Books
Ideas built from the work— not from the sidelines.
I write about problems I have encountered repeatedly in organizations. Not because I believe there is one universal answer. There isn’t.
Why these books
I write because recurring patterns deserve better questions, stronger frameworks, and practical tools leaders can adapt to their own context.
The AI Adoption Traps
How Leaders Build Trust, Value, and Durable Capability in the Age of AI
AI adoption is not another software rollout.
Organizations are spending heavily on artificial intelligence. Leaders are being urged to move faster. Employees are experimenting—sometimes visibly and sometimes quietly. New tools appear faster than policies can be written. And organizations are under enormous pressure to demonstrate AI value.
That environment creates predictable traps. We scale before trust exists. We select use cases because the technology can do something rather than because the work needs it. We mistake usage for adoption. We automate work without redesigning it. We give employees tools without enough clarity about human accountability. And we measure activity when what we really need is evidence of improved performance and capability.
The AI Adoption Traps gives leaders a more practical way forward. Not anti-AI. Not slow AI. Better AI adoption. AI that earns trust. AI applied where it creates meaningful value. AI that improves the work. AI whose risks are understood. AI adoption that creates organizational capability rather than another temporary initiative.
Questions the book explores
Book questions and ideas
- Where should an organization begin with AI?
- Why does trust matter before scale?
- Which use cases create the best conditions for early learning?
- How do we redesign work rather than simply add AI to existing tasks?
- What decisions must remain visibly human-owned?
- How should leaders measure adoption?
- What happens when people use AI in ways the organization cannot see?
- How do leaders create responsible experimentation without creating organizational paralysis?
- How does an organization turn isolated AI successes into sustained capability?
Featured ideas
The Adoption Gap
Why deployment can succeed while adoption fails.
Trust Before Scale
Why trust is not a communications problem to solve after implementation.
High-Value / Low-Regret
How to choose early use cases that generate value, learning, and confidence.
The Evidence Ladder
Why activity, behavior, performance, and capability should not be treated as the same thing.
Coming April 2027
Leading a 5 Generation Workforce
Five generations are working together.
By Zac Jarrard, Dana Houston Jackson and Douglas Wood · Taylor & Francis · April 2027
Five generations are working side by side today, and that can be a real strength—if we understand what shaped them and how each wants to be led.
Leading a 5 Generation Workforce looks beyond the usual stereotypes about loyalty, technology, flexibility, and work ethic. Instead, it asks a more useful question: What has each generation experienced, and how has that shaped what they expect from work and leadership?
The book helps leaders understand where generational differences come from, where they create friction, and where they can become an advantage. It also looks at what changes when AI enters the mix—because experience, judgment, digital fluency, curiosity, and the ability to learn all matter, and no generation has a monopoly on any of them.
This is not a book about managing people by age group. It is about creating a workplace where people with different histories, strengths, and expectations can contribute, learn from one another, and do better work together.
Coming April 2027.
Co-Authors
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Zac Jarrard
Jarrard Consulting -
Douglas C. Wood
DC Wood Consulting
Book Dana
Turn the books into conversations inside your organization.
Book-based sessions can be designed for executive teams, leadership development programs, conferences, professional associations, change teams, AI leadership groups, employee resource and learning communities, and board or senior-leadership discussions. See also Speaking, Workshops & Leadership Sessions, and Podcasts and Conferences.
Turn a shared read into a useful conversation about how your organization works. I'll guide the group through selected ideas, connect them to your team's experience, and help you decide what to put into practice.
Formats can include a keynote, facilitated discussion, leadership workshop, book-club session, or customized organizational program.
What are you trying to make work?
Start with the problem. We’ll figure out the next question together.