Companies aren't failing at AI because the tools don't work. They're failing because the culture never got on board. Morgan Stanley didn't just deploy an AI assistant - they earned the right to deploy it. Before rolling out their AI @ Morgan Stanley Assistant, built on OpenAI and trained on more than 100,000 internal research reports, the firm ran rigorous evaluation frameworks to prove the tool met adviser quality standards.
Change often fails and that rarely has anything to do with whether the concept is a good one or not. As Howard Aiken famously put it, "Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throat." As the creator of the Harvard Mark, one of the very first computers, he was speaking from experience.
From law firms to in-house legal teams, the rules of value are being rewritten. The question is: Who's ready to lead the change? In the first episode of 2026 for the UpLevel View podcast, Stephanie Corey and Ken Callander sit down with Rita Gunther McGrath, Columbia Business School professor and Wall Street Journal columnist, to talk about how AI is forcing professional services to price outcomes instead of hours.
A Virtuous Cycle If a legal tech solution has a high degree of adaptability, customers can start small and gradually secure buy-in and expansion. Initial wins create a virtuous cycle, where success leads to growth, and this growth leads to more success. A Cleary Gottlieb team that includes members of its Knowledge Management and Business Development groups has implemented such a cycle at that firm.
I see this daily in veterinary medicine, where high burnout rates cost the sector upwards of $2 billion per year. It's a challenging environment with long hours, stressful workloads and patients that can't even tell you what's wrong. But I've found that the best way to boost performance and even increase capacity with maxed-out teams is to address the underlying operational issues.
When going through change, people need time to understand in their own way what exactly is happening and how it will affect them personally. Technical changes especially can bring about uncertainty for many people. Which means: It makes sense that people can become extremely concerned when we tell them that their ways of working are about to change, and they will need to build them up again from scratch.
The announcement made headlines and thrilled investors, but behind the scenes, the organization wasn't prepared. Ted was given a skeletal team of two direct reports, a patchwork of third-party tools, and the mandate to partner with five global banking divisions serving more than 500 employees. He was expected to turn the AI vision into reality with little structural support.
As directors of career centers, our job is to spot the skills tomorrow's leaders will need and to design ways to help them build those skills now. At the top of that list is the ability to navigate change and to help others do the same. It's not a "nice-to-have" skill anymore; it's part of how one leads, collaborates and makes their own work sustainable.
When CEO Doug McMillon and other Walmart execs visit stores, they'll collect stray shopping carts from the parking lot or pick up trash. The idea is to model servant leadership and being "willing to do what we want anybody else to do," McMillon told a business school audience at Stanford in May. McMillon, 59, announced on Friday that he plans to retire in January. He will be succeeded by John Furner, president and current CEO of Walmart US.
Have you noticed how even well-planned organizational changes can leave teams feeling scattered, resistant, or quietly overwhelmed? Our research with more than 1,000 workplaces has found that 'poor change management' is consistently the most frequent cause of burnout in workplaces right now. The problem isn't a lack of project plans. Organizations have those in abundance. The gap is neurological. Too much focus on timelines and deliverables while overlooking what uncertainty does to people's brains.
Change experts will tell you to "get clear on your vision" and "communicate the plan." But what happens when you can't predict what next month will bring, let alone next quarter? This isn't a leadership failure. For most of us, it's the new reality. And it requires a completely different approach to how we navigate uncertainty together. Why Traditional Approaches Fall Short
It's tough to keep a team motivated when the strategy from the top keeps shifting. Without clear direction leaders have to figure out how to set priorities, keep morale up, and make sure their team's work has an impact. That's the challenge facing a leader who's going by "Michael", to protect his identity. He built an internal consulting team at a large global organization. Mid-level managers value the group, but the C-suite barely knows they exist.
There's just one problem, though: While many know how to declare an initiative, far fewer understand what it takes to carry the project through the friction of daily workflows. What separates those rare successes from the long list of initiatives that fade into half-measures is not only leadership and resourcing, but also the way organizations adapt, measure, and learn as they go.
My first experience with technology adoption for a law firm was probably in 1993. I was attending a partner meeting for a top Am Law firm to demonstrate the first version of Lexis on Microsoft Windows. My pitch was strong enough to get a partner to grab the mouse and try for himself. The problem was that he had never used a computer before. When the partner grabbed the mouse, he accidentally highlighted half the screen. Embarrassed, he walked away without saying a word.
When you think about growing your business, it's natural to picture new customers, more sales, and bigger teams. But growth today looks a little different than you might be used to because it also involves making sure your people can work effectively with the systems you put in place. That balance is what makes the difference between growth that feels sustainable and growth that leaves everyone stretched.
The execs kick things off: Why are we here? What will this achieve? Then the consultants descend. Let the process mapping begin. Swim lanes. Handoff points. Decision makers. Stakeholders. RACI charts. Today is all about people and process. The message is clear: fix the people side first - because until you do, no technology will save you. No more silos. No more pain points. Content, data and insights delivered on time and on spec.
