How to create an AI-ready culture for success

BUSINESS AGILITY THROUGH AUTHENTIC INFLUENCE The pattern is clear: organisations that embrace authentic influence become genuinely agile. Those clinging to traditional power structures become corporate museums - pretty to look at, but ultimately irrelevant. Business agility isn't about fancy frameworks or new processes. It's about creating organisations where influence flows based on insight, expertise, and authentic connection - not just where someone sits on the org chart. If you're trying to execute better, faster outcomes without inspirational leaders clearing the path, you're failing while your competition races ahead. The old model: power flows down, compliance flows up. The new reality: power flows with people, commitment flows everywhere. Time to choose: evolve or become extinct. Have you caught our latest blog: The influence Illusion? https://lnkd.in/euWBxFZZ #BusinessAgility #InfluenceNetworks #AuthenticInfluence #PerfectRebel #BetterFasterOutcomes

Sometimes a thought lands hard, and won’t let me go: “The systems we build shouldn’t break people.” They should steady them. They should make work clearer, not heavier. They should hold people safely enough that they can do their best work, using the empathy, judgement and creativity no AI will ever replace. What truly empowers people to harness their skills fully and confidently? Safety. Clarity. Support. Over time, when culture works, systems and people start serving one another: purpose driving execution, humanity guiding design. And when you work in an organisation that cares for people in crisis, that matters even more. Because the systems we build need to hold, enable, and sustain the people who hold others. There is always light, and good systems make sure it reaches everyone. #leadership #workculture #humanityatwork #purpose #thereisalwayslight

𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐥 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐑𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared thoughts about silos, corrective cultures, and the hidden struggles between providers and payees. The more I see, the clearer it becomes: Most organizations don’t fail because of bad strategy — they fail because of a weak foundation. Culture is that foundation. You can’t build prevention on a foundation of correction. You can’t expect synergy in a system built on silos. And you can’t create lasting change if your culture rewards firefighting instead of foresight. Leadership sets the tone, but culture sustains it. It’s the bridge between good intentions and consistent behavior. Without it, even the best tools — AI, analytics, or new workflows — simply automate the same old habits. That’s why I wrote Reinforce the Foundation: Culture Change That Sticks — the second book in The Zelem Shift Trilogy. It explores how to diagnose the culture you actually have, expose the behaviors that hold you back, and rebuild around prevention, trust, and alignment. True change doesn’t come from new programs. It comes from reinforcing what everything else rests on — the foundation. Because once you reinforce the foundation, everything built on top finally holds. https://lnkd.in/gJPsYPv6 #Leadership #CultureChange #Prevention #TheZelemShift #OperationalExcellence #SilosToSynergy #ReinforceTheFoundation

#thoughtfulthursday Today's and this weeks theme has definitely focused around mission focus and the need for customer focus from IT teams. In this age of AI focused initiatives, it'll be easy to forget what the real value of people are in your IT organization. There is no doubt that the advent of more thoughtful AI solutions will have increased value for businesses, but the people who deliver the solution will carry a burden of feeling replaceable by the very same tech they deliver. This is where the customer oriented team comes into play. Explaining IT to non-IT customers was already a challenge in of itself in many IT support cultures, which is why we generally believe in personality hires being an equal weight to technical skillsets. Explaining the unknown is a critical customer service skillset that requires tact, empathy, and agility. To explain the value of AI utility from the customer perspective while remaining confident in their own value to deliver it, is the new reality support teams are in. This isn't necessarily a new concept as IT solutions evolve eternally, but the pace at which it is moving requires a lot more customer focus now more than ever. CIO recently published an article with a framework to consider, it’s simplistic enough but the real spark is the dedication to follow it through. Need help with that task, contact us and share the insight. https://lnkd.in/dp8X7yAs

AI-Fueled Change Always On, Always Optimizing In today’s era of non-linear, iterative change, organizations are rarely dealing with just one transformation at a time. Instead, they face overlapping initiatives, shifting priorities, and constant disruption. The traditional change management playbook isn’t broken—it’s just too slow and costly for the pace of today’s environment. Success now demands adaptability, resilience, and a people-focused approach that puts human experience at the centre of transformation. Discover more in our latest AI-Fueled Change POV: https://deloi.tt/47ch5ym #ChangeManagement #Transformation #FutureOfWork Meagan Lettau Jeff Goodwin Stephanie Whittaker Jodi Baker Calamai Nicole Scoble-Williams GAICD Karen Pastakia

Managerial blind spots often go unchecked until their impacts become severe. The closed inner circle of management typically focuses solely on targets and achievements, neglecting to consider sustainability or the effects on maintaining a healthy performance or work environment. In my experience, upper echelons often struggle to see beyond their myopic viewpoints, influenced by daily interactions that shield them from ground realities. While impressive mission statements are on display, there is often a significant gap in actual implementation and reinforcement. Reflecting on the concept of C Suite Blind Spots, I turned to AI for insights. The analysis provided a comprehensive evaluation of both tangible and intangible aspects, highlighting vulnerabilities and biases that can arise from unchecked decisions and agreements. It raised essential questions about what sets apart different levels of decision-making and what contributes to their effectiveness. Understanding and addressing these blind spots is crucial for fostering a transparent and resilient organizational culture. By embracing diverse perspectives and challenging ingrained assumptions, companies can navigate challenges more effectively and drive sustainable growth. #ManagementInsights #DecisionMaking

Within the resources sector, trust and safety go hand in hand... now AI is helping us see how. The sector is now starting to explore how AI can enhance people development and performance, particularly within coaching and mentoring programs. I see enormous potential for AI to deepen our understanding of what truly drives trust and connection... helping organisations strengthen relationships, leadership, and culture from the inside out. That’s why I’m so proud of what the team at TrustEngine has created with Trustii, our new AI Trust Strategist, designed to help leaders, coaches, and program managers see beneath the surface of relationships. Trustii analyses behavioural patterns, personality dynamics, and alignment scores to reveal what drives or limits trust between people, turning complex human data into practical, actionable insight. For organisations across mining, energy, and infrastructure, this means being able to support coaching and mentoring at scale with real insight into what builds stronger teams and safer, more connected workplaces. It’s a big step forward for how we combine trust, technology, and human performance. 👍 Follow TrustEngine to see how Trustii is helping organisations build safer, more connected, high-trust workplaces through the power of AI.

Some leaders see data. Others see opportunity. At VTT, I’ve seen how structured thinking frameworks—like prompt-driven approaches—help teams: - Surface sharper insights - Test real alternatives - Make clearer decisions It’s a simple reminder: disciplined, strategic thinking improves execution and accelerates innovation and impact.

Friction is the new frontier of productivity. As digital transformation accelerates, the businesses that win won’t just adopt new tools—they’ll eliminate the tiny moments of drag that slow people down. Prediction: Over the next 12–18 months, “friction killing” will become a core operating discipline, with leaders budgeting for small, iterative improvements that compound into major gains. Why this matters: - Convenience has raised the floor, but not the ceiling. The edge now comes from disciplined systems that turn ease into reliably better outcomes. - Micro-optimizations across workflows, handoffs, and interfaces will outperform big bang transformations on ROI and adoption. What forward-looking teams will do: - Establish a friction baseline: map a week in the life of key roles and quantify context switches, handoffs, and rework. - Set a two-click rule for common actions and a 60-second rule for access to critical info. - Instrument the work: measure task completion time, handoff latency, exception rates, and tool satisfaction. - Put AI to work where it removes steps, not where it adds cognitive load. Copilots should prefill, summarize, and route. - Standardize the 20% of processes that drive 80% of throughput, and sandbox the rest for learning and iteration. - Coach managers on operational excellence: weekly “friction fix” reviews with clear owners and deadlines. - Celebrate simplifiers—reward employees who remove steps, not just those who add projects. Risks to watch: - Over-automation that increases fragility and exceptions. - Shadow workflows that bypass governance. - Tool sprawl that creates more switching than it saves. Metrics that matter: - Time-to-complete for top 10 workflows. - Handoff latency between roles. - Context switches per hour. - Keystrokes or clicks saved per task. - Employee tool NPS and adoption of the “two-click” standard. The takeaway: Small, disciplined tweaks beat heroic effort. If you remove 30 minutes of daily friction per employee, you can unlock double-digit productivity without burnout. Good overview on how “little tweaks” compound: https://lnkd.in/eXMSP53j #DigitalTransformation #FutureOfWork #Productivity #Operations #AI #ProcessDesign #ChangeManagement #Leadership #L&D #CustomerExperience

The work-design paradox (the redesign gap). We’re living in an era of exponential capability - AI, automation, global connectivity, yet we continue to run our organisations on an operating model built for predictability, control, and uniformity. This is the paradox: The more complex and fast-moving the world becomes, the more organisations cling to structures that were designed for stability. So instead of increasing adaptability, every layer of new technology, process, or restructuring often reinforces the old control logic. Modern organisations are brilliant at adding tools, but terrible at redesigning the work itself. The result? Layers of control masquerading as efficiency, and endless “transformation” projects that tweak the surface while leaving the system intact. This paradox is what the third piece in my Rethinking Work Design series explores. I call it the redesign gap, and challenge leaders to shift from the economics of control to the economics of enablement. 👉 Read The Redesign Gap: Why We Still Work Like It’s 1955 (and How to Stop) here: https://lnkd.in/g87jpn8C #Strategy #Leadership #FutureOfWork #Complexity #WorkDesign