Appendix A — The four tools on two pages
The whole book, for the wall above your desk. Printable versions sit on the course site: the one-page desk card and the ten-page field guide.
One question each. All four work on any AI tool.
| Tool | The question | The move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 · Trust Tool | How much should I trust this output? | Two questions place it in a corner. The corner sets the check. |
| 2 · RTCF | How do I ask for what I need? | Brief it like a capable new colleague. Context does most of the work. |
| 3 · Check Loop | How do I know it’s right? | Frame, explore, verify from outside, then say what you checked. |
| 4 · Opportunity Finder | Where does AI fit, and will it work every week? | Spot, assign, prioritise. Deliver with checkpoints and a 30-day gate. |
A.1 1 · Trust Tool (Chapter 2)
Ask of any output. How exact must it be, average or precise? What happens if it is wrong, small or large?
| Average | Precise | |
|---|---|---|
| Large | B · Verify the load-bearing bits | D · Human in the loop |
| Small | A · Trust with light review | C · Verify before you ship |
Check from outside the tool. “Are you sure?” is not a check. Be most sceptical where you know least. Before pasting, classify the material, leave out what identifies people, and know what the tool remembers.
A.2 2 · RTCF (Chapters 3 to 5)
Role. Who should it write as? Task. What exactly, and how much? Context. Audience, situation, stakes, constraints, material. Format. Length, structure, tone.
Still weak, add one upgrade. Example (match one you liked). Done (define success, mark gaps [CHECK]). Questions (let it ask first). Steps (outline, then section by section).
Push back three ways. Guardrail: change your view only for a new fact, and name it. Devil’s advocate: three reasons this fails, and the assumption it rests on. Board: CFO, sceptical customer, frontline manager, then where they disagree.
Save what works as a standing brief, with its Trust Tool corner attached.
A.3 3 · Check Loop (Chapters 6 to 8)
- Frame the question and the decision it feeds. Fresh chat.
- Explore. Describe the data first. Broad, then deep.
- Verify from outside. Filter, recount, open the source.
- Shape for the reader. End with what you checked.
Claims you cannot recount get VET. Verify the source yourself. Explain it in your own words. Test the edges.
Watch for miscounts after filtering, correlation sold as cause, missing rows skipped in silence, numbers that cannot all be true, and detail that is not in the file.
Decide Like Me in one line: write your repeatable decision as if-then rules, test them blind on past calls in a new chat, keep the call.
A.4 4 · Opportunity Finder (Chapters 9 and 10)
Spot. Automate (same work, same way), Assist (reading and comparing), Generate (blank page), Analyse (meaning in numbers).
Assign each step: AI leads, AI assists, you lead, human only. Keep one step human on purpose.
Prioritise quick wins. High time saved, low setup, cheap checking. Count the checking as effort.
Deliver. One workflow, one owner, one measure, baseline recorded. A named checker with a specific check at every amber or red step. People told before you start. A 30-day gate with scale, pivot, and kill criteria written in advance.
Why AI projects fail differently, in five lines. Done cannot be fully specified, so define good enough. The demo is a trap. The data is the uncertainty. Checking is the product. Everyone has the same models, so compete on judgement.
A.5 Keep it (Chapter 11)
Delegate the task, keep the learning. Once a week, your pass first on a task that matters, then the tool’s, then compare both ways. Review your corners, your standing brief, and your decision rules each quarter. The corners move. The check stays.
Direct it. Don’t delegate. Never surrender.