Thawing the Frozen Middle: Why AI Transformation Stalls and How to Fix It
In the race to adopt Artificial Intelligence, a familiar friction is emerging within large organizations. At the very top, the C-Suite demands the "sparkle", the strategic ability to announce that the organization is AI-driven. At the bottom, individual contributors are already moving fast, adopting consumer tools to automate their daily grind.
But in between lies the "Frozen Middle", the layer of middle management and operations where strategy often goes to die.
This isn't necessarily due to incompetence. As revealed by leaders from industries including Media, Mobility, Insurance, and Telecommunications, this freeze is often a symptom of being squeezed between executive ambition and operational reality. To succeed in AI adoption, we must stop treating this layer as an obstacle and start treating them as the key to unlocking value.
The Anatomy of the Freeze: Fear and the "Done-To" Syndrome
The "Frozen Middle" often manifests as resistance to new processes or a refusal to adopt new tooling. However, this resistance is rarely about the technology itself; it is about the uncertainty it brings.
- Fear of the Unknown: David Brakoniecki from BP3 notes that the root of this resistance is fundamental human psychology. As he explains, "Change drives uncertainty, the uncertainty drives fear, and the fear is what's creating the resistance and the negative behaviour." In the context of AI, this fear is existential: employees and managers alike worry about the unknown implications for their roles.
- The "Done-To" Syndrome: A leader from the media and broadcasting sector highlighted a critical disconnect where operational teams feel transformation is "forced upon them" rather than developed collaboratively. When technology is pushed down by IT or Product teams without considering the actual operational output, resistance becomes a natural immune response. Managers in the middle are often left trying to "shoehorn" new tech into legacy processes, creating friction rather than flow.
Beyond the Obvious: Hidden Symptoms of the Freeze
While vocal pushback is easy to spot, the "Frozen Middle" often resists in subtler ways that are harder to diagnose. If you see these behaviours, your transformation is likely stalling.
- Malicious Compliance (The "Pocket Veto"): This occurs when managers publicly agree to a new initiative in meetings but privately do nothing to implement it. They may follow instructions to the letter, filling out the forms and attending the workshops, while stripping the initiative of its spirit or urgency. This "lip service" creates an illusion of progress while maintaining the status quo.
- Analysis Paralysis: When managers feel unsafe making decisions, they often hide behind data. They may demand excessive proof of concept, endless ROI calculations, or more "clarity" before allowing their teams to experiment with AI. This is often a defence mechanism against the risk of failure.
- The Competence Trap: Middle managers are often promoted because they are experts at the current process. AI threatens to make that hard-earned expertise irrelevant. Consequently, they may unconsciously "hoard" resources or gatekeep workflows to ensure their specific knowledge remains necessary, resisting automation that would simplify the very complexity they manage.
- Initiative Fatigue: Many middle managers have "seen it all before." If they view AI as just another "flavour of the month" project that will fade away in six months, they will wait it out rather than engage. This apathy is distinct from active resistance but just as deadly.
The Governance Squeeze: Innovation vs. Control
Middle management is also the layer responsible for protecting the business, placing them in an impossible position. They are squeezed between the pressure to innovate and the mandate to ensure compliance.
- The "Whack-a-Mole" Reality: An executive from the staffing and semiconductor industry described the struggle of policing shadow IT as playing "whack-a-mole." The middle layer is often left blocking thousands of AI sites to protect data integrity, forcing them to be the "department of no."
- The Compliance Trap: A director from the telecommunications sector pointed out the tension between adhering to strict legislation, such as security acts, and the desire not to throttle innovation.
- Budgetary Gatekeeping: To manage this chaos, a leader from the education and publishing sector suggested using budgetary control as a primary governance tool. By requiring a clear business case and ROI before releasing funds, the middle layer can filter out the noise of "random AI tools" without stifling legitimate innovation.
Strategies to Thaw: From Resistance to Co-Creation
The consensus is that you cannot mandate AI adoption from the top down. You must warm up the middle through clear guardrails and active involvement.
Fix the Incentives
You cannot expect managers to embrace AI if their bonuses are tied to old metrics. If a manager is rewarded for "headcount under management" or "billable hours," they will naturally resist AI tools that reduce both. To thaw the middle, organizations must realign incentives to reward outcomes, such as speed to market, innovation, or efficiency gains, rather than just effort or empire-building.
Co-Creation Over Mandates
The staffing industry executive suggested that the most impactful tactic is involving the organization in "co-creation sessions" rather than handing down a roadmap. By asking operational teams about their specific frustrations, their "bugbears", before designing the solution, you turn the conversation from implementation to problem-solving. This shifts the middle manager from a victim of change to an architect of it.
Reframe the Narrative, "Buddy," Not Boss
To counter the fear of replacement, the narrative must shift. A telecommunications director described an approach where AI agents are designed as part of the org chart, explicitly positioned as assistants or "buddies" that handle specific tasks to help the human go faster. This tangible positioning helps the middle layer understand that the AI is there to augment their team's capacity, not replace their headcount.
The "Detractor Strategy"
Perhaps the boldest advice for thawing the frozen middle is to embrace the sceptics. Leaders from both the education and staffing sectors agreed that taking the loudest detractors and giving them ownership of the initiative is a key to success. By making them responsible for the project's outcome, you force them to engage with the solution, turning a barrier into a champion.
It’s Just Change Management
We often treat AI as a unique beast that requires a completely new playbook. But as David Brakoniecki wisely pointed out, companies often forget that "it's just change management."
The "Frozen Middle" isn't frozen because they hate technology; they are frozen because they lack clarity and agency. To move from a stalled pilot to a scalable transformation, leaders must stop focusing solely on the shiny tools and start focusing on the people who have to live with them. As Brakoniecki advises, the best course of action is to "start with what you know" regarding organizational change, rather than inventing new governance models that only add to the confusion.