Find Your 13.5%

Citigroup didn't mandate AI adoption to 240,000 employees overnight. It built something smaller first: a network of more than 2,000 employees who volunteered — domain experts in their own departments who wanted early access to AI tools and training, then quietly helped their teammates learn. By Q1 2026, more than 80% of employees were using AI tools, generating 42 million interactions — up 50% from the previous quarter.

Citi didn't start with the 80%. It started with roughly 13.5% of it.

Everett Rogers mapped this exact pattern decades ago in his Diffusion of Innovations research, which I cover in my book. Every population that adopts something new breaks into the same curve: 2.5% innovators, 13.5% early adopters, then the pragmatic majority who won't move until they see people like themselves already succeeding. Leaders who try to convert the 84% first — with a mandate, a company-wide town hall, a single rollout date — are fighting the curve. Leaders who find their 13.5%, equip them, and let peer proof do the persuading are working with it.

Your organization already has its 13.5%. They're the people who download the beta, ask the vendor for early access, bring the tool to the team meeting before anyone assigns it to them. The job of leadership isn't to convince everyone at once. It's to find them, name them, and get out of their way.

From Dancing in the Wind, my book on leading through complexity and change.

Who is your organization's 13.5% — and have you actually asked them yet?