You are The Diver
Your signature sentence is “Let me just try this.”
The Mirror
You looked over the edge of the cliff and thought, "Oh. Well. I guess we're going down."
You're the one experimenting with AI before anyone gave you permission. You've already tested tools, broken things, found use cases your team doesn't even know about yet, and you're probably three workflows ahead of everyone else in the building.
This is not reckless. You do a quick scan. You check for rocks. You make sure there's water. You tuck your elbows in. But the default move is to MOVE. Not to freeze.
(Because why would you wait for permission to solve a problem?)
Your Superpowers
Velocity. You find use cases faster than committees can schedule meetings. While everyone else is still evaluating, you've already tested three things and know what works.
Proof of concept. You show what's possible. You create the raw material your organization can later refine into workflows and standards. You're the reason anyone has evidence that AI actually delivers value.
Pattern recognition. Because you test constantly, you develop an instinct for what AI is good at and what it absolutely sucks at. That instinct is worth more than most vendor demos.
Your Shadow Side
You don't always document. The steps are clear in YOUR head, but writing them down feels slow and unnecessary. And without meaning to, you can set an expectation that everyone should move at diver speed. (They can't. And shouldn't.)
When diver energy runs the room without guardrails, you get tools in use that leadership doesn't know about, outputs no one can reproduce, and a growing gap between the folx who are playing and the folx who are watching.
Sound Familiar?Shonda Rhimes.
Not because of TV. Because of how she operates. She wrote in "Year of Yes" about saying yes to things that scared her and figuring it out on the way down. That's pure diver energy: calculated risk disguised as impulse. She researches, she prepares, and then she commits FULLY. The jump looks reckless to people who only see the jump. They don't see the fact-finding that happened at 2am the night before.
How this shows up at work
The shadow project: You've quietly built an AI workflow that saves you hours every week. Your manager doesn't know it exists. You're not hiding it, you just haven't figured out how to explain it without getting into a policy conversation you don't want to have.
The demo moment: Someone in a meeting says "AI can't do that" and you pull up your laptop and show them it already did. You live for that moment.
The help desk trap: You showed ONE person a cool AI trick and now the entire department Slacks you every time they need help with a prompt. You went from innovator to tech support in three days.
Your quick win (do this week)
Pick one AI experiment you've done in the past month that actually worked. Write it down in three sentences: what you tried, what happened, what you'd do differently. Then share it with one person. That's it. Divers generate velocity. But velocity without visibility is just shadow AI. Make one experiment visible this week.
FOUND THE QUIZ BEFORE THE BOOK?
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FOUND THE QUIZ BEFORE THE BOOK? *
This framework (and three others like it) comes from Swan Dive Backwards: From AI Curious to AI Literate. It's the playbook for leading AI adoption with your natural wiring instead of fighting it. You'll get the full Diver playbook, the sequencing model that puts you in the right position at the right time, and the ROI Stack that proves this stuff actually works.
Move fast with people who get it
AI Power Circle is an implementation mastermind for entrepreneurs and business leaders. You bring the experiments. The room helps you refine them. Think of it as a sandbox with guardrails and a guide.
Ready to scale what you've built?
If you've been an isolated AI experimenter and your organization is ready to catch up, Northlight can help. AI literacy training, audits, and implementation support built for real teams.
Meet Susan Diaz
Susan Diaz is the founder of Northlight, an AI literacy company based in Toronto. She teaches AI-forward Marketing at York University School of Continuing Study, hosts the ‘AI Literacy for Entrepreneurs’ podcast, and facilitates AI Power Circle, an implementation mastermind for entrepreneurs.
Swan Dive Backwards: From AI Curious to AI Literate is her second book. Her first was UNboring (a marketing book that's exactly what it sounds like).
She's a Diver.