The Most Expensive Word in AI Adoption: Resistance

Episode notes

What this conversation covers

What if the biggest obstacle to AI adoption isn't the technology - but the word leaders use to describe their people?

Resistance.

In this Expert Spotlight, Kim Lewis Howard sits down with Dr. Tamara Bombardo-Way, founder of BrightPath Solutions and creator of the BRIGHT Framework, to explore why promising AI initiatives stall even after a company chooses the right tool, provides training and gives the rollout time.

Tamara shares the story of Crestline, a small business performing testing work for the automotive industry. Its AI implementation had flatlined, and leadership believed certain employees were resisting the change. But one longtime employee wasn't really questioning the technology. She was circling the question she was afraid to ask:

"What am I going to do now?"

That distinction changes everything.

Kim and Tamara examine the three people leaders often encounter during a technology rollout: the questioner, the quiet employee and the veteran who says yes but quietly returns to familiar ways of working. Each needs a different leadership response. Treating all three as resistant only creates more friction.

Tamara also walks through her six-part BRIGHT Framework:

• Build strategic alignment
• 
  einforce leadership and relationships
• 
  mprove systems and workflows
• 
  row people and capabilities
• 
  arness technology and innovation
• 
  hrive through continuous improvement

Notice the order: technology doesn't appear until step five. Four steps happen before anyone chooses a tool.

In this episode:

• Why AI threatens professional identity, not just individual tasks

• The real question hiding underneath an employee's technical objections

• How a skeptical employee became an advocate for an AI rollout

• The three common responses to workplace change

• Why the "counterfeit yes" often comes from a veteran who is afraid to reveal what they don't understand

• Why leaders must understand the existing workflow before selecting technology

• How the BRIGHT Framework helps organizations reduce friction

• Why training once is never enough

• How emotional intelligence becomes a hard, learnable business skill

• What happened when the change didn't fully take

Your Monday move:

Do not begin with another tool. Identify one place where work keeps getting stuck and ask the person closest to it what they are actually worried about - not simply what they think of the software.

Ready to Take Action

Learn more about Dr. Tamara Bombardo-Way, the BRIGHT Framework and BrightPath Solutions:
https://www.brightpath-ai-solutions.com/

Connect with Tamara on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tamaralbombardoway/

Watch an AI-native insurance agency being built in real time:
https://AskLewisHoward.com

Small Business Big AI:
https://smallbusinessbigai.com/

Connect with Kim Lewis Howard on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/kim-lewis-howard/

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MUSIC & SOUND CREDITS

Music: "I Am with You" by Dream Cave; Epidemic Sound via iStock.com

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