Adaptive curiosity IV

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿. Wouldn’t it be great if you could anticipate every direction a customer meeting might take?

You can prepare.

You can think through the customer, their business, the people in the room and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.

You can imagine the different directions the conversation might go.

And the more you prepare, the less likely you are to be surprised.

But you can’t prepare for everything.

A customer will say something you weren’t expecting. Introduce a problem you hadn’t considered. Challenge an assumption. Take the conversation somewhere completely different.

That’s when 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝘆 matters.

It’s not about preparing a longer list of questions.  It’s about developing the ability to listen, recognise the signals and instinctively ask the question that logically follows.

To guide the meeting through questions rather than a script.

And like any skill, you can practise it.

Think about a boxer preparing for a fight.  They don’t just study their opponent.

They find a sparring partner who can replicate how that opponent fights - forcing them to respond, adapt and think on their feet.

Wouldn’t it be useful to have a sparring partner like that before an important customer meeting?

You already do.

𝗔𝗜.

ChatGPT. Claude. Gemini. Copilot. It doesn’t really matter which.

Brief it on the customer, the people involved, what you know, what you don’t know and what you’re hoping to achieve.

Better still, ask it what else it needs to know before you start.

Then tell it to play the customer.

Give it a persona. Ask it to challenge you. Throw in objections. Change direction. Don’t make it too easy.

And start the meeting.

A conversation that might take an hour in real life can be simulated in 5-10 minutes.

Then do it again.

Different scenario. Different objection. Different direction.

You’re not trying to memorise the conversation.

You’re training yourself to 𝗮𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁.

That’s Adaptive Curiosity.

And now we all have a sparring partner.