When Resistance Isn’t Resistance

Every org right now is scrambling to “use AI.” The pressure is everywhere: boardrooms, inboxes, LinkedIn feeds. Leaders rush to pick a tool, announce it, and expect everyone to jump on board.

But here’s what happens: teams stall. Workarounds pop up. People nod in meetings, then quietly keep using their old systems. Leadership calls it resistance. We call it the system saying: this doesn’t fit yet.

What’s really going on?
It’s rarely about people being stubborn. It’s usually that the rollout ignored how work actually happens. Maybe the tool doesn’t match daily rhythms. Maybe processes don’t flex enough. Or maybe people don’t feel safe admitting they’re unsure how to use it. Beneath the surface, it’s not resistance, it’s signal.

What changes when you treat it as signal?
Instead of pushing harder, you start asking:

• Where does this tool rub against reality?

• What are the workarounds telling us?

• What hidden debt (old tech, cultural habits, unspoken fears) is shaping the slowdown?

That shift matters. Because once you decode it, AI adoption doesn’t just “take”, it actually creates flow. Work moves cleaner, faster, and people trust the change because it fits them, not the other way around.

The secret isn’t better training or fancier tech. It’s listening to what looks like resistance and reading it as intelligence. That’s where adoption really begins.