Episode 132: Human First, AI Second: Why Connection Decides Whether Transformation Works

So not long ago, just like you said, we had a big shadow AI movement.

And I'm not with this company anymore.

So I can admit I was one of those.

I had

my computer right here with AI because it was just such an amplifier, right? And so it was kind of this underground bottom-up movement.

Now leaders, and this is true at my company, are saying we have to use AI.

I'm seeing there's fear of job loss.

There's anger towards AI because of the job loss, because of the um environmental impact so all all of the things um how do you what do you say to leaders and how do you manage or or maybe i'm going down the wrong track like are you helping leaders figure out how to get their people to adopt ai or are you is this something else

So what we're helping a lot of organizations with right now is how can they ensure that their leaders are equipped with the right tools and the right strategies to lead through what is a pretty large transformation, right, in an organization.

when it comes to AI.

And there's lots of other stuff happening as well, right? But to everything you just said, it's bringing a lot of uncertainty.

It's bringing a lot of anxiousness.

It's bringing people starting to check out or even resent how their organization is approaching AI.

You're seeing headlines one day that say, We're letting 30,000 people go because of AI, that was Oracle.

Then you see another headline that says, we are bringing in 1,000 new people and we're going to actually focus on them being human-centered leaders through AI.

It's hard to know where you're going to fall within an organization.

Is AI going to take my job? Is it going to help my job? What's happening? And I think that the mistake or the misdiagnosis that's happening with a lot of organizations is that they're so focused on the technology piece, right? Do people know how to use the tools, AI fluency training, all of these things that they aren't thinking about how do we ensure our leaders know how to talk to their teams about what's going on?

How do they address the fact

that there is anxiety as it relates to AI? So how do I make sure as a leader that I'm not just saying, go use these tools and we're tracking whether or not you use it or not, because some organizations absolutely are tracking it.

But how do I make sure that they understand the why behind it, right? They trust that it's to their benefit, that it's not going to sort of lead to them getting that pink slip or being on that phone call where they're letting thousands of people go all at one time.

So I think that's the really key part of it.

And that's what our focus is, is, you know, really looking at AI adoption through the people lens and ensuring that the leaders are well equipped to lead through, you know, what's happening really fast, right, in a lot of these organizations.