Think AI will propel your team? Think again.

While AI gives your team a speed boost, the real power comes when you create a psychologically safe environment that unleashes creative risk-taking. This combination doesn’t just accelerate the time to good ideas; it completely transforms your team’s ability to imagine, select and develop the great ideas that will unlock growth for the business.

AI can Boost Team Performance, but…

AI is excellent at taking huge bodies of knowledge and finding truths people can use to define breakthrough strategies. It can streamline workflows, synthesize research, create starting points for content, and unlock meaning from data. It can certainly help boost productivity and growth. For instance, a McKinsey study linked AI adoption and leadership to a potential 20-25% increase in GDP. Likewise, a PwC study suggests that AI could unlock $15.7 trillion in global economic growth.

But AI alone can't understand human emotions and motivations. It can’t draw people out of their shells and encourage them to take creative risks. It can’t help extroverts and expressives be more sensitive to introverts, analyticals, and neurodivergents. That’s where applied behavior science steps in.

The Role of Behavior Science in Creating Psychological Safety

Behavior science dives into the psychological factors influencing human behavior—environmental factors, social factors, personal ones. It taps into what truly drives individuals and teams, and when applied well, it can create much stronger group dynamics, and foster an environment of psychological safety. Here are several key elements to focus on:

Cognitive Restructuring: This is all about reframing limiting beliefs to help people foster a growth mindset. This helps individuals see failures and challenges as learning opportunities, which reduces judgment among group members, and in-turn the fear of judgment within the individual. Focusing on cognitive restructuring helps contribute to a culture where team members truly feel like they are in it together, and uplift each other through the growth process.
Positive Reinforcement: When we add something to the equation (behaviorists call this “positive”) that makes a behavior more likely to happen again (“reinforcement”), we can thoughtfully encourage creative risk-taking, experimentation, and fearless expression of ideas among a group. It’s not just saying “please and thank you.” It’s a matter of being very intentional about the behaviors we want to see in the group, and thoughtfully structuring affirmation and reinforcement schedules around them. When people are consistently affirmed and rewarded for injecting good vibes into a team exercise, it helps build trust and openness, making everyone feel valued and heard.
Differential Reinforcement: Behaviorists use differential reinforcement many ways. It simply means giving reinforcement differently, based on different circumstances. When a young student acts up in class, a teacher may use Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior (DRI), to give the student a different task that’s simply incompatible with the undesired behavior, and then reward the successful completion of the different task. Good mentors and creative leaders use Differential Reinforcement of Excellent Behavior (DRE) to help their teams select the good ideas from the bad. No ideas are ever “punished” or judged…but the best ideas are celebrated more than the average ones. Timely recognition of outstanding contributions reinforces bigger, bolder creative risk-taking and inspires others, promoting a collaborative and high-performing team culture.

Custom GPTs Integrate Behavior Science Directly into AI

We spend massive amounts of time creating sophisticated Custom GPTs that are infused with principles from social psychology, cognitive behavior therapy, linguistics and inclusivity.

Rather than a typical ChatGPT experience where every prompt leads to 400 generic words at a time, our carefully programmed Custom GPTs are trained to act as a thoughtful coach and mentor, that can actually differentiate good ideas from average ones (and differentially reinforce the team accordingly).

Cognitive Restructuring: Our Custom GPTs are trained to help start ideation sessions with exercises that help the user identify and reframe limiting beliefs. Throughout the workshop, the GPT continues to encourage experimentation and highlight learnings from failures. We second this through analog human-to-human exercises as well.
Positive Reinforcement: We begin every AI-poweered ideation session with a 1:1 reinforcement schedule programmed into the GPT. This helps encourage the simple act of submitting an idea, to create a fun, judgment-free environment. (You should see how silly ChatGPT gets when you turn it loose with affirmations….it’s hilarious to watch workshop participants laugh uncontrollably during the first-round ideation).
Differential Reinforcement: As the ideation progresses, we carefully, thoughtfully, raise the bar for what types of ideas receive reinforcement, and which ones receive outsized reinforcement vs. which ones receive a simple “good job” or “keep going.” AI’s strength lies in real-time analysis of an idea based on customer preferences, market dynamics, business goals, competitor activity, examples of award-winning creative work, and so on. All of which we spend a massive amount of time training our GPTs on.

Psychological Safety Fosters an Entrepreneurial Environment

When a team achieves psychological safety, it creates a strong appetite for risk-taking, experimentation, collaborative discourse, and ultimately rapid innovation. When team members feel safe to express their ideas without fear of judgment, people go all-in on the ideation. When failure becomes fun and learning becomes playful, we see greater creativity, collective problem-solving, and a massive influx of viable ideas into the pipeline.

Imagine having a trained executive coach, behavioral therapist, chief creative officer, and business leader flying by your team’s side every day. That’s exactly what we do.

Let Us Do the Heavy Lifting for You

AI can significantly enhance team performance, but its true potential is unlocked when integrated with the social sciences. Custom GPTs that incorporate cognitive restructuring, positive reinforcement, and differential reinforcement, unlock a fun, fulfilling supportive entrepreneurial environment where people can ideate freely. We start in a workshop setting, and then train your teams to take it back to their desks.

Key takeaway: AI by itself is going to give you generic, long-winded ideas, based on known information. Great ideas, the ones that break boundaries, transform categories, and win awards…those come from people.

AI isn’t the one with the ideas…it’s the wing-person helping unlock those ideas from the brilliant talent on your team, regardless of their background and training.

Paul Sears is Founder & CEO of The Navigator Collective. After 21 years in marketing and advertising agencies, Paul saw the massive backlog so many organizations face when it comes to filling their creative pipelines with early-stage concepts. What if everyone in the company could contribute viable ideas to move the business forward? Paul founded The Navigator Collective to help people, regardless of their professional background and training, innovate like they were trained creative professionals. Learn more at https://navigatorcollective.com, or book a free demo today.

AI Alone Won't Elevate Your Team: What’s the Missing Ingredient?