Top-down initiatives move fast to pilot but often die from internal resistance. Bottom-up adoptions build genuine support but lack executive mandate. The solution isn’t choosing one — it’s orchestrating both.
Track A: Executive Mandate
Provides air cover and forces participation from potentially resistant middle management.
- Secure C-suite sponsorship for official pilot with clear success criteria
- Generate board presentations and compliance documentation
- Establish program as strategic priority, not just IT experiment
Track B: Grassroots Advocacy
Build a coalition of users who personally benefit and will defend the tool when skeptics attack.
- Cultivate champions at every level — the analyst who needs automation
- Find the compliance officer drowning in reports
- Create internal evangelists — your insurgency against organizational inertia
Why Both Tracks Are Required
In regulated enterprises, pilots fail not from lack of executive support but from middle management sabotage:
- The department head who wasn’t consulted
- The IT architect whose preferred vendor lost
- The compliance officer who sees only risk
They can slow-roll implementation, find security “concerns,” or ensure low adoption through malicious compliance.
The Defense
When middle management sees bosses demanding progress AND teams demanding access, resistance becomes career-limiting.
Orchestrate both tracks to create unstoppable momentum. Read the full AI Embedding GTM Playbook on The Business Engineer.
