AI Success Starts with the Right People

AI isn’t just about technology—it’s about people who can harness it strategically. The Augmented Department (AD) isn’t staffed with IT specialists alone; it requires high-potential leaders, strategic thinkers, and adaptive problem-solvers who can navigate AI’s impact across the entire organization.

To build an effective AD, we go beyond technical skills and focus on leadership capabilities, natural strengths, and cognitive adaptability. That’s where The Leadership Circle and CliftonStrengths come in—two powerful profiling tools that help identify the right mix of leadership and talent to drive AI transformation.

The Two Key Profiling Tools for AD Talent Selection

1️⃣ The Leadership Circle – Identifying AI-Ready Leaders

Most AI initiatives fail because they lack leadership alignment and adaptability. The Leadership Circle provides a 360-degree assessment of leadership effectiveness, helping us identify individuals who can thrive in AI-driven environments.

🔹 What It Measures: Leadership behaviors, adaptability, creative vs. reactive tendencies
🔹 Why It’s Important for AD: AI requires leaders who are strategic, self-aware, and able to orchestrate change without resistance

✔ Creative Leaders (Ideal for AD): Adaptive, visionary, growth-oriented, collaborative
❌ Reactive Leaders (High Risk for AI Adoption): Fear-driven, control-focused, resistant to uncertainty

🔹 How We Use It:

• Identify high-potential leaders to be part of AD
• Ensure leadership alignment with AI initiatives
• Strengthen self-awareness and adaptability in AD members

📌 Bottom Line: The Leadership Circle helps us filter for leaders who can think beyond their departments and ensure AI is adopted across the organization without political resistance.

2️⃣ CliftonStrengths – Matching AI Talent to Roles

AI transformation requires a mix of thinkers, doers, and connectors. CliftonStrengths helps us understand where each individual naturally excels, ensuring that every member of the AD is placed in a role that maximizes their strengths.

🔹 What It Measures: Individual strengths across four domains—Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, Strategic Thinking
🔹 Why It’s Important for AD: AI adoption isn’t just a technical shift; it’s an organizational and cultural shift that requires diverse skill sets

✔ Strategic Thinkers (Vision & Insight): Identify AI opportunities, predict impact, align AI with business goals
✔ Influencers (AI Champions): Communicate AI’s value across the organization, drive engagement
✔ Executors (Operational AI Integration): Implement AI in daily processes, ensure seamless adoption
✔ Relationship Builders (Cross-Team Collaboration): Bridge AI gaps between departments, foster collaboration

🔹 How We Use It:

• Ensure balanced talent distribution within the AD (not just tech-focused)
• Match strengths to roles, ensuring natural alignment
• Reduce friction in AI adoption by leveraging people’s natural talents

📌 Bottom Line: CliftonStrengths helps us build an Augmented Department with the right blend of strategic thinkers, doers, and influencers—ensuring AI adoption is practical, human-centered, and results-driven.

How This Translates Into the AD Framework

1️⃣ Profiling – We assess leadership potential and strengths before forming the AD
2️⃣ Selection – We select AI-ready leaders and talent based on The Leadership Circle & CliftonStrengths results
3️⃣ Orchestration – We align talent with specific AI-related roles (strategic, operational, communication)
4️⃣ Continuous Development – We monitor, refine, and enhance AD talent performance over time

🔹 Why This Matters:
✔ No more random AI team selection—we scientifically match talent to AI initiatives
✔ Leaders are equipped to navigate AI-driven change without fear or resistance
✔ AI adoption becomes a structured, human-centered process, not a technology experiment

Final Thoughts: The Future of AI is About People, Not Just Tech

The biggest AI adoption mistake companies make? They treat AI as an IT project instead of a leadership transformation. The Augmented Department (AD) solves this by ensuring the right mix of visionary leaders, strategic thinkers, and execution-driven talent are in place.

By using The Leadership Circle and CliftonStrengths, we turn AI adoption from a chaotic experiment into a structured, people-driven transformation—ensuring AI is not just implemented but fully integrated into the DNA of the organization.

🚀 AI is about people first, technology second. Let’s build the right team to lead the way.