Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques

A live SXSW panel on how employee complaints illuminate the path to organizational innovation.

Wrong question: How can AI revolutionize productivity in my organization?
Right question: What do my employees hate most about their jobs?

For the Portland Trail Blazers, a winning game plan for AI implementation didn’t begin with a tech-first approach — it began with a talk-first one. “The whole concept was to talk about pain points," explains David Long, VP of Digital Innovation, describing the "Lunch and Launch" sessions where employees could openly share frustrations about their daily work. “People really enjoy talking about what they hate about their jobs,” says Christa Stout, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, and as they did, they illuminated opportunities for optimization. “By getting this insight across the whole company, it is already opening our eyes [to how] we can potentially transform the business more broadly,” Stout says.
In this special live episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, recorded at SXSW, host Matt Abrahams leads a panel with Long, Stout, and Stanford colleague Jeremy Utley, exploring how "catharsis catalyzes change.” For any team wanting to implement new technology or rethink workflows, these experts reveal how creating space for complaints can catalyze meaningful innovation throughout an organization.

Episode Reference Links:
Connect:

Chapters:

  • (00:00) - Introduction
  • (04:39) - The Business Behind Basketball
  • (06:10) - Why AI and Why Now?
  • (07:18) - Collaborating with the Team
  • (08:36) - The Lunch & Launch Method
  • (11:08) - Branding AI Initiatives
  • (12:26) - David Detractor & Kelly Kindness
  • (15:57) - Human Connection through AI
  • (16:42) - Auditing for Brand Consistency
  • (18:50) - AI in National Parks
  • (21:33) - Making AI Personal
  • (22:55) - Using AI to Learn AI
  • (27:24) - Encouraging AI in the Workplace
  • (30:18) - Change Management: Iteration Over Perfection
  • (34:04) - Start with Curiosity and Empower Action
  • (37:47) - Communication Ingredients
  • (40:27) - Conclusion

  ********
This episode is sponsored by Grammarly. Let Grammarly take the busywork off your plate so you can focus on high-impact work. Download Grammarly for free today

Creators and Guests

Host
Matt Abrahams
Lecturer Stanford University Graduate School of Business | Think Fast Talk Smart podcast host
Guest
Christa Stout
Portland Trail Blazers Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer
Guest
David Long
Vice President, Digital and Innovation at Portland Trail Blazers @ the Rose Quarter
Guest
Jeremy Utley
Stanford Adjunct, Venture Investor, Co-Author

What is Think Fast Talk Smart: Communication Techniques?

One of the most essential ingredients to success in business and life is effective communication.
Join Matt Abrahams, best-selling author and Strategic Communication lecturer at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as he interviews experts to provide actionable insights that help you communicate with clarity, confidence, and impact. From handling impromptu questions to crafting compelling messages, Matt explores practical strategies for real-world communication challenges.

Whether you’re navigating a high-stakes presentation, perfecting your email tone, or speaking off the cuff, Think Fast, Talk Smart equips you with the tools, techniques, and best practices to express yourself effectively in any situation. Enhance your communication skills to elevate your career and build stronger professional relationships.

Tune in every Tuesday for new episodes. Subscribe now to unlock your potential as a thoughtful, impactful communicator. Learn more and sign up for our eNewsletter at fastersmarter.io.

Matt Abrahams: When it comes to
AI, catharsis catalyzes change.

My name is Matt Abrahams and I
teach strategic communication at

Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Welcome to this special live episode
of Think fast Talk Smart the podcast

recorded at South by Southwest.

Many of us know about AI
and some of us even use it.

But how do you bring AI to your
organization and make it have

a positive, productive impact?

This is what I have been
curious about for a long time.

So when my friend and two time former
guest, Jeremy Utley asked me to facilitate

a panel to discuss his AI implementation
work with the MBA's, Portland Trail

Blazers, I jumped at the chance to
speak with Jeremy, Christa and David.

And I have to say it was a slam
dunk for AI best practices and

learnings we all can implement.

So without further ado, let's
listen in to our conversation

on the South by Southwest stage.

Well, good afternoon.

My name is Matt Abrahams.

I teach strategic communication at
Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

I host a podcast called
Think Fast Talk Smart.

It's all about communication skills.

We're very excited today to talk about
the particular application of AI within

a business, uh, this business is in
the world of professional sports,

the NBA team the Trail Blazers.

And I am honored to be on stage
with these wonderful guests who have

actually employed and deployed AI, and
we're here to share their experiences

and best practices with all of you.

So with that, I thought we'd just
start with quick introductions.

I'll start with Jeremy,
farthest away from me.

Go ahead and introduce
yourself briefly and share how

you're connected to the team.

Jeremy Utley: Hey everyone.

I'm Jeremy Utley.

I am an adjunct professor at Stanford.

Been there since 2009 or so, teaching
mostly design thinking innovation,

creativity at entrepreneurship courses.

And then my world, much like
many of you was rocked a couple

years ago when ChatGPT came out.

Unlike most of you probably, I had
just written a book about creativity

and a month later this tool that's
amazing for creativity came out

and I look in the index of my own
book, the AI is not even in it.

So I strapped myself into the front
row of the classroom as a student,

and I spent the last couple years
trying to get as close as I can to

people like David and Christa who are
doing this stuff in the real world and

learning from them as much as I can
and then sharing as publicly as I can.

And so it's really fun to
be here with all of you.

And I thank Matt and Christa and David
for allowing me to join the conversation.

Matt Abrahams: Thank you,
David, how about you?

David Long: Yeah, I'm the VP of
Digital Innovation with the Trail

Blazers and the Rose Quarter.

We're, uh, dual business for
concert events and basketball.

My teams run digital products, app,
web and arena, digital products as

well, and then digital marketing.

And then recently we are taking on
the strategy and implementing the

strategy around Gen AI for our company.

Matt Abrahams: Thank you.

Christa?

Christa Stout: I'm Christa Stout.

I oversee strategy and
innovation for the Trail Blazers.

I've been there about 11 years and
get to work with David and Jeremy on

our AI strategy and implementation.

Matt Abrahams: Excellent.

Thank you.

So many of us know how basketball is
played and we see what your team does,

but a lot of us might not understand
the business behind basketball.

Christa, could you spend a few
minutes talking about the business

side of what you do and then Jeremy,
I'd love to have you share how the

Trail Blazers came to explore AI and,
and get this whole project started.

So we'll start with you.

Christa Stout: Yeah, for sure.

So our business is set
up into three areas.

The first area is the one that
people probably think of when they

think of the Trail Blazers, which
is our basketball operations.

So that's players, health and
performance coaches, et cetera.

It's one element of the business.

Another element is actually our venue
operations, so the people that put on

the concerts and events and all that.

And then we have our business
operations, which for us is

about three hundred people.

And that is run in the same way
that probably any organization

you've ever worked at is run.

HR, finance, sales, marketing, et cetera.

So for today, we thought we'd focus on
that part of the business operations

because hopefully it's most relevant
to you all as well in your AI journeys.

And my boss, who's our president of
business operations, in August of

2023, we took the time to go to this
AI training and he came back and he was

like, Christa, we gotta figure out how
to implement AI across our organization.

Like it's the future.

We have to figure it out.

And at the time David and I had been,
because we're in charge of figuring out

emerging tech, we had been talking to
Jeremy about a whole other thing and we

pivoted and we were like, so Jeremy, can
you help us figure out how to implement

and create a strategy for AI instead?

He was like, yeah, let's do it.

Matt Abrahams: So David, AI came about
as a result of your boss essentially

saying this is an important thing to do.

What were some of the burning
questions that you guys had

that brought you to Jeremy?

David Long: It's an emerging tech.

It was something we were excited
about, but there was no professionals

on staff that understood like how to
take this and run with it necessarily.

'Cause it's brand new.

And machine learning obviously
is something that's been

around for a little while.

But this from a Generative AI
side and being an accessible

technology was new to us.

So who's gonna take that and run with it?

We looked internally, we found
people who could turn ideas into

action, but we needed someone to
be the barrier breaker for us.

And the way I refer to that is someone
who says, who could show that it's

accessible, that it's something that's
fun, it's something really impactful.

Remove some of the fear from our
staff around something new and then

just tear it away brick by brick
and the wall that people might have

put up around, I can't do this.

It's too challenging and I'm scared of it.

Like all these sort of things.

And so how can we remove those?

Whether that's within one-on-one sessions,
a group learning sessions, sharing how you

use AI personally was a big one for us.

So that's the thing that kind
of jumpstarted everything.

Matt Abrahams: I wanna come back to
the change management piece of this

because it's definitely challenging
and I'd love to hear what you all did.

But Jeremy, what excited you about
this part of the relationship

that you had with the team?

Jeremy Utley: These guys are the ball
game for me because we had already

been collaborating, as Christa
mentioned, exploring different kind

of technologies or businesses or
we were doing all sorts of stuff.

'Cause we had kinda had a kindred spirit
in terms of our willingness to experiment,

try new things, and I came to appreciate
and admire the way they were approaching

experimentation in the business.

As Matt, you and I actually talked about
this on another episode of the podcast

and we talked about that research there,
but I had been privileged to be a part

of this research program where a partner
and I were basically studying how

does Generative AI impact creativity?

And we found some kind of
counterintuitive stuff.

But I would say armed with those
observations and insights about

how do normal people get the most
leverage outta this technology.

But I had, there were
a lot of ideas I had.

And when they came to me saying,
hey, is there something here with AI?

To me, I saw an incredible kind
of almost sandbox and opportunity

to collaborate with folks who I
could test some of my ideas with.

So because I already knew them and
I knew they were the kind of people

I wanted to work with, and because
I had a bunch of ideas that I had

studied in the lab, so to speak, it
felt like the perfect opportunity

to test some of those hypotheses.

Matt Abrahams: Excellent.

And David, I'm curious, how did you
identify the problems first to apply AI

to, and how did you prioritize those?

David Long: Yeah, I think after we
had done some learning sessions with

Jeremy and try to get the baseline
up with Gen AI knowledge for our

staff in general, we started to reach
out to individual departments, well

all departments actually, invite
them to a lunch and launch is what

we coined these type of practices.

Matt Abrahams: Lunch and launch.

David Long: Lunch and launch.

Matt Abrahams: Like it.

Yeah.

David Long: And we would get as many
people from the department as we

could to get into a room with us.

And the whole concept was to share
with them, let's talk about your

systems and within your systems,
what pain points do you have?

Let's identify those pain points and
let's, let's not start with one and say,

this is the one we have to make it work.

We want ten pain points,
we want twenty pain points.

'Cause who knows, like the way AI
works, we can solve for one and

then potentially have a list of
a ton more we can tackle next.

Let's find that first one.

And so we'd go through and we let
people talk cathartically about

their job and what bothered them
and what could be done better.

They could spend more
time doing something else.

And then we would take that, we would
assign a co-pilot from that department

to assist us throughout the process with
the strategy in mind that keep these

people as close to the build as possible.

'Cause they're closer to the
problems than we'll ever be.

So with them in tow and in helping us
out, we would build, utilizing AI, to

either build a software, build a Slack
integration, build simple GPT, that

sort of stuff, and then pitch it back
to them, and then get the response.

And then from there we would
then a level of measurements.

We can see how it's performing
under a couple filters of is this

feasible and sustainable long term?

Does it impact business efficiency,
revenue, or fan engagement?

Are they gonna adopt it?

And what checkpoints can we put in
place so that there is adoption?

So lunch and launches
have been super powerful.

We plan to do two builds per
department for every department.

Jeremy Utley: Can I say one
thing about lunch and launch?

There's a clear role of branding.

And Christa as a marketer,
she understands that.

I can't overestimate the importance
of branding, and I've got an AI

focused podcast where I talk to AI
leaders in different organizations.

I think about JJ Zhuang , who's
the head of AI at Instacart.

Their internal effort they
call the Carrot AI team.

Because the carrot is their mascot, okay?

I talked to Brice Challamel,
the head of AI of Moderna.

They call their internal team the GCAT,
which are the core components of DNA,

but the Generative AI champions team.

But I think there's a role of even
thinking about the effort as branding it.

It gives it a sense of credibility.

Oh, you've heard of the lunch
and launch and you, you haven't

been to a lunch and launch?

There's something to that that I think
when you talk about change management,

thinking about branding stuff is
actually a meaningful part of it.

Matt Abrahams: And it sounds to me
that not only did you take the time

to brand it, but you started with
people identifying their pain points.

So all of a sudden you're not
coming in and saying, we're gonna

use this new thing to fix things.

You had them share what their concerns
are, where their challenges are, and then

had them thinking about how AI can help.

And what's very clear in the literature
on influence and persuasion is that

when you get people to buy into the
problem early, they're much more

likely to adopt and follow through.

So I think that's beautiful
that you did that.

In addition, it sounds like you also
came up with very clear criteria or

what success would look like, so you'd
build some things and then you had

some clear criteria, which I think
is a good bit of advice for everyone.

Did you do anything in particular
to help prioritize which

things you focused on first?

David Long: We managed the
project from a top level, right?

We were running all these
different lunch and launches.

So we saw that what was coming in and
then we could use the same filters

without everyone involved and say, this
one's gonna really impact our revenue.

This one's really gonna
improve customer experience.

And then communicating
that back to stakeholders.

And we had a copilot along with us
too, so we can utilize them to spread

that message within their group.

Like it looks like the timeline
for your build is in two weeks.

Hope you're all excited.

So like, just kind of managing
that, the expectations around this.

'Cause everyone was excited, but
from an overall top down, what's

most impactful for the business, that
was something that we would manage.

Matt Abrahams: I love that as
somebody who teaches strategic

communication, that you were including
communication throughout the process.

That's really important to bring people
along and to keep it going long after

you've created that particular solution.

I'm hoping each of you can give us
a concrete example of something you

did that is impacting the business.

Christa, do you mind starting
with something that you saw

really impact the business?

Christa Stout: Yeah, for sure.

So the builds that David's talking
about, we have about thirty-five

of those that we've done across
the company, and my favorite one

currently is called David Detractor
and his counterpart Kelly Kindness.

So I assume that you all, like us,
send surveys to your stakeholders,

to your customers, to get qualitative
and quantitative feedback.

We were doing a really good
job getting and visualizing the

quantitative feedback so that we
could learn from it and implement it.

But the qualitative feedback
was much more complicated.

So we dug into it during one of the
lunch and launches and learned that a

couple different people were spending
combined almost forty hours a week.

So almost an entire full-time
employee's worth of time just digging

into the qualitative responses
from our post-event surveys.

We have like millions of responses
over the course of the year, not all

of them have qualitative responses.

But people go into the system, read
it, decide if they needed to send it to

someone else or not, decide if they should
respond, get approval to do a make good,

if they had a bad experience, et cetera.

It was just like a lot of mundane work.

And so David, I guess you, did
you name this after yourself,

David Detractor David?

David Long: It was the first one, so
I think it was the easiest one for me.

Christa Stout: David built an
alliterative tool, David Detractor,

that ingested all of the post-event
verbatims, filtered out the ones

that we didn't need to respond to.

When people were like, boo.

You're like, okay, I'm
not responding to that.

But if people have a specific thing
that we need to respond to, that

would actually go to a specific
Slack channel where people that were

relevant to that Slack channel, and
I'll give an example in a second,

could read it, put a specific emoji on
it that then creates a draft in their

outlook outbox to send to that person.

So before took forty hours of people's
time, now takes seconds and two clicks.

So my favorite example of this recently
is actually this person who came to a game

and really wanted a vegan hotdog, but the
hotdog bundle didn't include vegan hotdog.

So she has this detractor feedback, it
surfaces automatically to our head of

F and B who reads it and is amazing.

And she's like, hey, we should include
the vegan hotdog in the hotdog bundle.

So she makes a change in the
operations of the business.

Hits one click, responds to the
person, gives her an F and B credit

to come back and to get a free hotdog.

And this person now hears back
from us right away, right?

So it works really well on the
detractor side, as you can see, but it

also works on the promoter side where
we can surface really any positive

experience someone has at a game.

We surface actually
across the whole company.

Which is really nice because if
you work somewhere and you have no

idea how the experience is, it's
really rewarding to see these and

read about these positive examples
that people have across the company.

And on top of that, they're often like
the warmest leads we could possibly have.

Like they're hand raisers.

Someone literally said the other
day, I had the best time at the game.

I wanna come every week.

And so we're like, hey, sales
team, you wanna call her?

She seems interested.

So to close on this example, it drives
revenue 'cause it services warm leads.

It improves our customer experience
'cause people hear back from us.

And it improves efficiency, so we
basically cut out one FTE's worth of

mundane tasks as part of this process.

Matt Abrahams: It's a great example
of how it was able to help you.

F and B, food and beverage.

Christa Stout: Sorry.

Yes.

Matt Abrahams: Just making sure
everybody's following along.

David, please, what's one of the things
that you're proud of or impressed by?

David Long: One other addition
to the Kelly Kindness piece.

One, name your bots.

That's also a part of
our branding strategy.

People can refer to them easily.

It's great.

Jeremy Utley: It's a pro, it's a pro tip.

Name your bots and give
them a human personality.

David Long: Correct.

I think a lot of talk around Gen
AI is one of those concerns around

disconnecting human to human connection
because of the use of these tools.

This is a perfect example of
how it's actually increased

human to human connection.

I think on Kelly Kindness in particular,
we're acknowledging folks who had

really good experiences trying to
solidify like a core memory, a core

moment for them, and build fandom.

We'll admit there's areas where that
was happening and very small scale, but

now the scale for that is like immense
because of this tool, and so I really

like to call that one out in particular.

Matt Abrahams: I recently was interviewing
somebody else and they were talking

about how they have built into their
system whenever an employee calls in

sick, they have a bot that automatically
will send them chicken soup for their

house, and it's a way of showing
kindness and showing that they care.

And that somebody's monitoring
that you're not at work that day.

So it does a whole bunch of things.

So this ability to drive
connection, I think is important.

Is there another tool that
you are pleased about?

David Long: Yeah.

Another named one Billy Brand.

So Billy Brand is trained on
our complete content style

guide, our brand guideline book.

Some history about the Portland
Trail Blazers, anything else that

our brand team, PR team deems
appropriate to be within there.

And the main pain point we're trying to
solve here is try to avoid is revisions.

And I think that's one thing that this
thing was trying to solve for is, if

you're having copy, if you're having
creative, if you're having anything that's

supposed to be public facing, let's have
a tool that we can load it up, it can

audit all that stuff for any brand things
that are not aligned, give that feedback,

give suggestions on how to fix it.

And so we're trying to cut revisions
from six, seven down to one, two, three.

Can we get it down so we're not
spending time doing that stuff,

moving these campaigns forward and
moving the best campaigns forward.

So Billy Brand has been really impactful.

Jeremy Utley: Just, just to make sure I
understand the kind of economic impact.

You're saying a typical, say somebody
in marketing or insert department here,

they're getting feedback on how to
align more with the brand voice, six,

maybe six or seven times in some cases.

And this tool's taking it
down to two or three times.

David Long: Yeah.

Jeremy Utley: That's cool.

Christa Stout: We also been
upwards of ten or fifteen times.

Jeremy Utley: Wow.

Christa Stout: Six or seven is

Jeremy Utley: It's generous, conservative.

David Long: Yeah, the best, for adoption
purposes, it's still, this is one of

the first ones I built, so I actually
built it without someone helping me with

it who was closest to the pain point.

So it actually went through
a couple different systems.

One, it was like, it previously used
to be within Slack, but people were

like, I don't want to use it in Slack
'cause then everyone can see that I

don't know how to do this or that.

I was like, great point.

So it's now a web-based software
that we're rolling out to folks

and I had one member of my team who
complained that he ran outta tokens

the other day and I was like, that's
the best problem I could ask for, so.

Matt Abrahams: And I'm sure
it's one hundred percent

brand compliant, that website.

David Long: Absolutely.

Matt Abrahams: Excellent.

Very good.

Jeremy, what's one of the tools
that you're excited about?

Jeremy Utley: I, I'll give a non Trail
Blazers example, if that's okay, just

to broaden the aperture a little bit.

But I've had the privilege of working
with a bunch of, this is gonna

sound crazy, but a bunch of park
rangers in the National Park Service.

Which is super cool.

They reached out somehow.

I don't even know how.

Hey, all of our backcountry
rangers and facilities folks

wanna learn how to use this tool.

Can you help?

I was like, totally.

And we did some kind of basic
foundational training, and one of the

things that we focus on, similar to
the conversation about pain points

that Matt's drawing out of David
here is what sucks about your job?

What takes way more time than it should?

And a really great kinda stem for
finding opportunities is to finish the

sentence, it sucks that dot dot dot.

And we had people just think
about that, what sucks.

And one of the folks on, in this group
as a group of about sixty folks, he

said, it sucks every time I've gotta
replace the carpet in the lodge.

He worked at Yellowstone or
Yosemite, something like that.

Every time I gotta replace the
carpet tiles, I've gotta fill out

10 pages of federal funding requests
that include OSHA requirements

and ANSI standards and historical
heritage site removal preservation.

He's, I'm like a back country ranger, man.

I don't know the answer to this stuff.

So he built in forty-five minutes a
tool that could reference all of the

relevant databases of information,
including expense information, all that

stuff, and would take a crack of first
pass at drafting the document for him.

And it took him, he said, whenever,
he said the last time he had to

replace a carpet tile, it took three
days to fill out the paperwork.

This thing took fifteen minutes.

It took him forty-five minutes to
build it, so call it an hour in total.

But three days minus an hour is not bad.

But here's the really cool thing.

When you codify these workflows and
simple kinda shareable tools, the

individual who builds it gets the
benefit, but then anybody else for whom

it's relevant also gets the benefit.

So in his case, name's Adam.

I try to tag him on
LinkedIn to shout him out.

Homeboy doesn't even
have a LinkedIn account.

Alright, so it's like this is
someone who literally has no presence

on the web, no tech experience,
and someone shared his tool.

There are four hundred and fifty parks
across the US where there's a role

like his, the National Park Service
is estimating that tool is gonna

save the National Park Service seven
thousand days of human labor this year.

Just his tool.

Christa Stout: Wild.

Matt Abrahams: That's amazing.

Jeremy Utley: But the
shareability of it, right?

The fact that Billy Brand is shareable, it
would be useful maybe just to you, right?

But now it's useful to
anybody who's trying to create

brand aligned communication.

Christa Stout: Which is everybody.

Jeremy Utley: Which is everybody, right?

Yeah.

Matt Abrahams: So I'm hearing a
couple things to take away from this.

First and foremost, that these tools can
build connection, not reduce connection.

Two, it's really important to think
about where you place the tools.

And how you involve people in the process.

Three, the shareability of these things
is really important, and so I love the

specific examples, but the lessons that
we learn, I think are really important.

AI for non-technical people can be
intimidating, maybe not for one Park

Ranger, but for many people it can be.

Christa, how did you help make AI
accessible to your less technical folks?

Christa Stout: Yeah, I think you
said it as part of your recap.

It was, for us, it was figuring
out how to connect with people

and bring people into the process.

So when my boss Dwayne said, hey,
you gotta figure out how to like

have everyone at our company using
AI eighteen months ago, I was like,

well, I don't know how to do that.

So the first thing I did was on a full
team call, I just asked if anyone that

was using AI wanted to come talk to
me or be part of a conversation about

how they're using it, what they liked
about it, what they don't like about it.

Let's just talk and then go from there.

And so it's like tapping into people
who were like, we had thirty-five people

who were already using AI eighteen
months ago, who were then excited to

share what they were using it for.

And whose job is not to create
strategy for new tech across a

business, but they got to be a part
of that and got to help shape it.

Matt Abrahams: I'm curious, Jeremy,
what have you seen beyond the Trail

Blazers that helps organizations
bring AI beyond just this as an IT

initiative, but how do you bring it
to everybody in the organization?

Jeremy Utley: I don't think we have to
look very far beyond the Trail Blazers.

I think they're like a great case study
of creating space for folks, creating

venues and mechanism, venues for sharing
and for celebrating mechanisms, for

learning incentives where we can get
into all that stuff as well, right?

But there's a bunch of pieces there.

I think one simple thing that has
really helped a lot of folks I

talk to is when they say, I don't
know how it's relevant to my job.

The kinda meta hack, which feels
like a Yodaism, but is not,

is you can use AI to use AI.

The basic idea is if you're not
sure how AI can impact your work,

you can actually pull up Chat
or Claude or Gemini, whatever.

I, I'm not model agnostic, but I'm
not hyping a model here, but you can

pull up any of 'em and say, hey, I
have no idea how to use AI in my work.

Would you act like a insert LLM here,
Chat expert or Claude expert or Gemini

expert or Grok expert, act like a
Grok expert and interview me about my

job so that you could recommend three
to five obvious and maybe totally

non-obvious ways I could use AI.

And you know what?

It'll totally do that.

The biggest thing is actually
getting your imagination sparked.

And most failure to use is actually a
failure of imagination and part of the

value of mechanisms and forums like lunch
and launch and like gathering people

together, is it helps broadcast and
showcase a bunch of things that people

go, I would've never thought to do that.

And basically what you want do is
create these forums where you kinda give

these forehead slap, I can't believe
I've never thought to do that, right?

And if you can provide enough of
those moments and then celebrate

how people are trying stuff, it's
just kind of a snowball effect.

Christa Stout: I'd just say, just to
build on that, but one of the things that

Jeremy unlocked for us that also helped
with the change management was tapping

into personally relevant AI examples.

And so rather than starting with
how can AI help me do my job better,

which is great and helpful, we started
with prompts that, that really tapped

into personal issues that people had.

So not work appropriate personal issues.

So for example, think of a decision
that you have to make in your life.

It's a hard decision.

And then Jeremy had a whole specific
prompt that we just like copy and paste

it into ChatGPT where we described
the decision we had to make and some

of the challenges, and asked ChatGPT
to interview us to get more context.

And then to work through
that challenge with us.

So I did it about my daughter
starting kindergarten.

Schools and whatever, and
it was so helpful, right?

Like the kind of advice that I wouldn't,
I just never would've thought that an

AI tool could help me with that then
sparked a million more ideas around

how it could benefit me at work.

Jeremy Utley: That was actually
inspired by a life experience, right?

We ended up doing a series of emails
or Slack something, right, where we

basically said, here's a use case.

Here's a prompt you can copy paste, and
here's a video of a professional nerd

in California doing the thing, right?

And the only reason we even did that,
by the way, is 'cause I had this true

story about my, in my personal life.

I'm riding with my grandma
in the car one day.

She lives in Oklahoma, she's mid nineties.

I love her.

I love you, granny.

If you're listening to this and we're
driving the car, she's like, hey, what is

this chat thing that you're working on?

And think about, how do
you answer that question?

Your ninety-five year old
grandma asks you, what is Gen AI.

You know, and I'm like, what's
an emotional question you'd ask

Faye Ann, who's her neighbor,
that she'd ask Faye Ann about.

And she goes, I thought
this was technology.

I go, just bear with me just for a second.

She said, we don't even know how
to think about assisted living.

And I said, let's invite my friend
ChatGPT to the conversation.

And I'm driving, she's
in the passenger seat.

I just said, hey, my grandma just
asked me about assisted living.

I don't even know what
framework to reference.

I don't, I have literally no
idea how to think about this.

Before you give us any advice, would you
ask her three or four questions so that

you can customize your advice to her?

And said, sure.

Have there been any changes
to her mobility recently?

You know, I hand her my phone
and she's like, this is amazing.

And I said, the tech's pretty cool, right?

She goes, not the tech.

I've never thought about
assisted living like this.

Two days later, I get the, my favorite
text message ever from granny.

Jeremy, we're out of cream, of mushroom
soup for the green bean casserole.

Do you think your chat thing could help?

To Christa's point, the reason she thought
of the work application was because

she had this personal experience and
that made me realize, and then I just,

all these random things in my life,
we happen to have this opportunity.

I said, hey, instead of starting
with work, let's start personal.

Let's give the first prompts personal
so that people feel like they have

this kind of imagination opening
experience where work effectiveness or

productivity isn't hanging in the balance.

Matt Abrahams: That story is
amazing for so many reasons.

One that your ninety-five year
old grandmother is texting.

I find that fascinating.

And second, this notion of making it
personal first to get people connected.

And this idea of bringing people
together to share at Stanford,

where Jeremy and I both teach, they
do this thing called Appy Hours.

So people come together to share
the different apps that they've

built so that you can then learn
to leverage it and just the name

Appy Hour and they do serve drinks.

It's a fun experience to share
building more on that creativity.

I wanna pick back up on that notion
of allowing for time for this.

How did you at the Trail
Blazers actually give permission

to people to take the time?

Because I'm sure people are saying,
I already have a full-time job.

I don't have the time to do this work.

David, did you do anything in
particular to give people permission?

David Long: I think to couple along
with what you all are just saying, I

think it does start individually and
looking at personal uses cases to,

with an end goal of like empowerment.

Can this tool empower me?

Because if you reach that level, then
you stop thinking about replacement.

You stop thinking about things that
are negative connotations with Gen AI

and then you can be a proud displayer
of what you're able to come up with.

This is what I did.

Lemme share it with my staff, whether
that's personal or something work related.

They see it and then instead of
saying, hey, are you using AI?

So they're immediately
put on the defensive.

You say like, here's what I did.

Have you tried this?

Have you tried using AI for this?

Or something like that.

Just trying to rephrase it around
empowerment and trying to get an end

result has been super helpful, and
just making the time is difficult.

But in the end, once you start it,
you realize that there are benefits

of using it, that it cuts down
on some of the manual labor that

you have to do and allows you to
focus on more important things.

I refer to it as a utility.

It's gonna be a next utility for us.

Implementing electricity, okay?

Companies got rid of gas lamps.

It's one of the most obvious things to
do right away, but the people who really

take it to the next level is like, how
can they use electricity to improve

their production lines, improve revenue,
improve all those different things.

So I think you have to do
it 'cause it's a utility.

It's not, it's not a new flash in the pan.

Christa Stout: Yeah.

And we would also, like, we had a Slack
channel where we would just encourage

people to share like, hey, I just took
a picture of my lunch and asked it how

much protein is in it, and guess what?

It knew exactly how much protein and
what I was eating and blah, blah, blah.

And so we just were like constantly
encouraging people to share

how they're using it so that it
is demystified and encouraged.

And so the result of that is that
David has someone that works on his

team who just like went off without
even asking, built her own software

that replaces an existing software
that we spend a lot of money on today.

And I think it's because we, like she
knew top down that Dwayne, our president

and others supported its part of our
business planning process, et cetera.

But also it's just so encouraged across
the organization from that initial AI

committee, from David's lunch and launches
like it's encouraged and celebrated.

And when you celebrate something,
people tend to wanna do it.

Matt Abrahams: The literature on
motivation is very clear that if you

put people on the defensive, they're not
going to be motivated to do something.

And it sounds like you've worked very
hard to reduce that defensiveness

and give people an opportunity and to
celebrate, as you said, to help them,

and that's really an important step.

Can we talk a little bit about the change
management to actually get people across

the organization to use these tools?

It's one thing to build them.

Is it simply that people see the
benefits, so therefore they use them?

I can imagine some people are
really comfortable in what

they're currently doing and the
current way they're doing it.

Have you done anything to help
with the change management

to keep the momentum going?

David Long: I think individual
groups adopt faster than others, and

I think the best thing is just to
come back to the lunch and launches.

Within those groups, there's
people who have not used AI yet.

There's people who have, but it's
a shared space where we can talk

about a similar topic and talk about
solving problems and it's specialized

to what their main focus is.

So I would say that those
are incredibly powerful.

One, for we are there to build something
impactful, but for the shared space

of communication and things like that.

That's major motivator
for change management.

Christa Stout: And to go back to Jeremy's
sandbox point, the David Detractor Kelly

Kindness example that I shared earlier.

So when David first built it and
launched it, it's not like people

just started using it right away.

People, a lot, sometimes a lot
of people didn't use it at all.

So then we had another
meeting and a conversation.

We're like, hey, what is
keeping you from using this?

What would make it easier for
you to use what, you know?

And so like I, you iterated that product
for a couple months before, and now

it's just like everyone's using it and
it's everywhere, but it took months

of iteration and learning and feedback
and communication to get to that point.

Jeremy Utley: Were there any key revisions
or key iterations that you feel like

unlocked people's ability to use it?

Like what was keeping
someone from using it?

I'm just dying to know.

David Long: It was me.

I think one, one part of it was that I was
not solving for the user's problem, so I

needed to stop and overproduce something
that I envisioned would be helpful.

And that's, this was before a lot
of these lunch and launches a big

component of what we now implement,
but getting with them and saying,

does this actually solve your problem?

In what ways?

Why?

And what does it allow you to do?

What impact do you think this will have?

So that, that's the main thing.

If you're solving for it by yourself,
you're gonna have revisions, you're

gonna overdevelop, and you're
gonna probably have less adoption.

Jeremy Utley: Matt, just thinking about
your question of what drives adoption

is kinda what you're getting at.

To me, as I'm listening, I go back to
the very beginning, which is everything's

rooted in employee pain points.

Of course, people want to use something
that's actually making their life better,

but I think importantly, critically, David
and Christa did the hard work of figuring

out how their lives need to be improved.

So they didn't start with a
broad mandate of, let's just

use Gen AI in general, right?

I think the usage metrics
are largely irrelevant there.

What they did is they said,
what are the problems?

What really stinks in your job?

Let's build a solution there.

And then it just creates
suction, it creates pull.

This makes it easier.

This makes it better.

No brainer, right?

Matt Abrahams: Absolutely.

Christa Stout: And like I love
the, it sucks, that prompt.

It's a really good framing.

It turns out people really enjoy talking
about what they hate about their jobs.

And so we had, we set up hour
sessions and then we would always

have to cut people off at the fifty
minute mark and be like, okay, now

we're going to switch to solutions.

You used the word earlier, it's cathartic
for people to be like, oh, and if only.

And for us to get that insight across
the company of like the systems, like

the key systems across our company and
how they do and don't work effectively.

And then the problem solve for those
also gives us a lot of insight, which

my hypothesis is that ultimately
it will help us be able to figure

out where and how AI is going to
significantly transform our business.

Like right now, this is all incremental
innovation across a lot of different

work streams, but by getting this
insight across a whole company, it

is already opening our eyes into
ways we can like really potentially

transform the business more broadly.

Matt Abrahams: Anybody who knows anything
about me knows I love alliteration,

so catharsis catalyzes change.

I like that.

For those in the audience looking
to expand AI in their organizations,

whether they're technical or not, I'd
love to hear from each of you what's

one concrete action they could take next
week to start making progress with AI?

Why don't we start, Christa with you.

We'll just go down the line
this way, if that's okay.

What's one thing they could do?

Christa Stout: I mean, it's self-serving
'cause this is what we did, but

I think just recognizing that you
don't have all the answers and don't

need to have all the answers when it
comes to AI and how to implement it.

Like you have to step and trust
that the path will follow.

And also admit that you
don't know everything.

'Cause literally nobody in the
world knows everything about ai.

So the idea that you would be
expected to is a little crazy.

So I think just admitting vulnerability,
starting with curiosity and

understanding like what's already
happening at your organization so you

can tap into the latent motivation
and create momentum from there.

Matt Abrahams: Excellent.

So start with vulnerability,
follow with curiosity.

Very good.

David, what's one thing people
could do starting next week?

David Long: I think at the leadership
level, critically about who within

your company or under your team who
exhibits like behavior of taking

ideas and turning them into action.

I think that's a person that you
should have a one-on-one with and

present AI as an opportunity for them.

'Cause that's a huge unlock if you have
someone who can move things forward that

way, 'cause this is a powerful tool in
the right hands of someone like that.

As an individual, like I
mentioned earlier, do a complete

audit of some of your systems.

Whiteboard out.

Here's one for example.

Like every month I have to balance my
credit card and so I need to know all the

codes to send all these different charges
to across marketing, across our corporate

partners, all that sort of stuff.

I know it takes four different sheets.

I know I have to reference control
F, all these different sheets

to find these different codes.

It takes me two hours.

Talking about cathartic, like this
is one that I absolutely do not like.

And so within that I was able
to mark just with little carrots

maybe I could use something that
understands all of our codes.

Maybe I could do something
that can be accessible within

Slack and answer it right away.

So that's something that's,
that's taking it to the next step.

But to, to your answer your question,
it's just like audit something and see

what's possible and then go from there.

Matt Abrahams: So the audit point is
well taken, but you bring up something

that we haven't really talked about,
although you mentioned it, is buy-in from

more senior leaders is really helpful.

And taking the time to make
sure they're on board can help.

And in your case, to
really drive the event.

Jeremy, what's one thing these folks
could do next week to make a difference?

Jeremy Utley: We talked about earlier,
but I think have AI interview you

about either your life or your
work to identify opportunities.

Tell AI it's an AI expert.

Which, by the way, a
role is a critical part.

If you've been playing with AI at all,
you know this, you gotta give it a role.

If you're talking about a parenting
challenge, hey, you're a child life

psychologist with a specialty in
childhood development in teenage girls.

I have four daughters, so I've
used that prompt a lot, right?

But the point is, you're an AI expert.

You're here to give me a consultation
of how I can use AI better in my blank.

Would you ask me five questions
one at a time, because I'm a human

and struggle to answer more than
one question at a time, please?

Something that simple.

The other thing I would say about
leaders, by the way, leadership buy-in

is not some nebulous, abstract thing.

If you're a leader and you want to
give buy-in, do something yourself

and tell the team what you've done.

Because to say, hey, y'all have
permission to go do it, is totally

insufficient and it's far too passive.

And the best leaders I have observed,
they are actively showcasing

what they're doing on Zoom calls.

Let me share my screen for five minutes.

I wanna show you guys
what I've been doing.

That goes so much farther than,
no, really, you're free to try

it on your own time, no problem.

Matt Abrahams: And what's even more
important is to, as a leader, to

share your struggles and challenges
and failures, because that gives

permission for others to do that.

Because it's one thing to say, go
do it, and here's what I'm doing.

If people feel there's has to
be perfect, just like yours

was, that can be challenging.

Before we wrap up every episode of my
podcast, I ask some typical questions.

Due to time, I'm just
gonna ask one question.

We'll do it very quickly.

The final question I always ask is, what
are the first three ingredients that go

into a effective communication recipe?

And since there are three of
you, and I'm asking for three

ingredients, just very quickly, name
an ingredient and then we'll wrap up.

Christa, what's one important ingredient
that for successful communication?

Christa Stout: Oh, since it's his
birthday, I am gonna say something that

Jeremy does really well, which is turn
complicated objects into very clear

messages, and communicate them very well.

Matt Abrahams: Make 'em accessible.

David Long: Constructive problem solving.

If you have a problem and you want to
present it to your leader or your staff

present it, but now you have this tool, AI
potentially, where you can come with lots

of solutions and you can flood a problem.

And so I think anytime you can come
to a leader and say, hey, I have this

problem, but here's some things I want
you to consider about how I want to go

about solving it, that's a completely
different type of conversation.

Matt Abrahams: Lead with solutions.

Very good.

Jeremy Utley: Conviction.

If you don't believe it, don't say it.

Matt Abrahams: Three very valuable bits
of advice and important ingredients.

And lots of interesting steps and
recipes today to help all of you

be successful in deploying AI.

Thank you very much for your time.

I hope you're taking
something of value away.

Thank you for joining us for this
special South by Southwest live version

of Think Fast Talk Smart, the podcast.

To learn more about AI and communication,
please listen to episode 77 where

I interview ChatGPT and episode 134
with Jeremy Utley and Kian Gohar.

This episode was produced by Ryan
Campos and me, Matt Abrahams.

Our music is from Floyd Wonder.

With special thanks to
Podium Podcast Company.

Please find us on YouTube and
wherever you get your podcasts.

Be sure to subscribe and rate us.

Also follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

And check out FasterSmarter.io for
deep dive videos, English language

learning content, and our newsletter.

Please consider our premium
offering for extended Deep Thinks

episodes, Ask Matt Anythings and

much more at FasterSmarter.io/premium.