At SEP, an Idea Is Enough

What I learned from turning a question into an internal debate series.

The Question That Started It

When I first had the idea for an internal debate series at SEP, there was no plan behind it. There was just a question I thought could lead to a worthwhile conversation:

Is AI making us incompetent under the guise of speed?

It felt relevant to where we were as a company, but the format itself was new. SEP hadn’t done something quite like it before, and it was easy to see all the reasons it might not work. A debate could become too confrontational. People might be uncomfortable arguing against coworkers. The format could create more heat than substance.

So instead of trying to solve all of that in my own head, I started talking to people.

Let the Pushback Improve the Idea

I spoke with about five people across different roles before doing much of anything else. Some were immediately excited. Others shared my concerns about coworkers debating one another and whether the discussion would stay constructive.

Those conversations helped me get much clearer about what I was trying to create. I wanted a structured conversation where people could argue a position, challenge each other’s thinking, and leave having thought more deeply about an important topic. The format needed to support that goal.

I hadn’t articulated it that clearly before people pushed back. Their questions gave me something concrete to work through and helped turn a provocative topic into an event with a purpose.

That was one of the first things I learned from the process: if you hear resistance, don’t immediately interpret it as a verdict. Talk to more people. Sometimes criticism means an idea is bad. Other times, it’s showing you the part you haven’t figured out yet.

Find Someone Who Can Help You Build It

As the idea took shape, I needed someone who could help turn it into something real. For me, that person was Jon Fuller, Director of Engineering, who leads a lot of our AI enablement work.

Because the topic centered on how we use AI, I brought it to Jon early. He quickly became the main champion, helping me think through the format, who to involve, and the pieces I hadn’t considered.

There can be a natural hesitation in bringing an unfinished idea to someone with a lot on their plate. It’s easy to tell yourself you should come back once everything is figured out. This experience reinforced how useful it can be to bring someone in earlier. Find someone who understands what you’re trying to accomplish and can help you see the gaps before you spend weeks filling them in yourself.

Raman Ohri, SEP’s President and CEO, became part of the process too. He helped us consider how the format would land across the company, gave the idea the green light, and worked with us on how the teams should be constructed.

Jon helped drive the idea forward while Raman helped make sure it made sense for the broader organization. Having both perspectives gave us a stronger foundation for bringing everyone else in.

Ask Before Deciding the Answer Is No

Getting people involved was the part I expected to be hardest. People are busy. Calendars are full. When you’re approaching someone in a senior role, it’s easy to assume an unconventional idea will take a tremendous amount of convincing.

The people I assumed would be hardest to get involved were often some of the quickest to say yes.

That extended beyond the debate participants. As the event grew, there was someone willing to help with nearly every piece of it, including seating arrangements, reminder emails, pizza, and the other details that made the event feel complete.

None of those things happened automatically. For almost every piece, I still had to approach someone and explain the idea. But once people understood what I was trying to accomplish, the response was usually closer to “How can I help?” than I’d expected.

It changed how I thought about introducing something new at SEP. There were established ways of doing things, but there was also room for experimentation. I’d assumed more resistance than I actually encountered.

That willingness to ask became even more important when a key participant could no longer be part of the debate. Something that had felt settled suddenly needed to be solved again, this time with much less notice.

My immediate thought was asking Jyotsna Raghuraman, a very well respected engineer around the building. Preparing takes time, and I was asking someone of Jyotsna’s stature to make room for something she hadn’t planned on doing. But I reached out, explained the situation, and asked. One conversation later, she was on board.

That moment stayed with me because I’d nearly treated my assumption about someone else’s answer as a reason not to ask.

So, is AI making us incompetent under the guise of speed?

The debate itself went places I didn’t expect. The side arguing YES leaned hardest on code review, that people were approving generated code they couldn’t have written. The side arguing NO pointed out that the same complaint followed Stack Overflow and IDEs. Nobody landed a knockout. That was the point.

What an Idea Is Enough For

The debate series ultimately brought together teams, judges, experts, and people who helped coordinate everything around them. The question about AI gave us something worth discussing, and making that discussion happen took contributions from across the company.

Looking at the finished event, it would be easy to assume all those pieces were part of an original plan. They came together through conversations. Someone challenged the format. Someone became a champion. Someone else added a perspective I didn’t have or helped solve the next problem.

You don’t need every answer before you raise your hand. You need a sense of what you’re trying to accomplish, the willingness to let people challenge and improve it, and enough initiative to have the next conversation.

Sometimes the biggest barrier to trying something new is the version of that conversation you’ve already played out in your head. The real one might go very differently.

That’s what I mean when I say that at SEP, an idea is enough.

Not enough to finish.

Enough to start.

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