One of the quieter casualties of AI isn’t our ability to think. It’s our willingness to wonder. Every day, leaders are rewarded for having answers. Team members come with questions, problems, and uncertainty, and the instinct is understandable: solve it quickly, remove the friction, keep things moving. Responsiveness feels like good leadership.
But what if our speed is costing our people
something more valuable?
Wonder is where insight begins. It’s the space between the question and the answer—that sometimes uncomfortable period where people wrestle with possibilities, make unexpected connections, and arrive at discoveries of their own. Increasingly, though, we’re shortening that space. AI gives us answers in seconds. Leaders often provide them even faster. The result is certainly efficiency. But it may also be fewer opportunities for people to develop judgment, confidence, and the habit of thinking deeply before reaching for an answer.
One of the greatest gifts a leader can give isn’t another answer.
It’s another minute.
Instead of jumping to AI or jumping in yourself, consider asking:
- What possibilities have you considered?
- What makes this problem difficult?
- What are we assuming?
- If there weren’t an obvious answer, where would you start?
These questions don’t delay progress. They deepen it. They invite people to think, not simply respond. And over time, they help build the kind of capability that no technology can replace. The irony is that leaders often believe they’re being helpful by removing struggle. Sometimes they are. But productive struggle is also where judgment develops, resilience grows, and innovation takes root. Not every question deserves an immediate answer. Some deserve a little room to breathe. I’m certainly not suggesting we ignore AI—or withhold our expertise. But I am advocating for becoming more intentional about when we provide (or allow AI to provide) the answer sand when we preserve the wondering. Because if people lose the appetite to wrestle with important questions, they’ll eventually lose the habit as well. Organizations won’t succeed simply because their people can find answers faster. They’ll succeed because their people continue asking better questions. If you’re interested in what this means for learning and development professionals—and why cultivating wonder may become one of L&D’s most important responsibilities—I explore that idea in greater depth in my latest Training Industry Magazine column, “I Wonder… the Skill & Will We’re Silently Surrendering.”
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