What Will You Do With the Time AI Gives Back to You? - with Alex Kuilman, Founder of The Practice

Alexander Kuilman works with CEOs and executive teams to bring more humanity into how they lead. He joins Henrik and Jeremy to explore why, if leaders know AI matters, getting people to actually use it can still be so difficult.

Using Bob Kegan and Lisa Lahey’s Immunity to Change framework, Alex argues that “I don’t have time” can mask deeper fears about competence, relevance, and what happens when AI can do work you previously thought made you valuable. They also explore why psychological safety matters if people are going to admit what they don’t know and actually experiment.

The conversation ends with the “AI vampire” and Alex’s idea of “corporate numbing”: AI makes us more productive, but instead of taking the time back, we often fill it with more work. Which leaves a bigger question: when AI gives us time back, what do we actually want to do with it?

Key Takeaways:

• AI resistance may be about fear, not time
  “I don’t have time” can mask deeper fears about competence, relevance, and what happens when AI can do work you thought made you valuable.
• People need to feel safe enough to experiment
  Psychological safety gives people room to admit what they don’t know, try something new, and risk looking incompetent.
• How leaders make people feel matters
  Henrik and Jeremy realize that some of the AI leaders they admire don’t just have good tactics. They make people around them feel safe enough to try.
• Don’t let AI give you more work
  The “AI vampire” turns productivity gains into more work. Alex’s idea of “corporate numbing” asks whether staying busy is sometimes easier than deciding what we actually want to do with the time AI gives back. Alex Kuilman (transcript - fina…

The Practice: bethepractice.com
Alex's LinkedIn: LinkedIn/AlexKuilman
Immunity to Change by Robert Kegan & Lisa Laskow
Amy Edmondson on Psychological Safety: Psychological Safety

00:00 Intro: The Problem of Corporate Numbing
00:23 Meet Alexander Kuilman
04:45 Why Aren’t People Using AI More?
06:49 The Hidden Assumptions Blocking Change
08:08 Jeremy’s Travel Problem
14:12 What Are People Really Afraid of With AI?
16:02 Stop Making Time to Experiment
22:25 Psychological Safety and AI Adoption
32:56 How to Hold Yourself
38:57 The Leaders Who Make People Feel Safe
40:33 What If AI Helps Us Think Less?
44:13 The AI Vampire
46:10 Corporate Numbing
54:08 Your Humanity Is the Advantage
58:05 The Debrief

📜 Read the transcript for this episode: Here!

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Show edited by Emma Cecilie Jensen.