AI change management is the work of leading a burned out team through disruption it did not choose, not just rolling out new tools.

If your organization is asking people to adopt AI while they are already stretched thin from years of restructuring, budget cuts, and shifting expectations, this episode is for you. Resistance to change rarely means people reject the technology itself. It usually means they do not understand why the change is happening to them, or they feel like they have lost all agency and control.

Laurie Fainer, Founder and CEO of Dynamic Alchemy Advisors, sits down with Diana Mohan, Executive Director of Transformation and Change at Seneca Polytechnic, whose career runs through Deloitte and PwC. Diana shares the framework she uses to explain burnout: a high level of uncertainty paired with a low level of control, and why celebrating small wins, including one team member's first Excel macro, moved an entire AI rollout further than any polished business case. She also opens up about the belief her mother gave her that still shapes how she leads today.

If you are responsible for bringing a tired team through change, this conversation will change how you lead the next rollout.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why employees resist AI adoption is rarely about the technology itself, and what leaders miss when they treat change as a communication problem.
• The framework Diana uses to explain burnout.
• How Diana rebuilt momentum for an AI rollout inside a resource constrained public institution by starting small with senior leadership instead of mandating adoption top down.
• The difference between being right and being effective, and why data and good intentions alone rarely move a resistant team toward change.
• Why vulnerability, not certainty, is what builds trust when leaders are asking people to adopt a technology that could change their own role.

We talk about:

00:00 Why leaders misread resistance to change

01:29 Diana's moment of gratitude amid parenting chaos

03:05 How Diana and Laurie built trust years before this conversation

05:00 What makes higher education so disrupted right now

07:00 Why is burnout really about lost control, not workload

09:11 Starting small, how Diana built AI momentum with senior leaders

12:10 How do you keep a resistant team feeling like they still matter

15:07 Being vulnerable instead of certain as a leader

17:01 Why data and good intentions were never enough

20:00 The difference between getting the work right and the experience of it

22:29 The belief her mother gave her that still drives how she leads

27:17 Where to connect with Diana Mohan

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Connect with Diana:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/diana-mohan/

Connect with me

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dynamicalchemyadvisors
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dynamic-alchemy-advisors/
• Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauriefainer/
• Website: https://amplified-authenticity.com/

Music created and produced by Riley Fouchier, DarkSky Productions