If it seems like Wednesday Words has turned into an AI newsletter, you are not wrong. We've been writing about AI a lot. And if you are like one of the replies I got recently that said "AI can buzz off," (only they chose a different four-letter word), we get it. Opening my email, pulling up my podcast queue, or signing onto LinkedIn, I feel like I can’t escape what I call "AI snake oil." It’s exhausting.

But, when I sit down to write Wednesday Words, I try to think about the humans reading it. Hi, you! People that, since the days of Victor's most heartfelt early Wednesday Words, were looking for advice and inspiration to grow where it matters most to them.

And when I write about AI Leaps specifically, I remind myself that it's about humans, just like any other Ei program. Because Ei is not a crew of tech experts. We are behavior change experts. Leaps experts.

Leaps is about experiments that help you grow and help your organization succeed. It happens that, right now, the topic that so many people need to do that for is AI.

So, for this issue, yes, it's about AI (again!), but it's also about leadership. The good old-fashioned kind. The kind we have been thinking about and teaching about for more than a decade.

And when we help leaders take leaps, we think about three fundamental things: knowing where you are, where you want to go, and what gets you there. AI Leaps is no different.

Let's take these in turn.

Where do you want to go?

Every company should know its "AI why." Creating efficiencies? Okay, to what end? Saving money? Okay, to do what? What is the challenge you are trying to solve with AI? Hint: It should be tied to your organization's reason for being.

When a company knows their AI why, the leaders within it can better understand their own role within it. Their own AI why.

So, that’s the first step. The destination.

Where are you now?

You wouldn't start a road trip without knowing your current location. You wouldn't begin training for a marathon without assessing your current fitness level. Yet when it comes to leading AI adoption, so many of us either freeze at the starting line or sprint off in random directions.

Knowing where to start is genuinely half the battle. Once you understand your current leadership mindset and AI readiness, you can make informed decisions about your next steps instead of guessing or hoping.

What gets you from here to there?

That's where our Leadership Mindsets Assessment comes in. It takes about ten minutes and identifies which of four leadership mindsets you're operating from: Doing, Dissecting & Documenting, Designing & Delegating, or Directing. Each represents a different stage of AI readiness and requires different next steps.

Your Next Steps

Well, first, take the assessment.

Even better: share it with your team. Use it to start conversations about where everyone stands and what support they might need. Or, share your results on LinkedIn and invite others to be honest about their own leadership journey.

Once you know where you are, you can actually begin to move. Whether you and your organization have been too scared to start or moving without direction, having that clarity makes all the difference.

And maybe, just maybe, we can turn another AI conversation into something genuinely human and helpful.