation I could use in conversation.

- Optional: suggest a playful activity or example I could show them to make it stick.

OUTPUT FORMAT:

- Short story or example

- One-sentence “kid version” explanation

- Likely kid question + simple answer

- Optional hands-on activity or demonstration