1-2-1: Your team isn't resisting AI

I've stopped taking "my team won't adopt AI" at face value. It's almost always shorthand for "I haven't told them what I want."

You said "use AI more". Nothing changed.

1 Principle

Your team isn't resisting AI. They're waiting for you to call it.

Adoption looks like someone using the tool. It actually requires three signals only the leader can give: permission, boundaries, and what "good" looks like. Most leaders never give all three out loud, then read the silence that follows as resistance.

2 Things Top of Mind

#1 The question that ends the resistance theory

I had three coaching calls this fortnight with leaders frustrated their team wasn't using AI. Same shape every time. I ask: "What have you actually told them?" The answer is some version of "I shared the tools" or "I sent the policy". So I push: "What did you tell them was now allowed? What did you tell them was off-limits? What does 'using AI well' look like in your business?" Silence. The resistance was never resistance. It was a leader who hadn't decided.

This week: Write three sentences and send them today: what AI is now allowed for, what it's off-limits for, and what "good" looks like for one specific workflow.

#2 The Claude tab nobody mentioned

Your senior engineer has Claude open in a tab right now. Has done for six months. They use it for boilerplate, code review, debugging notes. They haven't mentioned it because nobody's asked, nobody's said it's allowed, and they're not sure if it counts as cheating or just doing the work. You're in the next meeting worrying about adoption. Three months later you'll find out they've been your most prolific AI user and never told you.

This week: Ask three people on your team: "What have you actually tried AI for in your work?" The question matters. "Are you using AI?" produces silence; "What have you tried?" produces a list.

1 Question

What's the last clear AI instruction you gave your team?