Ancient Queens & AI: What Egypt's Golden Era Teaches Us About Change Leadership Today with Christine Mikhail
What if the blueprint for thriving in the AI era has been buried for centuries, inside the civilization that built the pyramids? Organizational psychologist Christine Mikhail joins Lori Adams-Brown live from the Transform Conference in Las Vegas to unpack one of the most urgent (and under-discussed) challenges in the modern workplace: we're racing to implement AI, but we're forgetting the humans doing the work.
In this episode, you'll discover:
Why Christine coined "compounded change" and why your workforce is carrying more layers of transformation than anyone is acknowledging
The ancient Egyptian precedent: when women held positions of finance, governance, and pharaonic leadership and what modern society lost when that changed
The critical AI adoption gap: organizations are deploying new technology without addressing the psychological and emotional responses of their people
How change resilience workshops create unexpected catharsis and build communities people didn't know they needed
How to frame AI as a tool that elevates human capability, and why that framing is the difference between adoption success and workforce anxiety
Christine Mikhail is a master's-level industrial-organizational psychologist and founder of Mikhail Consulting Group, a consultancy specializing in work design and change management. With roots tracing to ancient Egypt, she brings a uniquely global lens to how humans navigate transformation at work.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 – Welcome from the Transform Conference, Las Vegas
02:17 – Egypt, cultural identity, and a heartbreaking lesson in gender inequality
05:00 – Ancient Egypt's golden era: when women were pharaohs, financiers, and leaders
08:59 – What excites Christine about the future of work and the human-AI relationship
10:59 – The overlooked gap in AI adoption: where is the human change strategy?
13:24 – Upskilling in the AI era: we promise humans will be needed — but for what?
15:49 – "Compounded change" — why this moment feels like a tsunami, earthquake, and ripple at once
18:09 – How change resilience workshops are building community and catharsis
20:27 – AI adoption success: framing technology as "for" people, not a replacement
22:40 – Where to find Christine and Mikhail Consulting Group
Find Christine Mikhail at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-mikhail-odconsultant | Mikhail Consulting Group on LinkedIn
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Lori Adams-Brown, Host & Executive Producer
A World of Difference Podcast
