Recently I was sitting with my clients, crafting their “Big Opportunity” statement, the defining idea that answers a deceptively simple question: What opportunity is in front of us right now that is worth rallying around? In Kotter’s methodology, this isn’t a vision statement or slogan. It’s the reason a transformation deserves people’s time, attention, and energy over the next several months. This statement addresses what, in the next six months to twelve months, would be a game changer for the company, allowing them to capitalize on this window of time if they focused on leaping ahead? The problem? My clients well…couldn’t focus on the task at hand. In an attempt to capture the perfect statement, the team was relying heavily on AI, and alas, the message lost all conviction, emotion, meaning, and dare I say, human-factor.
To understand why this mattered, it’s helpful to understand why Kotter had been brought into the engagement in the first place. This client had reached a crossroads in one area of their organization. In many ways, they had been standing at this crossroads for nearly fifty years. Every few years, conversations would surface about redefining how they served a core stakeholder group. New committees would form. New ideas would emerge. Slogans were crafted. Small improvements would be made. Momentum would wane. Yet the underlying model never fundamentally changed. The opportunity kept presenting itself, and the organization kept watching the window close. That’s where the Big Opportunity comes in.
The Big Opportunity
Unlike a corporate vision, which can guide an organization for many years, a Big Opportunity is rooted in a specific moment in time. It answers why this team should act, why now is different from the last dozen attempts, and what the organization stands to gain—or lose—if it chooses action over delay. It provides focus in a window of time where distractions are plentiful and priorities compete for attention.
The client knew the magic of the TBO to provide focus and clarity. I had been working with this client for years. Each new engagement allowed exploration of new targeted areas, focused growth, and seemingly impossible goals achieved. Our team had become a familiar presence, returning like extended relatives who stop by for their annual visit, marveling at ‘how much you’ve grown’, although for us growth wasn’t measured in inches, rather in increased confidence and capability. What made this visit different, however, was the introduction of their newest friend, Uncle Chat.
The “Uncle Chat” Trap
In the room, I knew what role Kotter and the client would play, and had planned the agenda down to the 2min mark. What I was finding out live in the moment, was what role we were assigning Chat. Many in the room have come accustomed to using AI to craft messages in their own voice, so why couldn’t we leverage it in crafting the TBO? Every few minutes someone would type another AI prompt…
“Can you make this more compelling?”
“Can you make it sound more strategic?”
“Can you make it more inspiring?”
One response led to another, then another. Before long, we had pages of beautifully written language, and almost none of it sounded like the people sitting in the room.
It wasn’t because AI had failed. It had done exactly what we asked. It generated polished language from the information we provided. The problem was that we had begun asking AI to do something it simply can’t do: discover what we truly believed.
Collectively, we started to “ohhh” and “ahhh” over well crafted sentiments from Uncle Chat and soon our message read like the opening lines to a company’s doctrine on engagement. I started to feel the shift. Instead of something concise, heartfelt, authentic, and compelling we were writing something that was bloated, weighted, and overly designed.
As the conversation continued, I couldn’t help but think about Kotter’s concept of See, Feel, Change. Successful transformations aren’t driven because people are presented with a perfectly written argument; they’re driven because people experience something that changes how they see the opportunity. When leaders begin telling authentic stories, imagining a different future, and expressing genuine hope or concern, people don’t simply understand the change, they feel it. That emotional connection is what creates commitment.
The Human Breakthrough
At this point, I interrupted the exercise. I asked everyone to close their laptops and put away their phones. Then I asked one question: “If someone stopped you in the hallway and asked why this work matters, what would you tell them?”
No prompts. No edits. No perfect wording. Just answer.
And that’s when the magic happened….
Someone said, “The opportunity in front of us isn’t to reinvent everything, it’s to reimagine how it’s delivered.”
Another added, “We have an extraordinary opportunity—and responsibility—to redefine what this experience looks like.”
Another chimed in, “We need to create clear pathways so people can see themselves throughout every step of the experience.”
Then someone quietly offered, “Imagine if every person, at every stage of the journey, felt like they belonged.”
Those weren’t carefully engineered statements. They were authentic. They reflected years of lived experience, difficult conversations, and genuine hope for the future. Suddenly our conversations became one of crafting one-liners with such heart and compelling emotion that the TBO was writing itself. Within minutes, we had more clarity than we had produced during the previous hour of prompting AI.
Am I saying that using AI is wrong? Not at all. In fact, it had surfaced useful themes and helped us explore possibilities we weren’t considering on our own. It accelerated the early stages of thinking exactly as it should have, but there came a point where continuing to ask AI for another version became counterproductive. We had crossed an invisible line where gathering more information no longer created more insight. We had utilized AI to be a thought starter, but spoke from the heart to close the gap.
That’s why one of the most important leadership capabilities emerging in the age of AI is knowing how to partner with it intentionally. Leaders must define:
- When AI should contribute, and what role before the work begins.
- What information AI needs to be effective, and feeding the right context—not just the right prompt.
- When human judgment should take over, knowing when to stop prompting and start leading.
AI excels at synthesis. It can help us organize complexity, challenge assumptions, identify patterns, and even overcome the intimidation of a blank page. But transformation isn’t ultimately about finding better words. It’s about uncovering shared beliefs. Conviction doesn’t emerge from prediction models; it emerges from heartfelt conversation. It comes from listening to people wrestle with difficult questions, hearing the emotion behind their answers, and discovering the language that already resonates within the organization. AI can help you explore the landscape, but it cannot tell you which mountain is worth climbing. That decision belongs to leaders.
As AI becomes woven into more of our daily work, perhaps the question isn’t “Can I use AI?” but rather “At what point should humans take over?” For me, the answer is simple. Use AI to expand your thinking. Use it to challenge your assumptions. Use it to generate possibilities. But when you’re defining the future of your organization, when you’re asking people to believe, commit, and change, close the laptop. Sit across from one another. Tell the stories only you can tell. Because at the end of the day, transformations may be enabled by tools and technology, but they will always be driven by our people.
About the Author:
Leslie Zemnick, Kotter Principal, based in New York City and Washington, D.C.
