After People Start Using It

              Photo by Jo Lin on Unsplash

Getting people to use something new feels like the goal—except that it isn’t.

It’s just the beginning because early adoption often looks similar everywhere. That’s especially true with AI, where early use can look productive although it’s not connected to, or integrated into, actual work flows.

In reality, it’s people experimenting. Trying things. Comparing outputs. And figuring out what works.

Some use it occasionally. Some use it a lot. Some are still deciding.

From a distance, that can look like progress, which, to some degree, it is.

But it’s also incomplete because real traction doesn’t come until people start using something in concert with their real work. That’s when the connection happens and integration really begins.

You’ll know that integration is happening when people begin to share what they’re learning, when patterns start to emerge, and new and innovative ways of working take shape.

And in that process, something important also emerges—people begin to  support what they help create.

What began individually is shared.
What started as experimental becomes expected.
And what was initially experienced as helpful gets embedded in “the way things are done around here,” which is one of the truest definitions of “culture” you’ll ever see.

And at that point, the question is no longer: Are people using it? It morphs into Is this becoming part of how we work?

That’s a different threshold entirely. And once an organization starts to cross it, the effects are hard to miss.

—Co-Creative Leadership Alliance

Exploring leadership as a craft—through practice, observation, reflection, and shared learning.