Jeff McKenna on Why Business Leaders Should Prepare Teams for Constant Change Instead of Chasing Every New Technology

Artificial intelligence has become one of the dominant conversations inside modern business leadership. Across boardrooms, conferences, and industry publications, organizations continue searching for ways to prepare employees for rapidly evolving technology. Research shows that 78% of organizations now use AI in at least one business function, reflecting how quickly adoption has accelerated across industries.

Yet according to Jeff McKenna, founder of Agile Action, the larger issue facing companies is not simply the speed of technological advancement. From his perspective, the deeper challenge involves whether businesses are building teams capable of adapting to constant change itself.

Jeff explains that every major period of technological disruption has created similar uncertainty. He points to previous shifts involving industrial manufacturing, the rise of enterprise software, internet connectivity, remote collaboration platforms, and digital workflow systems. In his view, organizations often become overly focused on the specifics of the newest technology while overlooking the broader reality that change continuously reshapes how work is performed.

“Technology will keep evolving whether companies feel prepared or not,” Jeff says. “What organizations can control is whether their teams are adaptable enough to respond when those changes arrive.”

Agile Action works with organizations navigating operational change, leadership development, and evolving team dynamics, particularly within technology-driven environments where collaboration and decision-making structures are shifting rapidly. According to Jeff, many companies still approach transformation by concentrating primarily on systems, workflows, and implementation plans. He believes that approach can create limitations when employees are treated as interchangeable resources rather than contributors with judgment, experience, and decision-making ability.

From Jeff’s standpoint, modern businesses increasingly rely on small teams responsible for solving complex problems quickly. Through his work with leadership teams and organizations adapting to changing operational demands, he has observed that businesses often struggle when team structures fail to evolve alongside technology itself.

As AI tools automate repetitive and process-driven tasks, he expects that the ongoing work inside teams will become more dependent on human evaluation, business understanding, collaboration, long-term thinking, and, maybe most importantly, the creativity to make the needle move.

“The repetitive work is becoming less central to the role,” Jeff explains. “The value people bring increasingly comes from judgment, interpretation, and understanding the larger problem the organization is trying to solve.”

That shift, according to him, places greater pressure on leadership structures. Jeff notes that many organizations still rely on highly centralized decision-making processes that were designed for slower operational environments. As technology continues to accelerate communication and production cycles, he believes teams will require more authority to make decisions independently.

According to Jeff, much of Agile Action‘s work centers on helping organizations strengthen communication, alignment, and adaptability within teams so decision-making can happen more effectively at the operational level.

He also argues that adaptability depends heavily on workplace culture. Jeff explains that teams perform more effectively when individuals understand why decisions are being made and feel trusted to contribute ideas. In his experience, employees who are encouraged to participate in problem-solving often develop stronger ownership over outcomes and respond more effectively during periods of uncertainty.

Jeff believes employee empowerment often develops through consistent day-to-day signals that demonstrate trust, participation, and shared responsibility inside the workplace. From his perspective, teams tend to collaborate more effectively when individuals are given greater visibility into decisions, more ownership over their work, and the flexibility to contribute ideas beyond narrowly defined roles.

“People need evidence that their perspective matters,” Jeff says. “Once teams believe they have responsibility and influence, the quality of collaboration changes significantly.”

At the same time, Jeff does not believe organizations should resist AI adoption. Instead, he sees AI becoming increasingly integrated into how teams operate. From his perspective, businesses may create stronger outcomes when artificial intelligence is treated as an active contributor within the workflow rather than simply viewed as software operating separately from employees.

He notes that AI systems already influence decision-making, information analysis, software development, customer communication, and operational planning. Because AI tools can produce different responses to similar problems, Jeff believes human oversight, interpretation, and accountability will remain essential.

“AI should be treated as part of the team,” Jeff says. “It contributes information, recommendations, and speed, but people still need to evaluate what is useful, what aligns with the business problem, and what decisions should ultimately be made.”

According to Jeff, the balance between technology and human judgment may become one of the defining leadership challenges of the coming decade. He believes organizations that focus only on implementing new systems without strengthening communication, trust, and decision-making inside teams may struggle to adapt as technology continues evolving.

From his perspective, the conversation surrounding AI ultimately returns to a much older business principle. Companies cannot predict every disruption ahead of time, but they can create environments where people are equipped to respond together when disruption inevitably arrives.