AI runs in culture. The decisions about what to automate and what to protect, the people who absorb ambiguity when processes are undefined, the organizational relationship to failure, to pace, to what's spoken and what's known but unspoken: this is the medium it runs in. And AI does not transform these things, it automates them, so if there are patterns today that you don't want embedded even deeper by automation, or if there are hard won cultural strengths you don't want automated because they belong in people, you will need to identify these and plan for that. Without this, implementations fail in ways that are hard to see until it's hard not to.

This is not what a technical readiness audit catches. It is designed to catch infrastructure gaps, data cleanliness. Big Waves evaluates the organizational culture AI runs in. Across six cultural dimensions directly predictive of AI readiness and AI risk, we produce documentation of assets to preserve, and conditions to resolve. Who currently carries interpretive load; who absorbs ambiguity? How does accountability work, how does failure work, how is pace? We translate this to a sequenced development plan to run before, or integrated with, your technical plan.

All of your work happens within your culture, and your culture happens in all of your work. Big Waves brings rigorous AI specialization to our deep organizational culture practice, to ensure you are building strength into health.

What this engagement delivers:

  • Surface knowledge location and flows.

  • Locate interpretive load and ambiguity absorption.

  • Integrate accountability and pace norms.

  • Diagnostic readiness assessment.

  • Address equity implications.

  • Embed cultural readiness planning within technical timelines.

Engagement Team

Joanne Kerrigan

Having led transformational change from the inside, Joanne Kerrigan brings deep understanding of organizational complexity to her work. She loves to "find the thing underneath the thing": the conditions beneath the symptoms, and the moments an organization begins to see itself more clearly. Drawing on frameworks including Organizational Relationship Systems Coaching, Cynefin and Deep Listening, she makes work safe and sustainable for humans.

Brook Thorndycraft

Brook facilitates and nurtures leaders, changemakers, and teams as they navigate the essential questions of organizational life. With over 15 years of experience and a background in mediation (Q.Med), adult education (MA), and Somatic Experiencing (SEP), Brook bridges the gap between systemic change and the human nervous system. Through coaching, training, and custom change processes, she helps organizations transform power dynamics, psychological safety, and conflict into sources of possibility.