With the passing of Sir Patrick Stewart last week, I've been seeing lots of clips from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the TV series in which Stewart played Captain Jean-Luc Picard, commander of the starship Enterprise.
I remember watching the show, and although I'm not a huge science fiction fan, I was captivated by Captain Picard in a way I never was with Captain James T. Kirk in the original TV series.
Picard is smart, thoughtful, curious, and guided by a strong moral compass. For me, Picard personifies the Roman ideal vir bonus dicendi peritus, or the good man speaking well. He's the kind of leader I'd follow to the ends of the universe.
But watching those clips got me thinking about another character aboard the Enterprise: Data.
For those unfamiliar with the show, Data was an android—a humanlike robot with extraordinary intelligence who served as an officer under Picard. He could process enormous amounts of information, solve complex problems, and analyze situations far faster than any human.
It occurred to me that Data is a pretty good model for how we should use AI.
Here's a great example.
Click on the image to watch Picard use Data's intelligence to make a better decision—without surrendering his own judgment.
In an episode called The Quality of Life, Data begins to suspect that a group of small maintenance robots, called Exocomps, might actually be intelligent life forms.
It's a surprising conclusion. Everyone else thinks they are machines designed to perform repairs. But Data notices something unusual about their behavior and brings his concerns to Picard.
Picard doesn't simply accept Data's conclusion. He listens to his reasoning, asks questions, and agrees to further testing. In other words, Picard takes Data's analysis seriously without surrendering his own judgment.
And that's exactly how I believe we should approach AI.
Take corporate partnerships, for example.
AI can help you research prospective partners, analyze their business priorities, identify opportunities, and develop outreach strategies.
It can challenge your assumptions and suggest approaches you hadn't considered. That's enormously useful!
But AI can also get things wrong. It can invent facts, misunderstand relationships, and make recommendations that sound convincing but don't hold up under scrutiny.
That's why we need to approach AI the way Picard approached Data. You have to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and consider the evidence. And, ultimately, make our own decisions.
👉🏻 Here's another thing to remember. Despite having an android aboard who knew practically everything, Picard was a voracious learner. He loved history, archaeology, literature, and philosophy. He was endlessly curious about the universe. He didn't use Data as an excuse to stop thinking. He used Data to become a better captain.
I feel the same way about AI. It hasn't made me less curious. If anything, it's made me more curious!
Whether I'm writing, gardening, exploring history, or, yes, working on corporate partnerships, AI helps me ask better questions, explore new ideas, and improve whatever I'm working on.
I'm not thinking less because of AI. I'm thinking more, and I think I'm getting better at it.
And isn't that the point?
So, let AI be Data. You should be Picard.
And when you've considered the evidence and made your decision?
Make it so.🖖
✍️ Partnership Notes
A partnership insight that matters.
🏆 Four Award-Winning Partnerships—and a Playbook for Building Your Own.
What do Mastercard, Abbott, BMO, and Cash App have in common? They've all participated in award-winning partnerships that delivered community impact alongside business results. A new 13-page guide from the Sponsorship Marketing Association, Partnerships with Purpose, examines four of these collaborations, including Mastercard's program helping Indigenous entrepreneurs sell Toronto Maple Leafs merchandise and Abbott's college blood-donation competition that attracted nearly 20,000 donors. The guide includes business results, lessons learned, and a five-step worksheet to help you develop your own partnership.
Joe's Take: I love partnership examples that go beyond how much money a company donated. These four demonstrate how companies can use their products, audiences, sponsorship rights, and expertise to create meaningful impact—and generate business value along the way. My favorite part? The guide asks you to define success for both the community AND the business before the partnership begins.
The worksheet is a terrific starting point. But identifying a promising partnership opportunity and actually winning that partner are two different things. The real work begins when you apply these principles to a specific company—understanding its customers, business priorities, and reasons to say yes. Read the guide, study the examples, and try the worksheet. Just remember: A great partnership doesn't begin with a great idea. It begins when you convince the right company that your idea is worth pursuing.
🤑 Marketing Your Cause
One move you should steal.
🤖 Want AI to recommend your content? Try a better headline.
Mike Taylor at Every ran 2,484 experiments to understand why AI assistants recommend some articles over others. His most surprising discovery? Changing just an article's headline and description could dramatically increase how often AI cited it. One article went from being recommended in just two of 240 tests to all 240 after Taylor replaced a clever but vague headline with one that clearly explained what readers would learn. The article itself never changed! Taylor found that AI assistants generally preferred headlines and descriptions that directly answered users' questions rather than relying on curiosity, cleverness, or catchy slogans. The tests were simulations, not live search results, but the findings offer a useful lesson for anyone publishing online.
🔒 A paywall may stop you from reading this article. Just reply to this email, and I'll send you a copy.
Joe's Take: Nonprofits love inspirational headlines. Changing Lives. Building Hope. Creating a Better Tomorrow. They sound nice, but what do they actually tell readers—or AI assistants—about your work? Not much! Here's something every nonprofit can do: Review the headlines and descriptions of your five most important website pages or articles. Would someone understand exactly what they'll find just by reading those two things? If not, rewrite them. You don't need new content, a bigger marketing budget, or an AI expert. Just make your existing content easier to understand. Before you spend another dollar creating content, spend 30 minutes making the content you already have easier to find and understand.
😎 Cool Jobs in Cause
Find your next adventure.
🤝 Corporate Gifts Officer, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago
🤝 Senior Manager, Partnerships, ASPCA, NYC
🤝 Director, Event Fundraising & Strategic Sponsorships, Points of Light, Remote
🧠🍌 Brain Food
One thing that is feeding my thinking.
🍪 Before Cause Marketing Was Cool, There Was Famous Amos. (🎥 The partnership story starts at the 8:25 mark.)
The recent death of public relations pioneer John Rosica at age 90 reminded me of one of the earliest—and most successful—cause-marketing partnerships. In 1979, Rosica brought together Famous Amos Cookies and Literacy Volunteers of America, four years before American Express launched its famous Statue of Liberty restoration campaign. For cookie entrepreneur Wally Amos, literacy was deeply personal. His mother couldn't read or write, and Amos himself had dropped out of high school before earning his GED. He became the nonprofit's national spokesperson, using his celebrity, television appearances, and promotional tours to champion adult literacy. The partnership helped build awareness of both the cause and the cookie brand.
READ MORE: Remembering John Rosica, a cause-marketing pioneer.
Joe's Take: Nearly 50 years later, there's something refreshing about this partnership. No elaborate activation or complicated technology. Just a charismatic entrepreneur, a cause he genuinely believed in, and a smart publicist who recognized the opportunity. Amos didn't simply lend his name to literacy. He became one of its most enthusiastic advocates, talking about reading whenever he had an audience. And his personal connection to the issue made his advocacy especially powerful. Sometimes the most valuable thing a company can contribute isn't its money. It's its voice. Before asking your next corporate prospect for a check, consider what could happen if the right person at that company became a champion for your cause.
