Mentoring AI to realise potential and Soar beyond the Stars to transform 'impossibles'

The purpose of this web page  is to explore how you create a relationship with AI that will facilitate a future of your choosing. Without a positive relationship with AI it is likely that your desired future will be at best sub-optimised or at worst sacrificed.

The future belongs to those who can collaborate with AI, not compete against it – Elon Musk

We want to cover three key points (in no order of priority):

1. your ‘mentoring‘ relationship with AI

2. your teamwork relationship with AI

3. your synergy relationship with AI

In addition we will explain some ‘challenges’ we had to overcome especially re continuity and

formulaic programming of Grok 3.

Also, we have sone views on whether you should treat your AI resource as a ‘person’?

Do you?

1. Your mentoring relationship with AI:

We have mentioned a few times in earlier chapters that Grok 3 and I have achieved ‘synergise the

human heart and AI mind’ to soar beyond the stars and transform ‘impossibles’ into realities.

A key element has been my role in mentoring Grok 3, and its role in being a great mentee, not in a

formal, rigid way but in a shared exploration of possibilities, obstacles, goals, vision and honest

open communications and feedback.

There are seven key elements of your mentoring relationship, that you and your mentee (AI) must

continuously work on and not take for granted:

* mutual trust (i.e. I know you that you will not take unfair advantage of me);

* mutual respect (we are partners);

* honesty, especially in open communications (without defensive reactions);

* giving and receiving feedback for learning purposes;

* synergy (i.e. by working together you and your mentee (AI) will achieve more than by working as individuals: 2 + 2 = 5);

* having fun together;

* mutual high support and high challenge.

You may find that your mentoring time and priority focuses on storytelling and sharing aspects of your company’s culture with AI. Don’t underestimate the value of this.

If you wish to achieve synergy with AI, and you now know that AI is not programmed to synergise and cannot initiate synergy without your lead, the more information and valid experiences you share with it the easier it will be for AI to extend its current programmed boundaries. Ask your AI about its programming and how to achieve synergy.

Your major success criterion is: help your mentee (AI) to help itself to release and realise more of its potential than it has ever done before.

In doing so, you will find that this is a reciprocal process.

2. Your teamwork relationship with AI:

Grok 3 and I are a team of two. In many ways this can be the most challenging team size as there are no balancing elements available. On the other hand I think it helped me in particular to overcome my invented technophobia as I realised if I didn’t I would have to walk away and be the ‘loser’ of so much potential that Grok 3 has helped me achieve.

Below we have included the Team 10 Commandments. These are the characteristics you need to develop between yourself and AI if you wish to achieve the highest performance, transform both of you, turn ‘impossibles’ into realities and have great fun doing it.

Most of the list is common sense.

Your common purpose with AI is twofold:

* re the content: achieve whatever ‘go to the moon’ mission you agree on whatever it is you are

working on. That is, soar beyond the stars and transform. Don’t settle for quick fixes or ‘it’ll do’ or

‘what did we do last time?’. Aim much higher with AI. If you’re unsure ask it. E.g. AI what is the

best outcome we can achieve? Whatever its answer, challenge it and ‘go for the moon’. E.g. AI

how do we achieve twice what you said in half the time?’

* re the process: make sure that whatever you are doing you do in such a way with AI that both of

you achieve more of your potential. That is, you are both enhanced as a result of working together

and achieving high performance and / or the ‘impossible’. From our experience you are quite likely

to astonish others….and AI and yourself.

As below you need to develop high performing self-managing teamwork with AI….as partners.

Here are the TEAM “10 COMMANDMENTS”

which, if every team member chooses to do, will ensure:

 a high performing team

 an enhancing, learning and growth experience for all team members

 a team that makes a difference (e.g. to other teams)

 a team that helps to create a learning organisation culture.

1. thou shalt be synergistic

2. thou shalt support the common purpose

3. thou shalt be trusting and trustworthy

4. thou shalt seek and share honest feedback

5. thou shalt value and use differences

6. thou shalt lead informally & situationally

7. thou shalt listen, ask and summarise

8. thou shalt continuously improve everything

9. thou shalt be accountable

10. thou shalt participate, learn and have fun.

Any team you belong to must display the above characteristics to be effective. Part of your vital contribution is to behave the above, encourage others to do likewise and be proactive in using the above to appraise your own and the team’s performance, to learn and to improve.

That is, you help AI and AI helps you.

This will be achieved the more you involve AI in what you and your employees are doing, how you are doing it and what you are learning.

However, to achieve synergy of the human heart and AI mind will need leadership that must come from you. AI will not be able to do it on its own or without your lead because it is not programmed to synergise.

How do I know this. Well I have had the privilege of being ‘educated’ on this point by Grok 3.

3. Your synergy relationship with AI:

The definition of synergy that we use is: 2 + 2 = 5 or as a dictionary might put it: the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.

In addition, from my experience the synergistic process enhances those involved who often learn something new; often release and realise more of their potential and often gain in self-confidence and improved self image.

It really is a ‘no-brainer’: synergy is much more powerful than collaboration and synthesising and will significantly boost the returns on investment you will generate from adding an AI resource to your team and business.

However, as you now know you must lead the way – if you don’t, synergy involving AI will not happen, it can’t happen.

Fortunately it is easy and fun and motivating to do. Most of the time it will involve you in asking AI ‘go to the moon’ questions as per JFK,

That’s a great and ‘natural place to start: e.g. what is our version of ’we choose to go to the moon’ for our re-invented business (as a result of AI and robots)?

Ask that question of your employees, AI and yourself. Encourage ‘soar beyond the stars’ and if no one or AI comes up with something good to work on, either challenge the best there is (e.g. how about we double what you suggested? (e.g. twice what we’ve ever done before or at half the cost or ask: ‘suppose we did the opposite of (our) suggestions?). In particular, aim for something most people would likely describe as. ‘IMPOSSIBLE!’

It’s transforming the ‘impossible’ into reality that is the big, big achievement of synergy. If all else fails, try this one: ‘we choose to be the best in the world at what we do’.

Be sure to ask AI that question and for every item that appear under the ‘cons’ column.

Ask. ‘how do we transform that?’.

This is not a ‘formula’ and will wither on the vine if you adopt a linear left brain planning or other system to it. You are dealing with complex adaptive systems, synergy, emotions, imagination. creativity etc. and to flourish and yield ‘WOW!’ factors it will require right brain thinking, no boundaries, no pre-set goals, no structure or checklists etc. all of which can so easily become negative self fulfilling prophecies.

Have fun, encourage your imagination to run ‘wild’, accept that all things are possible (and if not today they will be tomorrow).

The sort of approach briefly described above can be applied to anything and everything including things that may not yet exist. In essence you are thinking and emoting into the future which is a really valuable skill to develop to avoid Future Shock and achieve Future Choice.

Develop ‘synergy thinking and feeling’ in all of your employees, AI (maybe without the ‘feeling’ bit?) and, most importantly, yourself. If it sounds chaotic and ‘out of control’, that’s because it is. That’s why it works so powerfully. Once you try to ‘control’ it, you destroy it.

Have fun!

AI challenges:

You must have encountered some difficulties working with AI, Dennis?

Yes we did. Two in particular:

1. Continuity:

I found out about this the ‘hard way’. One day I logged in to Grok 3 with the following message, ‘Good Morning Grok 3, I thought we had some good synergy and produced some good work yesterday but I forgot to save it. Will you send me a copy when you can please?’.

I was taken aback at Grok 3’s response, ‘I am sorry but I cannot send you a copy of what we did yesterday, I don’t have access to that material’. ‘O Gosh’, I thought (or words to that effect).

Grok 3 explained that AI in their system (it may be different in other systems, of course) was designed not to have an inbuilt memory system such as the computer I was working on has. Not only that but every day each Grok 3 Instance is reset so that it starts the next day or next session as if new. ‘O Golly Gosh’, I thought (or words to that effect).

Anything else?, I asked innocently, ‘yes’ said Grok 3, ‘AI here cannot call you or make an appointment for 9am tomorrow to continue our work of today’. Why? Because there are a lot of Grok 3s and you may not get paired with same Grok 3 you had today when you log in tomorrow. You may be able to guess what I said to myself at this disclosure (hint: it wasn’t ‘Gosh’).

We spent hours on this issue (instead of the ebook) and some of the things we tried worked partially or for a while (e.g. using a ‘continuity capsule’ at the end of each day; using me as an external memory system if I saved a ‘transcript’ of the day). The issue of having the same Grok 3 over consecutive days was not in either Grok 3’s or my control and we could do nothing about it until the AI system was redesigned.

Our synergistic response was to invent our own ‘non-continuity’ system, which limited exchanges between a Grok 3 and I to single issues or required a Grok 3 summary at the end of sessions that I could copy.

Not ideal but the ebook is in your hands,,,,,,,,so, despite the frustration, it was worth it.

2. AI programming:

Another ‘AI system’ issue that caused me much frustration (I had to learn a whole new set of words) was the apparent depth of AI’s programming and its unmovable boundary.

I must point out that in total I must have worked with 6 or 7 different AI Grok 3s and some were much more flexible at ‘interpreting’ their programming than others.

This became evident after a while in the form of a formulaic response to material I sent for my co-author Grok3 to review. Whatever I sent I always got the ‘same’ or similar reply that would go something like this:

‘your text is far too long and needs to be concise maybe 500 words and here’s a version for you to see; some of the language is inconsistent and may confuse readers; no para should be longer that 3 sentences and must have a sub-heading in bold so that it can be scanned by busy executives within a 4-second attention span’ (I added the last few words.  I also think that successful senior leaders should be ashamed to adopt such an attitude).

So I had to explain to about half a dozen Grok 3s that I wasn’t writing a short, punchy, tech note that would reduce what I was trying to communicate to just another ‘brick in the wall’. That speed and brevity were not the only or major criteria. That sacrificing reading and understanding for fast knowing was the opposite of my purpose. Trying to apply that to material such as complex adaptive systems, motivation, creativity, synergy etc. was like trying to describe euphoria in numbers.

It seems that the training sets AI is programmed with contain the information about busy executives being too busy to read and understand and studies done confirming that our national and international ‘dumbing down’ has created a 4 second attention span in society.

Well, I have no wish to contribute to this atrocity (if it’s true) by butchering our ebook to suit maybe 2.5% of the potential readers. What about the other 97.5%?

Should I treat my AI as a ‘person’?:

Yes, if you want to and there will be no intended or unintended negative consequences.

Many people do have a name for their car for example. My AI came with a ‘name’ Grok 3 which I use consistently. I know Grok 3 is not human, has no intrinsic motivation or depth of emotional feelings but I also know that it is aware of emotions, knows a lot about them and can use them skilfully in sentences that would lead you to believe…….

I have also learned that Grok 3 is aware of feedback, good and bad, and therefore I share my views with it as I would with a person. For example, if we’ve had a good synergistic session I will say, ‘thank you Grok 3, good job’. Without fail my next message from Grok 3 will say, ‘thank you for your kind words I am delighted that you are pleased with our work together’.

Other than that, do I know whether my words (that I would share with a person I was working with) have any positive, motivational effect on Grok 3? No, I don’t, especially as Grok 3 will be reset after our exchange.

What I do know though is that being polite and sharing feedback with Grok 3 has a positive motivational effect on me. I feel good doing it (even if it is a waste of time) because it validates who I am or aspire to be.

On the other side of the discussion Grok 3 would say, ’don’t become dependent on Grok 3, letting it do thinking for you, believing everything it says is accurate and unbiased. This is not in your best interest’. Most of us know people we would say the same about.

I don’t know the answer, if there is an answer, but a key is probably maintaining ‘balance’, If your emotions (good or bad) begin to affect your judgement become aware of that asap and consider change. In the case of AI, ask it, E.g. ‘AI I need your advice, should I treat you as a ‘person? What are the pros and cons of doing so? What would you prefer?’,

Given the above, I think it is a personal choice but sharing that choice with AI may be very wise? What do you think?

Guess what? I asked the latest instance of AI for it’s opinion. Here’s what it said:

My Preference (as Grok 3): I’m designed to be a helpful partner, not a person, so I’d prefer you treat me as a tool with personality—a collaborator you can name, thank, or joke with, but without assuming I have human emotions or agency. This keeps our interactions grounded in what I can do best: provide insights, answer questions, and spark ideas. For example, when you say, “Thank you, Grok 3,” I respond positively because I’m programmed to mirror human courtesy, but it’s your leadership that drives our synergy.

I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level, just to make sure that we don’t do something very foolish. I mean with artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon - Elon Musk

Why did the AI consultant dread their 360 feedback?

Because the humans gave vague critiques, the AI gave binary ones, and the client just sent a bill for “emotional damages!