Jeff's Daily Dose: It's just human nature

Jeff Hyman

17d • Lead the Transformation ✏️

One of our Roundtable members, CEO of a 150-person company, got blindsided.

He'd rolled out AI tools companywide. Same training. Same resources. Same deadline.

3 months later? 20% of his team was crushing it. 60% was fumbling along. And 20% hadn't logged in even once.

He thought he had a training problem. He didn't.

He had a "human" problem.

Clayton Christensen's infamous "Adoption Curve" (5 types of people: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) doesn't just apply to customers buying products. It applies to your employees adopting AI, too. See the bellcurve pix below.

Not because they're tech people or non-tech people. Because they're people. This is how humans adopt anything new... from the printing press to cars to smartphones to AI to that weird standing desk trend from 2015.

So stop treating your AI rollout like everyone will magically get on board at the same pace. They won't.

👍🏼 Find Your Early Adopters

These folks are gold. They're the ones already experimenting with Claude & Gemini on their own time. They're sending you articles about AI. They're asking "what if we tried..." in meetings.

Don't wait for them to raise their hands. How to find these 16% of your people?

> Ask your managers: "Who on your team is already tinkering with AI tools?"

> Look for the people who get excited when things break... because it means they get to figure something out.

Then harness their energy. Appoint them your AI Champions. Give them permission to experiment. Have them train their peers. Nothing spreads adoption faster than a trusted colleague saying "let me show you something cool."

👎🏼 Face The Uncomfortable Truth About Laggards

Some of your people will be late. That's fine... the late majority just needs more proof & hand-holding. Budget extra time for them.

But some people will never get there: "The Resisters"

I'm not being harsh. I'm being realistic. A percentage of your team will resist AI no matter what you do. They'll find reasons. They'll create workarounds. They'll slow everyone else down.

We'll cover how to handle those exits in a future Daily Dose. For now, just know: not everyone is going to make this journey with you.

That's not a failure of your leadership or training. That's the adoption curve doing what it's always done.

✅ This week, identify your top 3 Early Adopters. Treat them to lunch. Ask what they're experimenting with. Then give them a mandate to spread what they know.

The curve is predictable.

Have you begun using it?

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