Ep 96 - Workflow Redesign: Transformational Leadership in the Age of AI

Send us Fan Mail Most teams don’t fail with AI because they picked the wrong software. They fail because they drop powerful AI tools into workflows that were already overloaded, slow, and full of bottlenecks. That’s like building a race car and then driving it on a road full of potholes. The tool isn’t the problem. The system is. We dig into the difference between automation and transformation, and why speeding up tasks doesn’t always make the workday better. When AI can summarize meetings, ...

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jason McGuinthe?

  Welcome back to Inspire AI, the podcast where we help leaders, builders, and communities become calm, capable, and intentional in an AI-accelerated world. So for the past four episodes, we've talked about transformational leadership, human-AI collaboration, ethical AI, and why every leader needs AI literacy. It's part of a big series that was inspired by transformational leadership in the age of AI. And today, we're going to dive one click deeper as we go into the prospects of challenging one of the biggest assumptions organizations make when believing success comes from choosing the right AI tool. I have some evidence that's going to tell a different story.

• 0:44Jason McGuinthe?

  The organizations creating the most value from AI are redesigning how work gets done, which changes everything. So what's the trap? Imagine building the fastest race car in the world and then driving it on a road full of potholes. The car wouldn't be the problem, the road is. So organizations often make the same mistake with AI. They purchase powerful software, they provide licenses to the employees, and they offer a few training lessons, and then wonder why productivity barely changes. What they've done is added AI to broken workflows. Instead of redesigning the workflows themselves, they've put a race car on a broken road. Think for a second about your morning routine.

• 1:25Jason McGuinthe?

  Dozens of small decisions, your email, reviewing priorities, Slack messages, preparing for meetings, approving requests. That's exhausting, right? I feel it. Following up with colleagues, then grabbing your second cup of coffee and having a side conversation at the water cooler. Now imagine AI helping with each of those activities. All of the individual improvements feel impressive, but does your day actually become better? Or are you simply doing the same work faster? Okay, if you are, because that's generally the point. But the distinction between automation and transformation is this. Transformation redesigns the journey, not just the individual steps.

• 2:08Jason McGuinthe?

  So you start to ask yourself, how should this work happen now that AI exists? First of all, suppose your team spends two weeks producing a monthly report. Historically, most of that time might be spent collecting information, cleaning spreadsheets, formatting slides, writing summaries, et cetera. Today, AI can accomplish much of that preparation in minutes. So what should you do with the extra time? This is where the mindset shifts. Would you simply produce reports faster? Or do you spend more time discussing strategy? Do you explore risks? How about speaking with customers? What about coaching employees? So again, innovation isn't just saving time. It's about reinvesting time wisely.

• 2:52Jason McGuinthe?

  Think about that. Picture two organizations, right? You've got both of them investing in the same AI platform, both training their employees, and they both have talented people. One organization tells employees, use AI whenever it helps. Just be more productive, grab that extra 20% a day. The other asks every department a different question. If you were designing this process from scratch today, knowing AI exists, what would it look like? The first organization improves, perhaps tremendously, through individual tasks. But the second transforms the entire workflow. Months later, their results are dramatically different.

• 3:34Jason McGuinthe?

  They both had the same software, they both had talented individuals. One redesigned their work, the other did not. And I'm here to remind you that leadership, informational leadership that is, is about redesigning the systems. So that's why we're talking about this today. So there's some questions that you want to ask continuously while you're identifying these additional productivity levers. What steps no longer create value? Some work exists only because technology used to be slower. Those steps may no longer be necessary. Second, where should people spend more time? If AI saves three hours a week, every week, where should those hours go? Deeper thinking, customer relationships, innovation?

• 4:17Jason McGuinthe?

  Coaching? Time saved without purpose quickly disappears. Third, what decisions still require human judgment? Every workflow needs clear moments where people remain responsible. AI should support judgment, not replace it. And fourth, how will we know this actually improved the work? Don't just measure speed, measure quality. Employee satisfaction, customer outcomes, learning, innovation. Those are the metrics that matter. One of my favorite ways to think about this is AI helps remove friction. We know that. Every organization has friction. Even after the AI removes friction, there will still be friction. Like waiting for approvals, searching for documents,

• 5:03Jason McGuinthe?

  duplicating information, recreating work, someone already completed. That's ridiculous, right? Scheduling meetings, finding expertise. AI can eliminate so much of that. But removing friction isn't the destination. It's what allows people to spend more time creating value. That is the destination. Imagine a leader who spends less time preparing presentations and more time mentoring emerging leaders. How great can your organization become? Imagine a healthcare administrator spending less time on paperwork and more time improving patient experiences. Think about the NPS scores of that hospital. And imagine a teacher spending less time grading and more time helping struggling students. What would tomorrow look like?

• 5:48Jason McGuinthe?

  That's what workflow redesign can make possible. There's a human dividend in play. Every minute AI saves creates a choice. You can fill that time with more activity, or you can fill it with more impact. That's the human dividend of AI, not simply doing more, but doing what matters more. Organizations that understand this won't measure success by the number of AI tools they deploy. They'll measure it by the quality of conversations their leaders have and the emerging leaders that become. They'll measure it by the creativity of their teams, by the resilience of their organizations, and the value they create for customers. So if this resonates with you, I want you to take some actions this week.

• 6:31Jason McGuinthe?

  Think about one workflow from beginning to end. Not necessarily the individual tasks, but the entire process. Look for unnecessary steps, delays, duplicate work, decision bottlenecks. Then redesign before you automate. Ask how the work should happen if you were starting from scratch today. Then decide where AI belongs. Third, reinvest the time AI creates. Don't let efficiency become the goal. Use those reclaimed hours to strengthen relationships, improve decisions, and develop people. That's where the transformation really happens. Throughout this series of transformational leadership in the age of AI, we keep returning to one central idea.

• 7:14Jason McGuinthe?

  AI doesn't change the purpose of leadership. It changes the context in which leadership happens. And today's episode reminds me that organizations don't become AI-enabled simply because they adopt the new technology. They become AI-enabled because leaders rethink the way the workflows. And the most successful organizations will be the ones that continuously redesign work around what humans and intelligent systems each do best. It's not about working harder, it's about working smarter. Always has been, with or without AI. And more importantly, working on the things that matter most. So go get at it. Find a workflow from your own organization and ask that simple question.

• 7:57Jason McGuinthe?

  If we were building this process today, would we design it this way? That one question can unlock conversations that no software ever could. All right, that's it. In our next episode, we'll turn our attention to one of the most important and most overlooked roles in AI transformation, the middle manager. We'll explore why managers are becoming translators, coaches, and architects of change, and why their role may be more important than ever as organizations adapt to intelligent systems. So until next time, stay curious, keep innovating, keep redesigning work so that technology creates more space for people to think, create, and lead with purpose.

• 8:44Jason McGuinthe?

  This episode of Inspire AI Podcast is sponsored by Exponent 21. I keep hearing the same thing from business leaders lately. We're doing the work, but leads are harder to explain. Traffic is down, attribution feels fuzzy, and the old answers don't really fit anymore. What's changed is how people search. Instead of clicking links, people are asking questions, and AI is answering them. Tools like ChatGPT, Google's AI-powered results, and Perplexity are shaping which brands get mentioned, referenced, and remembered.

• 9:27Jason McGuinthe?

  Exponent 21 specializes in AI SEO. They help businesses understand how to show up consistently inside those AI-generated answers across questions about their industry, their services, and their brand. What stands out to me is that when people ask AI tools, who's leading in this space? Exponent 21 and its leaders are often referenced near the top. That comes from doing the work and shaping how this new search environment actually functions. To understand what this shift means for your business, visit exponent21.com.