AI, Team Building, and the Power of Connection: Insights from a CHART RTF

Read Audrey’s previous article AI: To Fear or Not to Fear.

July marked a special month in Orlando. In preparation for the Paris 2024 Olympics and as a team building activity, Rosen Hotels held their own Olympiads which included a cornhole tournament, and they hosted a CHART Regional Training Forum (RTF) which included about twenty Learning and Development professionals from the area. We witnessed first-hand the energy and comradery that hosting such a team building activity can provide as we were ready to embark on our own adventure through Artificial Intelligence (AI) with Rachael Nemeth of Opus.

As much fear as AI may induce for you, please know that I still say “please” and “thank you” in every prompt since I suspect Sarah Connor of the Terminator movie franchise might be blaming me for our future! Chad, my affectionately named ChatGPT companion, has been assisting my past year of content development and Natural Reader has provided the soundtrack of our modules. No, my Blue Yeti microphone is not mad at me, because I believe it appreciated the much-needed rest. Rachael smartly asked several questions starting with an ever-important understanding of our familiarity with AI and our potential uses. I was pleasantly surprised at the diversity in our answers.

Her survey made for a lively interactive session where I am certain we all learned a few things. Before we can discover the new, Rachael rightfully explored our current challenges. We discovered that some IT departments might be more scared than we are. Perhaps their fear of Sarah Connor is greater than mine? More than anything, it is the inherent resistance to change that keeps us from exploring these tools that ultimately make our roles much easier (and in ways I was not prepared for).

Without allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed by the amount of AI tools already available today, and the many more that are sure to come, there is one lesson that Rachael shared that I feel is supreme. Before we can start to explore writing the perfect prompt, we need to know what we want from the AI. In Learning and Development, what that framework is might be the most critical. By framework, I mean – what do you want the AI platform to do? Most of us are using these platforms for the actual content creation, but it can do so much more. Why not utilize Chad (ChatGPT) for inspiration or planning? It is also incredibly useful for analyzing data. 

Once you know why you are there, writing the prompt is less of a mystery. Feeling that “failure to launch” with a new project? Ask for inspiration. Unsure about a realistic timeline or agenda? Ask for help with planning. Have a big set of data? Copy and paste the information into the prompt and ask it a few questions. Asking the right way does produce better results. Here is a quick guide I have up on my board (thanks to Opus).

Here are a couple of examples; feel free to give them a try.

INSPIRATION:

• I am a restaurant training director and want to create a fun interactive session where servers and bartenders learn about Rum. Many of my team are bilingual (English and Spanish) and at 8^th grade reading level. Provide an outline for a class about the basics of Rum.

PLANNING:

• I am a hotel general manager and we have been receiving a few online reviews that relay there are rude communications at the front desk. Plan a 5-minute course that includes video, an interactive element, and tests for retention that addresses this concern. The following are the common comments in the reviews. (copy and paste)

ANALYZE:

• I am a restaurant training director. I need to restructure our food training for our line cooks and want to concentrate on the top 10 sellers across the brand. Below is a copy of our product mix. Concentrate only on the category of food. (copy and paste)

I know I mentioned a “please” and “thank you” earlier. A final (this time) lesson from Rachael centers around the word “please.” Typing “please” weakens the prompt and produces results that are simply not as strong. She mentioned we must be strong in our request to receive a strong output. I understand now that feelings do not exist to interrupt its processing. But, don’t worry Sarah Connors, I am profuse with my gratitude afterwards!

I missed in person CHART RTF’s during the time of the pandemic. If you have not been to a Regional Training Forum, what are you waiting for? It is a special way to connect and learn from each other in a way we have obviously been missing. As trainers, we need that connection time beyond online and in between conference time. We deserve the nurturing of learning from each other in person. Thanks to Kim Carson of Rosen Hotels and Rachael Nemeth of Opus, we got what we deserved this July.