Tim Creasey, Chief Innovation Officer, Prosci: How To Lead Change
Stumbling Blocks: How Great Leaders Are MadeShow Notes
Tim Creasey: Chief Innovation Officer, Prosci: How to Lead Change
Why do smart, well-run companies keep leading big changes that fail? Tim Creasey has spent 25 years at Prosci studying change management and shares the answer on this podcast. Tim is Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, the research firm behind the ADKAR Model, one of the most widely used change management frameworks in the world. We talk about why change is so hard for humans, why employees resist even the changes they asked for, and what leaders have to do differently to get people to adopt AI. Tim also walks through the ABCs of sponsorship. Since Prosci's very first study, active and visible sponsorship has been the top contributor to change success, and Tim says it often separates the projects that succeed from the ones that fail by a three-to-one or four-to-one margin. He explains why executives can't delegate AI adoption, why AI is a new operating system rather than another tool, and why you should repeat your core message five to seven times without apologizing for it. In this episode: The ADKAR Model in plain English: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement Why AI adoption is different: it showed up in our pockets before it showed up at work "That's the way we've always done it" and how to lead an exhausted workforce Humans in the loop, humans leading the loop, and humans drawing the loops For CEOs, CHROs, transformation leaders, HR leaders, and change practitioners leading digital transformation or an AI rollout. Top things I learned: Awareness means sharing why, not what. Telling people a change is coming is not the same as helping them understand why it matters. Executives have to use AI themselves in order for their people to follow suit. You can't lead what you haven't touched. Employees want two messengers. They want the business reasons for change from the top and the "what does this mean for me" from their direct supervisor. Resources mentioned: Prosci ADKAR Model Prosci, AI Adoption Across the Enterprise (2026) Tim's ABCs of Leaving Change to Chance Related episode: Shalene Gupta of Fast Company and "The Middle Manager's AI Survival Guide" Chapters: 0:00:00 Cold open: the new capability era 00:54 Introduction 0:02:08 What the ADKAR Model is 0:04:34 Knowledge vs. ability: the golf test 0:05:49 Why change is so hard for humans 0:08:03 The cubicle story 0:09:43 Awareness: the number one source of resistance 0:12:07 Why executives must use AI themselves 0:14:00 AI as a digital collaborator 0:17:01 Building a conference app in 90 minutes 0:19:26 AI started at home, not at work 0:21:51 Prosci's benchmarking research 0:23:16 The ABCs of sponsorship 0:24:43 Why leaders should repeat themselves 0:28:03 Trust and change 0:30:39 Advice for a new change leader 0:33:11 Reallocating talent at the speed of AI 0:34:01 Leading exhausted leaders through change Follow Stumbling Blocks and leave a review so other leaders can find the show. #ChangeManagement #Leadership #Transformation #Change #
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