The Insight Collective
The Insight Collective helps leaders understand why AI initiatives stall, fracture work, or create consequences no one planned for. We examine the technology, the organization, and the people affected as one connected system.
There are hundreds of magic bullet solutions flooding the market, each addressing one or two parts of the problem. Our research shows that's not enough — you need a holistic approach that looks at not only the technology, but also the organization, people, and customers that will rely on it.
And if you approach AI correctly, based on our study of 100 organizations we undertook earlier this year, it could mean the difference between an increase in EBITDA of 23% and market cap of 42%, versus drops of 25% and 40%, respectively.
That's why we've assembled top experts in each part of this complex puzzle. This is what the Insight Collective is all about.
AI inherits the incentives, structural divisions, information barriers, ownership conflicts, and operating weaknesses of the organization deploying it. Faster technology can accelerate those weaknesses rather than resolve them.
Adoption is not a communications problem or a prompt-training problem. People interpret AI through their experience of the work, their trust in leadership, the consequences of errors, and their ability to challenge decisions.
Models are only one part of the implementation. Data, integration, workflow design, controls, exceptions, observability, and operating support determine whether an AI capability can produce dependable results.
Technology follows the problem being solved.
Technology, work, organization, and people affect one another.
Assess AI readiness and address gaps before implementation to give the initiative the best chance of success.
Adoption, speed, and activity are weak substitutes for business outcomes, trust, quality, and risk.
The podcast is where the founders test ideas, challenge easy explanations, and connect organizational, workforce, and technical consequences.
Empire Building in the Age of AI
Tom Rieger and Brad Kaufman on what AI does to an organization that already has silos: it does not fix the dysfunction, it makes it faster. Decision rights, source-of-truth data, and the unwritten rules nobody remembers making.
Tom Rieger is the president of NBI Consulting and the best-selling author of the award-winning book, Breaking the Fear Barrier. Rieger has been referred to as a "pioneer in the study and science of organizational barriers." He is an expert in behavioral economics, competitive strategy, and organizational performance, with more than 30 years advising Fortune 500 companies, game studios, and government agencies.
Jason Greer is the founder and president of Greer Consulting, Inc., a labor management and employee relations consulting firm based in St. Louis. He holds an MSW from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's in labor and industrial relations from the University of Illinois, and is a co-author of People Matter Most and Bias, Racism & the Brain. He works directly with employees on workplace satisfaction and labor relations.
Brad Kaufman is the CEO and founder of Thoughtive, an AI consulting and delivery firm. He advises executive teams on enterprise AI strategy, enterprise architecture, AI governance and complex technology transformation, and has built and corrected the kinds of large distributed systems he advises on.
The Collective works with leaders responsible for AI value, operational performance, workforce impact, or program risk. We are most useful when an initiative looks technically plausible but remains difficult to adopt, scale, govern, or trust.
