25/10/2026
AI in the training room: a polarity to manage, not a problem to solve. 🎭
A Training Industry piece (14 October, Jenni Marsh and Sarah Coley) argues that facilitators of leadership programs should treat human interaction and AI as two poles to move between, not as a choice. Their suggestions: find out where participants stand between anxious and enthusiastic about AI, gauge their actual experience (have they written a detailed prompt, held a back-and-forth with a tool?), invite a next step with a clear purpose and optional participation, and make room to share what people learn.
Theatre has long worked this way: a good facilitator reads the room before choosing the exercise. "Where are you today?" is a warm-up question long before it is a survey. And optional participation matters: people tend to join more fully an exercise they chose than one imposed on them.
Try it: open your next workshop with a line-up. People arrange themselves along a line from "AI worries me" to "AI excites me" and explain their spot in one sentence. In two minutes you have audited mindsets, and everyone has been heard.
Where would your team stand on that line?