Emerging Technologies Adoption Is A Leadership and Empathy Challenge

Emerging Technologies adoption is a leadership and empathy challenge.

Dr. Jamil Zaki’s Harvard Business Review article, Empathetic Leadership Can Make or Break AI Adoption, made me think about the connections between empathetic leadership and technology adoption in K–12 education.

Many years ago on Digital Learning Day, I visited every school in a small city school system in the region that I served.  At one of these schools, I visited a first-grade classroom where students were using iPads to create a project connected to their learning.  These students were very boisterous with excitement about the project.  At some point, the principal entered the classroom.  The teacher and others including me were busy helping students when I noticed that a student ran up to the principal and asked her how to use a feature of Keynote.  I was nearby and planning to help since in my past experiences had always resulted in the principal sending students to the technology coach. 
This time, however, it was different. The principal stepped in and confidently helped the student.  She had invested enough time in understanding the technology to support both teachers and students. Her actions communicated that technology integration was important and that she was willing to learn alongside her staff and students.  She has since moved to a large urban district where she is continuing to champion the adoption of effective technology to enhance teaching and learning. 

As I read Dr. Zaki's post, I found myself reflecting on the role of leadership in K–12 education. Leaders can either champion the successful adoption of AI and other emerging technologies or, through a lack of support and enthusiasm, create conditions that limit their impact.  Effective technology use often involves students creating new products through collaboration with a variety of different resources that ultimately enhance the learning process while demonstrating high levels of critical thinking and synthesis.  While his post focuses on the corporate world, I could not help but think that there are many parallels to the K-12 world.  In the elementary school that I described above, I would say that staff and students were embracing the use of technology to create and enhance their learning in effective ways.  Technology was being used as a tool for students to demonstrate their learning and creativity at higher levels.  Much of this success was clearly tied to the principal's enthusiasm and attitude toward the use of technology.
I have also visited many schools where the school leadership did not prioritize the use of technology to enhance the learning progress leading to deeper learning.  As a result, technology was often used primarily as a digital worksheet substitute and did not fully engage students in more challenging and creative tasks. 

I believe that in K-12 environments, just like in the corporate world that Dr. Zaki mentioned, successful technology integration is strongly influenced by leadership's commitment to and support for its adoption.  I am fortunate to work with an organization where we have been allowed to not only learn new AI tools but given flexibility and time to learn them together.  This feels especially important with AI, where educators may feel excitement about new possibilities while also grappling with concerns about ethics, privacy, bias, academic integrity, and the changing role of teaching. 
While enthusiasm and vision are important, they are not enough on their own. Technology adoption also requires leaders to understand how change impacts the people expected to implement it.  Another key point to consider is the importance of empathy and its role in successful technology adoption to enhance learning.  Empathy can often be overlooked in technology adoptions by leadership.  In one of the systems where I previously worked, we did a 1-to-1 rollout of Apple products.  By many measures, it was a successful rollout at the time.  While there were a few hiccups that would have been expected, I think that the system did a great job of factoring in empathy as part of the rollout.   Even though this may not have ever been part of the “plan” per se, it was obvious that this was factored in and resulted in a successful rollout.

The system did a great job understanding that they had to invest in training their staff not only on the device but also helping them to understand the power that these devices had to transform and enhance education.  They also realized that it would take time to help and support educators in changing their mindsets with instructional technology and other forms of innovation.   Additionally, the system understood the importance of incorporating parents as part of their success and needing to ensure that they were comfortable as well.  Finally, they also knew that they had to help students, the primary beneficiaries of these devices, to understand how to use them effectively and appropriately.  While it was not a perfect rollout in some ways, the system clearly factored in empathy for the educators, parents, and students in the rollout.  

As schools continue to navigate AI and other emerging technologies, the question for leaders is not simply whether a tool should be adopted. The more important question may be how people will experience that adoption. Teachers are often the individuals most affected by technology adoption. Empathetic leaders create environments where teachers feel safe experimenting with new approaches, making mistakes, and learning alongside their students.  They are asked to learn new tools, redesign lessons, troubleshoot challenges, and support students.  Students need guidance and meaningful learning experiences. Families need understanding and trust. 

Empathy helps leaders see each of these perspectives and respond accordingly. Some of the most successful technology implementations I have seen were shaped not only by visionary leaders, but also by teachers who were given opportunities to provide feedback, share successes, and influence the direction of the initiative.  Leading with empathy does not mean ignoring concerns or resistance. In many cases, those concerns surface important questions about workload, equity, privacy, ethics, or student impact that deserve thoughtful consideration.  Successful technology adoption is rarely about the technology itself. It is about the people who use it and the leaders who help them navigate change.  Perhaps the most important question for leaders is not "How do we get people to use this?" but rather "How do we help people experience this change in a way that builds trust, confidence, and opportunity for learning?" As educational leaders consider the next wave of innovation, empathy may be one of the most important tools they bring to the process.

This post was originally drafted by Brian Whitson and enhanced in an iterative process using Chat GPT to enhance the quality of the post while maintaining the voice created by the author.  The graphic was also created using Chat GPT.  It is important to disclose and model the use of AI to create transparency and trust.  The use of Chat GPT helped to enhance the blog post but did not substantially change the core ideas or central them.