How Claude Thinks
60 minutes
Module 01
How Claude Thinks
The mental model that turns prompts into reliable outcomes.
Charter Oak Strategic Partners
“It’s Google with better sentences.”
“It’s magic. Just ask it anything.”
Both miss
the point.
Claude is a
reasoning engine.
It reads what you provide.
It follows constraints.
It reasons through the task.
Better context in. Better decisions out.
Five categories.
One framework.
Generation
Create what does not exist yet.
Analysis
Interrogate what already exists.
Transformation
Keep meaning. Change form.
Extraction
Pull signal from noise.
Reasoning
Work through decisions step by step.
Same question.
Three ways.
You
employee turnover
Claude
Turnover is when employees leave and are replaced. U.S. average is roughly 15%.
Generic. Nothing you can act on.
You
Help me understand our turnover problem.
Claude
Common causes include pay, management, growth opportunities, and workload. Try exit interviews.
General advice. Any company, any industry.
You
HR analyst at a 200-person manufacturer. Turnover jumped from 14% to 23% in two quarters. Identify root causes and recommend three fixes. Format as a CEO brief.
Claude
CEO Brief — Three root causes: regional wage gap (+$3–5/hr to competitors), slow certification pipeline (14-month average), OT fatigue on second shift (73% of exits). Fix: adjust pay bands, fast-track apprenticeship program, redesign shift rotation.
Specific. Actionable. Boardroom-ready.
Two minutes of writing.
Two hours of work.
Task Category Sort
Twenty real workplace tasks. Five categories.
Work in pairs. Eight minutes.
Some tasks fit more than one category. That’s the point.
Claude does math.
Contribution margin = $68.00 − $26.69 = $41.31
Break-even = $472,000 ÷ $41.31 = 11,426 units
Above 11,426 → each sale adds $41.31 profit
Which of the five categories would save you the most time this week?
What surprised you about what Claude can do?
Think about the math, the turnover analysis, the category exercise.
Where in your work are you currently sending Version A prompts?
“employee turnover”
Generic. No context.
If Claude handles all five task types, what does your week look like?
Next: the five-part structure behind every strong prompt.
Sixty seconds of extra structure. Hours of revision removed.
Five-minute break, then we build the skill.