Two weeks ago, I realized I had broken my own rule. I let our AI discipline drift. I took my foot off the pedal. The team followed my lead.
Remember, "monkey see, monkey do" is one of my classic leadership sayings. People will do exactly what you do. Set a good example, get good behavior, get lazy or too busy as a leader, guess what, the person in the mirror is the only one to blame.
So I fixed it.
I brought back WEDS.AI, a ninety-minute block carved straight into the middle of the week. Mandatory. Cameras on. Hands on keyboards. No spectators. The only rule is that we learn something new and ship something small every session. CEOs love asking for transformation. They rarely schedule it. That is the gap.
In seven days, the shift has been noticeable. We went from not even knowing how to install Claude Code to one of our product leaders using it in a high-stakes customer meeting and moving at a pace the customer had never seen. Same people. Same workload. Same product. The only variable that changed was leadership forcing time on the calendar.
I know what you are thinking. No way. It cannot be that easy. Here is the part that surprises people. On day one, we really did not know what we were doing. I have a thirty-second clip of the team fumbling through the install and figuring it out together. (See video)
Seven days later, I have another clip of the same team showing real work produced in real time. One of my product leaders literally told me he cannot live without it now. That is the size of the jump in one week.
This is the part most CEOs do not want to hear. Your AI maturity is a mirror of how you spend your time. Not your strategy decks. Not your vendor RFPs. Not your off-sites. Time is the lever.
The formula is boring but undefeated.
Put time on the calendar.
Show up.
Do the work.
Repeat until your team stops treating AI like a side project and starts treating it like oxygen.
We did not hire consultants. We did not set up a transformation office. I played a YouTube video by Allie K Miller and said, "Let us go." The team took it from there. Yes, I had to give them access to Claude Code in the Claude Admin panel. That took 5 mins.
If you want an AI-forward company, you do not need a manifesto, nerds in the corner, or a committee. You need a weekly ritual where your people build fundamental skills with real tools on real work that compounds.
Most CEOs will read this and nod. A few will put ninety minutes on the calendar next week. Those few will win.
The AI Boss