If you’ve felt the ground shifting under your feet, you’re not imagining it—the rules of building and leading organizations are changing in real time. In this episode, we sit down with strategist and organizational architect Erica Ishida and human performance coach Ellen Palmer to explore what it takes to design truly adaptive organizations—where humans and AI collaborate to unlock dormant potential.

We trade top-down hierarchy for living networks, and the obsession with efficiency for efficacy—solving real problems, discovering new opportunities, and measuring value beyond tasks. Erica breaks down the grounding principles that replace the myth of a universal roadmap: build radical trust, design for bi-directional learning, redefine value as potential realized, and treat AI as adaptive intelligence—a partner in navigating messy systems.

Ellen brings the human foundation into sharp focus: regulated nervous systems, quality sleep, presence, and healthy device boundaries aren’t indulgences—they’re the infrastructure for better decisions, clearer thinking, and sustainable performance.

Together, we explore the hard truth about leaders who refuse to evolve (irrelevance is inevitable) and why magnetic cultures attract top talent by honoring creativity, calm, and contribution. You’ll also hear candid personal stories: Ellen’s forced slowdown after injury that clarified her priorities, and Erica’s courageous pivot from corporate executive to founder, guided by love, trust, and inner wisdom.

Walk away with practical starting points—set a new commitment, protect restorative rituals, reorient around trust and learning, and partner deeply with AI—so you can shift from survival to potential and build teams that are both humane and high-performing.

If this conversation sparks a rethink, share it with a leader who needs it, hit Follow to catch future episodes, and leave a review with the principle you’ll adopt first.

A single rushed request turned into a turning point. Jessica Smith—Deputy Chief of Business Development at The Connection—shares how a quick AI-assisted draft became a signed training contract and reshaped her team’s approach to creativity, analytics, and everyday operations. We walk through the human-first playbook she’s built inside a large nonprofit serving reentry, housing, behavioral health, and shelter programs—where ethics and guardrails matter as much as speed.

We dig into what “human in the loop” actually looks like: coaching AI like a new colleague, checking its work, and using it for first passes that free people for deeper thinking. Jessica explains why bans backfire, how to set practical policies for HIPAA and confidentiality, and where AI gives immediate lift—meeting agendas, minutes, brainstorming lists, catalog taxonomy across 600 courses, and automated performance summaries. The secret isn’t magic prompts; it’s a mindset of curiosity, clear examples of “good,” and small wins that stack into culture change.

You’ll hear candid stories of missteps, fast pivots, and the difference between generic content and work that reflects your voice and standards. We talk about agility in policy (because six months can make your rules obsolete), how to create safe forums for sharing use cases, and why the cost of waiting now exceeds the cost of careful experimentation. If you’ve felt overwhelmed or skeptical, consider this your practical onramp—treat AI like an assistant you’re onboarding, start with low-risk tasks, and build from there. Enjoy the conversation, then tell us: what’s the first task you’ll offload to AI today?

If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a colleague, and leave a quick review to help others find these conversations. Your support helps us bring more human-first stories of AI at work.

The race to adopt AI is on—but the real advantage isn’t in the tools, it’s in the trust. In this solo episode, Craig Francisco, host of At the Intersection, shares insights from a recent conversation with the leadership team of a Fortune 500 client—where the takeaway was clear: culture decides who wins with AI.

When people can challenge ideas without ego, when curiosity beats fear, and when cross-functional partners collaborate by default, new technology plugs into a living system that’s ready to learn fast.

Craig breaks down what readiness looks like in practice: clear communication, psychological safety, and teams that show up hungry to improve and help one another. You’ll hear why low-trust environments turn AI initiatives into complexity and confusion, and how a strong foundation flips that script—accelerating pilots, aligning stakeholders, and turning experiments into results.

He also shares a practical 30/60/90-day approach to culture change: run a focused survey, listen deeply to the work as it happens, redesign a few high-leverage rituals, and model the behaviors you want from the top. With those moves, you can build the operating system that allows AI to create durable value.

If you’re a leader weighing pilots or a team owner navigating change, this episode offers a simple filter: people first, then platforms. Treat AI as a human-technology partnership and you open space for faster learning, safer governance, and better outcomes.

Subscribe for more candid, field-tested insights from Craig Francisco, and share this with a colleague who’s planning an AI rollout. Leave a review to tell us where your culture is strong—and where you’re building next.

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