Each member of the leadership team chooses a position on seven AI decisions in private, then the team agrees one position together. Once it is confirmed, the agreed position is recorded in Decisions.
The Leadership Position tool is optional, and comes with Standard, Pro and Enterprise. Nothing happens until an owner or admin starts it, and it can be started at any time. You find it under Governance in the sidebar, and as the optional step Agree the leadership position in Governance set-up. It can run alongside The AI State of Play, and once The AI State of Play has closed, the leaders see what people said about these decisions when they compare positions.
This article is for the owners and admins who run it, and "admins" below means both. The leaders taking part have their own article, Taking part in the Leadership Position tool, which covers who sees their positions and when.
It runs in three phases: choosing and confirming positions, then the second look and the discussion, then checking and confirming the agreed position.
Starting itLink to this section
The Leadership Position tool has five steps: Set-up, Invite the leaders, then the three phases, Your position, Team positions and Agreed position. If you are not taking part yourself, the third step is Leaders' positions, which shows who has confirmed. Status, at the right of the steps, reads Not started, In progress or Completed.
Set-up says what happens, who's involved, how long it takes and what comes out of it. Then:
- People taking part. Your Senior Leaders are listed and ticked. Owners and Admins are listed too, and ticked if they were on the last agreed position. One person is enough. To list someone else, give them the Senior Leader role on People → All people.
- Job title. Optional, and shown in brackets after their name on the agreed position.
- Final Decision Maker. One of the people taking part. It is required, and defaults to last time's choice.
- Target completion date. Two weeks on, unless you choose another date at least 2 days from today. We work out the leaders' two dates from it: we ask for their positions 5 days before it (or by today, when it is fewer than 5 days away), and for their second look by it. Each date covers the whole of that day, in the organisation's time zone.
Nothing is sent while you fill this in, and your choices are kept in your browser until you start, so you can come back to them. Then choose Continue.
Invite the leaders shows the invitation each person taking part will get, in full. You can change its subject and message. The parts in grey are filled in for each person and stay as they are: their name, the date we need their positions by, who can see their positions, the button, and who to ask if they have questions. With an account and Without an account show the two versions: people without an account get Set up your account instead, which works for 7 days and takes them straight to the Leadership Position tool. Use our wording puts the subject and message back as we wrote them.
Then choose Invite the leaders. The invitations go straight away, to everyone taking part apart from you, since you are already on the page. Afterwards, Invite the leaders shows the invitation as it went.
Starting it, adding a person and sending a reminder all need your own email address to be confirmed first, because the invitations and reminders go out in the organisation's name. See Why do I need to confirm my email before inviting people?
If any invitation does not send, the page says how many, and that person's state reads Invitation not sent. From the next day, Send a reminder emails them again, with a new link to set up an account if they have none. It goes to everyone who has not confirmed, and uses that day's one reminder.
Who can see whatLink to this section
- Leaders, including any admin taking part, see nobody else's positions until they have confirmed their own and the team's positions are shared.
- The Final Decision Maker sees how many leaders have confirmed, not who, unless they are also an admin.
- Admins see who has confirmed, by name, and never a position before positions are shared. Afterwards, an admin who is not taking part sees every confirmed leader's positions by name. An admin who is taking part sees them once they have confirmed their own, like any other leader.
- Once the agreed position is confirmed, each leader's final positions are shown only to that leader. The agreed position names who took part and who confirmed it, and lists anyone who disagrees with a recorded decision but backs it.
Each person's state on the page is one of Confirmed, Not confirmed, Invited (no account yet), Invitation not sent or Deactivated (their account was deactivated while they were still to confirm).
The Final Decision MakerLink to this section
The Final Decision Maker can decide a split decision for the leadership team, and record the outcome. A decision is split when the team has not reached agreement on it in Phase 2. An admin can record the outcome too, as decided by the leadership team or by the Final Decision Maker, but never decides it.
While positions are being collected, the Final Decision Maker can send a reminder, change the date and share positions now. Their own positions stay private until the team's are shared, like everyone's, and being the Final Decision Maker changes nothing else about what they can see or do in The GAiGE.
Only an admin can change the Final Decision Maker: to someone taking part while the Leadership Position tool is in use, and to someone who took part once the agreed position is confirmed. If you take the Final Decision Maker out, nobody holds the role until you choose another, so choose one straight afterwards.
Once every leader who has confirmed has finished their second look, or the second-look date has passed, the Final Decision Maker or an admin records the outcome of each decision the team has not agreed. Either of them can reopen a recorded decision, which is then worked out again from the leaders' current positions. In Phase 3, the Final Decision Maker or an admin then confirms the agreed position.
Dates and remindersLink to this section
The target completion date. Once it is running, admins and the Final Decision Maker can move it with Change the date, below the steps. While positions are being collected, the date we need positions by moves with it, so the new date needs to be at least 2 days from today. Once positions are shared, the second-look date moves with it instead, to today or later. Once positions are shared, the second look is never shorter than two days from sharing, so a target sooner than that moves it to two days after sharing. If it was started without a target completion date (before the date existed, or with Record the position or Set out a position in Governance set-up), it keeps its own two dates: Change the date moves the positions date, and after sharing the second-look date.
When the date has passed:
- At least two leaders confirmed. Their positions are shared, and the rest can still confirm and join them.
- Fewer than two confirmed. Nothing is shared yet. The page says so, and we email the owners and admins, asking them to change the date to give the others more time, or to remove anyone who cannot take part. If the date stays as it is, positions are shared as soon as a second leader confirms.
The second-look date. When positions are shared, the second-look date is the target completion date, or two days after sharing if the target is sooner. Answers to the team's proposals close at the end of that day.
Send a reminder. Admins and the Final Decision Maker can send one reminder a day, from the day after the invitations go. It emails everyone else still to confirm, asking for their positions by the date, apart from anyone invited that same day, who already has an email from us. Anyone without an account gets a new link to set one up. Every reminder asks for the same thing in the same words.
Once the date has passed without positions being shared, change the date first, so the reminder asks for positions by a future date.
After positions are shared, Send a reminder emails everyone else still to finish their second look or answer a proposal, asking for it by the second-look date. It also emails anyone still to confirm, asking for their positions by the same date, with a new link to set up an account where they need one. It can go from the day after positions are shared, and once the second-look date has passed, change the date first.
Apart from our weekly email, which lists what is waiting on each person, the Leadership Position tool's asks included, reminders go only when someone sends one.
Link to this section
Positions are shared when the first of these happens:
- the last leader confirms
- the date passes with at least two leaders confirmed, or a second leader confirms after it
- an admin or the Final Decision Maker chooses Share positions now, which needs at least two leaders to have confirmed
Once positions are shared, the leaders who have confirmed see each other's positions by name, and so do the organisation's owners and admins. Anyone still to confirm sees them once they confirm. Sharing cannot be undone.
Adding or removing someoneLink to this section
Add a person (admins only). Senior Leaders, Owners and Admins not already taking part can be added. They get an invitation straight away, with the subject and message it was started with. If the date has passed without positions being shared, change the date first, so the invitation asks for positions by a future date. Someone added after positions are shared is told the others' positions are shared, and sees them once they confirm their own.
Remove (admins only). Any positions they have chosen are deleted. You can add them again later, and they start from the beginning. If someone leaves the organisation while the Leadership Position tool is in use, take them out, so the others are not waiting for them to confirm.
Two limits apply:
- At least one person needs to take part. To end it, choose Stop agreeing the position.
- Before positions are shared, you cannot take someone out if that would leave one leader who has already confirmed, because their positions would then show before the team's are shared. Add another leader first.
Confirming the agreed positionLink to this section
Phase 3 opens once every decision has an agreed position, as long as every leader who has confirmed has finished their second look or the second-look date has passed. Everyone who can see the team's positions then sees the agreed position as it would be recorded, with any tensions between decisions. The Final Decision Maker or an admin confirms it. A Final Decision Maker or admin who is taking part confirms their own position in Phase 1 first.
A caution needs no action. Each conflict needs one of two things before you can confirm: change one of the decisions it involves, which opens the same form as recording a decision, or choose Accept the conflict and give the organisation's reason for accepting it. Reasons are saved when you confirm, so accept the conflicts and confirm in the same sitting. Until then, Change the reason lets you reword one.
On each recorded decision, the agreed position lists any leader whose own position differs from it as disagreeing but backing it. They see this in Phase 3, where Go with the team takes the recorded position as theirs and their name off the list. You can confirm without waiting for them.
Leaders can change their positions until it is confirmed. If a change leaves a decision without an agreed position, that decision goes back to the discussion, and Phase 3 opens again once it has one.
Confirm the agreed position asks you to type CONFIRM. Confirming adds it to Decisions, due for review six months on, and emails it to everyone who took part and to the owners and admins, apart from you. Each leader's positions are then final, and shown only to that leader.
The agreed positionLink to this section
Once it is confirmed, the Leadership Position tool shows the agreed position: each decision, how it was reached, any reasons, who disagrees with a recorded decision but backs it, the accepted conflicts and their reasons, who took part, the Final Decision Maker, who confirmed it, the date agreed and the review date. Download the PDF gives the same as a PDF, names and reasons included.
The leaders on it, the Final Decision Maker, the current members of the organisation's leadership group, and its owners and admins can read it and download the PDF. It is listed under History with the dates it started and was agreed.
Decisions lists it as The leadership team's position on AI, with Open the Leadership Position tool in place of Edit. When it is due for review, the next Review includes it with the positions on who decides, off limits, aims for AI and time to learn. These, and the email, show positions without names or reasons. The How We Use AI Report shows only the date it was agreed and its review date.
Stopping itLink to this section
Stop agreeing the position (admins only) deletes every position chosen so far, and no agreed position is recorded. We email everyone taking part to say it has stopped, apart from you. This cannot be undone.
It stays listed under History with the dates it started and stopped, and you can start the Leadership Position tool again at any time.
When one person takes partLink to this section
One person is enough. An admin can choose the positions alone, for example, and check them with the leadership team in person.
Nothing is shared and there is no second look. Once they confirm, they check their positions for tensions between decisions and confirm them as the organisation's agreed position. Their positions stay as they confirmed them, so each conflict between them is accepted with a reason. The agreed position then says it was recorded by them.
Once the one person taking part has confirmed, nobody else can be added. To bring others in, stop it and start it again with everyone.
After it is confirmedLink to this section
Once confirmed, the agreed position stays as recorded. A leader with second thoughts should talk to the Final Decision Maker or an admin.
It gets a review date six months on, and when it's due, the next Review includes it.
Something missing or out of date here? Tell us.