How To Build Trust & Coalitions To Accelerate AI Monetization
“The business doesn’t get it.”
“C-level leaders won’t stay bought in.”
“They want AI but only if it’s easy.”
These and many other quotes come from professionals who have taken my courses. There’s a common challenge that everyone working with technology, especially data and AI, faces in an enterprise setting. We need business-wide buy-in and momentum to be successful. Without it, the most effective technical solutions still fail to create value.
Every part of the enterprise generates data and can benefit from data and AI products. Everything customers do with our products generates data, and customers can benefit from data and AI features and products. That’s what makes data and AI strategy such a critical part of success with those technologies.
However, none of this works without trust. It’s difficult to build trust when the data and AI team are the only ones advocating for technical strategy or evangelizing the benefits. We need a coalition built with people who can discuss the benefits they saw firsthand.
In this article, I will explain one of the methods I teach to build coalitions and gain trust with executive leaders. I referred to Framework Certainty in ‘How To Get Promoted To Director Or VP, Even In A Tough Economy.’ It sparked several questions, and I’ll cover the concept in greater depth here.
What Is Framework Certainty?
I teach systems, first principles, and frameworks in my courses and workshops. The business is filled with people who want quick answers but need context. They want simple, easy solutions, but need a holistic perspective. Data and AI strategists and product managers use systems, first principles, and frameworks to deliver both in a concise package.
I use systems thinking to explain a complex business system, process, or challenge. I provide first principles that allow us to successfully understand how the process works or the root causes of the challenge. The framework will enable us to successfully manage the process or challenge.
Frameworks manage a transformation or improvement lifecycle. The Capabilities Maturity Framework follows a business through multiple technical maturity phases. Top-Down Opportunity Discovery transforms strategic goals into opportunities and use cases. Each framework is a tool to optimize the transformation or improvement.