---
id: "action-invest-in-absorptive-capacity"
type: "action-item"
source_timestamps: ["§ A Diagnostic for Leaders"]
tags: ["change-management", "process-engineering"]
related: ["concept-absorptive-capacity", "prereq-remove-bottlenecks", "framework-ai-strategic-diagnostic", "quote-absorptive-capacity-bottlenecks"]
action: "Redesign legacy workflows and governance to remove internal friction against AI adoption."
outcome: "Increased organizational ability to actually utilize and capture value from new AI tools."
speakers: ["Shlomo Benartzi", "Randall Long", "Stefano Puntoni"]
sources: ["spine"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-spine"
originDay: 1
articleStem: "hbr-tier1-04-ai-for-growth"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/06/companies-are-using-ai-for-efficiency-they-should-use-it-to-grow"
sourceTitle: "Companies Are Using AI for Efficiency. They Should Use It to Grow."
---
# Invest in Absorptive Capacity

**Do:** Deliberately invest time and resources to remove internal bottlenecks — retrain or manage change-resistant professionals, redesign pre-AI-era workflows, and streamline governance that slows experimentation.

**Why:** Expands [[concept-absorptive-capacity-d4]]; satisfies [[prereq-remove-bottlenecks]] and question 6 of the [[framework-ai-strategic-diagnostic]]. See [[quote-absorptive-capacity-bottlenecks]].

**Outcome:** Increased organizational ability to actually utilize and capture value from new AI tools.


## Related across articles
- [[action-invest-transformation-infrastructure]]
- [[concept-organizational-capability-building]]