The Merholz Agenda
Peter Merholz's semi-weekly newsletter on organization design, design leadership, and bringing humanism into the places we work.
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[TMA] You Can't Yell It Away: The Courage Design Leaders Need Now
By Peter Merholz · · View online →
It's understandable to be wary, anxious, frustrated, fed up with, or just over the imposition of AI within your work context. As Paul Ford shares in the just-published episode of Finding Our Way: (Apple Podcasts, Spotify, website with complete transcript):
This is the worst [technology] rollout in history... It shows up out of nowhere. The leaders of the companies... have many qualities, but they're not great communicators about what's coming. They don't know the capabilities of their own platforms. And it comes on a level of hype that is essentially trying to match Bitcoin hype, but with a weird database that talks to you.
All of which has been exacerbated by arbitrary executive mandates and layoffs justified as "AI restructuring" — compounding FOMO, exhaustion, and burnout.
Thing is, as Paul also says:
[Y]ou're not gonna put it back in the box. You can't yell it away.
Even noted AI skeptic Erika Hall has acknowledged, "I have become somewhat resigned to the likelihood that the trend of organizations using computer in the stupidest and most wasteful way possible just has to