The Shift is a conversational podcast for HR and People leaders who are carrying real responsibility and trying to lead with clarity in the middle of change. Youāll leave with practical language, grounded frameworks, and a little more courage to take the next right step. If youāre tired of performative HR conversations and want honest dialogue that actually helps you lead, youāre in the right place.
Only 6% of organizations are seeing measurable ROI from AI.
Everyone else? They did the training, ticked the boxes, bought the licenses… and stalled.
In this episode of The Shift, we sit down with Helena McAleer and Dave Birss, co-founders of The Gen AI Academy, to talk about why AI adoption stalls ā and why the fix isn’t more tech training. It’s more human.
We get into:
Why most organizations stall at 10ā20% AI adoption (and how to get unstuck)
Why HR ā not the CTO ā might be the most important leader in AI adoption
How usage metrics get gamed, and what actually matters instead
Thinking vs. doing ā and how organizations accidentally discourage the one that adds value
The neuroscience of friction: why āfasterā can make us dumber, and what real learning requires
IKEA’s masterclass: retraining 8,500 call-center employees instead of replacing them
And the Roomba Poopocalypse ā why you have to clean up your company’s mess before AI amplifies it
Because AI doesn’t fix your organization. It multiplies whatever’s already there.
š Bonus: Helena and Dave are giving our listeners free access to Dave’s Human Skills in the Age of AI course ā link in the comments.
Connect with Helena & Dave:
Marnie Robbins & Mindy Honcoop
Hosted by Mindy Honcoop and Marnie Robbins, each episode feels like pulling up a chair in the working room, not sitting through another āthought leadershipā lecture. They talk with practitioners, founders, and trusted voices about whatās shifting in the workplace right now: trust, leadership expectations, culture tension, AI and HR tech, change fatigue, messy people problems, and the decisions that sit on your desk when youāre the one everyone looks to.
Youāll leave with practical language, grounded frameworks, and a little more courage to take the next right step.
If youāre tired of performative HR conversations and want honest dialogue that actually helps you lead, youāre in the right place.