Improve AI Adoption with the LEVERS Framework
Learning Objectives
After completing this unit, you’ll be able to:
- Define the LEVERS of change management.
- Identify tactics that can be used to improve adoption of AI technology.
LEVERS of Change Management
Change management is a set of tactics designed to help organizations and individuals adopt new initiatives, like launching new AI solutions. Successful adoption requires the combination of knowledge (“I know how to…”) and desired action/behavior (“I choose to…”).
Behaviors are shaped by several influences, including individual factors such as beliefs and abilities, social factors such as peer pressure and leadership direction, and structural factors such as policies and incentives. These factors can be captured by the LEVERS model, which stands for Leadership, Ecosystem, Values, Enablement, Rewards, and Structure.
Based on research, it’s been found that successful change is 10 times more likely when four or more LEVERS are engaged.
Leadership
To implement change, leaders need to encourage, model, and support the development of new ways of working. Their actions send a strong message about the priority and importance of the new initiative.
Strategies for pulling the Leadership lever include:
- Encouraging transparent communication: Leaders need to clearly communicate the benefits of AI, addressing concerns about job displacement and showcasing how AI augments rather than replaces jobs.
- Involving employees in the change process: Leaders should engage employees early in the AI adoption process, allowing for input and cocreation of AI solutions. This encourages buy-in and support across the organization.
- Encouraging leadership accountability: Leaders should include AI project success in their individual goals to show commitment and accountability.
- Developing focused executive briefing materials: Provide leaders with concise, AI-focused materials to discuss the AI program’s impact and progress in their meetings.
- Establishing two-way feedback channels: Create avenues (using platforms like Slack) for employees to offer feedback on AI tool usage and effectiveness, encouraging leadership to actively participate in discussions.
Ecosystem
An organization’s “system of people” includes customers, employees, partners, vendors, and communities. The relationships within and between these groups influence how people think, act, and get work done across the organization.
Strategies for pulling the Ecosystem lever can include:
- Performing an AI stakeholder assessment: Identify key groups and individuals affected by or capable of influencing the success of the AI implementation and formulate tailored engagement strategies.
- Establishing an AI change network: Promote active participation, support new AI-driven processes, and encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing across departments, fostering a more integrated AI culture.
- Creating an AI ethics committee: Creating crossfunctional ethics committees ensures that AI projects are reviewed from multiple perspectives, involving stakeholders from various parts of the organization in decisions regarding AI governance.
- Organizing AI-focused road shows: Conduct events to increase awareness about the AI transition, gather feedback, and involve the entire organization in the AI adoption dialogue.
- Evaluating impact on organizational structure: Assess whether AI implementation necessitates changes in organizational design, role specifications, or team configurations.
- Performing an AI talent gap analysis: Identify skill or talent shortages that can arise due to the adoption of AI technologies and plan to address these gaps.
Values
Connecting changes to what people already value is the most effective way to motivate others. The values lever is all about tapping into people’s personal motivation. However, this can be tricky. It’s impossible to force anyone to be personally motivated. So what can a change agent do? They can connect change to what people already care about. Draw a clear, sincere link between change and what people already care about and value to create advocates.
Strategies for pulling the Values lever can include:
- Communicating the AI purpose and value: Clearly convey why the organization is adopting AI. Explain how AI aligns with the company’s mission and vision, how it contributes to achieving key business goals, and the benefits it offers to the individual.
- Instituting ethical AI governance: Establish strong ethical guidelines and address concerns around bias and fairness in AI so employees can engage with AI responsibly.
- Showing transparency in AI models: Providing transparency into how AI models make decisions helps build trust and aligns with employees’ desire for honesty and integrity in the workplace.
- Crafting a purpose-driven AI narrative: Develop a narrative that connects the AI change to a larger purpose, making it relatable and meaningful for employees, highlighting real-life impacts and successes.
- Designing hands-on AI experience opportunities: Create experiences that let employees see firsthand the positive effects of AI on their work, customers, and process partners.
Enablement
Training is crucial to any new business initiative’s success, but even more so for AI solutions. For workers unfamiliar with how AI functions in the workplace, the futuristic technology and terms can be intimidating. While terms such as automation, algorithm, and machine learning can have positive connotations for some, the basics of AI might not be as clear to other team members.
Strategies for pulling the Enablement lever could include:
- Creating a detailed training strategy: Develop a systematic approach for training users. Look for opportunities to deploy training in the flow of work with practical applications and hands-on experience.
- Conducting live demonstrations: Showcase the features and functionality. Offer practical guidance on how users can make the most of the benefits
- Enlisting super users: Employ knowledgeable users as champions of the AI tool, providing peer support, training others, addressing questions, and assisting in adoption across the organization.
- Employing online AI training platforms: Encourage the use of platforms like Trailhead for free, on-demand training on AI tools and technologies.
- Establishing an AI innovation and practice lab: Create a space for users to explore and test new AI features, offering hands-on experience and an opportunity to contribute feedback for future enhancements. Share prompts and best practices for creating them.
- Sharing self-guided onboarding resources: Provide continuous access to onboarding tools that allow users to independently learn and practice using the tool at their own pace.
- Offering training in AI ethics: Provide specialized training to employees on recognizing and mitigating AI biases, so they can contribute responsibly to AI development and deployment.
Rewards
Rewards are all about tapping into extrinsic motivation—putting in place tangible and intangible rewards and recognition to encourage people to behave in a certain way. At work, those extrinsic motivators are things like recognition programs, perks, performance management systems, and payment (think: bonuses, commissions, and spot rewards).
They can be powerful influencers on peoples’ behavior but should be used in moderation as research has shown that overemphasizing extrinsic rewards can degrade the effectiveness of other levers in place and can even produce the opposite of intended results.
Strategies for pulling the Rewards lever can include:
- Creating an incentive program: Develop a strategy that encourages and rewards the completion of training and use of new AI technologies within the organization.
- Acknowledging early AI adopters: Recognize individuals who quickly embrace AI tools during team meetings or leadership updates.
- Employing AI adoption dashboards: Implement dashboards to track AI tool usage across the organization. Recognize and reward teams and individuals who use the tool consistently and demonstrate novel ways of integrating AI into their work processes.
- Offering rewards for AI tool proficiency: Provide incentives for top AI tool users, with rewards like gift cards, company merchandise, or spot bonuses to encourage continuous engagement and excellence.
- Creating a leadership recognition program: Establish a regular program to honor outstanding team members who excel in using AI tools. Use platforms like Slack to celebrate these achievements within the organization.
Structure
The launch of new AI solutions can affect teams and systems beyond those most closely related to the process. For example, Agentforce for Service clearly impacts the day-to-day tasks of service agents but can also affect operations in other departments. Part of the change management process is considering the broader impact of new technology on the business.
Other roadblocks that can be mitigated through change management include verifying the true need for the solution, ensuring proper metrics tracking, and reducing critical system downtime. Recognizing barriers early in the process enables new processes to integrate as seamlessly as possible into your existing processes.
Strategies for pulling the Structure lever could include:
- Establishing AI governance: Implement governance structures that include ethical guidelines, transparency standards, and bias mitigation processes to ensure that AI systems are used responsibly and align with organizational goals.
- Implementing Slack for AI tool discussions: Set up Slack channels dedicated to AI topics, providing a space for asking questions, sharing feedback, and increasing visibility by shifting conversations from individual inboxes to a collaborative platform.
- Developing AI tool feedback loops: Create channels that let employees provide feedback, driving continuous improvement and refining AI processes in a structured, iterative way.
- Building AI dashboards: Employ AI-enhanced dashboards and reports to emphasize the principle that data and activities not recorded in the AI tool are not recognized.
- Implementing automation for efficiency: Use automation technologies to replace manual processes where possible, aiming to streamline operations and reduce friction in workflows.
- Revising policies and procedures: Update standard organizational policies, processes, and procedures to accommodate changes brought about by the introduction of AI tools and new working methodologies.
Ensure the Long-Term Success of AI Technologies
Long-term success of AI solutions isn’t determined at the end of a day or even several weeks after you launch. New technologies take time to implement, and resistance is a common challenge in change management. Resistance is particularly common when launching large-scale AI solutions that dramatically change the way employees work. One of the keys to successful AI adoption is sustaining the changes and embedding the new processes into an organization’s workflow and culture.
By using a change management process that outlines these initiatives from the start, the new technology’s long-term success is significantly increased. So go ahead and pull the LEVERS (at least four) of change.
Resources
- Trailhead: LEVERS of Change Model
- Trailhead: AI + Data: Project Planning
- Trailhead: Generative AI for Organizations