Your Team Isn't Afraid of AI. They're Afraid of Looking Foolish.

When I taught high school in northern Zambia, I kept getting handed the worst-behaved classes in the school. They weren't bad kids. They were kids who had decided it was safer to act out than to try something and fail in front of everyone.

Your team and AI is the same story. When employees resist a new tool, managers hear laziness or stubbornness. What I hear is fear — fear of looking foolish in front of coworkers while fumbling with something new.

So don't roll out AI with a mandate. Roll it out the way I handled those classes: make it safe to be a beginner. Start with a low-stakes task where mistakes don't matter. Let people laugh at the weird outputs. Celebrate the first person who finds something the tool does badly — that's learning, out loud.

The classes everyone warned me about became the best classes in the school by end of term. Not because I was strict, but because trying became safe.

Your team will adopt AI at the speed of trust. Build the trust first, and the tool takes care of itself.

I explain frameworks; I don't give legal counsel.