Leading Staff Through AI Change
A Working Session for Library Leaders with Crystal Trice
OVERVIEW:
You can have a good AI plan and still watch it falter. The tool makes sense, the policy is sound, the rollout is reasonable, and somehow it lands awkwardly. One person is quietly furious. Another has been using AI for months and is now worried they did something wrong. A third says nothing at all, the most concerning signal in the room.
Pushback about AI is often about more than the technology itself. It is about what the technology implies: whether someone's expertise still counts, whether the rules will change again next month, or whether anyone is going to ask before deciding. When those questions go unaddressed, ordinary hesitation can turn into resistance, and resistance is much harder to lead through than concern.
This session gives library leaders a practical way to understand what is happening on their teams and decide how to respond. We will use the SCARF model as a diagnostic for understanding the human side of change, then get specific about the conversations leaders may be avoiding, the signals they may be missing, and what they can do next.
It is a working session rather than a lecture, with structured reflection, breakout discussion, and a print-ahead workbook to capture your thinking as you go.
WHAT YOU'LL GAIN:
- A Framework for Reading Staff Reactions: Understand how Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness shape the way people respond to AI at work, and why the objection someone voices is often not the one they are actually having.
- Strategies That Reduce Threat and Build Trust: Explore concrete moves for each of the five domains, matched to what you are actually seeing on your team rather than to a generic idea of staff resistance.
- Practical Language for the Hard Conversations: Develop ways to respond to the person who fears being replaced, the person quietly using AI for everything, the person who wants it banned outright, and the person who has gone silent.
- An Approach to Expectations and Boundaries: Clarify what is encouraged, what needs a conversation first, and what is off limits, without writing policy on the spot or promising more certainty than you have.
- A Read on Your Team's Readiness: Assess where trust on your team is strong enough to move quickly and where it isn't. Your team's readiness should shape the pace of change more than any implementation timeline does.
- A Practical Next-Step Plan: Identify what you need to address first, which conversations need to happen, and what you are ready to move forward.
WHO THIS SESSION IS FOR:
This session is designed for library directors, managers, supervisors, department heads, and senior staff who lead people through change. It is appropriate for public, school, academic, and special libraries.
It suits leaders at any stage. If you have not raised AI with your staff yet, this helps you do it well the first time. If you have already hit resistance, this helps you understand what you are actually dealing with and what to do next.
This 2-hour online session is part of our "AI for Leaders" Series. The recording and presentation slides will be available to all who register, along with the workbook and frameworks you can adapt to your local context immediately after the session.
DATE: Friday, November 6th, 2026, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm US - Eastern Time
COST:
- $149/person - includes live attendance, anytime access to the recording and presentation slides, and a participation certificate. To arrange group discounts (see below), to submit a purchase order, or for any registration difficulties or questions, email admin@library20.com.
SPECIAL GROUP RATES (email admin@library20.com to arrange):
- Multiple individual log-ins and access from the same organization paid together: $129 each for 3+ registrations, $99 each for 5+ registrations. Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
- The ability to show the webinar (live or recorded) to a group located in the same physical location or in the same virtual meeting from one log-in: $399.
- Large-scale institutional access for viewing with individual login capability: $699 (hosted either at Learning Revolution or in Niche Academy). Unlimited and non-expiring access for those log-ins.
TO REGISTER (Individuals):
Use the payment box above to register and pay for an individual license. You can pay by credit card. You will receive an email within a day with information on how to attend the webinar live and how you can access the permanent webinar recording. If you are paying for someone else to attend, you'll be prompted to send an email to admin@library20.com with the name and email address of the actual attendee.
If you need to be invoiced or pay by check, if you have any trouble registering for a webinar, or if you have any questions, please email admin@library20.com.
NOTE: Please check your spam folder if you don't receive your confirmation email within a day.
With over two decades of experience in libraries and education, Crystal Trice is passionate about helping people work together more effectively in transformative, but practical ways. As founder of Scissors & Glue, LLC, Crystal partners with libraries and schools to bring positive changes through interactive training and hands-on workshops. She is a Certified Scrum Master and has completed a Masters Degree in Library & Information Science, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education and Psychology. She is a frequent national presenter on topics ranging from project management to conflict resolution to artificial intelligence. She currently resides near Portland, Oregon, with her extraordinary husband, fuzzy cows, goofy geese, and noisy chickens. Crystal enjoys fine-tip Sharpies, multi-colored Flair pens, blue painters tape, and as many sticky notes as she can get her hands on.
