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Always think about thinking ©
In this episode of The Piar Podcast, host Tan Sukhera sits down with Mike Klein—founder of #WeLeadComms, editor-in-chief of Strategic Magazine, and IABC Fellow—to explore what he calls "the big shift" and why the next six months matter more than the next three years. Mike delivers a stark warning: AI isn't just automating tasks, it's accelerating decision speed across entire organizations, and most business cultures built for escalation rather than decision are about to experience internal combustion. The conversation unpacks a converging talent crisis—AI automation, white-collar layoffs at profitable companies, and Gen Z locked out by hiring freezes—that's shattered the old loyalty-for-security social contract. Mike offers hard truths about why internal comms functions trapped under HR or marketing struggle for strategic relevance, why traditional training investments are stalling, and why the real skill-building now means understanding adjacent fields like sales, strategy, and how the business actually makes money. His central thesis: when AI handles 60-80% of execution and every competitor uses similar tools, the sole source of differentiation becomes decision fluency and the compelling nature of an organization's story—and no function is better positioned to deliver that than communications.
Mike Klein has been a cutting edge thinker, researcher and consultant in the internal communication space, as well as being one of the leading community builders in the field. He's the founder of the global #WeLeadComms recognition program. He's editor in chief of Strategic Magazine and an IAPC fellow. He holds an MBA from London Business School and has worked with large private and public enterprises in seven countries on their culture and communication challenges.
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Tan Sukhera is a strategic thinking partner, a super connector of people & ideas, and perpetual student of the communications craft. A Canadian with a Marketing Communications background and former TV news anchor, Tan held roles at leading multinational media monitoring organizations before founding Piar. That work revealed something important: measurement was largely solved, but the cognitive blind spots where CCOs unknowingly leave gaps in their armor remained unaddressed. Over two and a half years, Tan invested six figures unlearning why his assumptions about the industry were wrong, drawing on behavioral science, decision theory, mathematics, and AI-assisted human-in-the-loop approaches to build systems, lenses, and frameworks that sharpen strategic judgment. As CEO & Co-Founder of Piar and lead workshop facilitator, he works with business leaders around the world on high-stakes decisions.
