"The people who most need to experiment with AI-those in routine cognitive roles-experience the highest psychological threat. They're being asked to enthusiastically adopt tools that might replace them, triggering what neuroscientists call a "threat state." Research by Amy Edmondson at Harvard Business School reveals that team learning requires psychological safety-the belief that interpersonal risk-taking feels safe. But AI adoption adds an existential twist: The threat isn't just social embarrassment; it's professional survival."
"Your team is trapped between two primal fears: being replaced by AI and being left behind without it. While they're frozen in analysis paralysis, your competitors are learning at lightning speed. The result? Shadow AI usage, whereby employees secretly experiment with tools but don't share learnings-or complete avoidance disguised as "being careful." Meanwhile, the IMF estimates that AI will negatively impact 30% of jobs in advanced economies, escalating workplace anxiety to unprecedented levels."
"In a world of AI, innovation must happen faster than you can tell people what to do. How can you get them innovating safely and, at the same time, innovating together in a stressful, ambiguous environment? The answer is to build an innovation approach that mimics the distributed mind of the octopus.. While it has a central brain for strategy and oversight, each arm has its own mini-brain-autonomous, responsive, and deeply aware"
Teams face two primal fears: being replaced by AI and being left behind without it, producing analysis paralysis while competitors learn rapidly. Employees respond with shadow AI—secret experimentation without shared learning—or avoidance framed as caution. AI most threatens routine cognitive roles, inducing a neuroscientific "threat state" tied to professional survival. Team learning requires psychological safety—the belief that interpersonal risk-taking feels safe—but mandated AI rollouts often violate autonomy and safety, reducing proactivity. IMF estimates that AI will negatively affect about 30% of jobs in advanced economies, escalating workplace anxiety. Four neuroscience-informed, evidence-based tools can create psychological safety and enable safe, distributed experimentation and coordinated innovation.
Read at Psychology Today
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