You cannot build a high-performing organization on survival energy.

Jun 30
2 min read

Thank you to all the folks who joined the June Round Table! Ann-Marie and I were both humbled and inspired by your ideas and insights. There was particular a moment in the roundtable that really stuck in my mind. We started talking about desire. Not performance. Not productivity. Desire. I said, “There’s always an element of desire in work. We just don’t talk about it.” That’s the gap right now.

CEOs are moving fast on AI, which makes sense. But many are losing connection with the human side of the system. The part of people that actually wants to be there, wants to contribute, wants to do meaningful work.

Ann-Marie grounded it simply. People want to deliver. They want to feel like what they’re doing matters. What’s happening instead during disruption is people go quiet. They make themselves smaller. Ann-Marie called this out directly: people are thinking, “I’m just grateful I have a job.” That is not desire. That is survival.

You cannot build a high-performing organization on survival energy.

We heard it from the group too. One participant said, “We want people to bring their whole self, but we’re here to do a job.” That tension is real. If you skip the human, you get compliance, not commitment. There’s also a deeper layer. AI is changing where people feel they add value. That middle space of the work, where many felt creative and capable, is shrinking. That is not just a workflow shift. That is an identity disruption. If you don’t address that, people disengage.

So the move for leaders is simple and direct. Ask better questions. Not complex ones. Direct ones. “What do you want right now in your work?” “What part of this still interests you?” “What do you want to learn as things change?” "How can I suppport growth that excites you?" Ann-Marie made the point clearly. Leaders do not need to fix people. There is nothing to fix.

The work is to create space for people to reconnect to why they are here and how they want to contribute. If you don’t do that, you will have a workforce that is technically moving forward and emotionally checked out. I’ll say it plainly. You cannot scale AI through a disengaged workforce.

Leader Presence Practice:

Bring the human into the conversation. Ask directly about desire, interest, and contribution. If people can’t see themselves in the future you are building, they won’t help you build it.