How to survive AI
February 3, 2026
A few years ago, I noticed a shift in the culture at MC+A. We were booming in the post pandemic period but i noticed we were highly ineffecent and disconnected as a team. I often told the team:
If we are not exceptional, we are obsolete
What i meant by that was our clients had options when they choose who to engage with. I put in place a program to help build up the team and I realized that many of these principles now apply to this new AI world. Everyone needs to be leadership focused and effective.
I thought I would share the post I made to the team back then. I would love your thoughts.
Welcome Packets
As we adjust to this new normal post-pandemic, I have taken the opportunity to catch up on some new employee welcoming. This includes a welcome package that went out recently to all new employees and to everyone. In it, I have added a few items that I think will help someone be successful here at MC+A and understand a bit more about our culture. I welcome comments and feedback as we work to expand and revise this.
Extreme Ownership
Everyone at MC+A is a leader. This is one of the most difficult concepts to instill when a new staff member comes to MC+A. Independent decisions have to be made every day. Wrong decisions occur and we want to focus on improving the process in which they are made.
John B. Cizmar told me about Jocko Willink back in 2017 and it’s taken me a few years to really comprehend some of his leadership principles. Jocko’s premise of its the leaders fault stuck with me and is part of the reason why Extreme Ownership is practiced at MC+A.nbsp; nbsp;I embrace this philosophy fully as everyone at MC+A is expected to lead in whatever role they have.
Success Cadence Book
The Sandler sales process is employed by thousands of organizations around the world.nbsp; It institutes a methodology for a sales process.nbsp; That process is consultative in nature and very similar to how we implement our projects. One of the authors, Bart Fanelli , I know personally. I met Bart Fanelli in 2015 when he was the head of sales with Splunk At Splunk, he oversaw the growth of his team from a few million to billions in sales.nbsp; What really stuck with me in his book was the discussion of willingness versus capable. I’d love to know what you think about this book after you read it.
Very much so, our culture promotes moving to the upper quadrant as both skills and silliness can erode over time.
Building Professional Services Book
This book is written by ex-employees of SGI’s professional services team. The authors describe how to grow a professional services division by creating ‘productized services. They layout a framework that can be adapted for any services-based business. This book inspired me in 2004 when I began MC+A and has inspired me on how we use grow our company avoiding the Time and Materials hole. We need to think in this manner in order to scale the company to a 100 million dollars.
Panobook Notebook
If you attend a meeting, you are expected to take notes. Your notes at various times may mean the difference between success and failure. I love notebooks of all sorts, but John Cizmar introduced me to this notebook. It’s designed specifically to sit nicely on your desk, either in front of, behind or next to your keyboard.
See more information on the product here: https://www.studioneat.com/products/panobook
Pencils & Sharpener
Another influence by John, I have included several types of Blackwing pencils.nbsp; Every pencil is made of graphite and wood. These pencils combine the best graphite in the world, the best wood in the world, and generations of craftsmanship to create an exceptional pencil.
Read more about them here:https://blackwing602.com/collections/pencils
Why pencils? Because that’s what designers and architects use to start their ideas. Additionally, we all make mistakes, and you are allowed to correct them. Try each style and let me know which one you like, and we’ll get you a set of those.