Stop Doing Change to People: Human-Centered Leadership in the AI Era with CEO Karen Zeigler

What if people do not resist change at all, and what they resist is change that is done to them? Karen Zeigler, CEO of Human Score, joins Lori to explain why so many change and AI efforts stall, and what leaders can do differently this week.

This conversation was recorded live on LinkedIn, with comments and questions from the community along the way.

In this conversation, Lori and Karen explore:

• Why leaders misread their own workforce, and how fear shows up as projection
• What Karen means by "AI is us," and why using AI in a human-centered way takes conscious intent
• The business case for designing work so that people and AI each contribute what they do best
• Why people resist change that is thrust upon them, and how transparency, agency, and removing even one obstacle build trust
• How a Nutri-Score label on a frozen pizza in the Netherlands inspired a score for how healthy an organization is for its people

About Karen: Karen Zeigler is the CEO of Human Score, a diagnostic that shows leaders the conditions inside their organization across work design, organizational structure, culture, decision making, and fairness. She spent more than a decade in financial services leading teams through mergers, and she brings a human-centered design lens to change and AI adoption.

Disclosure: Lori is a consultant with Human Score and the Human Score Collective.

Timestamps:

00:00 Welcome and introduction

02:34 Where leaders misread their own workforce

05:30 Fear, ego, and "us versus them"

08:04 What Human Score measures

12:04 "AI is us": using AI in a human-centered way

14:04 The business case for investing in people

19:48 A lesson from the 2008 financial crisis

22:08 Do people really resist change?

27:04 Why listening tours erode trust

28:30 Constant change and human limits

32:48 Comments from the live audience

35:39 Risk reduction and value creation

37:22 What Karen unlearned about leading high performers

42:24 Empathy, and why the obstacle is the way

45:02 How the Human Score works

51:13 Using AI to free people's gifts and talents

54:24 The frozen pizza behind the name

56:52 Lori's three takeaways and Passport Stamp: the Netherlands

Find Karen Zeigler at:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-zeigler/

Human Score: https://humanscore.info

Human Score on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-human-score

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Lori Adams-Brown, Host & Executive Producer

A World of Difference Podcast