How to Thrive in the Age of AI
What you cannot expect in this season is to be like, oh, I just have a manager that manages the business. They do things the way we've always done things and then expect health and growth over time. It's not gonna happen because the world is changing. The environment is changing. And I heard Keith Cunningham say this.
Alex Judd:He said, your systems are great until the environment changes. We are in a time that is, I believe it's the Green Berets say, it's VUCA. Right? It's volatile. It's uncertain.
Alex Judd:It's complex, and it's ambiguous. Right? If that is not an acronym for our time, I don't know what is. Right? And when you engage with VUCA, what do you need?
Alex Judd:You need leadership. It was so interesting. I was at a conference recently, and the question was posed from the stage. If you were to describe just in one word how you feel about the times that we're living in right now with regard to AI and kind of the advent of that becoming a domineering force in the workplace. Just give us one word to describe how you're feeling.
Alex Judd:And it was crazy. I turned to my table, and I listened to a bunch of business owners and leaders at my table say some of the same words. The most common word was I feel behind. The the second word was I feel scared. The third word is intimidated.
Alex Judd:Right? Those are the words that some FactFormer version of those words was said over and over again. I feel behind. I feel scared, and I feel intimidated. And after leaving that conference, I've talked to more people.
Alex Judd:This is something that I'm very interested in right now because I think that it's it's a pretty big deal, and it's only gonna become a more big deal. It's the cultural moment that we live in. How are leaders feeling about the age that they are leading in? And so often, I hear the same answers. I feel behind.
Alex Judd:I feel scared. I feel intimidated. And at the very least, people are saying, feel unsure. I feel indecisive. And then every once in a while, you meet a couple people that are like, I feel really excited and enthused, which, some of those people, I say, man, I love that you've got your foot on the accelerator, but, also, let's pump the brakes just a little bit, and I wish you had a little bit more healthy fear associated with this.
Alex Judd:So, all that to say, think this is a powerful moment not to just live, feeling behind scared or intimidated and not to live fearful. I think what we should be doing is asking the right questions. What does it look like to thrive in this age? It's so helpful for me to remember. Like, there was a time when cars were going to massively the the advent of the automobile was gonna massively change the way that business and life worked.
Alex Judd:There was a time where that was the case, and people sure realized, oh my gosh. This is a massive shift. There was a time where the Internet was gonna be this tectonic shift in terms of the way the world worked. And many of us lived through that tectonic shift, and we saw it happen. And so now what we're coming to, in some ways, it is unprecedented.
Alex Judd:That is true. But in other ways, it's what always happens. Something new comes along that changes the way things work, and the people that go through that are the ones that choose to intentionally lead through it. And this is the time that we get to live in. Now one of the things that's very unique about this time is this particular innovation is happening fast, like, fast.
Alex Judd:It was a couple months ago now that I was on a workshop, and I started the workshop. I I was presenting, and I just asked, really, a big group of business owners on the call. I said, if one is I don't use AI at all, and five is I use this multiple times a day, where would you put yourself on that scale? And what was crazy is every single person on that call was a three or above, and most people were a four or five. That is crazy.
Alex Judd:The think about that. Every single person on the call. This is a this is something that has really only come to the forefront of our culture in the past year and a half or two years, and we're already at a stage where most people are saying I use it multiple times every single day. That is rapid, rapid change. And so it's really crucial that with regard to that pace, we bring a high degree of leadership thoughtfulness and intentionality.
Alex Judd:Because otherwise, instead of us engaging with it or participating in it, it's just gonna happen to us. And that means we're either gonna mindlessly adopt it or we're gonna avoid it, and neither is a good option. So that's the question that we're focused on. How do businesses thrive in the age of AI? And I actually think that the answer is a paradox.
Alex Judd:And you know what a paradox is. It's two things that don't seem to go together, but they actually do. And so here's the answer or the hypothesis that I would propose to you. How do businesses thrive in the age of AI? The same way businesses thrive in every age, but also by doing things that are radically new and different.
Alex Judd:How does your business, how do you as a leader, how do you as a person thrive in the age of AI? The same way you've always thrived. The playbook isn't changing, but, also, you're gonna have to do things that are radically new and different. And so that sounds complex, but what I want you to recognize is the principles of life, leadership, and business aren't changing. I really, really believe that.
Alex Judd:The way the world operates and thinks about what's good, right, beautiful, and true, like, I think those are all God created things that aren't moving, and the reason why those things aren't moving is God isn't moving. Right? And so what might change is the way we go about accomplishing those things. And so the way we do things tactically might look different, but there are principles that have always been true that are going to ring true in this situation. Just the way that we apply those principles to our customers, to our business, to the way we work might look different.
Alex Judd:And so what I'm gonna give you here is not this massively complex tactical breakdown of how we should be thinking about AI. Right? I'm not ready to do that yet because it's changing every day right now. What I want us to do is to focus on the simple things that are not changing, that all of us with leaders are really charged with thinking through. How did these realities practically apply to the time and context that I find myself in?
Alex Judd:And so what we're gonna do in this episode is we're gonna embrace the beauty of simplicity. And and simplicity is so good because simplicity, number one, it simplifies. The thing that's not gonna be helpful for you in this situation and and time that we live in is is complexity. Right? The thing that's not gonna be helpful for you is to try and wrap your head around every single variable of what could possibly happen, to be filled with worry, to be distracted, to be frantic, right, to have a mind that can't actually hone in on something that's true and focus on applying yourself to to living in alignment with that.
Alex Judd:That's gonna be helpful. So we need simplicity because it simplifies. We we operate best in simplicity. I believe that to be true. Simplicity is also helpful for leaders because simplicity scales.
Alex Judd:Remember that because that's a principle. Simplicity scales. One of the big questions that leaders are already wrestling with and will continue to wrestle with over the course of the next year or two is how do I get my team on board with using AI, and how do we make sure we use this tool in a healthy way? That's a really good question to be asking. And what I will tell you is the thing that you're not gonna be able to do is to tactically answer the complexity of every question, every variable as it comes up.
Alex Judd:And so what we need to have is some operating principles, beliefs, and values that inform how we think about the time and season we live in. Simplicity scales. And then finally, simplicity serves. I think when we take complex challenging topics that are fraught with fear and pitfalls like AI is, I I think we help serve people if we can say, hey. It feels really complex, and it feels really muddy and foggy, and and there's a ton of uncertainty, But but we're gonna we're gonna just simplify into what we know to be true.
Alex Judd:And here's what we know to be true. And and that that simplicity is gonna encourage people. It's gonna give them clarity, and it's gonna give them the level of peace that they need to be able to move forward. Right? And and that's gonna really help us in this time because, if we ever are lacking peace, we need to look at our pace.
Alex Judd:And what simplicity does is it helps us slow down to remember what's most true. And in doing so, we're we're gonna slow down our pace, and then we're gonna recover our peace. So we're gonna we're gonna talk very simply in this episode. What are some answers to the way we thrive in the age of AI? Here's the first one.
Alex Judd:Roll up your sleeves and understand that this is a time for leadership. I'm gonna say this again. This is a time for leadership. You know, we have lived in a cultural moment where it's so attractive and easy to talk about having a business where, you know, you can basically just operationalize everything, which we teach operationalizing. I believe in systems.
Alex Judd:I believe in processes. I believe in making excellence predictable and repeatable. I believe in not making a business owner dependent. I believe all of that. So don't hear what I'm not saying here.
Alex Judd:But a lot of the marketing surrounding the topic of an own, not run business or things like that is like, hey. You can have this business that operates independent of your time and energy entirely because it's so systemized, and then you can just go on the beach and you literally don't work, but you have this business that just grows and runs and it's healthy and it's amazing. Right? This is not the time for that. Right?
Alex Judd:Your business, if it's going to quite frankly, I think your business, if it's going to survive, but especially if it's going to be healthy and grow, that will require leadership. Now I'm not telling you that leader has to be you, but what you can't you cannot expect in this season is to be like, oh, I just have a manager that manages the business. They do things the way we've always done things and then expect health and growth over time. It's not gonna happen because the world is changing. The environment is changing.
Alex Judd:And I heard Keith Cunningham say this. He said, your systems are great until the environment changes. We are in a time that is I believe it's the Green Berets say it's it's VUCA. Right? It's volatile.
Alex Judd:It's uncertain. It's complex, and it's ambiguous. Right? If that is not an acronym for our time, I don't know what is. Right?
Alex Judd:And when you engage with VUCA, what do you need? You need leadership. Right? And so what does leadership look like in this situation? It doesn't have to be you, but it's gotta be someone.
Alex Judd:If we're gonna thrive in this season, then then we're gonna need leadership. And and what does leadership look like? We gotta understand the landscape. And I I really think, for a lot of us, this is where I'm at right now, we're still starting to understand what this new tool is making possible, how people are gonna interact with this new tool, what this new tool does with our industry, and how how it's going to affect our industry. Right?
Alex Judd:But but now is a really good time to start understanding that. It's gonna start by getting all the information you can. This is why, man, I'm so grateful for friends of mine like Jay Owen who are teaching actively on, hey. Here's things that you need to be paying attention to both principally, but also tactically in the world of AI. I'm not gonna become the expert in AI.
Alex Judd:I have no desire to become the expert on AI, quite frankly. But, man, I would be wise to be attending to and putting my eyes on as a leader people that are experts, people that just geek out over this stuff, and I wanna pay attention to those people and learn from them. So so we need to understand. And then we need to aim. So so once we've got an idea of where the landscape is, we need to decide, hey.
Alex Judd:In light of what the landscape looks like, this is where we are going. And where you are going might have changed compared to where you thought you were going because the environment changed. And so you cannot be afraid as a leader to say, hey. We have had this vision that we've been marching towards in terms of the type of company and the work that we do. You know?
Alex Judd:For we've had this vision for maybe three years, five years, something like that, or we've always thought we're moving in this direction. And now the world changed. Our cheese got moved. If you've ever read that book, who moved my cheese. And so, you know, if there's irrefutable evidence that we need to choose a new destination, then we need to make sure we actually choose a destination.
Alex Judd:What you can't do is say, oh, I feel shaky. The landscape's uncertain, and so we're going to operate for an extended period of time with no aim. That's gonna that's going to be catastrophic for your team. Okay. So we're gonna understand.
Alex Judd:We're gonna aim. We're gonna choose where we're going. And then in light of where we're going, we're gonna mobilize. And we're gonna mobilize talent. We're gonna mobilize resources.
Alex Judd:We're gonna mobilize our energy. We're gonna mobilize our time. We're gonna we're going to allocate all of these things that we have available to us towards achieving that aim. And then from there, we're gonna execute. And so that I want that to be your playbook.
Alex Judd:Recognize this is a time for you as a leader or the person that you're charging with leading your business. It's not a time for management. Right? You can obviously manage the business that you have, but this is a time for leadership. And and, yeah, there's responsibility associated with that, but there is absurd, absurd amounts of opportunity associated with that.
Alex Judd:So so you need to understand what's actually going on. What's what what's the landscape actually looking like as we start to flesh this thing out? You need to say, in light of what it looks like, what's our aim? Where are we going? You need to mobilize your resources to move in that direction, and then you need to execute and make sure that any execution is paired with accountability.
Alex Judd:So that's the first one. And that's just so cool is that as an operating practice for thriving in business has never not been true. We could say that exact same statement in the time of the Internet and the time of the automobile. Right? And now we're just happen to be in the time of AI.
Alex Judd:The playbook and the principles are the same. The strategy and the tactics might look a little bit different. Okay. Let's go to the next action. What can you do to thrive in the age of AI?
Alex Judd:Find out what people really value today and provide it exceptionally well. Again, find out what people really value today and provide it exceptionally well. First of all, think of the simplicity of this statement. You could literally just retitle this episode, how do you thrive in business? And this would be the answer to that question.
Alex Judd:But now let's think about this particularly in the age of AI. And here's what I really want you to to keep in mind, and I want you to share this with your team. I want you to share this with the people that you lead. What people value today might be different than what they valued before. You know that that's true.
Alex Judd:I don't have to explain that to you. What people value, what people want, and what people need, what people are willing to pay for might be different today than what they valued before. And so what you need to do is you need to make sure, like, okay. What do people really value today? There's a chance it might be exactly the same, but I will tell you with so much stuff changing in the world, I I would be really attentive to is what people want to pay for changing as well.
Alex Judd:And here's what I want you to know is that there's gonna be a lot of leaders. I really believe this. There's gonna be a lot of leaders that are going to get stuck providing what people used to value. Right? They're they're gonna get stuck saying this is the way we've always done it, and people have always loved this, and we've built our business on this.
Alex Judd:And so this is the way we're always gonna continue to do it. And and that can't be what you do. And so what what do we need to do? Pay attention. This is not the season.
Alex Judd:There's really no season to get disconnected from your customer. You should be talking to your frontline team members. You should be talking to your salespeople right now. Pay attention. What's going on in the water right now?
Alex Judd:Right? Get to know what's going on in the marketplace. Herb Sargent, he's actually gonna be speaking at our experience coming up in Colorado Springs. You know, he is just a brilliant leader in so many regards, and I spent a lot of time talking to him and learning from him. One of the things he did as a practice whenever he was leading a massive construction company called Sargent is is he would just ask people in the industry from around the country, what are you seeing right now?
Alex Judd:That's a good question. Right? What are you seeing right now? And then just let them talk. And and what you'll find is you'll start to get your thumb on the pulse of what's going on in the marketplace.
Alex Judd:What's going on in our industry? What's going on with our customer base? How how are is what people value or the way they value things shifting? I would encourage you not to make assumptions. Assumptions will kill your business in this season.
Alex Judd:And associated with that, what are we gonna do? We're gonna make hypotheses. We are not going to draw conclusions right off the bat with with regard to what people now value today. We're gonna make hypotheses about things that would be valuable in this new world, and then we're gonna test those hypotheses. And and that's Jim Collins' idea of musket balls versus cannonballs.
Alex Judd:Right? How do you sight a cannon? You fire musket balls. And as you're firing musket ball, it's gonna miss. It's gonna miss.
Alex Judd:It's gonna go ping. And the minute you hear that ping, then you fire a cannonball. Right? And that means the minute you have a hypothesis, you test, you test, you confirm. The minute you confirm, you say, put more resources in, put more time, put more intentionality, put more money, and that's where you're gonna double down, and you're gonna experience incredible opportunity and growth.
Alex Judd:Okay. Let's go to the third thing we gotta do to thrive in the age of AI. Anchor your immovables. So there's two pieces to this that I wanna hit on. It is more important than ever that you identify the things in your life and in your business that simply are not going to change.
Alex Judd:And let's look at two reasons why I believe that's really, really true. The value of trust is already at an all time high, and it's going to become more high as this age unfolds. Right? I mean, it is it is already getting very, very hard to distinguish what is true, and it's going to become more difficult. And we know that to be true just by the trajectory of how things are going with this.
Alex Judd:And so what people are really going to trust is your reputation and your consistency over time. And how do we establish reputation and consistency in a business, especially if you've got, you know, a lot of people doing a lot of different jobs, mission and values. This is why we exist, and this is what we stand for. And those things are not changing. People trust when things start to prove that they have a reputation of being immovable, of being consistent.
Alex Judd:And so this is an incredible time for you to double down on the things that simply will not move. This is an incredible time for you to become an organization that people experience as radically consistent when it comes to their values, beliefs, the way they treat people, and the service that they provide. You've got it as a leader right now. If you wanna thrive in the age of AI, you gotta anchor your immovables. The other thing that that's going to help you do is it's gonna help you keep your eye on the ball.
Alex Judd:I I will tell you, there's gonna be a lot of leaders that are crushed in this season, and the thing that will crush them is distraction. And the reason why distraction will crush them is because they will think that it is opportunity, and they will make a a ton of mediocre investments into all of these different flashy, exciting, different things, and they will never apply their time, attention, energy, and the unity of their team to one thing over an extended period of time. One thing that will not change is that sustained impact will still be created by sustained effort over time. I believe that. And so if you wanna create a sustained impact, you gotta choose the thing that you're committed to.
Alex Judd:That's your immovable. And then once you've got that chosen, you can be flexible on the strategy. But, man, we gotta keep our eye on the ball, and we gotta be willing to to say no to a bunch of good things in order to say yes to the best thing. The final thing that I wanna say on trust is this, is that if you are willing to change your values because of your circumstances, you will become untrustworthy. Again, if you are willing to change your values as a person or as a business because of the circumstances you are now in, because of the environment we now find yourselves.
Alex Judd:You will become untrustworthy. And what we're saying is the marketplace is valuing trust more. So if you do things that cause you to become untrustworthy, you are going to become less valuable to the marketplace. People will stop working with you. This is a time to anchor your immovables, and and that is true all the time about leadership.
Alex Judd:It's just especially true right now. Okay. Let's do three more. Be willing to move your movables with aggression and ferocity. So so we said we're gonna anchor our immovables.
Alex Judd:Next, we're going to move our movables with aggression and ferocity. I chose those words very intentionally. Right? And so there are things that we are unwilling to move, why we exist, what we stand for, and we're gonna also have a pretty stubborn grip once we've defined it really well on where we're going or a long term vision of what we want our company to be and where we wanna take this company and the impact that we wanna make. Those are our immovables.
Alex Judd:Strategy, tactics, processes, practices, those are movables. And the people that are going to win in this season are the people that are going to move the movables with aggression, ferocity, intensity, and passion. And so it would be really good for you to set expectations with your team right now of, hey. Here's the things that are immovable, right, for our team. I I'm in a Telpath for Growth.
Alex Judd:Right? Here's the things that are immovable. We exist to help impact driven leaders step into who they were created to be so that others benefit, and God is glorified. That's not going anywhere. I promise you that is not going anywhere.
Alex Judd:Because if that goes somewhere, the company is gone. Right? So that's the mission. What are our values? Point to Jesus, alignment, freedom and responsibility, treat people like friends, and strength is for service.
Alex Judd:Those aren't going anywhere. I promise you that. Now when it comes to the way that we see that mission and those values lived out, I will tell you, in the season that we are walking into, everything is up for grabs. We have to be willing to change. And if we are unwilling to move, we better be willing to die because this is a season for agility.
Alex Judd:The world is changing, and it's a good servant to say, how is the world changing, and how do we meet that? Now that doesn't mean we're gonna do an entire business makeover in ninety days because we might not need to do that, but we better be willing to do that. And so what I want you to be doing right now is you don't have to do it all at once, but just start planting the idea in your team that, like, hey. Change is likely coming. And how do we engage with change?
Alex Judd:We need to be agile. We need to be willing. We need to be humble. We need to be proactive, and we need to act with aggression and ferocity. What we can't do right now is dig our heels in and say we're unwilling to change.
Alex Judd:And so this is a good season right now to prepare your team. You don't know what the change is gonna be yet is my bet. You might, but you probably don't. What what it would be wise to do is to not communicate to your team about change whenever you're realizing, oh, we need to change right now. What it'd be really wise to do is to say, hey.
Alex Judd:I I don't even know what it is, and it may not even occur. But I just want you to know it's likely that change could be coming. If it's not now, it will be later. So we gotta be ready for that. K.
Alex Judd:Two more. Understand how your strengths, weaknesses, and role interact with the season that we are in. Think about this. This is a good season for self awareness. Again, the paradox.
Alex Judd:Every season is a good season for self awareness. However, I will tell you, the leaders that thrive in the age of AI, they're gonna be self aware. And and here's why I think that's so important is you gotta know your strengths. You gotta know what you're good at. You gotta know what your wiring is.
Alex Judd:You gotta know your predispositions. You gotta know what you're not good at. You gotta understand your role in the business. And then you gotta think about, given all of those things, how does all of that interact with the season that we are in? You know, I I've been so interested to hear that the founders of Google that were largely removed from the day to day operations of the business almost entirely have literally jumped back in and started coding again in this season.
Alex Judd:And and it's crazy. Like, people that work at Google have literally seen the founder of Google pop up just on, like, a Teams thread. They probably don't use Teams at Google. That would be kinda odd. But they see them show up in their chat, and they're like, oh my gosh.
Alex Judd:Is that really him? And it is. And and the reason why is he's like, this is like a gold mine. This is the season to be in coding. And, like, that's how I built this business, and I'm gonna jump back in.
Alex Judd:Now those people are not, currently operating as the active CEO of Google because if they were actively being the CEO and jumping in and coding at the same time as a full time job, they wouldn't be able to do both of those things. But they understand, ma'am, this is something that I'm really good at, and I'm gonna roll up my sleeves and get involved right now. That's an example of what it looks like to acknowledge, hey. What are you good at? What are you passionate about?
Alex Judd:What are your weaknesses, and how does that interact? Some of you are early adopters. And because you're early adopters, this is a really good season for you to be on the front end of this stuff and learning about this stuff. Some of you, you're not the people that get, like, super geeked out about the new technology, the new thing. You love what it can do for you, and you're willing to change.
Alex Judd:But that's not really where your passion is, and it's not where you're best at is learning all those new tools and everything. My bet is that there's someone on your team that is. And what I want us to do is make sure that early adoption and exploration and and synchronization of these new tools and abilities that are becoming available every single day, let's make sure that there are certain people on our team that are gifted and wired for taking advantage of those things, are given the authority, the responsibility, the opportunity, and the resources necessary to chase those things down. So so understand how your strengths, weaknesses, and role interact with the season we are in, and then work with your team to do the same. That's part of mobilizing.
Alex Judd:Okay. Final one. The final thing that I want you to do if you wanna thrive in the age of AI, take time to think about where the puck is going. Don't hear what I didn't say, please. Take time to think about where the puck is going.
Alex Judd:I bet you've heard that Wayne Gretzky quote where he said, man, in hockey, you never skate to where the puck is. You skate to where the puck is going to be. You gotta pay attention right now. You you gotta be operating from a a place not of reaction, but anticipation. And I would encourage you to do this from a personal health, wellness, peace, faithfulness side of things.
Alex Judd:I would also encourage you to think about this through a growth side of things. Where are things in our world going? And what I don't want you to do is to, like, skate to where the puck currently is and then be completely blindsided by the fact that the puck is no longer there. I want you to see where the world, where the marketplace is going in light of the predictions you have about where it's going. What do you wanna do to prepare?
Alex Judd:What do you wanna do to shift? What do you do wanna do to seize, and what do you wanna do to steward? There is an incredible stewardship opportunity in this season, but but the people that are gonna be prepared to steward this season are gonna be the ones that are healthy and well. So you can't be embroiled by anxiety. You can't be crushed by distraction.
Alex Judd:All of that is gonna be really, really detrimental to you, your leadership, and your team. But, also, you do gotta be ready to be bold and courageous and faithful. So so we wanna be healthy. We wanna be centered, and we wanna be strong. And then from that place of great strength because we know where our foundation is, and we know that that foundation, the god of the universe, is not moving, and he's also not surprised by this time.
Alex Judd:Because we have such assurance in that, we can be really bold, really courageous, really future focused, and say, how do we use this for the same things that we use everything for, god willing, so that other people may be served and so that God may be glorified. So so those are our actions. How do you thrive in the age of AI? Roll up your sleeves and understand that this is a time to lead. Find what people really value today and provide it exceptionally well.
Alex Judd:Anchor your move Be willing to move your with aggression and ferocity. Understand your strengths, weaknesses, and and your role and how they interact with the season that we are in, and take time to think about where the puck is going. Let's go. Well, there you have it. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode.
Alex Judd:If you want any of the information or resources that we mentioned, that's all in the show notes. Hey. Before you go, could I ask you for one quick favor? Could you subscribe, rate, and review this podcast episode? Your feedback is what helps our team engage in a sequence of never ending improvement.
Alex Judd:We wanna amplify what's valuable to you and, obviously, reduce or even remove the things that aren't. Also, you leaving a positive review is what helps us connect with, build trust with, and serve other leaders around the country. So thanks in advance for helping us out on that front. Are you a leader that wants to grow your business in a healthy way, serve people exceptionally well, and glorify God in the process? Go to pathforgrowth.com to get more information about our community of impact driven leaders and schedule a call with our team.
Alex Judd:Hey. Thank you so much to the Path for Growth team, Kyle Cummings and the crew at Pod circle, and the remarkable leaders that are actively engaged in the Path for Growth community. Y'all are the people that make this podcast possible. Y'all know this. We're rooting for you.
Alex Judd:We're praying for you. We wanna see you win. Remember, my strength is not for me. Your strength is not for you. Our strength is for service.
Alex Judd:Let's go. Let's go. Let's go.
