What Happened
McKinsey published a report on how companies need to rethink change management now that generative AI is reshaping the workplace. The core argument is that AI adoption is not just a technology problem. It is a people problem. Organizations that treat gen AI as a software rollout will fail. The ones that treat it as a fundamental shift in how work gets done will win.
The Communication Angle
Here is the lesson: when you introduce change, lead with the "why it matters to you" before you ever mention the "what we are doing." Most leaders get this backwards, and it kills adoption before the first training session.
McKinsey's report, whether intentionally or not, proves this point at scale. Companies struggling with gen AI adoption are not struggling because the technology is hard. They are struggling because their leaders opened with the tool and closed with the justification. That sequence is fatal. People shut down when they feel like a problem to be solved rather than a person being considered.
The right approach is what I call anchoring to impact. You start by naming the specific pressure your team is already feeling. Deadlines that grind. Repetitive tasks that drain good people. The frustration of doing work that a machine could handle. Then you name AI as the answer to that pain. Not a mandate. An answer. That shift in framing changes the entire emotional temperature of the room.
The second communication failure McKinsey points to is vagueness from leadership. Executives say things like "we are embracing AI" or "this will transform how we work." Those sentences mean nothing. They sound like a press release written by a committee. Specificity is what creates trust. Tell your team exactly which tasks will change, which will disappear, and which will get easier. Give them a concrete picture of next Tuesday, not a vision of the next decade.
Third, and this is the one most leaders skip entirely: acknowledge the fear out loud. Not with empty reassurance like "nobody is losing their job." With honest recognition that change is uncomfortable and the uncertainty is real. When you name the fear before your audience does, you do not amplify it. You defuse it. You signal that you are paying attention.
This is exactly the kind of scenario I break down in Say It Right Every Time. The chapter on delivering unwelcome news gives you a framework for sequencing hard messages so your audience stays open instead of going defensive. The principle is the same whether you are announcing a layoff or rolling out a new technology platform: the order in which you deliver information determines whether people hear you or just wait for you to stop talking.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Never Be Lost
for Words Again
Get word‑for‑word scripts for the conversations that shape your life, from job interviews and negotiations to difficult talks with family and partners, so you always know exactly what to say and how to say it.
Key Takeaway
Before your next all-hands or team meeting about AI or any major change, write two sentences on a notecard. Sentence one: the specific frustration your team is already living with. Sentence two: how this change directly removes that frustration. Start your remarks with those two sentences and nothing else. Build everything else after that foundation. If you cannot write those two sentences, you are not ready to communicate the change.
