Latest / AI'm Just Trying My Best / EP #12: AI Champions- The most important people that no one budgets for

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EP #12: AI Champions- The most important people that no one budgets for · AI'm Just Trying My Best

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: And welcome to another episode of AIM Just Trying My Best.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: As always, I'm accompanied by my friend and business partner, Chevelle Bedra.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Chevel, how are you today?
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: How are you?
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing wonderful.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for asking.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh super excited to get into our podcast uh today.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I know that we got a lot to talk about, a lot of riveting things happening in the AI world.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there's a lot of riveting things.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is riveting the right word?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that even is that even a word?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: That is a word.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think it's a real one.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I think uh riveting is very subjective on who you are, you know.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: If for me it's all riveting.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um for some people it's like shut up, nerd.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um I don't know.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_02: Go to sleep, nerd.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: Stop playing with muse at 2 a.m.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: nerd.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Adam said he was up till like two at 3 a.m.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: playing with muse.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um at his new Facebook tool or AI tool.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm we'll talk about that next time.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, two thumbs up.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's it's pretty awesome.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know, you only get to understanding how awesome it is by actually using it, right?
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Which kind of leads into what you know want to talk to you about today.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: And what sparked my my opinion of this episode is it kind of stems from from youth football, right?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: And you're probably thinking, like, what does youth football have to do with AI adoption and all this fun stuff, all this riveting AI stuff, right?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: And what what made me think of it is this my my son is on a football team and he is fortunate to have a coach um you know that made it to the NFL.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's always preaching, you know, learn from the people that have done it, not the people that talk about it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it really had me scratching my head because that's sound advice.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like surround yourself with people who know what they're talking about, not ones that claim they do it.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Follow those who've done it, not the ones that just say how to do it, right?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it really had me thinking about just AI adoption in general.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a new, it's a new uh technology.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: My son's on a new football team, right?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So the kind of two just kind of parallel each other.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and so when it comes to AI adoption, and it comes to understanding how to do something and navigate a path that most people may not have done so, and you find yourself surrounded by someone who actually does it, that's a huge advantage.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Could you say the same thing about AI, AI adoption, and just understanding tools and models like we've talked about before?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think so.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_02: I've been doing, you know, change management, some iteration of it for like 20 years, since it since my whole career.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: And one thing I've always found is that, you know, people again, they do like they lean on people to give them advice.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, think about if you were to, you know, your furnace goes out in the middle of the night and you need to call a HVAC person, you're gonna, hey, you know, Adam, do you know a guy?
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: You know, do you know somebody that can come fix it?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like you we want to know and and and get information from people we trust.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I think with AI, that is even more heightened because people already they like to learn with people that they know understands them, but then they also need that trust because there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of, you know, like past technology rollouts, right?
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: When you were learning Excel, you know, say when Excel was rolled out, nobody was on the the you know, seven o'clock news saying how Excel was gonna like, you know, cause the demise of society and kill your family, you know.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I think, you know, people are needing to learn the technology, but then they're also like, you know, scared.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so that trust and learning from somebody, hearing from somebody that's doing it is way more important than I've ever seen before.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I've rolled out like a lot of tools, a lot of processes, but hands down, this is the hardest one.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're talking about information technology that isn't necessarily common to this point, you know, we we've talked in previous uh podcasts about the evolution of AI, it only really dates back to 2022, 2023, right?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: A handful of years ago.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: How do you align yourself with individuals that know how to use a tool, that know what they're talking about inside an organization when those people are basically, you know, purple unicorns uh in today's market?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if an organization doesn't have somebody with your caliber of experience, how do you gain that type of experience and then push the needle, push the envelope uh to start teaching within your organization?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think with AI, you have a lot of people that are just really naturally curious and naturally diving.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, that's how I got into this work.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't a technologist by any means.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: I just thought it was cool and I thought there was a lot of potential.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I started tinkering and I was curious and I learned.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think in organizations, there's those people, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: The the curious people.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, whether you formally or informally, like they're there, they're sharing.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, Adam, you know, you and I all the time.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, did you know you could do this?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, like those people are out there in your organization.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they're so important.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_02: And where I think a champion program needs to why something more formal needs to be there is because you need to unlock them and enable them and empower them with the information to be able to do this on a bigger scale, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you can talk to your cubicle mate, you know, about something you learned.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's great.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: That's helping adoption with one person, but like how can you scale that to, you know, 50 people is is going to be really important.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And kind of going back to, you know, I do correlate a lot of my professional life with how youth sports pans out.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's the same thing, right?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you're looking for a quarterback, you need to play the field and find out, hey, who's interested in that position?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because not everybody is.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And similar with AI and adoption, right, within your organization, who's interested in learning the technology?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Who's interested in you know furthering their education in a technology that you know is fairly new in within you know most organizations and extremely new within each household?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_02: I think um, and by the way, I keep picturing um Uncle Rico.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, with your I just picture you walking around the football field, uh, like Uncle Rico.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but you could do that, you could be Uncle Rico in your organization, you know, with AI, right?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_02: And um I think setting up as a leader, you know, finding those people is it can be tricky.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's it shouldn't be as hard because people will naturally talk about it.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so when you're thinking about finding those people, people that are asking about it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, do we have an AI tool?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, what AI tool can we use?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: Is this a proof or use?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: Like people asking questions like that are good people that, you know, hey, want to learn more?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, why are you asking if we have this?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: What are you doing at home?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: I think one really underutilized tool that a lot of organizations don't use is like a tool like Viva Engage, which is kind of like a social collaboration tool.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's a Microsoft product.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, setting up a community and seeing who's active in those communities, like who's talking about it, who's sharing use cases.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I think, yeah, just finding the people that are just naturally curious because they're out there.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_02: And another thing I'll say is don't, you know, a lot of times leaders look at a certain level or above for those people.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I think you should search far and wide, like in all corners of your organization.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: Don't discount anyone's position, job level, tenure.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because some of the coolest, like most sophisticated users of AI that I've seen are frontline employees, you know, maybe people doing some weird, like, you know, random back office role.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um so just look for the curious people and the people asking questions and and tinkering.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I fell into that category.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my previous employer, and you and I talked about this where, you know, we had copilot licenses, we had access to it.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and I was the same boat, you know, going to my colleagues.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, how do you use Copilot?
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: What do you use it for?
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Um, colleagues came back and say, Well, isn't it in your Word document?
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Well, yeah, but there's a desktop app for it too.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what are you best utilizing it for?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then that starts to have intriguing conversations of this is how I use it, you know, show me how you do it.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and then you start bouncing ideas back and forth, which then eventually led me to going to, you know, uh our chief information officer saying, Hey, do we have access to um, you know, to co-pilot create to imagery?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what can we do?
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's given, which I think a lot of organizations, you know, kind of roll their eyes and say, I think so, but I don't know.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Here, here's some free Microsoft training that came with our licenses and enjoy.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I think at that point it's a little bit discouraging because then you press play on the Microsoft training and it's it's technical, right?
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: I come from human resources.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't necessarily understand the technical jargon behind it.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I either can embrace it and try to learn, or I'm discouraged and I just say, well, I'll circle back to it another time.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: I just use the word circle back and I don't wanted to bother it.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I apologize for that.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: Quick, quick, uh, pen and that get some synergy.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Synergy around co-pilot circle back, um, and every other corporate jargon you can use, which I've been, you know, quite quite honestly decompressing from my corporate uh personality, and I don't use those words anymore.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes they slip out like that, but I feel like it was you know best used to get my point across.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: I uh I forgot your point um because I'm so intrigued by your word use of synergy or circle back.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I think one way too, so uh we're why I think champions are really important too.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_02: So there's when I was leading this, you know, at a large organization.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I've talked to thousands of people, a lot of different companies now that I so this stands no matter job level, you know, industry, career type, you know, any demographic, the two main questions are is this safe?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Is it okay to use?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_02: And the second question is, okay, so what do I use it for?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: Some like random trainer off the streets is not going to be able to like answer that question with the confidence and trust that employees are looking for.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that's where I think the the role of a champion comes in is like it'll yes, it's it's okay to use it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: I use it.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: You give them that kind of license to use it.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and here's how I use it in a way that's really more meaningful and relevant to people.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: No training, no generic, you know, technology training, no generic trainer off the street or consultant will be able to convey that as effectively as your own people.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, what you're saying is if we want to effectively create something new or get people to adopt to something new, the best strategy is to create a champion program where you teach your employees how to fish instead of giving them a fish.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: And in this situation, uh the best champion program is to teach individuals who are currently your employees, the ones that are intrigued, the ones that are interested in AI to be your champions, train and develop those folks to be subject matter experts within AI, and then allow them to push the needle and allow them to move adoption within your organization.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're saying is people are going to respond in a more positive manner and they're gonna get information that actually sticks if it's given to them by somebody within the organization versus a consultant, somebody from the outside coming in, um, you know, doing a couple hours training and then you never see them again.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, they don't have, you know, who are you?
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: How do you know my job, right?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know what I do.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so there's always that, you know, in terms of training.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I think there's a couple obstacles.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a big adoption gap.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: So employee, you know, employers are purchasing a lot of AI licenses, and a lot of those are sitting unused, underutilized.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I think a part of that reason is because again, they they they don't have anybody like driving and answering those two questions for employees in a way that's, you know, trustworthy enough for them.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I think another big problem that this solves for is scale.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because one thing I've of all the rollouts I've done, and again, I've done like I feel like hundreds across my career, this one with AI requires more hand-to-hand, you know, it's it's more one-on-one.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_02: Like me talking to you, Adam, giving you license, giving you, you know, making you feel better about using it, showing you how to use it most effectively.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you're a training department at a large enterprise, or you can't do that, you know, like so.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: From a scaling perspective, organizations are are running up against, you know, resource limitations.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: You physically can't go and work one-on-one with everybody and your employee.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: But if you utilize your people and equip them with the tools and resources and skilling to be able to do that, that's really honestly the only way I see organizations being able to close that adoption gap.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, thinking about what you just said, you know, what's the difference between uh creating AI champions in this case versus your leadership becoming those champions and trying to roll out uh or be the SMEs within within this adoption plan or within AI technology?
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: So if I'm sitting there at a town hall and my executives like, you should use AI, use it for this.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: I may be like, go back to your yacht.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, so there's again like it's a different messaging.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_02: Now, executives and leadership, they need to be the ones that's kind of charting the course, right?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: They need to be the ones that's like, here's what we're trying to drive with this, here's our strategic priorities, here's our we're using AI as a tool to be able to do that.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: They need to do that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_02: But in terms of the how, they don't have any relatability and they don't understand the work.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, sorry, executives, if you're listening, um, you need people that actually are doing the work, how it's actually being done.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_02: Again, not how it's being done on paper, because the process that's on paper and documented, a nice little polished operating procedure, probably very different than how the work's actually getting done.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because people probably have shortcuts, people are probably piecemealing things together because of limitations of the tools or just to make things faster.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like a leader's not gonna know that.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you need somebody doing the work to be able to best identify how you can use AI to do the work.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so people that are relying on leaders, relying on people act outside of the company to be able to identify that stuff.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know, your your employees are gonna be like, yeah, cool, good story, but that's not how things work.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: You know, we've all had consultants come in for something something, and that's you know, we've all been there, like, sure, sure, Jan.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's that's how things go.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Go go back to your yeah, go back to your later.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: Go back to your yeah, yeah.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, you've you mentioned you've done this before, you've created champion networks, they work.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um so why do organizations rarely budget for champion programs?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think up into this point, it's been a nice to have, you know, it's been a bit of a cherry on top.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have the the say you're rolling out Excel.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Again, just everybody knows what Excel is.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: You roll out Excel, it's pretty straightforward.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Here's how you use it, here's where you click a button, like pretty straightforward.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Now there is a lot of change management and stuff that goes behind that, but it's been pretty straightforward up to this point.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: But with AI, again, we're not only do you have to teach how to use it in an ever-changing tool.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_02: So take Excel, but like make it look different every single day.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_02: It's so you're you gotta change it, like keep up with that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_02: But then also that whole like fear and identity, uh, you know, that's never been really needed before.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_02: That's never been really at risk um in any tool that I've you know experienced.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: So up until this point, it's been really unnecessary.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and now I think it is absolutely critical and essential in order to drive adoption to have it.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I think a lot of people have, you know, kind of not budgeted for it, quite honestly.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a strategy plan too, right?
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: I know uh in the space that I came from, from an HR perspective, we created championship programs that you know basically created SMEs, helped with career progression.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but really it was go-to's to hey, if you have a question, go to this person who specializes in that, and if they can't answer it, either we'll answer it or find somebody who can.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, so they work.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if I'm a listener or I'm an executive and I'm on my yacht right now, and I say, you know, what does it take to build an AI championship program tomorrow?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what would your recommendation be of where to start?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I think one thing we want to take a look at is also not over-engineering the process because a lot of times people will create these really fancy champion programs and they focus so much on the champion program itself and not on what actually the champion program is trying to drive.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say you have to really start and get a good assessment of your culture and your team and how do your, you know, what's your org structure?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and really it's how a champion program is, you know, developed at organization A is much different than how it's gonna be effective at organization B.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I would say that's the main thing to go into it knowing like you're gonna really need to tailor it towards your culture, your people, your structure, your processes.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, figure out like how do we find these people?
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_02: How do we equip them with the information they need?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: And the big challenge here is again, you can create like kicking off, like setting up a champion program is the easy part.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's like the straightforward, yeah, we did it, but keeping those champions engaged, making sure they have the information they need, making sure they have the tools and tactics they need, that's the hard part.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: And that's the part that I think a lot of people don't plan for or do.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_02: And you see like champion programs die um because they don't have that sustainment.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you've ever seen that, like in your champion programs that you've like put in the past.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, you're you're right, and we have seen it.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen it.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's almost because it's driven by somebody else that has another thing put on their plate.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, oftentimes, you know, leaders, executives, they get tasked, let's just say, with a with with uh with AI adoption.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is something that then falls on their plate.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And now they have to add that with managing a team, you know, budget constraints, whatever their function is, and then throw AI adoption on top of it.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: And how do you expect somebody again to do something they've never done before?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, do you expect somebody who's never swam before to be able to swim in a pool?
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: No, they need to be taught, they need to have surround themselves with people who've done it just in case they need the support in order to do it.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's where a lot of adoption, uh, a lot of champion programs fail is because they're being led by one, somebody that's never done it, two, somebody that is using this as you know, an additional to their plate, and there's really no time allocated to making it success.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And therefore it stalls or it doesn't work.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the best thing that we've done is surround yourself to those that have done it.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: And with it being such a new technology, it's important to do your research, maybe get with a consulting company, um, Cough Cough Modern Workery, right?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: Where we've developed these before to work with you to help you lead, to help you be able to implement something that's going to stick long term, um, especially in a time of AI where it's ever changing, right?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: You mentioned in a podcast before that you know the top four uh tools had almost 1400 updates and changes since 2023.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I I would imagine that that's probably going to triple, if not quadruple, within the next four years, right?
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then so on and so forth.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: So an allocated resource that can keep your organization, keep your champions up the speed with the ever-changing evolution of AI is something that's a huge value to organizations.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I think you make a really good point about, and this is where the structure of the program does come into place, right?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Because I don't think we should over-engineer the network and make it to where that's the focus, right?
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I do think there needs to be enough, you know, structure so that way you protect that employee and their time, making sure that they have dedicated time to be able to do to do this work, uh, to make sure that they have the resources to make it ridiculously easy for them to do it, right?
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, plug and play, like, hey, here's an exercise you can do with your team.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like you have to spoon feed them because they're doing you a favor.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: And you need to make it as easy as possible for them.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_02: And sometimes I see a lot of champion networks, like it's a it's a chore, right?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: You're like, oh god, you know, here I'm a champion, like, woohoo, good for me.
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_02: But now I have to sit in like extra meetings that are stupid.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: That, you know, we just talk about like the structure of the champion program and what what I need to track and all of this stuff that's stupid.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and then you don't give me any additional recognition, you don't give me any additional, you know, compensation.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, people people get bad taste in their mouth, you know.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where I do think structure and making sure it's really intentional with how you design the program takes that into account, and and it's exciting for somebody to be a champion and prestigious and uh rewarding for them to do.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: And that's that's another thing I see a lot of companies miss.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, adding adding senseless work, and I won't say senseless because it is important, but to somebody who says, Hey, I want to step up and be a champion, the reality is is what am I getting myself into and what's my workload going to look like?
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And is it worth it?
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: What am I getting in return?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: And acknowledgement goes a long way.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank yours go a long way, you know, is certificates, right?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: Being being giving something that doesn't cost the organization money, but acknowledges the hard work and effort that those employees are putting in goes a long way.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: At the very least, those certificates they can add to their resume, they can add to their LinkedIn profile, uh, as of a sense of accomplishment.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And more than likely, if you have AI champions that you're building within your organization, they are going to be able to utilize that on their resume to potentially better their livelihoods and make more money at a company that's willing to invest in AI champions.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: So you're creating wealth and creating growth at the cost of uh something minimal.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I think you you want to make it advantageous for them to do it.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and otherwise, you're just adding a chore or a task on to somebody that's probably a really good employee.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_02: You know, champions, you don't just pick, you know, lazy, unmotivated people, hopefully, as champions.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so you don't want to disenfranchise your your you know star players.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: So that's where like the design and making sure it's really thoughtful and making sure everything, you know, is really kind of geared towards their experience is just critically important um for them to be able to drive adoption um in a way that that will you know help your org.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Or you could throw them a pizza party or uh, you know, uh$10 gift card to Dairy Queen, you know, that soft serves on us.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, or like a which I love corporate swag, but like a chosky like mug.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_02: If you're gonna give swag, which I do think you should give swag, people are so motivated by swag.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, we joke about it, but people love swag.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, at least make it good, you know, like a nice stuff.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Coat, power bank.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_02: What's what's been your favorite piece of swag you've ever gotten?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, I'm spoiled in this realm.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_00: I used to work for a company um where they were like, hey, you know, I'm a I'm a bigger size guy, right?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So usually when there's free handouts, the search sizes are a little bit smaller than what fits my stature.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I was fortunate with a company that I came from where they were like, hey, we recognize that.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you go buy your own stuff and then we'll market our branding on those clothes?
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: So um, you know, I'm a big sports guy.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: I like zip up hoodies, I like uh, you know, the tech stuff.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: So um I went out and I bought uh some of the the Nike hoodies and things like that, and they branded their logos on it, and I wore those all through our shops, right?
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: All through our manufacturing facilities.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you what, every facility I visited wearing that stuff, people were like, How can I get one?
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Can you order me one?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want it now.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a small token of cost to really boost employee morale.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you hit the nail on the head.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: People love stuff, they love swag.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if you give them something that looks moderately cool, right?
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um they'll jump to the moon and back for you.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: My favorite, I I got a pair of really nice sunglasses from um, I was at a Microsoft event actually.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: And so it's nice because it doesn't say like Microsoft on the sunglasses, because that's also like cheesy.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm not gonna wear like, you know, Microsoft sunglasses.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um nerd!
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_02: I know, I mean maybe.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my kids do rock some copilot shirts, but like the case though, the case said Microsoft on it.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm like, that's pretty smart, you know.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: So the glasses are still subtle.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, oh, in fact, I have them right here.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: Look at and they're Maui Gym.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out Microsoft.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, nice sunglasses I got.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um and lots of advertisement for them.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Microsoft, send us some Maui, some Maui Wowie uh sunglasses.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: Maui.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: But anyways, I don't know how this has to do with champions.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_02: Buy buy your champions, some Maui Wowie.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's Maui Jim sunglasses, but reward them.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: I think the moral of the story is reward it, make it worth it for them, because they're gonna be doing essential critical work for you that you're not gonna be able to do any other way.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like you're not gonna be able to close that adoption gap without people, your people helping drive that.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the least you could do.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And stay off the Maui Wowie because uh I don't think you're gonna pursue any adoption strategy if that's what uh you're giving your employees.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_02: I don't get that reference.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So you can ask Uncle Snoop Dogg what that uh reference is.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, maybe I'll have to Google that uh later.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: Not safe overwork.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: As always, it's an absolute pleasure to talk to you.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, thanks for talking.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: All right, thanks, Adam.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good one.
• 29:11
  unknown: Bye.