The Weekly Reframe #3

1/ NOTICE

What would change if empathy wasn’t a soft skill, but a systemised advantage?

Some people don’t struggle with empathy because they don’t care - they struggle because they rely on logic more than emotional nuance. They can’t always “read the room,” and that creates costly blind spots. Cues get missed, what matters gets lost, and decisions land wrong even when the intent is right.

Empathy feels vague, yet it’s a vital part of entrepreneurial communication. Getting it wrong slows deals, weakens trust, and creates friction you didn’t intend.

But what if empathy wasn’t guesswork? What if it could be modelled, like strategy?
With AI, it can.

Start from intent - what people value, prefer, believe. Then let the system decode patterns, preferences, and even subtext. AI becomes a litmus test for emotional clarity.

Now empathy isn’t a feeling you hope to get right - but a predictable, practical, repeatable process.

How?

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Clarify intent. Ask sharper questions. Use richer data. And act with integrity.

You move faster, not slower. You communicate with precision because you’re not guessing anymore.

What would change if empathy wasn’t soft, but systemised?

More: The Four Minute Purchase that Reframed Everything I Thought about Shopping - How AI Helped me Decode a 15 year old's Aesthetic by Gayle Tait​

2/ TRY

How writing it down helps you make decisions.​
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In a previous newsletter I wrote that I was going to use Peter Drucker’s time-logging principle from The Effective Executive. Having done this I found several areas where I may want to change how I am using my life energy.

But how do I decide what to change? 

There’s been a lot of noise on my radar about decision journaling. This is just ‘consulting speak’ for recording your thoughts in writing before you make an important decision.

It’s an opportunity to pause and write down what you think, why you think it, and what you expect will happen. I’m trying it out as a way to understand the choices I’m considering as a result of the Drucker-Log.
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​More: Shane Parrish explains the process well in this Decision Journal article. There’s even a template you can use.

3/ QUESTION

What's one inherited belief about success you're ready to uninstall?

As a relentless achiever, you're conditioned for growth. Learn more skills. Go faster. Optimise. But what if those scripts are out of date and no longer serving you? Maybe they're even capping your potential.

Much of your success was shaped in a slower, more predictable world. What used to be assets - perfectionism, relentless execution - could now be liabilities. That's an uncomfortable thought, isn't it?

Here's the thing: you can't unlearn what you can't see.

Those inherited scripts are running in the background like legacy software. They feel like the truth because they've been there so long. 

If you want to remove them you’ll need something to interrupt the loop, to create enough distance to question what you've always assumed.

That something is cognitive flexibility.

It's your ability to step back from automatic patterns and see them clearly. To hold multiple perspectives without needing immediate resolution. To recognise when the rules have changed and your old playbook no longer applies.

The old world rewarded deep expertise in narrow domains. Master one thing. Go deep. Repeat what works. But AI handles most of that now. What it can't replicate is your ability to make unexpected connections, to sense when your approach needs rethinking, to hold a paradox without panic.

Cognitive flexibility isn't a nice-to-have. It's what allows you to see the script you inherited, interrupt the autopilot, and consciously choose something different.

Real growth today comes from subtraction, not addition. From updating your internal operating system, not just upgrading your output.

So: what's one inherited belief about success you're ready to uninstall?

More: The Great Unlearning by Damian Madden​