The Church’s Leadership Wake-Up Call Lessons from a $700 Failure

The Humane AI Pin disaster provides valuable leadership lessons for churches about integrity, responsibility, and strategic planning. This high-profile tech failure that left customers with $700 paperweights mirrors common leadership mistakes made in ministry contexts.

• Over-promising and under-delivering damages trust when organizations set unrealistic expectations
• Focusing on hype rather than substance creates initial excitement but leads to disappointment
• Failing to take responsibility when things go wrong erodes credibility and relationships
• Ignoring feedback from stakeholders prevents necessary course corrections
• Operating without clear contingency plans leaves organizations vulnerable in times of crisis
• Integrity in leadership isn't about perfection but about building and maintaining trust

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Humane AI Failure
• 1:07 Over-promising and Under-delivering
• 2:54 The Danger of Hype Without Substance
• 4:37 Failing to Take Responsibility
• 7:11 Ignoring People's Needs
• 7:55 The Importance of Exit Planning
• 9:25 Final Thoughts on Leadership Integrity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

What happens when a company over promises and completely fails to deliver. The Humane AI Pen was supposed to be the future of technology just recently, in this past year, until it crashed and burned and it left customers with a $700 paperweight, literally. This isn't just a story about a tech failure. It's a leadership failure and, believe it or not, the church can learn a lot from the humane AI disaster and we're going to talk about it today as we break down the leadership mistakes that doomed humane and how churches can avoid making the same costly errors. Thanks for joining me. My name is Todd Rhodes and you are listening and or watching to the Healthy Church Staff Podcast. I'm one of the co-founders over at chemistrystaffingcom. Hope you'll check that out as well. Chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, today we're going to talk about five lessons that we can learn from this whole $700 paperweight thing. Okay, the first is over-promising and under-delivering. What was Humane's biggest mistake? They promised the moon and delivered a flashlight. They told customers hey, we've got this unbelievable AI pen. This thing is so great, it's going to replace your smartphone. It's going to replace your smartphone. It's going to revolutionize technology. It's going to change how people interact with the internet and with AI and instead, what they delivered. People chucked out their $700. They got this humane AI pin and instead it didn't change anything. It was glitchy, it was unreliable, it was completely unready for the real world.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Does this sound familiar? If you're a church leader, have you ever cast a vision that was just more aspirational than it was achievable? You knew it. Have you promised big things revival, exponential growth, life-changing programs and you knew that you didn't have the infrastructure to sustain it? Right, it was great to have a big, bold mission, but integrity means you got to follow through. Right? Jesus tells us to count the cost before we build. He said that in Luke. But if your church constantly sets unrealistic expectations, it's going to breed disappointment and distrust. People just aren't going to go along for the journey anymore. So here's the lesson in this first point Set a vision that's both bold and achievable and make sure that your leadership and your resources and your strategy can back that up. People are eager to follow, but they're not going to be eager to follow if what you said never comes to fruition.

Speaker 1: 2:50

Okay, so that's point number one. Point number two the danger of hype without substance. Okay, so before launching this AI pin, humane built just massive hype, high profile founders. They had fancy, expensive promotional videos. They did TED Talks for crying out loud. That made this thing look like it was going to be a game changer, but once it was in people's hands, it just didn't work. It didn't work and no, I didn't order one. No, I'm not talking. This is not Todd going off because he spent $700 on something that just didn't work. They over-promised and under-delivered and they promised them that it just didn't work.

Speaker 1: 3:32

Sometimes churches fall into that same trap. We focus more on the launch than the long game, whether it's maybe a new ministry initiative that you're starting, maybe it's a building project or a new staff hire. We get people excited, but we don't ensure that the foundation is strong. So instead of asking how can we make this look exciting, ask how can we make this truly effective.

Speaker 1: 3:55

The lesson here is don't build a ministry around hype. Build it on real, lasting impact. One of the things I see churches do quite often is they'll lay out this massive this is where we're headed. They have a vision Sunday. This is where we're going. We're going to climb this mountain and then two weeks later, nobody remembers what was said and nobody ever follows up on the plan. So don't build a ministry around hype. Hype will help you for one week and then, two weeks later, people will forget if you don't actually build the thing right. Build it on real, lasting impact. Okay, number three, don't fail to take responsibility. When Humane shut down their email to customers, okay, get this. This was brutal. They thanked customers for their support. Thanks for your support. They offered no refunds. They offered no solutions, just an apology and a goodbye. So when leaders make mistakes, the worst thing they can do is dodge responsibility. Churches are not immune to this. Have you seen leadership in churches dismiss failure? Have you seen pastors or boards avoid hard conversations? People don't expect perfection. They don't expect perfection from you, pastor. They don't expect perfection from your board or from your staff or from any of your church leadership right, but they do expect accountability and the best leaders own their mistakes and make things right and lead with transparency.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I just I had an experience like this last week. I rented a condo for my wife and myself. We were in Orlando for a conference and we stayed a couple extra days and we stayed in this very nice place. It was very inexpensive for the place, it was very nice, but on day two our internet went out. It just went out totally, and this was going to be a working vacation for me. So no internet. So I called the place that we rented the condo from, not the homeowner, but the condo place and this is a Todd rant here just for a second, because it's so fresh but I exchanged 14 different emails from them over a period of six days that the internet was not working, and they gave me tons of excuses, they took no accountability and they essentially said this is not our problem. Matter of fact, they said this is a. What did they say? This is a, this is a renter convenience that's beyond our control. Okay, I get that, I, I get it.

Speaker 1: 6:35

But the leadership just did not step into place. They didn't own the hey, this is a problem. They didn't try to make anything right. They didn't try, from a customer service standpoint, to make me feel any better about this. I didn't expect the moon, but I expected to be heard and I was never heard. So here's the lesson here Leadership. That was a tangent, wasn't it? Sorry about that. Leadership isn't. Here's the lesson. Leadership isn't about being perfect. It's about being responsible. Take responsibility for your leadership. Okay, two more man I'm going over today.

Speaker 1: 7:08

Number four ignoring the needs of your people. Humane never really listened to its customers. They ignored warnings from all the tech experts that told them this was gonna fail. They failed to adapt real world to real world issues. They ultimately left their supporters, those people that built the company, those people that paid for the product. They left them high and dry. And churches sometimes do the same thing. We ignore feedback from our congregation, from our staff, from our volunteers, until it's too late. If people keep telling you something isn't working, you might want to listen, all right. So the lesson here is great leaders listen more than they talk. They create spaces for honest feedback and they actually act on that honest feedback before it's too late. All right. Number five, and then I'll get you out of here today.

Speaker 1: 7:55

There was no clear exit plan at Humane, and that just equaled a disaster. Humane's shutdown was so abrupt because they had no real exit plan at Humane, and that just equaled a disaster. Humane's shutdown was so abrupt because they had no real backup plan. The business ran on fumes. It ran on wishful thinking instead of strategic planning, and churches often operate in this same way. What happens if a key leader leaves? What happens if giving suddenly drops. What happens if there's a major ministry that collapses? A healthy church doesn't just plan for success, it plans for those setbacks too. Okay, so here's the lesson, the final lesson for today Every church needs a clear plan for leadership transitions, for financial challenges, for crisis management, and I can probably count on one hand I'm being maybe a little facetious here the number of churches that I know of that have a clear plan for leadership transition unless they're in one, or that have a plan for a financial challenge unless they're in one, or have a plan for a crisis management unless they're in a crisis Planning folks is huge, and this is one of the things that we help churches with at Chemistry Staffing.

Speaker 1: 9:03

If there's any way that we can help you with your leadership transitions or creating this clear plan for financial challenges, for crisis management, we have people on our team that are experienced and knowledgeable and have been through this and can help you do this, and, believe me, you want to have that plan in place before you go through a leadership or a financial or a crisis. Okay, here's the takeaway for today. Here's what I would love for you to leave with today Integrity and leadership. It's not about perfection, it's about trust, and, whether in business or whether you're leading a church, people want leaders who keep their word, people want leaders who will own their mistakes and people want leaders who will lead with wisdom. I'm wondering which one of these lessons hit home most for you or for your church. I'd love to hear from you. You can drop a comment if you're watching this on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 9:56

If you're listening on the podcast. I'd love to hear your thoughts. You can email me your thought right now at podcast at chemistrystaffingcom and, as I said, if your church is navigating any of these leadership challenges, let's talk. You can grab 30 minutes. If you're working for a church, you can grab 30 minutes to talk about your leadership challenge and see if there's any way that we can help your church. This is for churches, not for individuals, but you can catch me and schedule a 30-minute strategy call absolutely free at chemistrystaffingcom. Okay, thanks so much for listening to the podcast. We will be here again tomorrow and hope you have a very great day. I'm very grateful.