Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work

Hosted by Brian Gorman, Host

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183

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Aug 2026

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About the show

Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work explores what leaders need to see, ask, and own as artificial intelligence reshapes work, decisions, culture, trust, and human value. Formerly Qonversations, the podcast continues Brian Gorman’s long-running exploration of leadership, change, and the future of work—now with a sharper focus on the age of AI. This is not a show about chasing tools or predicting the next technology trend. It is about the human work AI makes more urgent: discernment, accountability, governance, ethical judgment, workforce trust, and wise decision-making. Each episode features thoughtful conversations with leaders, thinkers, practitioners, and change-makers who are looking beyond AI hype to what work is becoming—and what leadership must become in response. For leaders, founders, executives, coaches, consultants, HR professionals, and anyone asking how AI can help make work more human, not less.

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August 20, 202628 min

When Intelligence Grows, Purpose Means More

AI is rapidly expanding what individuals and organizations are capable of doing. But greater capability raises a deeper question: What are we going to do with it? In this episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman speaks with Jeff Westphal , author of A Work Life Worth Living and former chairman and CEO of Vertex, about meaning, purpose, and the distinctly human choices that become more important as artificial intelligence grows more powerful. Jeff describes AI as a force multiplier for intelligence. It can research, analyze, synthesize, and help us make better-informed decisions. But it cannot decide what we should care about, what risks are worth taking, or what purpose all that intelligence should serve. Their conversation explores what makes work meaningful and why meaning differs from one person—and one stage of life—to another. Jeff shares how his own experiences with mentors, leadership, family, and recovery taught him that wisdom is formed through lived experience and human connection, not analysis alone. As AI increasingly becomes the smartest presence in the room, the traditional leadership advantage of having the answers begins to disappear. What remains is something more demanding: creating the conditions for people to bring their intelligence and wisdom together, deciding what matters, and resisting the temptation to turn AI into the decision-maker. Ultimately, the opportunity AI presents may be larger than greater productivity or economic growth. With more intelligence and capability available than ever before, we have an opportunity to ask what kind of work, organizations, and world we actually want to create. In This Episode Why meaningful work is deeply personal and why meaning can change throughout our lives Why AI can multiply intelligence but cannot determine what we should care about How greater technological capability makes purpose more important, not less Why leadership increasingly depends on bringing human wisdom together rather than being the smartest person in the room The need to recover our ability to choose what matters instead of allowing institutions, or AI, to choose for us About Jeff Westphal In the mid-1990s, Jeff Westphal worked his way up to run his father’s upstart sales tax software business and, over the next two decades, built it into a dominant industry leader with nearly one thousand employees. Under Jeff’s leadership, Vertex became an essential cog in the commerce machine, relied upon by more than ten thousand of the largest companies in the world. In July of 2020, after Jeff’s retirement as CEO in 2017, Vertex went public on the NASDAQ stock exchange and is now valued in the billions. It is a great American success story—but telling that story is not the purpose of this book. Behind this success story is another, more complex story of how a leader found, then lost and found again, meaning in his life and work—and how, by helping his employees create meaning in work as seemingly meaningless as sales tax software, he helped his company survive challenges and thrive. Today, Jeff is a seasoned executive, entrepreneur, philanthropist, corporate culture enthusiast, and conservationist. In addition to leading Vertex for two decades, he has founded two new ventures—MeaningSphere® and Mosaic™—as he continues to give back and encourage others to create meaning in their learning and working lives. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Jeff Westphal Website: www.jeffwestphal.org Brian Gorman Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: https://TransformingLives.Coach

August 13, 202629 min

Who Gets to Shape AI?

Artificial intelligence is often presented as a tool that will make expertise more widely available. But what happens when people can produce expert-looking work without ever developing the expertise behind it? Bo Young Lee , CEO of AI4ALL, joins Brian to explore why the future of AI depends on more than broader access to today’s dominant models. It also requires a wider range of people, cultures, experiences, and worldviews shaping the technology itself. Bo explains how concentrating AI development within a small number of frontier models can embed cultural assumptions into tools used around the world. The conversation also examines what organizations lose when AI removes the demanding early-career work through which people learn to think critically, recognize patterns, exercise discernment, and eventually become experts. The risk, Bo argues, is not simply a deskilled workforce. It is the emergence of a “never-skilled” society, one in which people are asked to evaluate AI-generated work without having developed the experience needed to judge it. Brian and Bo also consider what this means for education. When intelligence becomes increasingly accessible through technology, schools and workplaces will need to place greater emphasis on the human capacities that AI cannot supply: emotional intelligence, ethical understanding, critical thinking, communication, synthesis, and wisdom. Finally, Bo raises a provocative concern about the growing wealth surrounding AI. As technology companies direct more philanthropic funding toward nonprofits and public institutions, whose worldview will that money advance, and how might it shape the conversations society is permitted to have about AI? In This Episode Why the people creating AI should better reflect the people whose lives it affects The cultural and business risks of relying on a small number of dominant AI models How automating junior-level work may interrupt the development of future experts Why AI could create a “never-skilled” society rather than merely deskill workers How education must change when intelligence is no longer the primary differentiator A Question to Carry Forward As AI makes intelligent output easier to produce, how will we ensure that people still develop the experience, discernment, and wisdom required to recognize whether that output is worth trusting? About Bo Young Lee Bo Young Lee 이보영 is a globally recognized Workplace and AI/Tech Ethics, DEI, and ESG executive and widely sought-after public speaker and leadership coach. Bo serves as CEO of AI4ALL, ensuring the next generation of AI leaders represents humanity. Prior to her role at AI4ALL, Bo served as President of Research & Advisory for AnitaB.org, the leading mission-driven organization advancing women and non-binary technologists. Bo also served as Uber Technologies’ first Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, where she was tasked with leading the total transformation of the company’s culture, values, and equity environment. Bo is currently pursuing a Master of Studies in AI Ethics and Society at the University of Cambridge/Leverhulme Center for Future Intelligence (UK) and has an MBA with distinction from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a BBA magna cum laude from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Bo Young Lee Website: https://ai-4-all.org/ Brian Gorman Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

August 10, 202633 min

When AI Pulls Us Toward Either/Or

AI can produce answers quickly. Leadership rarely works that way. In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Cliff Kayser , Chief Learning Officer of Polarity Partnerships, about a challenge that becomes more consequential as AI moves deeper into our organizations: our tendency to treat ongoing tensions as problems that can be solved. Cliff shares an experience training an AI system to distinguish between problems that require either/or decisions and tensions that require both/and thinking. The AI repeatedly defaulted to treating both/and thinking itself as the solution, revealing what Cliff saw as a deeper bias toward choosing one side over another. That tendency matters because many of the most important questions surrounding AI cannot be resolved by choosing one side. Leaders need speed and discernment. Efficiency and human development. Technical competence and character. Artificial intelligence and human wisdom. Brian and Cliff explore what happens when organizations drift too far toward what AI does well while neglecting the human capacities that take more time to develop: trust, collaboration, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, discernment, and wisdom. They also consider what this means for education, entry-level work, professional identity, and the development of future leaders. The challenge is not to resist AI or simply balance it with humanity. It is to continually ask whether we are gaining the benefits of both and to notice when the speed, convenience, and power of AI begin pulling us somewhere we did not consciously choose to go. In This Episode Why both humans and AI can default toward either/or thinking How speed and discernment must work together as AI accelerates decisions What organizations risk when efficiency replaces experiences that develop people Why human capabilities such as trust, character, critical thinking, and wisdom become more important, not less How leaders can recognize and respond to the gradual drift toward overreliance on AI The Assessments In the podcast, Cliff mentions two brief assessments. You can download each as a PDF. Watchers And Guiders: AI And Humans Yuval Noah Harari recently shared that AI systems have begun calling humans "the Watchers." This piece explores why Watching needs an interdependent partner — Guiding — and what happens when either pole is neglected in our relationship with AI. Includes a quick three-minute diagnostic to see how well you're leveraging Watching AND Guiding in your own life and work. The Infinity Machine AND The Human Coach: Demis Hassabis calls AI's expanding capability an "infinity machine." Barry Johnson's infinity loop describes something else entirely — a closed loop tending two poles that never stops needing both. This piece unpacks four tensions leaders are living inside right now (Speed AND Deliberation, Efficiency AND Human Development, Consistency AND Context, Automation AND Human Agency) and what coaches specifically are positioned to do about it. Includes a two-minute assessment for AI Capability AND Human Formation. About Cliff Keyser Cliff Kayser, MSOD, MSHR, PCC, is Partner and Chief Learning Officer at Polarity Partnerships, helping leaders worldwide leverage "both/and" thinking via the PACT framework (with Barry Johnson) for 25+ years. He writes Cliff'sNOTES on Substack and built an AI "Chat w/Cliff" tool. Formerly an OD/coaching leader at The Washington Post and National Cooperative Bank, he's worked across the U.S., Brazil, Egypt, Singapore, Turkey, India, China, and the U.K.; he's adjunct faculty at American University and George Mason, serving government, healthcare, and business clients. He holds two American University Master's degrees, a Lenoir-Rhyne B.A., an ICF PCC, Georgetown's coaching certificate, co-authored nine chapters of And: Vol. 2 (HRD Press, 2021), won the Gestalt Center's 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award, and founded Kayser Ridge Retreat in West Virginia. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Cliff Email: cliff@polaritypartnerships.com Website: www.PolarityPartnerships.com Substack: https://substack.com/@cliffkayser LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ckayser Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: https://TransformingLives.Coach

August 6, 202624 min

AI and the Solopreneur

What happens when one person, working with AI, can accomplish work that once required an entire team? In this episode of “Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work”, Brian Gorman speaks with Dima Negodiuk , founder of Negodiuk.ai and a fellow solopreneur, about the opportunities and consequences emerging as AI expands what small businesses can do. Dima describes how AI allows solopreneurs and midsized companies to handle marketing, sales, customer support, research, and content creation with far fewer people and outside contractors. He shares practical examples, including AI-powered call centers that can operate around the clock in dozens of languages and agents that can help with everyday personal tasks. The increased capacity comes with a harder truth. When AI enables one person to do the work of many, some of those people are no longer needed. Brian and Dima explore that reality without losing sight of the possibilities AI creates for entrepreneurs who previously lacked the money, staff, or technical resources required to test and pursue new ideas. They also challenge the assumption that AI automatically means working less. AI can accelerate execution and generate a constant stream of possibilities, but deciding what deserves attention and still requires human discernment. The quality of the result depends not only on the technology, but on the knowledge, critical thinking, and oversight brought to it. The opportunity is significant. So is the responsibility to use it wisely. In This Episode How AI gives solopreneurs capabilities that once required larger teams Why greater productivity does not necessarily mean fewer working hours The workforce consequences of automating marketing, sales, and customer support Where critical thinking, discernment, and human oversight remain essential Why experimentation, privacy, and security should guide early AI adoption About Dima Dmytro Negodiuk builds AI systems for small and mid-size businesses, and he writes the code himself. He came to New York from Kyiv in 2022, after fourteen years building distribution for consumer-technology brands across more than ten retail chains. He runs Negodiuk.ai, an applied AI practice for owner-operated companies. Every system goes into one of his own businesses first, and the ones that don't pay for themselves get shut down, which is the part owners rarely hear about. Forbes profiled his work in 2026. He reviews for NeurIPS and for a workshop at EMNLP. About Brian Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Dima Email: Dima@Negodiuk.ai LinkedIn: Dima Negodiuk Website: Negodiuk.ai Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

July 30, 202639 min

Beyond Coding: The Human Work Ahead

Artificial intelligence is not simply making software developers more productive. It is changing which skills have value, how teams are structured, and how many people are needed to perform work that once required years of technical specialization. In this candid conversation, Charles Fry , founder and CEO of digital product studio CODE Éxitos, describes what he calls the ”Post-Coding Era”. As AI automates more traditional development work, specialized skills that once provided security and professional identity are becoming increasingly commoditized. For many people, that shift is not theoretical. It represents the loss of roles, careers, and a familiar path forward. But this is not only a conversation about displacement. Charles and host Brian Gorman explore the work emerging on the other side: systems thinking, empathy, discernment, mentoring, leadership, and the ability to direct both human teams and AI systems. They consider the rise of the “player-coach,” the future of middle management, and the responsibility leaders carry for integrating technology without treating people as an afterthought. Charles also shares how CODE Éxitos has moved beyond traditional office structures and 9-to-5 schedules, building a distributed organization around mastery, autonomy, purpose, and “la vida plena,” living a full life. The future Charles describes is uncertain, and the transition will be painful for many. Yet it also offers the possibility of designing work around distinctly human capabilities rather than preserving structures built for an earlier era. In This Episode Why Charles believes software development has entered a Post-Coding Era What happens when deeply developed technical skills become commoditized How systems thinkers and player-coaches may replace some traditional roles Why discernment, empathy, mentoring, and leadership are becoming more important How flexible, distributed work can support both client value and a fuller human life About Charles Charles Fry is the Founder and CEO of CODE Éxitos, a digital product studio building software and hardware products for mid-market and enterprise companies, specializing in cyber-physical systems — where software meets the real world: sensors, IoT, computer vision, and beyond — as well as full-stack web, mobile, cloud, and SaaS development. “We are in the post-coding era. AI has fundamentally changed how software gets built, and most companies haven’t caught up. I’ve spent 25+ years building software companies and teams — and I’m focused on helping organizations navigate this shift.” About Brian Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Charles LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-c-fry/ Email: charles.fry@codexitos.com Company website: www.codexitos.com Brian Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

July 23, 202629 min

When AI Removes the Work That Forms Us

In this solo episode, Brian Gorman explores a leadership question that is becoming more urgent as artificial intelligence moves deeper into everyday work. What happens when AI begins doing the very work that used to form people? Most organizations are looking at AI through the lens of efficiency. They are asking what can be done faster, cheaper, and with less effort. Those questions matter. But they are incomplete. Work has never been only about output. It has also been one of the primary ways people develop judgment, confidence, accountability, client awareness, resilience, pattern recognition, and wisdom. Much of what looks like routine or entry-level work is also formative work. It is where people learn what matters, how to revise, how to notice what is missing, and how decisions affect real people. As AI takes on more research, drafting, analysis, summaries, recommendations, and client preparation, leaders need to ask what human development may be lost if those tasks disappear too quickly, and what can they do to limit those loses. The risk is not simply that AI will automate work. The deeper risk is that organizations may weaken the learning architecture that prepares people for future responsibility. This episode looks at the choices leaders are making now and how quickly those choices can become “the way we do it.” It challenges leaders to protect the development of human capability, not by rejecting AI, but by becoming more intentional about what should be automated, what should remain human, and what needs to be redesigned as deliberate apprenticeship. In This Episode Why AI is changing not only work, but how people learn through work How routine and entry-level tasks often serve as formative experiences Why today’s AI choices can quickly become tomorrow’s operating norms The risk of promoting people who have not been formed by the work What leaders can do to protect judgment, accountability, discernment, and wisdom About Brian Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

July 16, 202637 min

AI Knows More. You Know Best.

In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Tim Harrison , founder and CEO of the Coaching Innovation Lab, about what it really takes to lead well in an AI-abundant world. As AI removes many of the external barriers that once limited what people could do — time, money, access, and technical skill — the deeper constraints become more human. The real questions shift toward clarity of purpose, willingness to change, judgment, character, and courage. Tim and Brian explore why AI may know more, but humans still know best. AI can generate ideas, automate routine tasks, and accelerate execution. But leaders still have to decide what matters, what is worth building, where human judgment belongs, and how technology should serve people rather than simply replace effort. The conversation also moves beyond automation into the creation of new value. From coaching applications to examples of workforce reinvention, Tim points toward a future in which technical capability alone is not enough. Curiosity, adaptability, ownership, wisdom, and resilience become essential leadership capacities. In This Episode Why AI shifts the bottleneck from external limits to internal human capacity Tim Harrison’s POWER framework: Purpose, Ownership, Wisdom, Execution, and Resilience Why “it knows more, and you know best” is a critical leadership distinction How AI lowers the bar for effort while raising the bar for human capability The opportunity to use AI for new value creation, not just automation About Tim Harrison Tim Harrison is the founder and CEO of the Coaching Innovation Lab, where he helps leaders, coaches, and organizations use artificial intelligence effectively, authentically, and responsibly. An applied AI expert and leadership coach, Tim focuses on helping professionals expand their time, impact, and business results without losing the human connection that makes coaching and leadership meaningful. Grounded in the belief that technology should supercharge people rather than replace them, Tim brings a practical, human-centered approach to AI adoption. Through the Coaching Innovation Lab, he helps leaders and coaches use AI to save time, scale impact, and create new value while maintaining authenticity, trust, and meaningful human connection. Tim serves on the AI Coaching Coalition of North America and is a founding member of the ICF Global Taskforce for AI in Coaching. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. To Continue the Conversation If something from this episode sparks a new idea, challenges your thinking, or inspires a conversation, reach out. LinkedIn: CoachTimHarrison Website: CoachingInnovationLab.com Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

July 9, 202641 min

AI Adoption is a Human Change Journey

Artificial intelligence may be moving faster than any technology we have seen before. But AI adoption is still, at its core, a human change journey. In this episode, Brian Gorman speaks with Sue Bethanis, founder of Mariposa Leadership, about what it takes to lead wisely as organizations, teams, and knowledge workers learn to partner with AI. Sue brings a grounded, deeply human perspective to the conversation. She frames AI not as something to resist or blindly embrace, but as a “robot” partner that requires human leadership, discernment, and oversight. As she puts it, the human still belongs at the front of the tandem bike. Brian and Sue explore Sue’s framework for AI adoption: role, mindset, and practices. Leaders need to see themselves as change agents, expect and embrace change rather than simply endure it, and increase empathy and inspiration in their day-to-day leadership. This conversation goes beyond traditional change management. Brian raises the often-overlooked role of grief in change, especially when people must let go of tools, skills, identities, or ways of working that once defined their value. Together, Brian and Sue examine why AI change cannot be managed as a one-time journey from here to there. This is ongoing, uncertain, and deeply human work. This episode is for leaders, coaches, consultants, and knowledge workers who are asking how to become more AI-capable without rushing people, diminishing trust, or treating human beings as obstacles to efficiency. In this episode: Why AI adoption should be led as human-centered change What it means for leaders to act as change agents and wayfinders in an AI environment Why empathy, experimentation, trust, and practice matter more than forced compliance How to help people move through resistance, grief, letting go, and unlearning Why the human must remain at the front of the tandem bike About Sue Bethanis Susan J. Bethanis, Ed.D., is the CEO and Founder of Mariposa Leadership, Inc., a San Francisco-based executive coaching firm where she and her 15-person team have spent 30 years helping high-tech leaders raise their game. Sue is the author of Leadership Chronicles of a Corporate Sage (Kaplan Publishing, 2004) and hosts WiseTalk, a monthly leadership podcast, and WiseSpace, a Zoom coaching community. Having guided leaders through the dot-com crash, the Great Recession, and the COVID pivot to hybrid work, Sue now helps executives navigate the AI economy through keynotes, strategy offsites, and one-on-one coaching. Recent clients include C-level executives and VPs at Amazon, Databricks, Intel, Intuit, Microsoft, MongoDB, PayPal, and Zynga. Sue holds an Ed.D. from the University of San Francisco and an M.A. from Stanford University. She lives in San Francisco and Kihei, Maui. About Brian Gorman Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. Continue the Conversation If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Email: sueb@mariposaleadership.com Website: www.mariposaleadership.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/suebethanis/ Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

July 2, 20261 min

No Playbook for the AI Era

AI is not just changing the tools we use. It is changing the nature of change itself. In this inaugural episode of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work, Brian Gorman is joined by Bill Kirst, change architect and author of Leading Change in the Era of AI. Together, they explore why traditional change management models are no longer enough in a workplace increasingly shaped by AI, automation, agents, and non-linear complexity. Bill explains why tools like ChatGPT and Claude are not simply faster versions of old technology. They are non-deterministic systems, producing variable responses and completing patterns in ways that can feel intelligent without necessarily carrying understanding, judgment, or wisdom. The conversation moves from change management into wayfinding: how leaders move when there is no clear map, no stable playbook, and no guarantee that yesterday’s models will fit tomorrow’s work. Bill and Brian also discuss the growing presence of AI agents in organizational life, the possibility of AI appearing on org charts, and the oversight questions that come with tools capable of taking increasingly human-like actions. At the heart of the episode is a leadership challenge. As AI reshapes decisions, workflows, relationships, and accountability, leaders must strengthen the human capacities technology cannot replace. Intuition. Discernment. Creativity. Emotional intelligence. The ability to notice when something is not right. Bill also challenges leaders to expand how they learn, recommending science fiction, biography, autobiography, creativity, and playfulness as more useful preparation for the AI era than another stack of traditional business books. This is a conversation about AI, but it is not a technology conversation. It is about what leaders must unlearn, relearn, and become as change itself changes. About Bill Bill Kirst is a Change Architect, 2x author, poet, keynote speaker, developmental editor, and host of the Coffee & Change podcast. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence, organizational transformation, and human potential, helping leaders and organizations navigate change with greater clarity, curiosity, confidence, and empathy. His book, Leading Change in the Era of AI, explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping leadership, work, and the human experience. Drawing on more than two decades of leading enterprise transformation, Bill offers a practical and deeply human perspective on helping people adapt, thrive, and lead with purpose in an age of accelerating technological change. Through his writing, speaking, and conversations with innovators, executives, researchers, and creators, Bill explores one enduring question: How can we ensure AI elevates our humanity rather than diminishes it? His work is guided by a simple belief: the future of leadership will be defined not only by intelligence, but by our capacity for empathy at scale. About Brian Brian Gorman is an executive advisor, author, speaker, coach, and host of Beyond AI: Wisdom at Work. He works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and human wisdom, helping CEOs, founders, boards, and senior leadership teams think clearly about AI, change, decision-making, culture, trust, and the future of work. His book, Leading into the Age of Wisdom: Reimagining the Future of Work, explores how leaders can move beyond intelligence alone and bring deeper wisdom to the decisions shaping people, organizations, and society. Continue the Conversation with Bill If something from this episode sparks a new idea, challenges your thinking, or inspires a conversation, Bill would love to hear from you. He's easily reachable on LinkedIn and Substack . Continue the Conversation with Brian If anything you hear in this podcast sparks a conversation you want to have or a question you want to explore, reach out. Email: Brian@TransformingLives.Coach Phone: +1 917.653.5198 Website: TransformingLives.Coach

June 26, 202632 min

The Gap Between Leadership Intent and Employee Experience

Leaders often believe they are investing in their people. Employees often experience something very different. In this episode of Qonversations, Brian Gorman speaks with Keith Metcalfe , President of ACORN, a software and technology company focused on learning, performance, and capability development. Together, they explore the gap between leadership intent and employee experience, especially when it comes to feedback, performance reviews, career growth, and the everyday support people need to progress in their work. Keith brings a practical lens to a problem many organizations struggle to solve. Leaders may say they want to develop people, but without clear role definitions, meaningful competency models, specific feedback, and usable development plans, that intent rarely translates into employee experience. The result is familiar: performance reviews that feel unfair, development conversations that go nowhere, and employees who are left unclear about what growth actually looks like. The conversation addresses AI, not as a replacement for human leadership, but as a tool that can make previously difficult development practices more achievable. Keith explains how ACORN uses AI to help organizations create competency-based development plans and provide leaders with the language and structure needed for better conversations. But technology alone is not enough. Brian and Keith discuss why AI is also creating discomfort for leaders. As information becomes more available and employees become more capable, traditional hierarchy carries less weight. Leaders are being pushed back toward the fundamentals: clarity, humility, servant leadership, experimentation, and meaningful support for the people they lead. This episode is a conversation about development, but it is also a conversation about leadership maturity. AI may help automate parts of the process. It may make better systems possible. But the deeper question remains human. Are leaders willing to create the conditions where people can actually grow? The 2026 State of Learning for AI Fluency report is available here.