This is Part 3 of our three-part series on leading in the age of AI. Find the full series here. We've covered career security and team leadership. Now the hardest part: the organization itself — how you build something that can move well when the ground keeps shifting. We're in what the World Economic Forum now calls a polycrisis — not one disruption but several compounding at once. Geopolitical instability, AI-driven change, economic volatility, the erosion of information certainty. Seventy-one percent of employees report being overwhelmed by the pace of change, and that number predates the current AI wave. The common response is more speed. More initiatives, more pivots, more bold new plans. Many leaders mistake motion for direction. Think about a slingshot. The mechanism that flings something forward is tension — pulling back first, with intention. Skip that step and you're just throwing rocks. Dr. Julie Gurner just wrote about the slingshot effect on her blog, Ultra Successful, which we will link below. |
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So what does pulling back actually look like? - Slow down to assess. Before the next initiative, discuss what's working and what isn't. What are you doing that has real traction? What are you doing out of habit or anxiety? Stopping something is often the most clarifying leadership move available.
- Increase information flow. Most organizations are information-poor at the edges and information-saturated at the top. Your people can't make good decisions without context. Make the why visible — the strategy, the tradeoffs, the constraints. Transparency isn't a culture initiative; it's an operational one.
- Clarify who decides what. When everything routes to the top, speed dies. Map your most common decision types and push authority as close to the work as possible. The goal is to get good decisions made faster by the people with the most relevant information.
- Build judgment, not just capability. Skills training isn't enough. Your team needs practice making calls, getting feedback, and developing the instincts that let them act well without a playbook. That takes time to build, which is exactly why you can't wait until the next disruption to start.
You should be scaling for agility, not stability. Build an organization that moves well precisely because it isn't waiting on one person to make sense of everything first. |
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Three pieces shaping how we’re thinking about AI and team leadership right now. 📖 Ultra Successful - Integrate the Slingshot Pause This piece makes a strong case for carving out intentional time, almost every day, to think. The takeaway is simple but sharp: make deliberate thinking a habit. Prioritize it. Because how you think will always matter more than what you do. → Read on Substack🦸♀️ How to Build a Superteam that Keeps Getting Better This piece makes one thing clear: the teams that win today aren’t the smartest or the most experienced—they’re the ones that learn the fastest. Using the rapid rise of the Oklahoma City Thunder as proof, it breaks down what actually separates “good” teams from “superteams.” Not talent. Not strategy. But a commitment to continuous improvement—built into how they work every single day. → Read the Article 🐢 At Work with The Ready - The Chaos Tax is Slowing Your Org Down This podcast episode unpacks the founder-led chaos pattern: why it happens, why it feels like speed to the person at the top while feeling like paralysis to everyone else, and what minimum viable process actually looks like in practice. They get into learned helplessness, productive friction, the hidden cost of unilateral decisions, and why the call for structure will probably have to come from outside the house. → Listen to the Podcast |
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This is Part 3 of our three-part Leading in the Age of AI series. Over the last two months, we focused on your career and your team; this month we're turning zooming out to the organization as a whole. Missed Part 1 & 2? Read them below. |
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We've been talking to senior leaders across industries and hearing the same thing: they're stuck in survival mode with no time to look up and plan for the back half of the year. So we built the Mid-Year Toolkit — two tools designed to help you pause, assess honestly, and realign your team with intention. Implementing these tools will help you stop carrying the same problems into the rest of 2026 and start driving progress on the goals that actually matter. |
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Last week, Juanetta White shared her framework in a keynote called Say What Needs to Be Said: Navigating Difficult Conversations with Confidence and Clarity at the Ascension Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Experience. Participants walked away with an understanding of how to prepare for and have hard conversations because, as Juanetta shared, “the only thing harder than having the conversation is living with the cost of not having the conversation.”
Thank you so much to the Ascension Chamber of Commerce for this incredible opportunity! |
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Mark your calendars to join Adrian & Melissa at the 2026 Women's Leadership Symposium on Tuesday May 19. They will be leading a session called, “Leading People through Transformation, Ready or Not" where they'll walk you through the Four Forces™ that you must wield to lead in change, and how to do so while building trust and momentum. We can't wait to see you there!
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📋 Essentials Lab
For new supervisors, team leads, and “step-up” employees preparing for future leadership roles by learning the essentials. 📣 Accelerator Lab
For leaders looking to accelerate their career by developing the people skills to inspire teams, manage relationships, and drive results. 📈 Strategy Lab
For experienced leaders and seasoned professionals looking to elevate their strategic thinking, decision making, and ability to inspire teams in today’s fast-paced, complex environment. |
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That’s it for now. If this landed, forward it to someone navigating the same questions. And if there’s a challenge you’re sitting with right now — hit reply. We’d love to hear what’s on your mind. — Adrian and the rest of the Success Labs team |
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