Curiosity, Systems Thinking, and the New AI Team You Need to Manage
You’re skimming your inbox and see another company-wide email about ChatGPT, CoPilot, or Gemini. You know ignoring it might cost you down the line—but who has the time to experiment?
Howard Yu, LEGO® Professor @ IMD Business School, recently made a statement about AI usage that captured me – hook, line, and sinker. So much so that the statement has become a permanent fixture on my office white board. He said:
“You’re not inventing technology, you’re pioneering its application to your specific work.”
So what are the characteristics of an AI pioneer?
In a recent memo to Amazon employees, CEO Andy Jassy said, “Be curious” and those who integrate AI “will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company.” (Wall Street Journal - June 19, 2025 - “The Real Message Andy Jassy Is Sending to Employees on AI” by Dan Gallagher)
Jassy believes employees must be curious about how a company can be reinvented through the application of AI.
But is there more than just curiosity?
In 2022, MIT Open Learning published an interview with Professor Edward Crawley, a lead instructor at MIT’s online system thinking course. Crawley believes system thinking is “the cognitive skill of the 21st century.”
Simply defined, system thinking is the act of thinking through how parts of a whole are interconnected.
Curiosity gets you in the door. Systems thinking gives you a map. But it’s vision—your ability to imagine a future of work that includes AI, not fears it—that makes you a true pioneer. To help you imagine that future, consider the File Manager.
Remember the “File Manager”?
That role disappeared as digital literacy became a basic skill. Now we’re all digital file managers – at work and at home.
AI management is on the same trajectory—soon, knowing how to delegate and manage AI will be table stakes.
Those who bring curiosity, system thinking, and imagination to the table will define a new role: AI Team Manager. And their skillset will usher in AI team management as a baseline competency for employment.
You are the SME of your own work – which makes you the most qualified person to create and manage an AI team in your work.
When that invitation to be AI curious arrives in your inbox, don’t let it slip into the netherworld of last week’s emails. Instead, be a pioneer: build your own AI team and learn how to manage it.
Jumpstart Creating Your Own AI Team
Commit to exploring the AI tool in your workplace–on your own time, if necessary. (e.g., ChatGPT, CoPilot, Notion AI)
Identify one system in your work and the tasks related to it.
Build a working relationship with the AI tool.
Instruct the AI tool to help you use system thinking
Upload your system and related tasks.
Collaborate with the AI tool to separate the tasks into AI team members.
Understand what’s required to manage your AI team and create management protocols.
For Pioneering Entrepreneurs:
System-thinking entrepreneurs are looking for ways to clone their ops brain. That’s why I created the “Build Your AI Operations Officer” training: to help entrepreneurs move from dabbling to designing—by setting up real AI systems and learning how to manage them like a team. No technical background required—just curiosity, systems thinking, and a clear vision for where AI fits in your business. Schedule your training now.
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