ByNell Derick Debevoise,
Senior Contributor.
When April K. Mills began her career as a civilian nuclear engineer at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in August 2001, she expected stability and predictability. What she didn’t expect – and what she now teaches CEOs navigating the speed of AI-era change – is that coercion and bureaucracy are the biggest obstacles to progress.
Six weeks later, September 11th shattered that expectation and propelled her, at just 23, into leading rapid organizational change. Her instinct was the same one leaders everywhere default to: the Outlook mandatory meeting invite.
“I conscripted people straight out of the corporate address book,” Mills told me. “I gave them my Excel spreadsheet of all the things I thought they needed to do and by what day.”
