Why Even AI-Loving Entrepreneurs Struggle With Workflow Evolution (And Douglas Adams Predicted It)...

Originally delivered at commercetools' Elevate Conference in Miami - a keynote insight that stopped the room

Here's something that'll mess with your head: I teach AI transformation to Fortune 500s, I'm completely bullish on artificial intelligence, and yet I still catch my brain fighting against rebuilding workflows I've spent decades perfecting.

Douglas Adams saw this coming from light-years away.

The Adams Effect: Your Brain's Hardwired Resistance to Change

The legendary science fiction author laid out three rules about how we react to new technologies:

• Anything in the world when you're born is natural, ordinary, and just part of how the world works
• Anything invented between ages 15-35 is new, exciting, revolutionary - and you can probably build a career around it
• Anything invented after age 35 is against the natural order of things

At 44, speaking to a room full of commerce and logistics leaders in Miami, this framework hit different. Not because I'm resisting AI - hell no, I'm all-in on the revolution. But because I'm facing the same cognitive archaeology that every executive I train wrestles with: How do you deconstruct decades of optimized workflows to integrate something fundamentally different?

The Workflow Archaeology Challenge

Here's what's really happening in boardrooms across the globe. It's not about embracing or rejecting AI technology. Most leaders get it - they see the potential, they understand the competitive necessity, they're ready to invest.

The real challenge? Rewiring operational muscle memory.

Take my own entrepreneur journey as a case study:

Content Creation Evolution: I used to batch-write social posts every Sunday afternoon - a ritual I'd perfected over years. Now? I brief Claude on my voice, feed it keynote transcripts, and iterate in real-time. It's faster, more strategic, infinitely scalable. But my brain still defaults to opening blank documents first. Twenty years of "start from scratch" habits die hard.

Research Transformation: My old process involved hours of manual research, bookmarking, note-taking, then synthesis. Today's workflow has AI agents gathering initial research while I focus on strategic insights and connecting dots. Simple change in theory. In practice? I have to actively resist the urge to double-check everything myself.

Client Communication Redesign: Previously, every proposal started with a blank page and manual crafting. Now I feed AI the project context, let it structure the framework, then I layer in strategic thinking and relationship insights. Same quality output, half the time - but I still catch myself wanting to "start fresh" instead of collaborating with artificial intelligence.

The Generational Advantage

Here's what really drives the point home: my colleagues in the Entrepreneurs Organization with tweenagers don't face this workflow archaeology challenge the same way we do. Their kids ask ChatGPT for homework help the same way we used calculators at their age. No operational debt to unlearn. No legacy processes to deconstruct.

That's their advantage - and our reality check.

The Path Forward: Embracing Workflow Evolution

The companies winning the AI transformation aren't the ones with the best technology. They're the ones acknowledging this cognitive shift and building systems around it.

Three strategies that actually work:

1. Start small, think systemic - Pick one workflow per quarter to AI-enhance, not your entire operational stack
2. Embrace collaboration, not replacement - Frame it as "human + AI" rather than "AI instead of human"
3. Document the archaeology - Actually map your current processes before rebuilding them

The Meta-Insight

Understanding the Adams Effect makes us better transformation leaders. When we normalize the cognitive load of workflow evolution, we create psychological safety for teams to experiment, fail, iterate, and ultimately evolve.

The future belongs to organizations that can navigate this transition consciously - not despite our human wiring, but because we understand it.

Ready to decode your tomorrow? The workflow archaeology starts now. Your competition is already digging.

Interested in bringing this keynote experience to your next event? Let's explore how human psychology meets technological transformation for your audience. Drop me an email.