The Core Concept

Most professionals approach AI with either complete delegation (“AI, do this entire task for me”) or complete avoidance (“I’ll just do it myself”). Both approaches miss the real opportunity.

AI works best as a thinking partner in an iterative process – helping you brainstorm, refine ideas, catch errors, and explore possibilities you might not have considered.

The magic happens in the collaborative back-and-forth, not in single requests or complete avoidance.

The Metaphor: The Dance Partner

Imagine you’re learning to dance with a highly skilled partner. You could try to just follow their lead completely (delegation), or you could ignore them and dance alone (avoidance).

But the most beautiful dancing happens when you engage actively: You lead sometimes, they lead sometimes. You respond to each other’s movements, and together you create something neither could achieve alone.

AI collaboration is this dance. It’s not about finding the perfect move, but about staying engaged in the creative process.

The Professional Story

Sarah, a business analyst, was stuck in the automation trance. She either avoided AI completely (“I’ll just build this financial model myself”) or tried to get it to do everything at once (“Create a complete quarterly budget analysis with recommendations”). Both approaches left her frustrated.

She decided to try the “dance” approach.

For her next project, she started by asking AI to help brainstorm key metrics to include in her analysis. Based on that response, she asked for help structuring the data presentation. Then she used AI to suggest potential insights to look for in the numbers.

At each step, she brought her judgment and expertise to refine and direct the process. The final result was far better than anything she could have produced alone or anything the AI could have generated without her guidance. She had learned to dance.

Try This Today

1. Identify Your Trance Pattern: Notice whether you tend toward delegation (“AI, write this entire report”) or avoidance (“I’ll do it the old way”). Just observe your default pattern without judgment.

2. Practice the Three-Step Dance: Choose one work task today and break it into three steps. Use AI for one step, do one step yourself, then return to AI for refinement or the next step. Notice how the collaboration evolves.

3. Ask a “What If” Question: Instead of asking AI to complete something, ask it to explore possibilities: “What if we approached this problem from a different angle?” or “What alternatives should I consider?”

Daily Integration Phrase:

“I dance with AI; I don’t delegate to it or avoid it.”