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Most organizations are investing heavily in AI adoption but seeing little return because traditional training models fail to create lasting behavior change. Research from organizations like Gartner and Anthropic reveals that employees quickly forget one-time AI training and struggle to integrate AI into daily workflows. While licenses and training programs increase, real usage and collaboration remain low. This article explores why AI adoption is a design problem rather than a training problem, highlighting emerging research, behavioral insights, and a new three-part framework that helps organizations build true AI fluency through practice, iteration, and collaborative ways of working.

At the 2026 Facilitation Lab Summit, Trudy Townsend closed two days of deep work with a session that went straight at a topic every facilitator encounters but rarely names: trauma is already present in every room you enter, and it shapes how people show up, engage, and disengage. Drawing on the ACEs study, Dan Siegel's hand model of the brain, and years of practice, Trudy offered facilitators a grounded understanding of how the nervous system works, what dysregulation looks like in a group, and what it actually takes to create safety. Not a checklist, but a stance. A must-read for anyone committed to building spaces where participants can genuinely show up as their best selves.

New Friction is a podcast from Douglas Ferguson on the real organizational challenges of AI transformation. AI made execution almost free but most organizations are still stuck. Not because the technology doesn't work, but because the people problems got harder: decision-making, governance, and trust friction. Each episode features practitioners navigating AI change at ambitious organizations — what broke, what they tried, and what actually worked. We explore the shift from building to deciding, the 4x perception gap between leaders and the workforce, multiplayer AI organizations, and how the next generation learns judgment. Episode 1 drops May 26, 2026.

“Collaborative AI” is one of the most overused terms of 2026, often stretched to describe everything from multi-agent systems to solo prompting in tools like ChatGPT. This ambiguity hides what actually matters: how teams work together with AI in real-world settings. This piece cuts through the noise, challenging shallow definitions and offering a practical, experience-based perspective. Learn the difference between agent-to-agent workflows, individual AI use, and true team collaboration with AI—and why only one of these reflects the meaningful shift happening inside organizations today.

AI is accelerating execution, but many organizations are stalling. This post explores the hidden tradeoff behind AI efficiency, introducing concepts like Capability Debt and beneficial friction. Learn why over-automation can erode judgment, how contiguous AI workflows increase risk, and what leaders must do to preserve decision-making capacity. Drawing on research from MIT and real-world examples, it reframes AI transformation as a leadership and facilitation challenge, not just a technology rollout. Discover practical strategies to balance speed with resilience and build organizations that scale without losing their ability to adapt.

At the 2026 Facilitation Lab Summit, Robin Neidorf opened with a room full of people singing in three-part harmony and spent the next 90 minutes making a case that facilitation is not just a cognitive practice. It is a bodily one. Drawing on nearly 30 years of parallel practice in facilitation and yoga, Robin introduced tools for activating body-based awareness before and during sessions, a practical framework for understanding what different group sizes do to the relational field, and experiential exercises that help facilitators sense more and interpret less. A must-read for anyone who has ever felt the room shift before they could name why, and wanted better tools to work with that knowing.

Most organizations treat AI adoption as a training problem, but the real challenge is design. Drawing on research from Gartner and Anthropic, this article explores why traditional upskilling fails, how experience gaps are widening, and why collaboration is the missing layer in AI success. Learn how leading teams are shifting from one-time training to continuous, practice-based learning and redesigning workflows to integrate AI as a true collaborator. Discover what it takes to build alignment, trust, and lasting impact in the age of AI.

At the 2026 Facilitation Lab Summit, Brian Buck invited facilitators to ask a question most technique-focused training skips entirely: who are you becoming in this work, and why does it matter? Drawing on a three-part fire model built around ember, kindle, and illuminate, Brian offered a practical framework for shifting from a facilitator who brings the fire to one who ignites it in others. Through a paired exercise in illuminating presence, participants experienced firsthand how asking different questions and offering different kinds of attention can unlock belonging, collective intelligence, and breakthroughs that no agenda alone can produce. A powerful session for any facilitator ready to make presence their most important tool.