Stop Training, Start Showing
Stop training your team on AI (do this instead)
Words I like: Nobody ever learned to swim from a PowerPoint.
AI Leadership Minute: Stop Training, Start Showing
You’ve bought the AI tool. You’ve booked the training day. You’ve blocked out everyone’s calendar.
Two weeks later, nobody’s using it.
Here’s why:
Training teaches people how a tool works. It doesn’t teach them why they should care. And adults don’t adopt new tools because they sat through a webinar. They adopt them because they saw someone solve their specific problem in real time.
The Real Problem
Most AI training is generic. “Here’s how to write a prompt.” “Here are 10 use cases.”
Your team sits politely. Takes notes. Goes back to their desk. Opens Excel. Does things the old way.
It’s not because they’re resistant. It’s because nothing in that training connected to the thing they were struggling with at 3pm yesterday.
Generic training creates generic interest. Specific demos create immediate adoption.
The Show-Don’t-Train Method
1. Ask each team member: “What task ate most of your time last week?” Write down the answers.
2. Pick the three most common answers. These are your demo topics.
3. Book 15 minutes with the team. Not a training session. A live demo.
4. Show the AI doing their specific task. Use their actual data. Their actual words. Their actual problems.
5. Hand them the tool and say: “Try it on tomorrow’s version of this task. I’ll check in Friday.”
Why This Works
You’ve replaced theory with proof. Your team didn’t learn about AI. They saw it solve the thing that annoyed them on Tuesday.
The gap between “I understand how this works” and “I want to use this tomorrow” is bridged by relevance. Not curriculum.
Real Example
An accountancy practice in Bristol spent £2,000 on AI training for their team of 8. Adoption after one month: 2 people using it regularly.
They scrapped the training. Instead, the managing partner spent 15 minutes showing how AI could draft client emails from meeting notes. Using a real client. Real notes. Real output.
Adoption two weeks later: 7 out of 8. The holdout started using it the following week after watching a colleague save 30 minutes on a tax summary.
Same tool. No training. Just a relevant demo and peer pressure.
The Real Question
What’s the one task your team complains about most? Can you show them AI doing it in 15 minutes?
That’s not training. That’s proof. And proof sells better than any slide deck.
As promised, value in under two minutes.
Show the work,
Ben
PS - The £2,000 training budget that accountancy firm scrapped? They spent it on a team lunch instead. Better ROI, if I’m honest.