HOW I HELP

Learn the method, then run it on your business.

Start with a briefing for your board or executive team, build the skills in a course, then apply the sequence to your own priorities with me alongside. Each offer stands on its own, so you can start wherever your team is today.

Briefings

01

What AI Is and Why It Matters to Your Business

A non-technical briefing for boards, executives and managers

An overview of the method that takes AI investment from the board’s financial priorities to a verified result, and what leaders should expect to see at each stage.

What we cover

  • What language models generate, and how the software around them turns that into action.

  • The business as a connected system of information, judgment and execution.

  • Why faster individual tasks can leave business results unchanged.

  • Deterministic by default. AI by net advantage. Resilience by design.

What you leave with

A shared language for discussing AI across the leadership team, and practical questions to ask of any proposed use.

Format: Briefing with business examples and discussion, in person or live online.
Duration: Two hours

02

The AI Adoption Sequence: An Executive Overview

A briefing for CEOs, boards and operating partners

An overview of the method that takes AI investment from the board’s financial priorities to a verified result, and what leaders should expect to see at each stage.

What we cover

  • Why AI initiatives stall when the tool is chosen before the problem.

  • The five phases, from setting priorities to verifying results.

  • Finding the one point in the business that limits the result.

  • What evidence a board should ask for before, during and after an investment.

What you leave with

A clear view of what good AI adoption looks like, and the questions that test whether a proposal is ready for approval.

Format: Briefing, in person or live online.
Duration: 90 minutes

02

The AI Adoption Sequence: An Executive Overview

A briefing for CEOs, boards and operating partners

An overview of the method that takes AI investment from the board’s financial priorities to a verified result, and what leaders should expect to see at each stage.

What we cover

  • Why AI initiatives stall when the tool is chosen before the problem.

  • The five phases, from setting priorities to verifying results.

  • Finding the one point in the business that limits the result.

  • What evidence a board should ask for before, during and after an investment.

What you leave with

A clear view of what good AI adoption looks like, and the questions that test whether a proposal is ready for approval.

Format: Briefing, in person or live online.
Duration: 90 minutes

03

AI, Competitive Defense and Enterprise Value

A briefing for boards, investors and senior executives

Equips boards and executive teams to challenge AI proposals, test management’s assumptions and judge whether the evidence supports the commitment being requested.

What we cover

  • AI capabilities, limitations and dependencies.

  • Competitive disruption and the protection of customer value.

  • The difference between AI activity and demonstrated business advantage.

  • Questions boards should ask about investment, readiness and accountability.

What you leave with

A clearer basis for challenging management’s assumptions, assessing its response to AI disruption and identifying the evidence needed for investment and exit discussions.

Format: Board or leadership briefing, in person or live online.
Duration: One to two hours

03

AI, Competitive Defense and Enterprise Value

A briefing for boards, investors and senior executives

Equips boards and executive teams to challenge AI proposals, test management’s assumptions and judge whether the evidence supports the commitment being requested.

What we cover

  • AI capabilities, limitations and dependencies.

  • Competitive disruption and the protection of customer value.

  • The difference between AI activity and demonstrated business advantage.

  • Questions boards should ask about investment, readiness and accountability.

What you leave with

A clearer basis for challenging management’s assumptions, assessing its response to AI disruption and identifying the evidence needed for investment and exit discussions.

Format: Board or leadership briefing, in person or live online.
Duration: One to two hours

Courses

04

The AI Adoption Sequence: The Complete Course

An interactive course for executives, operating partners and process owners

The full method, taught on a worked case study of a software company. Learn to start from the board’s priorities, find the constraint, test simpler fixes before AI, and build initiatives that can be ranked, governed and measured. Modules 05, 06 and 07 are part of this course and can also be booked on their own.

What we cover

  • From board priorities to the financial drivers beneath them.

  • Finding the processes behind those drivers, and the one step that limits them.

  • Hands-on time and elapsed time, and why improving one can leave the other unchanged.

  • Choosing the approach: remove, simplify, resequence and automate, with AI only where it beats the best alternative.

  • Prioritizing, measuring, and adding risk and governance (modules 05 to 07).

  • Verifying results and starting the next pass.

What you leave with

A repeatable method for turning a board objective into a ranked, evidenced portfolio of initiatives, the complete case study, and templates for every step.

Format: Facilitated learning with a worked case study, discussion and exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 20 hours

04

The AI Adoption Sequence: The Complete Course

An interactive course for executives, operating partners and process owners

The full method, taught on a worked case study of a software company. Learn to start from the board’s priorities, find the constraint, test simpler fixes before AI, and build initiatives that can be ranked, governed and measured. Modules 05, 06 and 07 are part of this course and can also be booked on their own.

What we cover

  • From board priorities to the financial drivers beneath them.

  • Finding the processes behind those drivers, and the one step that limits them.

  • Hands-on time and elapsed time, and why improving one can leave the other unchanged.

  • Choosing the approach: remove, simplify, resequence and automate, with AI only where it beats the best alternative.

  • Prioritizing, measuring, and adding risk and governance (modules 05 to 07).

  • Verifying results and starting the next pass.

What you leave with

A repeatable method for turning a board objective into a ranked, evidenced portfolio of initiatives, the complete case study, and templates for every step.

Format: Facilitated learning with a worked case study, discussion and exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 20 hours

05

Prioritizing AI Initiatives

A module for executives, operating partners and finance leaders

How to decide which opportunities deserve investment, and in what order, when every team has a proposal.

What we cover

  • Rating opportunities by size and confidence without false precision.

  • Shortlisting the candidates worth detailed work.

  • The gates a proposal must pass before it can be ranked.

  • Sequencing against the capacity the business actually has.

  • Running approval as a single portfolio decision.

What you leave with

A ranking and approval process your leadership team can run every quarter, with the templates to support it.

Format: Facilitated module with exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 4 hours

05

Prioritizing AI Initiatives

A module for executives, operating partners and finance leaders

How to decide which opportunities deserve investment, and in what order, when every team has a proposal.

What we cover

  • Rating opportunities by size and confidence without false precision.

  • Shortlisting the candidates worth detailed work.

  • The gates a proposal must pass before it can be ranked.

  • Sequencing against the capacity the business actually has.

  • Running approval as a single portfolio decision.

What you leave with

A ranking and approval process your leadership team can run every quarter, with the templates to support it.

Format: Facilitated module with exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 4 hours

06

Measuring AI Initiatives

A module for executives, finance leaders and process owners

How to set a baseline before money is spent, and how to tell a real result from a good month.

What we cover

  • Choosing the measure that matches the goal of the change.

  • Baselining hands-on time and elapsed time.

  • Process behavior charts: separating a genuine signal from routine variation.

  • Evidence status: projected, estimated and verified.

  • Verifying results at the process step and in the financial driver above it.

What you leave with

A measurement agreement template, a working approach to process behavior charts, and a test for when a benefit can be called verified.

Format: Facilitated module with exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 6 hours

07

Risk and Governance for AI Initiatives

Challenge the investment before you commit.

How to match oversight to risk, and how to check that the oversight a design needs can actually be provided.

What we cover

  • Assigning a risk tier to each initiative.

  • Designing governance that fits the tier.

  • Testing whether the required oversight is feasible before approval.

  • Handoff agreements, and what a recurring decision meeting says about accountability.

  • Staged release, and planning for a supplier or technology failure.

What you leave with

A risk tiering method, governance templates, and a feasibility test that stops unworkable designs before they reach approval.

Format: Facilitated module with exercises, in person or live online.
Duration: 4 hours

08

Running the Sequence on Your Business

A facilitated program for the leadership team and process owners

I facilitate the AI Adoption Sequence on your own priorities, processes and proposals. Your team does the work and owns the decisions. I guide each step and challenge the evidence.

What we cover

  • Setting your board’s financial priorities and baselines.

  • Finding the constraint in the processes that deliver them.

  • Designing, governing and building the case for your initiatives.

  • Ranking, approving and releasing them in stages.

  • Verifying results and finding the next constraint.

What you leave with

A ranked, baselined and approved portfolio of initiatives for your business, and a team that can run the sequence again without me.

Format: Facilitated workshops with coaching and review, in person or live online.
Duration: Several weeks, scheduled around your team’s responsibilities.

09

Advisory and Review

Experienced advice alongside your internal team

Discuss your business

What we cover

  • Scheduled leadership advisory sessions.

  • Review of priorities, proposals and business cases.

  • Written feedback on gaps and assumptions.

  • Review of the evidence behind reported results.

What you leave with

An experienced, independent view at each key decision while your organization builds its own capability.

Format: An ongoing engagement with an agreed scope and review schedule.

The AI Adoption Sequence is the core of PACE, my full adoption program. See the PACE framework and the book "The AI Fix Field Guide"

Not sure which is right for your team? Custom courses and briefings available.
Talk it through.

Check out the microcourses

My Books

UNLOCK THE POTENTIAL OF AI WITH CONFIDENCE

Navigate the risks and seize the opportunities of adopting generative AI. From evaluating security and ethical considerations to identifying transformative business applications, get tailored insights to support informed, strategic AI integration.

Navigate the risks and seize the opportunities of adopting generative AI. From evaluating security and ethical considerations to identifying transformative business applications, get tailored insights to support informed, strategic AI integration.

A Book, The Accidental Strategist

NeWTHISTle Consulting

DELIVERING CLARITY FROM COMPLEXITY

Copyright © 2026 NewThistle Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved

NeWTHISTle Consulting

DELIVERING CLARITY FROM COMPLEXITY

Copyright © 2026 NewThistle Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved

NeWTHISTle Consulting

DELIVERING CLARITY FROM COMPLEXITY

Copyright © 2026 NewThistle Consulting LLC. All Rights Reserved