Nathan Wadding of The Kindling Culture Agency: How We Leveraged AI To Take Our Company To The Next Level
An Interview With Chad Silverstein
Respect the pride in hard-earned expertise. Some employees may see AI as a threat to their relevance. Go slow where needed. Acknowledge their value. Build programs that help everyone find their new role in the future.
In the ever-evolving and never-ending landscape of business, staying ahead of the curve is a prerequisite for success. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has gone from being a futuristic concept to a daily business tool that executives can’t ignore. In this interview series, we would like to talk with business leaders who’ve successfully integrated A.I. into their operations, transforming their companies in the process. I had the pleasure of interviewing Nathan Wadding.
Nathan Wadding is the Founder and CEO of Kindling Culture Agency, a Pittsburgh-based firm that specializes in creating purpose-driven work cultures, authentic employer brands, and employee storytelling to boost engagement. A passionate supporter of people-first workplaces, Nathan helps organizations explore and understand the unique employee experience, turning it into insights to build initiatives and authentic employer brands.
With a background in creative direction and cultural strategy, Nathan has led transformative initiatives for organizations ranging from startups to national healthcare systems, manufacturing companies, and technology firms. His work emphasizes the employee experience at the heart of the organization’s culture. Employee engagement surveys can only reveal part of the employee experience. Fully understanding what is working and what isn’t in a company requires immersing oneself in the environment — asking questions and listening to the stories of the organization, as well as the stories of the people at work.
Basing his process on the creative elements of human-centered design and the principles of Appreciative Inquiry, he has developed a unique method to uncover, understand, and activate the employee voice, fostering better work cultures from the inside out and the bottom up. Helping each employee feel their value.
Nathan is a sought-after speaker and facilitator on topics such as culture-led leadership, developing intentional work cultures, employer brand strategy, fostering creative work cultures, and the intersection of organizational purpose and employee engagement.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! To set the stage, tell us briefly about your childhood and background.
I grew up in the rural area around Pittsburgh, PA, on a farm. My first job was on a dairy farm, milking cows. I started my own DJ business in high school and used the money I earned to help pay for college. I was also very active in team sports growing up, which sparked my interest in collaboration culture.
What were the early challenges you faced in your career, and how did they shape your approach to leadership?
My primary and secondary education was in a very small rural school, so when I went to college, I was lacking in some areas. I also had a desire to be creative, but I had no real support or model for what that should look like, and I lacked confidence in my abilities. I was able to stay safe and still work in a creative field as an engineer until I gained the confidence to take the leap into full creativity. The creative agency business in the late 90s and early 2000s was a tough one, still very much an old boys club of sorts. There was a high barrier to entry, and earning a position was difficult. Once you earned it, you had to keep it, which often led to unhealthy environments and unhealthy competition. This has heavily influenced the way I lead today. We have a saying at my agency — “YOU don’t have to BE right but WE have to get it right for the client.”
We often learn the most from our mistakes. Can you share one mistake that turned out to be one of the most valuable lessons you’ve learned?
This lesson I need to keep learning repeatedly because it keeps coming up for me, but I don’t always recognize it until I reflect on it. I often move too fast, fearing the opportunity will expire and pass me by. Sometimes, this causes me not to slow down and ask all the right questions to ensure I see the opportunity from all sides and set appropriate boundaries around it. I often just jump in. And if I’m being honest, sometimes it leads to some very wonderful surprises. I’ve learned that the best way for me to navigate this bias toward action is to have the best people around me who see the world differently than I do, so they can slow me down and help me avoid problems later.
A.I. is a big leap for many businesses. When and what first sparked your interest in incorporating it into your operations?
I’m not a Luddite, but as I get older, technology advances faster than I prefer. I enjoy spending time with a book and a cup of coffee. I replaced my iPad with a pen and notebook, and my Apple Watch with an analog watch that only tells the time. My desire to stay on the cutting edge of technology has naturally faded as I shifted the agency’s focus to become a culture-focused organization that leverages the power of everyday employee stories to strengthen our clients’ organizations. BUT… I have weekly walks and talks with a fellow CEO and founder. She builds websites and SEO plans for her clients, so she’s more familiar with the latest tech than I am. During one of our walks, she shared how she was training her own GPT to be her knowledge base. She recorded a Loom outlining her process, and that was it. I just needed some initial guidance to find my starting point.
AI can be a game-changer for individuals and their responsibilities. Can you share how you personally use AI and what are your go-to resources or tools?
I love technology and solid processes, but I dislike doing repetitive tasks. AI offers great potential to help us incorporate creative processes and automate routine work, freeing us to focus more on thinking and being creative for our clients. I also enjoy having multiple inputs during the creative process, and AI acts as an excellent idea generator sparring partner. My favorite tool by far is our AI note taker, which saves us time when creating meeting summaries, action items, and creative briefs.
Fathom — AI meeting notetaker.
Chat GPT — Persona development.
Liner AI — Research and tracking knowledge and highlights.
ATLAS.ti — Qualitative Data Analysis.
On the flip side, what challenges or setbacks have you encountered while implementing A.I. into your company?
‘I think about this question differently. We’re a small agency, and we can implement things quickly and get immediate feedback without significant risk, investment, or disruption. What I really worry about is how our clients and larger organizations are integrating A.I. into their cultures. All digital transformations ultimately come down to people and how they manage change. We’ve learned this through decades of “digitization”.
A.I. promises to be a seismic shift in our work life. Experts predict it will disrupt decades of traditional business practices, roles, processes, habits, mindsets, and skills. It’s an exciting time for some, yet for others, it may bring more anxiety than curiosity. A.I. is the first technology designed not just to extend our abilities but to mimic human behavior.
The work we do with our heads, our hearts, and our hands is important to us. It shapes our identities and gives us a sense of pride. It fulfills our need for contribution, achievement, community, and collaboration — and we get paid for our contributions. As organizations adopt an “AI-first” approach and others consider integrating AI into their strategies, the way you implement it will be crucial.
In employee engagement, we talk about “Moments That Matter.” These are pivotal points in an employee’s journey that have a disproportionate impact. Implementing new technology is one of those moments — especially when the tech raises deep questions like: Is AI an extension of people or a replacement?
It’s a moment that could shake people’s sense of identity and security — or reinforce it. One thing’s clear: people will have strong feelings about it.
I’m concerned that leaders aren’t fully addressing the human aspect of this implementation and the elephant in the room. The pressure on leaders to adopt A.I. and deliver a return on investment is enormous. Recent research shows most employees are secretly using their own A.I. tools at work just to manage the flood of emails, meetings, and tasks — many of which stem from role consolidation. Over half of employees fear that if their managers discover they’re using A.I., they could be replaced. When leaders are pushed to deliver quarter-over-quarter ROI to investors, we’ve seen them do whatever it takes to meet growth targets.
Let’s dig into this further. Can you share the top 6 A.I. tools or different ways you’re integrating AI into your business? What specific functions do they serve and what kind of result have you seen so far? If you can, please share a story or example for each.
1 . Define what AI means to you and your organization.
2 . Keep in mind that AI is a strategy for achieving your mission statement or organizational purpose.
3 . Use the Diffusion of Innovations theory as a framework for your culture. — This means intentionally identifying and empowering early adopters, creating space for experimentation, and communicating success stories to accelerate buy-in across the organization. By aligning your culture with how innovation naturally spreads, you can foster more organic, sustainable change.
4 . Consider all generations in your workforce and who may need extra support. Reverse mentorships can help bridge generational tech gaps. Different age groups adopt technology at different rates.
5 . Win the hearts and minds of your people. Start from the middle of your org chart and build out. Create an AI adoption team that represents a “diagonal slice” of your workforce across roles, seniority, and generations.
6. Respect the pride in hard-earned expertise. Some employees may see AI as a threat to their relevance. Go slow where needed. Acknowledge their value. Build programs that help everyone find their new role in the future.
There’s concern about A.I. taking over jobs. How do you balance A.I. tools with your human workforce and have you already replaced any positions using technology?
I have not, but I worry a lot about the job market and how the pressure to see an ROI on all this investment will lead to looking at people as AI redundant.
Looking ahead, what’s on the horizon in the world of AI that people should know about? What do you see happening in the next 3–5 years? I would love to hear your best prediction.
Well, it’s much easier for a small startup to develop an A.I. everything approach because there is no “change” or legacy tech or cultural debt to worry about. Depending on broader economic trends, this might unsettle larger companies, or they might try to acquire them and integrate their technology, which could cause a lot of things to fall apart. I also can’t help but worry about shortcuts being taken to maximize profits on an investor’s timeline, leading to data sets collapsing in on themselves. The free market is generating a lot of dollar signs that will create pressure for someone. “The Internet” is probably the closest recent analogy to A.I., and the free market didn’t fund the “Internet” — it was funded by the government. And say what you will about how the government operates, they don’t need to see a profit in 90 days.
For the uninitiated, what advice would you give someone looking to integrate AI into their business and doesn’t know where to start?
Can you lead change in a way that includes everyone? It might mean taking a little more time, having more conversations, and making space for people to adjust. Move too fast, and you risk losing those who’ve spent years building your organization. No matter how much work changes, people will always matter. Make sure your culture reflects that.
Where can our readers follow you to learn more about leveraging A.I. in the business world?
Linkedin — https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-wadding-kindlingcultureagency/
This was great. Thanks for taking time for us to learn more about you and your business. We wish you continued success!
About the Interviewer: Chad Silverstein is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25+ years of experience as a Founder and CEO. While attending Ohio State University, he launched his first company, Choice Recovery, Inc., a nationally recognized healthcare collection agency — twice ranked the #1 workplace in Ohio. In 2013, he founded [re]start, helping thousands of people find meaningful career opportunities. After selling both companies, Chad shifted his focus to his true passion — leadership. Today, he coaches founders and CEOs at Built to Lead, advises Authority Magazine’s Thought Leader Incubator.
Nathan Wadding of The Kindling Culture Agency: How We Leveraged AI To Take Our Company To The Next… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.