Advisory
Better thinking. Better outcomes.
Using the knowledge gained from over 40 years engaged in business, politics, culture and communities, we work with organisations on two challenges that we all currently face: how to maximise the use AI for our benefit; and how to value and utilise the skills of people who can make connections in a complex world.
This advisory work is grounded in the same belief that underpins the newsletter: that the quality of thinking is undervalued in the accelerated culture of the 21st Century, but is the very thing that can help us adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Better thinking leads to better outcomes isn’t just a catchy slogan: it’s a method of working.
Uncommon Sense is a publication, but it’s also the demonstration of a practice, a way of seeing the world and its challenges.
AI editorial input/output (AIEIO)
We help organisations that use AI for their current and future needs.
Since the dawn of computing, one of the immutable laws has been Garbage In, Garbage Out (GIGO). In the age of AI, this law is truer (and more consequential) than it has ever been.
AI tools do not compensate for vague thinking, weak briefs or unclear purpose: if anything, they amplify them. The organisation that uses AI without an ‘editorial’ discipline doesn’t get better output, faster: it gets worse output at scale, with a veneer of fluency that ends up making the problems harder to spot.
Slop, as we’re coming to know it
“The rule you should remember is that you can't give the AI less information than you'd give a human to do the same job and expect excellence. The age-old law of ‘Garbage In, Garbage Out’ applies here." Dave Birss, AI instructor, writer and consultant
Learning how to use a tool
With the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 stating that by 2030, 59% of the world’s workforce will require training, a McKInsey report suggests that in the AI age, reskilling and upskilling will be required on a scale that hasn’t been seen before.
“In many cases, AI is ‘under the hood’ and the learning needs to focus more on ways of working than tech fluency. In these cases, in particular, experiential learning in the employee context will be essential,” the report states.
Or, as Jamie Bartlett (author of the bestselling How to Talk to AI) explains, the best prompters won’t be machine-learning engineers: they’ll be people who already know how to ask a good question, frame a clear brief and judge an answer – "English literature graduates, poets and psychologists."
The difference between organisations that use AI well and those that don't is rarely about the tools. It’s about the quality of the input: the precision of the brief, the clarity of the standard, the judgment to know when the output isn't good enough and why.
Most people using AI write prompts by instinct, accept the results by default and then just edit around the edges. The result is content that sounds like AI, because it was treated like AI.
This is an editorial input problem, not a technical output one. The solution is better thinking to create better prompts: only then will your AI outputs improve to harness the benefits of this important new technology.
AIEIO in practice
Workshop: Talking to AI
A full-day workshop for teams already using AI tools, but who want to use them more effectively.
Attendees learn:
• How AI generates answers and why that explains both its strengths and weaknesses
• Prompting techniques they can use in their work the next day – and every day
• Direct, hands-on practice applying those techniques to their own work
• A clear-eyed, non-evangelistic view of where AI helps, where it doesn't and how to stay in control of the conversation
Suitable for: Any individuals or teams using AI tools
Advisory session
A focused, one-off conversation to diagnose how your organisation is currently using AI - and where the risks and opportunities lie. Practical, honest and immediately actionable, the session also includes a short written summary of findings and recommendations.
Suitable for: Leadership teams
Written guide/framework
A bespoke document tailored to your organisation's voice, standards and use cases: a practical operating framework for AI prompting. What to use it for, how to brief it, how to control the quality of the output - and where human judgement is non-negotiable. Includes document review, a structured interview with key stakeholders, and a framework document built for embedding and sharing. For larger organisations (500+ employees), a more modular approach is available.
Suitable for: Organisations that need something to embed, share and return to
Ongoing audit retainer
A light-touch retained relationship for organisations that want to stay current as AI tools evolve. Includes a quarterly review of how the organisation's AI use has developed, updated recommendations and a standing call to address emerging questions. Annual commitment preferred.
Suitable for: Organisations with active, evolving AI workflows that need ongoing quality oversight
For enquiries and bespoke scoping: advisory@uncommonsense.org.uk
Range advisory services
We work with organisations to find, develop and retain their best thinkers, the people whose careers reflect range, rather than specialism.
Most organisations say they need people who can adapt, connect ideas across disciplines and take the lead in conditions of change or uncertainty.
At the same time, most organisations (without having actively decided to) also build systems that don’t make the most of those people.
The results of recent research is unambiguous. A survey of 36,000 professionals across 20 countries found that more than half of self-identified generalists see no clear career path for themselves; nearly half believe specialists are promoted faster; and three-quarters report burnout.
These aren’t engagement problems: they’re structural problems, with structural solutions.
The Uncommon Sense Range advisory helps organisations find the generalist talent they already have, understand why they are losing it and build the conditions for it to do its best work.
Range advisory in practice
We usually begin with a conversation and then scale to whatever your organisation needs. Most engagements start with a keynote or diagnostic session that clearly establishes the problem, developing from there into workshops, audits or ongoing relationships.
The Range keynote
A 45–60 minute talk for senior leaders and HR audiences that translates the research into direct organisational challenge. Organisations say they need generalists, so why are their systems quietly ignoring them? Suitable for conferences, leadership away-days and internal events.
Suitable for: Senior leadership teams, HR and people directors, conference and away-day audiences.
The Uncommon Sense masterclass
A 90-minute interactive session introducing the generalist/specialist spectrum and inviting participants to locate themselves on it. Works as a standalone event or as a natural precursor to deeper engagement.
Suitable for: Mixed professional audiences, leadership cohorts, team away-days.
The Range diagnostic session
A structured 90-minute 1:1 or small-group conversation, exploring an individual's career history and working style, but through the lens of the generalist/specialist spectrum. Includes a written summary and recommendations.
Suitable for: Individual professionals, HR-referred employees, career development contexts.
The Inner Generalist workshop
Half-day or full-day in-house workshops for teams of up to 20 people. Built around three stages: recognition (What kind of thinker am I?), reframing (Is my career history actually range, not inconsistency?) and activation (What do I do with it?). Practical exercises throughout, using participants' own experience.
Suitable for: Communications teams, research and policy teams, knowledge-economy organisations.
The Range audit
A consultancy engagement that assesses an organisation's talent pool, recruitment processes and promotion criteria against a generalist-informed framework. Combines document review, structured interviews with HR leads and a sample of employees, and analysis of existing data where available. Delivers a written report with concrete recommendations.
Suitable for: HR directors, people and talent leads, senior leadership teams.
The Generalist identification programme
A structured process for identifying generalist talent within an existing workforce - people who may be misclassified, underutilised or at flight risk. Combines a survey instrument, facilitated workshops with line managers and a structured feedback process. Delivers a tiered map of generalist talent with recommendations for role design, development pathways and recognition.
Suitable for: Organisations of 200+ employees with active talent retention challenges.
The Range retainer
A monthly or quarterly retained relationship for organisations that want ongoing advisory as their talent challenges evolve. Includes a monthly briefing on emerging evidence around generalism and the future of work, updated recommendations, and a standing call to apply them to current challenges.
Suitable for: HR directors and chief people officers wanting a sustained thinking partner.
For enquiries and bespoke scoping: advisory@uncommonsense.org.uk
About Craig Thomas
With more than 40 years as a journalist, copywriter, editor and editorial consultant across print, digital and brand content, Craig Thomas founded Uncommon Sense in 2026 as a synthesis publication for intelligent generalists - and as a live demonstration of what rigorous, cross-domain thinking looks like in practice.
He advises organisations that are serious about the quality of their thinking and communications, and want to protect those standards in a world that keeps finding new ways to simplify our complex, changing world.