Two years ago I embedded in a global organization operating across 11 countries. The budget I was handed was $10,000 and the instruction was to automate everything. I did not automate a thing for the first month. I listened.
Then I rebuilt workflows one at a time with the people who ran them, built and honed a suite of production AI agents across research, writing, operations, and reporting, and trained leaders in Kenya, Ethiopia, Liberia, Zimbabwe, and the US, entirely remote. The work produced an estimated $1M in new operating capacity with zero new hires, documented in a board-facing report built to survive a CFO’s red pen. The moment I knew it stuck: a report arrived from one of the country leaders, written with AI at a level of autonomy nobody had asked them to reach for. They run it all without US support now.
By the time I exited, 13 functions had been handed to 8 named owners inside the organization. That’s the Transition step, executed: they run it, by name, without me.
