Guest: Barbara A. Trautlein, PhD, the principal and founder of Change Catalysts, the author of the best-selling book Change Intelligence: Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change that Sticks, and the creator of the CQ® System for Developing Change Intelligence®.
In a nutshell: What happens when AI changes the operating capacity of a wealth management firm faster than the people inside the firm can actually change with it?
When I talked to Andre Pop about scaling an AI workforce, the issues we raised were about more than just implementing new technology. If AI really does free human advisors to spend more time on high-value, human-to-human service, then what our industry really needs to prepare for is a massive leadership and change challenge.
On today’s show, Dr. Barbara Trautlein discusses how leaders can help their teams rethink their roles and embrace new professional identities in the AI era.
.Dr. Barbara Trautlein and I discuss:
- Why resistance to change is a normal biological reaction, not stubbornness.
- The fundamental difference between “change management” (tools and processes) and “change leadership” (guiding people through transitions).
- Dr. Trautlein’s “Head, Heart, and Hands” framework and how leaders can identify their dominant style and address their blind spots when leading teams through disruption.
- Achieving “proactive buy-in” by consulting frontline employees early so that they own what they help the company create.
- Escaping the “Pit of Productivity” and the “Valley of Despair” during a transition and how companies can emerge stronger on the other side.
- Building a culture of continuous “Change Intelligence” to prevent the fatigue and saturation that might cloud the company’s most important goals.
Dr. Barbara Trautlein on the neuroscience of change:
“I’m an organizational psychologist by training, and what we know from neuroscience is that when neuroscientists place electrodes on people’s brains and introduce them to a change, the same neuroreceptors fire when people get introduced to change as when they feel physical pain. So literally, to our brains, change equals pain.
“The implication of that is that resistance is normal and natural. It’s literally how our brains are wired and why we survive as individuals and thrive as a species. So often, what is the number one topic in the change literature? It’s overcoming resistance to change. And I’ve always thought that is exhausting for leaders and insulting for everyone else because if resistance is normal and natural, then instead of the focus being on overcoming or eradicating or preventing it in the first place, the focus should be to expect it, to surface it, to ask questions about it, and to use it as a powerful source of information that we can use to change the only thing we can, which is ourselves: our approach as leaders to plan, design, execute, implement, sustain the change.”
Dr. Barbara Trautlein on her “Head, Heart, and Hands” framework:
“Any effective change needs an effective purpose: a goal for the change, a vision, a strategy. Any effective change needs a process: how are we going to get from here to there? And any effective change needs engaged people. Any of us, to lead change effectively, needs to do all three. And so that is the essence of why I say we need to be ‘change intelligent’ as leaders. We need to enlighten ‘heads.’ We need to focus on the vision, mission, strategy. We need to equip ‘hands.’ People need to be able to do it with the plans, processes, tool, technology, training. And we need to engage people, ‘hearts.'”
Dr. Barbara Trautlein on preparing your organization to manage a perpetual state of change:
“Change is not going to slow down. And all the systems that we have in place in our organizations, to really bake in that change, is a critical core capability for individuals, for teams, and as a company. And so, how can we build that capability at the individual level? By learning to and receive feedback and collaborate using this common language: Do I get it? Do I want it? Can I do it? Does this have a clear purpose? Does everybody understand? Does this have a realistic processes and is well-funded and is executable change? And are people engaged? What are people’s concerns? What are their fears? What are their hopes? What are their aspirations? Building this common language and approach to lead through any change to come, and having the systems and processes in place that we do have good governance. I think it’s a opportunity for leaders in organizations to intentionally assess their culture, their processes, their systems, their individual and collective capability and then decide, very intentionally, what is now our approach to having an organization that is truly and deeply and broadly change-capable?
“I think organizations can and will absorb AI. And I think that it’s not whether they can necessarily, it’s how easy or painful is that journey is going to be. And I think you can say the same thing with any change. And I think the bottom line is how change intelligent are they? How much have they invested in becoming so?”
