Professional in a navy suit running with a briefcase to catch a departing city bus.

A practical nudge to get in the game with AI

“Progress won’t slow down for our comfort. Participation beats perfection.” — Eric Wiley

The illusion of control is fading

Opting out used to feel safe. It isn’t anymore. Progress isn’t pacing itself for our comfort—it’s moving whether we participate or not.

For years, you could choose how much energy to spend on “keeping up.” Skim a few articles, attend a webinar, dabble on the weekend. That mindset falls behind fast now. Two shifts explain why:

Access exploded. What used to be niche or gated is widely available. You don’t need a special team to explore an idea—you need a question and a keyboard.
Real-time processing changed the pace. Information and analysis move at speeds we didn’t anticipate a decade ago. Decisions that took weeks now take minutes.

Get on the bus—even if you don’t love the route

You don’t have to agree with every change. But you do have to participate. No one can type your first prompt for you. No one can train you to ask sharper questions but you. Perfection isn’t the goal. Participation is.

Start in 15 minutes

Pick one AI tool. Treat it like a smarter search box that can reason and draft. Then:

Choose one real task you already do: summarize a report, draft an email, outline a plan, turn notes into action items.
Write a crisp prompt with context, goal, audience, and format. (Who/what/why/how long/tone.)
Review and refine—ask follow-ups like, “Make this tighter,” or, “Add a 3-step checklist.”
Save what works into a tiny prompt library you can reuse.

Prompts you can steal

“Summarize this 10-page doc into five bullets for executives. Plain language. Include one risk and one next step.”
“Turn these meeting notes into an action plan with owners, due dates, and a status column.”
“Draft a customer-facing email announcing a policy change. Keep it under 150 words, calm and clear, with a short FAQ.”

A two-week micro-experiment

Days 1–7: Run the same task through AI daily. Track minutes saved and your quality rating (1–5).

Days 8–14: Add one new use case and teach one teammate what worked. Standardize your best format and add it to onboarding.

At the end, answer: Where did we save the most time? What decisions got faster? What should we stop doing manually?

Guardrails that keep you sharp

Protect data. Don’t paste sensitive info into public tools; use approved, secure versions for company work.
Own the output. Treat it like a smart intern’s draft—useful, but still your responsibility.
Codify wins. When something works, make it a standard.

Bottom line

Progress won’t wait. The bus is boarding whether you like the route or not. Get on, learn the stops, and help drive. Your first step isn’t to master AI; it’s to ask a better question—today.

— Eric Wiley

Wiley Performance Advisory
Your Wingman on the Next Big Push.

Progress Doesn’t Wait (anymore)