Key Takeaways
- Leading through change and AI starts with how you meet what’s new, not how many tools you know.
- A beginner’s mind, or shoshin, means letting go of assumptions and staying curious.
- Teams follow the leader. When you practice openly, resistance turns into adoption.
- Start small. One AI use case a week builds more confidence than a big rollout.
AI is changing how we work faster than any leader was trained for. New tools show up every month. Teams feel the pressure to keep up, and a lot of people respond the way most of us respond to anything new: we resist it.
That resistance is the real leadership challenge. Leading through AI isn’t about knowing every tool. It’s about how you meet what’s new. Shunryu Suzuki called it shoshin, the Japanese word for beginner’s mind. He said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” The more we think we know, the less room we leave to learn.
A beginner’s mind is what helps leaders trade resistance for practice. You stay curious, try new tools and new ways of working, and help your team adapt to AI and constant change instead of fighting it. Here’s what that looks like, from the basketball gym to my own first experience with ChatGPT.
What a Beginner’s Mind Means for AI Leadership
A beginner’s mind means meeting something new without assuming you already know how it works or whether it’s worth your time. AI leadership and digital leadership come down to the same thing: your team watches how you respond to change, and they follow your lead.
When a leader resists, the team waits. When a leader gets curious and starts practicing, the team gets permission to do the same. That’s the difference between leading through AI and getting dragged through it.
AI is just the latest change. The same mindset applies to any kind of leading through change and leading through uncertainty: the leaders who stay curious adapt faster than the ones who hold on to what used to work.
Gene Pingatore: A Lifelong Learner
When I was 28 years old we decided to run our first-ever Coaches Academy for high school, college, and pro basketball coaches. At the time there were plenty of options for basketball coaching clinics across the world, but almost all of them exclusively focused on team-based offensive and defensive strategies. Our basketball training company’s focus was on individual player development. So instead of a clinic on the X’s and O’s we ran one that focused on the Jimmy’s and the Joes — the players. We secured a gym, put together a program, and started to market it to coaches. I couldn’t believe the response that we got from coaches all over the world. As registrations were rolling in there was one from Saint Joseph’s High School in Chicago from a coach named Gene Pingatore. I thought to myself, “Wait a second, isn’t that the coach from the documentary Hoop Dreams, who coached Isiah Thomas and in the McDonald’s All-American Game? There’s no way this guy, at 72 years old, who just passed the 1,000 win mark is coming to our Academy. He must have signed up some JV or freshman coach from his staff.”
The day rolled around, and the coaches were lined up in the hallway of the elementary school we had rented out for the Academy. I was seated at the check-in table with the registration list, and I remember this short, older coach stepping to the front of the line. As he approached, I greeted him with, “Good Morning.” He responded, “Gene Pingatore, Saint Joseph’s High School, Westchester, Illinois. Really looking forward to the clinic today. I’ve never been to one like this before.”
“Wow!” I thought to myself, “He’s actually here.” I felt the pressure and humility at the exact same time. I couldn’t believe that he would spend his Saturday driving up to Milwaukee from Chicago to learn from some 28-year-old kid. He liked it so much that he gave us a testimonial and five years later invited us to run our Coaches Academy at Saint Joseph’s in Chicago. He made his transition only four years after we ran that Coaches Academy.
What he taught me is that to not only stay relevant amidst change but to thrive, we have to operate with a beginner’s mind. Operating with a beginner’s mind and being a lifelong learner brings us a sense of curiosity and open-mindedness, which puts us into the present moment.
Bill Peterson: A Game of Inches
One of my mentors from my basketball days was long-time NBA and college coach, Bill Peterson. I was introduced to him through a network of coaches and when he was an assistant coach for the Milwaukee Bucks I used to go watch him run players through workouts either in the off-season or in their pregame workouts. In the NBA because of all the travel, they don’t practice a lot during the season and a lot of the individual skill work is done before games. Bill was one of these underground guys in the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks hired him for the sole purpose of developing the careers of two players who would go on to be Hall of Famers — Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.
Like Coach Pingatore, Bill was also an example of someone who operated with a beginner’s mind. There would be days when I’d be in our gym working players out and I’d glance towards the seating area only to find Bill there. He’d just show up, unannounced, at our training facility to watch me work out middle school and high school kids. Of course, at the time Bill was coaching in the NBA, so it’s not like he didn’t have anything better to do. He was there to learn. Even though he was 25 years older than me and helped someone like Steve Nash become a back-to-back NBA MVP, he had the humility to show up at our gym.
I learned from him that at the highest levels — no matter the industry — it truly is a game of inches. Maybe 1/8th of an inch. And, if he could pick up one tiny little teaching point, drill, or concept, it might take things to the next level with someone he was working with. His approach reminds us that success often hinges on the willingness to embrace new perspectives and insights, even when they come from unexpected sources.
The same is true with AI. You don’t have to master everything at once. One small use case, practiced every day, can be the inch that moves your work forward.
Leading Through AI: My Resistance to ChatGPT
When ChatGPT first came out I had a lot of resistance to it. My belief was that I simply had too much on my plate to learn something new. But six months after it launched, I could not find an answer to something I was looking for on Google. I went to openAI.com, created a ChatGPT account, and found the answer I was looking for in seconds. Since then, I’ve been using it almost every single day. It’s absolutely helped me do more with less in a world that’s constantly demanding more.
Looking back, the problem wasn’t time. It was my mindset. I was treating something new as a threat to my schedule instead of a chance to learn. That’s what resistance to AI looks like inside a lot of organizations. It’s rarely about the technology. It’s the belief that we’re too busy, too experienced or too far along to start over as a beginner.
The good news is that the skills that matter most aren’t the ones AI can do for you. Here are five leadership skills AI can’t copy.
How Do You Lead a Team Through Change?
To lead a team through change, go first, make it safe to be a beginner and start with small, practical steps. People resist change when they feel behind or unsafe. When the leader models curiosity and practice, the team follows. Here’s how that works with AI:
- Go first. Try a new tool yourself before you ask your team to. Share what worked and what didn’t.
- Make it safe to be a beginner. Tell your team it’s OK not to have the answers yet. People adopt new tools faster when they aren’t afraid of looking behind.
- Start small. Pick one task each week where AI could save time, and practice it. Small reps build confidence.
- Ask a better question. Swap “Will this work?” for “What could this make possible?”
- Stay present. New tools add noise. Decide what matters most, and use AI to serve that focus, not pull you away from it.
Watch: Leading Through Uncertainty and Change
Cultivating a Beginner’s Mind
Here are four prompts to consider when cultivating this mindset:
- What is a belief that I can let go of to open myself up to all possibilities?
Example: I’m currently challenging the belief that success requires absolute control. - Who would I become if I let go of that belief?
- What’s something I can commit to learning that will move the business forward?
- What’s one AI tool or new way of working I’ve been avoiding, and what would it look like to try it this week?
The beginner’s mind is not a departure from expertise but a mindset of perpetual curiosity and openness. One thing I’ve learned is the more I think I know the less I open myself up to possibilities. Embrace the unknown with curiosity and a beginner’s mind, for therein lies a key to transformational leadership.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to lead with a beginner’s mind?
Leading with a beginner’s mind means approaching change with curiosity instead of assumptions. You let go of what you think you already know, ask questions, and stay open to new ideas, tools and ways of working.
How does a beginner’s mind help leaders with AI?
AI keeps changing, so no leader can be an expert in all of it. A beginner’s mind helps leaders try new tools, learn from their teams and model the curiosity they want to see. It turns AI from a threat to resist into a practice to build.
What is shoshin?
Shoshin is the Japanese word for beginner’s mind. It means approaching any subject with openness and curiosity, even when you already know a lot about it.
How do you overcome resistance to AI on a team?
Go first, start small and make it safe to be a beginner. When leaders practice with AI openly and share what they learn, teams follow. Resistance usually fades once people see one real task get easier.
Want to bring this to your leaders? Leading through AI and change with a beginner’s mind is part of my keynote, The Architecture of Presence. Check availability.
