The AI Adoption Trap Framework
I created the AI Adoption Traps Framework to show why so many organizations generate plenty of AI activity without ever building lasting capability.
Activity is not capability
Access is not adoption, and AI only creates durable value when the work, judgment, governance and human operating system change with it.
- 30+ Years in the Work
- 220+ Workshops Delivered
- Hundreds of Leaders Developed
- Enterprise Change Experience
Attendance and activity is not adoption.
Leaders are good at launching things: technology, tools, processes and reorganizations.
The space between implementation and sustained, durable performance is where my work lives.
I help leaders look beyond launch and design the conditions for adoption, trust, changed behavior and lasting capability through advising, speaking, leadership sessions, coaching, capability training, and supervisor support.
Three ways into the work
AI, leadership, and enterprise change
AI & the Future of Work
Your AI problem may not be an AI problem.
Organizations can deploy AI faster than their people, workflows, leadership systems, governance, and operating practices can absorb it. The result is often plenty of AI activity with surprisingly little measurable value.
The goal isn’t more AI use. The goal is better work and faster value.
Leadership & Workforce
The workforce changed. Leadership has to change with it.
Five generations may be working together. AI is changing tasks, roles, expertise, and career paths at the same time. The answer is not five different leadership styles for five generations.
I help leaders create the conditions where people with different experiences can contribute, learn, adapt, and perform together.
Enterprise Change
Stop treating adoption as the last workstream.
Too often everyone turns to Change Management and asks: How do we get people to buy into this? There is a better question: Why weren’t the people who understand and perform the work involved sooner?
That shifts change from persuasion toward participation. And participation changes ownership.
My approach
Better questions before bigger solutions.
I’m suspicious of easy answers to complex organizational problems. My work starts by understanding what is actually happening in the work and not just what the plan, dashboard, or leadership narrative says.
I don’t arrive with prepackaged solutions. I help leaders and teams see clearly, think rigorously, involve the right people, make better decisions, and build the capability to keep adapting.
Featured thinking
Frameworks designed for the real world.
The O-R-A-V Model
Organizations can complete a corrective action, close the documentation, and still fail to change what actually happens in the work. O-R-A-V stands for Ownership, Reinforcement, Adoption, and Verification.
Ideas & Tools
Read, listen, and use the work.
Articles
What actually drives adoption — and what quietly gets in the way.
Frameworks
Practical lenses for the gap between launch and lasting change.
Resources
Assessments, guides, and tools leaders can put to work.
Podcasts and Conferences
Hear Dana in conversation and see the work on the conference stage.
Books
Ideas built from the work, not from the sidelines.
My books grow out of problems I, and others have encountered repeatedly inside organizations. They are written for leaders and practitioners who need ideas they can actually use.
The AI Adoption Traps
How Leaders Build Trust, Value, and Lasting Capability in the Age of AI
Organizations are investing heavily in artificial intelligence. But installing AI is not the same as adopting it. And using AI is not the same as creating value.
The goal is not AI everywhere. The goal is responsible AI creating measurable value through better work.
Coming Soon
Leading a 5 Generational Workforce
For the first time, many organizations are asking five generations of employees to work together while technology simultaneously changes what work means. Leading a 5 Generational Workforce moves beyond stereotypes to examine a more useful question: How do we design leadership and work so people with different experiences can succeed together?
Speaking
Give the audience something they can use Monday morning.
I enjoy ideas. But I am much more interested in what people do with them. My keynotes and leadership sessions combine research, practical experience, stories from the work, challenging questions, and tools leaders can apply after the event ends. Hear more of that thinking on Podcasts and Conferences.
What are you trying to make work?
Maybe your organization has invested in AI and adoption isn’t happening as expected. Maybe a major organizational change is technically on track but the organization is struggling to absorb it. Maybe your leadership team needs a different conversation. Maybe you need someone who will challenge the assumptions in the room rather than simply reinforce them.
Or maybe you have a problem that doesn’t fit neatly into a menu. That’s fine. Start with the problem. We’ll figure out the next question together.