A Shift in Perspective
Around the middle of last year, I bought a Copilot Pro subscription.
I’d been exploring AI tools and learning how to get more out of ChatGPT, so I was curious how Microsoft’s offering might work—particularly in a more secure environment. I tested it, but at the time, it lacked the features I valued in ChatGPT. I didn’t prioritise staying across Microsoft’s updates, and a quiet assumption settled in: Copilot Pro isn’t worth my time.
Then recently, I revisited it—and found it had changed. A lot. It now includes many of the features I find useful in ChatGPT, especially when I’m using it as a thinking partner to help deepen and broaden my perspective.
Beware the Rigid Assumption
The truth is, I use AI to support—not replace—my work. What that looks like depends on context, including data sensitivity. I think of it as a collaborator that challenges me to sharpen my thinking and stretch beyond default patterns. And when we disagree? That’s often where the real thinking begins.
But none of that matters if you’re operating on rigid assumptions—like the one I’d made about Copilot Pro.
When navigating complex change, rigidity doesn’t just slow you down—it quietly misguides you. A recent systemic review on leadership in complexity found that effective leaders engage in ongoing sensemaking: testing assumptions, reframing perspectives, and updating mental models as signals emerge.
Leaders who don’t keep pace end up relying on thinking that no longer fits the environment. That can look like:
- Dismissing tools or ideas because they didn’t work once
- Resisting new input because it doesn’t fit the old narrative
- Making critical calls with logic shaped by a context that’s already moved on.
When the Ground Shifts, So Must You
This kind of thinking chips away at the very thing complex change demands from leaders—adaptability grounded in awareness, not habit.
It’s like checking the weather once and packing for the month—useful at the start, risky by day three.
Former Cisco CEO John Chambers put it simply on an episode of the Grit podcast:
“You want to learn how to constantly learn. You want to learn how to be constantly challenged… And if you aren’t doing something different, you’re not going to be successful.”
— John Chambers
We can’t treat sensemaking as something we did once and ticked off. It’s ongoing.
This week, pick one assumption that’s shaping a strategic decision—and test it.
Has the context shifted beneath it?
This is how we practise leadership that holds—not by gripping tighter, but by noticing when the ground moves, and adjusting with intent.
