Incorporating Change Management into Your AI Implementation, Part 5

AI Landscapes: Redefining Commerce, Careers, and Communities - Article 5 of 8

Understand How People Experience Change

Choosing a good change management framework and using it consistently can help your organization navigate this transition. Change methodologies abound, so there are plenty to select from. In this article, we’ll refer to The Change Cycle by Ann Salerno & Lillie Brock. But the lessons should be able to be adapted for whatever framework you choose.

Change has its own life cycle. The Change Cycle calls its first stage Loss. When confronted with change, people may fear losing what is familiar: established routines, confidence in their skills, or a clear understanding of their role.

Recognizing where people are in this process helps leaders understand how they feel and what support they need. Before asking employees to embrace AI, we need to acknowledge what the transition may mean to them.

Listen Before Trying to Fix

Thinking about AI through the lens of The Change Cycle offers practical guidance for how we behave and communicate:

• Avoid trying to ‘fix’ the change. There’s not enough known about it yet.
• Avoid overhyping the advantages that may emerge.
• Actively listen to the fears and concerns of staff.
• Have empathy towards those struggling with the feelings of loss surrounding the change.
• Explore the question – “What’s the worst that could happen?” This will help direct concerns into tangible risks that can be managed.
• Help channel fear into action by giving employees a meaningful role in exploring the change.

You’ll remember from earlier articles on Futurecasting that we advocate an inclusive process that exposes staff to use cases and allows them to actively consider how their adoption would change the work that is done. We’ve designed this process to incorporate change management principles and meet people where they are.

Use Information to Help People Move Forward

As the team moves through the stage of Loss, they will encounter Doubt. Here, information and facts become especially important. What could actually change? What will still require human judgment? What might employees need to learn?

Futurecasting and the skills-based view of work discussed in Part 4 give these questions a practical focus. Employees can examine their own activities and capabilities, explore potential applications, and better understand what the changes could mean for them.

Having more information does not eliminate every concern. It may bring people into the next stage, Discomfort, as the implications become clearer. But being informed and involved can help employees move through uncertainty and begin breaking the paralysis that organizations often experience.

Build Learning into the Process

Understanding how people experience change helps us create a more useful learning experience. Employees need opportunities to explore, ask questions, and apply what they learn to their own work.

In Part 6, we describe the AI learning pathway we’ve developed to help organizations move through this process and into the stages of Discomfort and Discovery.

Thanks for reading. Let’s talk AI implementation. Send me a note at wade@batonglobal.com.

About Wade Britt‍

Wade Hampton Britt, IV is a partner and the Managing Director at Bâton Global. He has lived and worked in a dozen countries in the global express and edtech sectors before joining Bâton Global in 2016. Wade is passionate about helping clients and their communities navigate the AI disruption better than previous technological changes.

My sincere thanks to Ann Salerno and Lillie Brock for their great book on change management – The Change Cycle.