Last month a manager asked me why her team wasn't using the AI tools she rolled out. She had demos, training sessions, even pizza lunches. Two months later the tools sat untouched.

I asked about her team. Ten people. Eight were comfortable with their current process. Two were already building small automations on nights and weekends with tools IT didn't know about.

The real question: Why chase the eight when you have two champions?

The best AI adoption I see happens bottom up. Someone gets fed up with a brutal process. They start tinkering with Claude or building Zaps after hours. They ship something that works. Their desk neighbor notices. Word spreads.

Top down mandates feel like more work. Grassroots solutions feel like relief.

Sarah at a content agency automated her freelancer sourcing because she was drowning in forty hours of email ping pong each month. She didn't ask permission. She built with Airtable and Zapier until it worked. Now her whole team uses her system.

Mark in RevOps was staying late every month building board packs. He connected their data tools and had GPT draft the bullet summaries. His manager asked how he got so fast. Now three others want his template.

If you manage people: Stop trying to convert everyone. Find your builders. Give them air cover. Let them demonstrate value. The skeptics will follow once they see someone escape the grind.

The takeaway: Innovation happens when someone wants it badly enough to break a few rules.

Still breaking rules,

Jamie

P.S. If you have felt smarter than the work on your desk, this room is for you.