Leading in the Era of AI: Culture, Clarity, and Keeping Humanity at Work — with Christine Miller

Your Team Already Knows Your AI Use Cases: Christine Miller on Going Slow to Go Fast

In this post: Former Melinta Therapeutics CEO Christine Miller explains why a strategy set before AI arrives is the best preparation for disruption, and why her teams already knew where AI could help.

When Christine Miller started at Melinta Therapeutics, the company had just come out of bankruptcy. Every instinct in that situation says move fast.

Miller, a chemical engineer by training, went to her board and asked to slow down.

"It would really be easy to just continue to firefight," she said on Activating Greatness, the leadership podcast from Velocity Advisory Group. "But as a leader, I took the stand of saying, no, we need to go slow."

That decision later paid off in a way she had not planned. When the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) reached Melinta, the company already knew where it was headed and which problems stood in the way. For leaders fielding daily questions from boards and investors about their AI strategy, Miller's experience offers a counterintuitive lesson: The best preparation for a disruptive technology is a strategy you set before it arrives.

Go Slow to Go Fast

Miller believes some principles stand the test of time. One is that you go slow to go fast. At Melinta, that meant an early conversation with the board. Miller asked to step back and answer basic questions: what problem the company was trying to solve, where it was headed, and which strategic pillars it would need to get there. "Let's slow it down so we could get everybody on the same page as to what we are trying to do," she said.

Once the organization shared that answer, people could turn to the how. "What tools, what resources can we leverage to be able to do that?" she said, describing the shift.

She credits a line from Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines, for how she thinks about the top job. "The CEO has to own the strategy," she recalled him saying. In Miller's view, that means articulating the strategy clearly and rearticulating it to every stakeholder, the board included, especially under pressure to chase the latest tool.

Disruption can cost revenue, she acknowledged. "But if you're able to paint a picture for people on what greatness will look like on the other side of those choppy waters, you will be so surprised who will go with you," she said.

The Use Cases Were Already in the Building

When AI arrived, Melinta did not start from scratch. The strategic plan and its pillars were in place, and so was a clear sense of the problems teams were trying to solve. The company launched a companywide program, AI at Melinta, focused on bringing disruptive ideas forward and applying AI to problems teams had already identified as obstacles to long-term strategic goals.

The ideas came from inside the company. Miller joked about the outcome, but she meant it. "We didn't have to end up spending millions of dollars with a consulting firm to find use cases to apply AI," she said. "Our teams knew the problems that needed to be solved. They were already working on those problems."

"Our teams knew the problems that needed to be solved."

Christine Miller, Former CEO, Melinta Therapeutics

The difference was framing. Employees were asked how a new resource could help with work they already owned. Miller called that a much more empowering approach than the fear and sense of falling behind she sees in many organizations today. Addison Watson took up AI from another angle in what makes people indispensable.

Ask Whether the Technology Makes You Obsolete

Miller's calm about AI has roots in her MBA coursework on Clayton Christensen's research into disruptive technologies, including case studies of companies that no longer exist. The pattern she took away: Disrupted companies protect their core business and their revenue, "so they try to do more of the same versus looking at trying to do something new."

Her antidote is a blunt question. Is this technology going to change the way you do business, or make your business obsolete? For pharmaceuticals, she answered it quickly. Human beings, at least for the foreseeable future, are going to need medicine. "Now, the way we deliver those goods and services is what we have the opportunity to rethink," she said.

She pointed listeners to the Acquired podcast's episode on Rolex, which she said stayed so focused on its mission and purpose that it came through the arrival of quartz technology. Her verdict: "Everybody still likes their Rolex."

Guardrails and the Small-Company Edge

Rethinking how the work gets done is the leader's job, in Miller's view, and it starts with creating space for people to reimagine what they do. That freedom comes with limits, since no team gets to spend all the money. "You do have to have a little bit of guardrails," she said. Within them, "you'll find that people find a way to do more faster."

She sees the biggest opportunity in smaller organizations. Small companies worry constantly about resources, and AI gives them capacity they would not otherwise have. "You're able to punch way above your weight," she said. They are also less bogged down by the processes that stifle innovation at large companies, where people protect their own fiefdoms.

Attention Is the Skill AI Cannot Replace

Miller's most pointed advice was about people. Asked how leaders can keep AI from eroding a people-first culture, her answer was immediate: Spend more time with your people. "There is no substitute for spending time with people," she said.

Her rapid-fire answers reinforced the point. The most underrated leadership skill, she said, is being attentive, which means reading body language and noticing what people are not saying. "When you're able to be attentive and attuned to what's happening around you and the people that you're interacting with, this goes a long way to building trust," she said.

The habit to drop is multitasking. Her fix is to go analog. Wear a watch so you are not checking your phone for the time, she suggested. She takes notes on a digital notepad instead of a laptop. Matt Taylor examined the human side of that shift in the judgment gap.

Frequently Asked Questions

How should a CEO respond to board pressure to adopt AI?

Christine Miller, former CEO of Melinta Therapeutics, advises going slow to go fast. Before chasing tools, align the board and the organization on purpose and the problems the company is trying to solve. Citing Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian, she said the CEO has to own the strategy and rearticulate it to every stakeholder, including the board. AI then becomes a resource applied to known priorities.

How can a company find AI use cases without hiring consultants?

Start with the problems your teams are already working on. At Melinta Therapeutics, Christine Miller's team ran a companywide program that asked employees how AI could help solve problems tied to the company's long-term strategic goals. With a strategic plan already in place, the ideas came from inside. "We didn't have to end up spending millions of dollars with a consulting firm to find use cases to apply AI," she said.

How can leaders tell whether a disruptive technology threatens their business?

Christine Miller suggests asking whether the technology will change the way you do business or make your business obsolete. Drawing on Clayton Christensen's research, she noted that disrupted companies usually protect their core revenue and keep doing more of the same. In pharmaceuticals, people will still need medicine, so the opportunity lies in rethinking how products and services are delivered.

Can AI help small companies compete with larger ones?

Yes, according to Christine Miller, former CEO of Melinta Therapeutics. Small companies often worry about limited resources, and AI gives them additional capacity they would not otherwise have, allowing them to punch above their weight. Smaller firms also face fewer layers of process that slow new ideas. She recommends giving teams freedom to reimagine their work within clear guardrails.

The Takeaway: Look Across the Table

The best leadership advice Miller ever received was about peers. Rising leaders, and even CEOs, tend to focus on the people they report to. Miller learned to watch the people alongside her. "What are their needs? What are they going through? How can you help them?" she said. The goal is collaboration that helps "rise all tides."

A new technology tempts leaders to look up at the board or out at competitors. Miller's experience suggests the answers sit closer to home: in a strategy set before the pressure hits, and in teams who already know which problems are worth solving.

Listen to the Full Episode

Hear Christine Miller's full conversation with host Alec McChesney on Activating Greatness. Find it on YouTube, or listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow Christine on LinkedIn.