Acing Agentic Workflows
$15.00
Minimum price
$29.00
Suggested price

Acing Agentic Workflows

About the Book

The AI revolution isn’t just coming - it’s here. Yet, as organizations rush to implement artificial intelligence, most are missing the crucial ingredient for success: the human element.

This groundbreaking guide reveals why professional service organizations in healthcare, law, engineering, and finance struggle to harness AI’s true potential—and more importantly, how to overcome these challenges. Drawing from real-world case studies and cutting-edge research, Acing Agentic Workflows shows you how to:

  • Deploy focused, task-specific agentic workflows that deliver measurable value
  • Align stakeholder interests to drive sustainable AI transformation
  • Break free from the productivity paradox holding your organization back
  • Create an environment where innovation thrives and AI initiatives succeed

You’ll learn why the biggest obstacle to AI success isn’t the technology—it’s organizational habits. Discover how to get all stakeholders on board and shift from chasing short-term productivity gains to building lasting competitive advantage by deploying AI agents that consistently deliver value for your clients and your organization.

Written for both leaders and doers who understand that tomorrow’s success requires action today, this book provides a practical roadmap for turning AI’s boundless potential into transformative results.

Are you ready to lead the AI transformation?

This book is a work in progress, and I’d love your feedback! I’m aiming to complete one section each month, with the goal of finishing the book by early fall 2025.

  • Share this book

  • Categories

    • Management
  • Feedback

    You must own a copy of this Book to access the forums.

    Email the Author(s)

About the Author

Floor Blindenbach
Dr. F Blindenbach

When Disruption Hits Home

2024 started as a banner year for Organizing4Innovation. Our clients were seeing real success—two case studies highlighted how our Innovation Management platform had helped teams navigate complex innovation journeys.

Yet beneath this success, warning signs emerged.

📉 Email response rates were declining—market fluctuation or something deeper?

🤖 LLMs were becoming more capable—just another tool or a fundamental shift?

Then, while troubleshooting a technical issue, the realization hit me.

The Wake-Up Call

I tested Large Language Models (LLMs) by creating ten prompts to help a team get started with Microsoft Copilot—defining goals, setting up a pilot, and structuring workflows. The results weren’t perfect, but they were shockingly good.

Our platform, six years in the making, had lost its competitive edge.

I sat at my desk, staring at those prompts, feeling both fascination and dread. My go-to comfort food—chocolate—became a frequent companion as I processed what this meant for our business.

The Innovator’s Dilemma – From the Inside

Ironically, I had advised firms on disruptive innovation for years, yet now I was experiencing the same resistance to change firsthand. My journey with LLMs followed a pattern I should have recognized:

1️⃣ Dismissal – Seemed too flawed to be a threat.

2️⃣ Cognitive Disconnect – Improved, but I ignored the implications.

3️⃣ Ego-Driven Resistance – Surely, human expertise was irreplaceable.

4️⃣ Uncomfortable Recognition – The landscape had fundamentally shifted.

Practicing What We Preach

The breakthrough came when I stopped fighting reality. LLMs aren’t replacing innovation leaders, but they are reshaping our role.

Instead of resisting, I leaned into the same principles we teach:

✔️ Run experiments instead of making assumptions.

✔️ Reframe AI as an augmentation tool, not a threat.

✔️ Embrace the human elements AI can’t replicate.

Charting a New Course

If we, as innovation experts, were struggling with this transition, what about other managers and teams facing similar disruptions?

🔹 The role of innovation leaders isn’t disappearing—it’s evolving.

🔹 AI can assist, but it can’t replace human-driven problem-solving.

🔹 The future belongs to those who learn how to work with AI, not against it.

Now, my focus is on helping firms navigate this shift, ensuring that AI, innovation, and new workflows don’t just get introduced—they deliver real impact.

🚀 If your firm is struggling to make AI and workflow transitions work, let’s talk. Your insights will help me make this book even better!

Table of Contents

    • Introduction
      • What Are Agentic Workflows?
      • The Five Key Players
      • Bringing AI to Life in an Organization
      • The Five Parts of This Book
    • Introduction
    • Drew’s Challenge: Driving Today’s and Tomorrow’s Revenues
    • AI Adoption Isn’t Just a Tech Rollout—It’s a Cultural Shift
    • Ira’s Frustration: The Technology–Reality Gap
    • The Hidden Price Tag of AI Projects
    • Who Gets Involved (and Who Gets Burned Out)
    • Stop Relying on the Willing Few
    • Between Standardization and Reality
    • Why Work Is Inherently Local
    • The Standardization Paradox
    • Taylor’s Opportunity: The Future Calling
    • What Gets in the Way of Speaking Up?
    • Innovation Before the Lab
    • From Possibility to Participation: Why So Few Step Up
    • The RISE Framework: Creating Conditions for Commitment
    • What Makes Up RISE?
      • Return
      • Invest
      • Support
      • Expectations
    • The RISE Framework in Action
    • Why This Matters
    • The New Reality: From Curiosity to Commitment
    • Reflection Prompts: What Kind of Contributor Are You?
      • If you’re a Bailey (Executive Sponsor)
      • If you’re a Drew (Team Leader)
      • If you’re an Ira (Innovation/IT Leader)
      • If you’re a Taylor (Emerging Talent)
    • Exercise: Mapping Commitment with the RISE Framework
      • Return
      • Invest
      • Support
      • Expectations
    • Chapter Summary: The Power—and Cost—of Possibility
    • Discussion Questions
    • Part 2: Prioritizing Projects
      • Bailey’s Lightbulb Moment
      • The Calm Before the Storm
    • A Door Closed, A Conversation Opened
      • Gender Difference
    • Walking Before Running
    • Selling the Problem — Not the Solution
    • Why Innovation Teams Struggle in Professional Service Firms — and How to Fix It
      • The Real Challenge
    • 4 Principles for Building Innovation Teams That Survive and Deliver
      • 1. Set Clear Business Objectives
      • 2. Use Carefully Chosen Proxies — Not Voluntolds
      • 3. Set Clear, Time-Limited Expectations
      • 4. Embrace Strategic Team Changes
    • Building Legitimacy: Inside and Outside
    • Setting Up the Internal Pilot for Agentic Workflows
      • Purpose of the Pilot
    • Discovery-Driven Planning
      • Step 1: Reverse Income Statement
    • Affordable Loss Principle
      • Step 2: Affordable Loss for the Pilot
      • Step 3: Assumptions to Test
      • Step 4: High-Level Milestones
      • Step 5: Immediate Next Actions (7–90 Days)
    • How Good Ideas Get Lost (and How to Find Better Ones)
      • The Opportunistic Approach to Innovation
    • The Deeper Challenge
    • A Smarter Way to Manage Innovation Under Uncertainty
      • Caveat
      • Typical Opportunistic Innovation vs Strategic Portfolio Management
    • From Idea to Offer
    • Framing the Offer Using RISE
    • Preparing for Commitment
    • Why Celebrating Small Wins Matters
    • Chapter Summary
      • Key Takeaways
    • Reflection Questions
    • Exercises
      • Exercise 1: Reverse Your Next Big Idea
      • Exercise 2: Craft a RISE Offer
      • Exercise 3: Plan Your Small Win

The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee

Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.

Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.

You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!

So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?

See full terms...

Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase

We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.

(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)

In fact, authors have earnedover $14 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub

Free Updates. DRM Free.

If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).

Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.

Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.

Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them

Write and Publish on Leanpub

You can use Leanpub to easily write, publish and sell in-progress and completed ebooks and online courses!

Leanpub is a powerful platform for serious authors, combining a simple, elegant writing and publishing workflow with a store focused on selling in-progress ebooks.

Leanpub is a magical typewriter for authors: just write in plain text, and to publish your ebook, just click a button. (Or, if you are producing your ebook your own way, you can even upload your own PDF and/or EPUB files and then publish with one click!) It really is that easy.

Learn more about writing on Leanpub