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Unique personalization engagers doubled in a single year.
AARP · AI personalizationMichael Flynn: internal communications and AI adoption
INTERNALWorked atAARPNBCMeals On Wheels America
Hi, I'm Michael. I lead the internal communications that carry enterprise change, including AI adoption.EducationSyracuse University, BAAmerican University, MACOMMS & AI
ADOPTIONOn airMSNBCCNNToday Show
Clear on deadline
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[ What I do ]
The hard part is never the technology. It's helping people understand what's changing and why it's worth working differently.
FEATURED.
[ Case studies ]
1
Internal Communications — The channel mix behind AI adoption at AARP
Every channel that carried the AI change.
Internal comms · Channel strategy · AI adoptionNext case ↓
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What I led. The internal communications behind AI adoption at AARP — not one announcement on one channel, but the full mix that kept marketing, technology, analytics, legal and privacy moving together on AI work. I wrote the enterprise newsletter and the weekly executive updates, built and owned the internal website behind the program, and built the AI agents that answered questions in real time.
How I chose. The channel is chosen for the audience, not the other way round. An executive needs a paragraph on a Monday. Someone who has to work differently on Tuesday needs their hands on it, with a place to ask when it goes wrong. And some channels exist to carry information back the other way — those are the ones that make the rest of the mix better.
AARPThe Channel Dial
Channels I Led for AI Adoption
TUNING
Four audiences click one to hold it
Seventeen channels, one message. The channels that carried information back — office hours, the questions people put to the AI agents, employee listening — were what told me which of the others to fix. That mix supported a doubling of unique personalization engagers in a single year.
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AI Adoption — Change management at AARP
Change management for AI adoption.
Change management · ADKAR · EnablementNext case ↓
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What I led. Communications, training and enablement workstreams inside a cross-functional enterprise program deploying AI-driven personalization across web, app and email — plus the AI assistants I built myself, the responsible-AI translation work, and the operating model I developed for how the next platform adoption would run. I led the team of trainers that delivered the program and managed the partner relationship behind it.
How I led it. The through-line is change management, not the technology. I planned adoption against the Prosci ADKAR® Model — awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement — and I'm a GAQM Certified Problem and Change Manager (CPCM). Each step needs a different message on a different channel, which is why the channel mix above exists. The first questions I ask are the same whatever the capability is: who has to work differently, what will make them resist, and what keeps the new way in place after the launch energy fades. Answering those is what turns a rollout into adoption.
AARPWhat I Led: Driving AI Adoption
Workstreams I led within a cross-functional program
The goal
Make AI something people actually use
Five workstreams I led at once. Readiness, resistance and reinforcement held them together; the channels above are how the communications for each one reached people. ADKAR® and the Prosci ADKAR® Model are registered trademarks of Prosci Inc. This page describes my own practice and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Prosci.
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Executive Communications — Meals On Wheels America
Executive visibility and internal communications at Meals On Wheels America
Executive comms · The CEO's voice · Crisis commsNext case ↓
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What I led. The communications function and its staff for a national nonprofit association, promoted from Director of Communications to Assistant Vice President within one year. The remit ran from the CEO's public voice to the message nobody plans for: crisis and sensitive communications sat with me.
How I led it. One executive voice, carried on every channel the audience actually used. I wrote the CEO's communications and built the channels around them: a CEO-hosted podcast, a ghostwritten column in the Huffington Post, a television program on RLTV, the organization's first video studio and CEO blog, and a social audience that went from a few hundred to more than 10,000 in six months. Click a channel below to see what it was and what it did.
MEALS ON WHEELS AMERICAOne voice, every channel
Led the communications function and its staff
The CEO's voiceand the team behind it
CEO communicationsWritten · CEO blog launched
PodcastCEO-hosted · launched
Huffington PostColumn · ghostwritten
TelevisionProgram on RLTV
Video studioThe first one · launched
Social audienceHundreds → 10,000+
One executive voice on every channel the audience actually used, and a communications team that could handle the message nobody planned for. The same instinct runs the AI work above: the channel is chosen for the audience, not the other way round.
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Broadcast Journalism — MSNBC, NBC4 Washington, CNN, the Today Show
Live on MSNBC, CNN and the Today Show
Broadcast · Video · Media trainingResults ↓
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What I did. I reported on camera for MSNBC and NBC4 Washington, NBC's station in the nation's capital, on national and local stories, with additional appearances on CNN and the Today Show. As NBC4's first digital journalist, I wrote, shot, edited and fronted my own stories, then published them to the web.
How it shows up in my comms work. The newsroom taught me to make complicated things clear on deadline, and that is the same job inside a company. I write the message, produce the video and prepare the leader who delivers it, including media training and on-camera coaching for executives. When a town hall gets hard or a CEO has a difficult announcement to make, I've already stood in front of a live national camera with no script and no second take.
ON AIRBroadcast-trained communicator
Live on camera
MSNBCReported live on camera, national audience
NBCNBC4 Washington · first digital journalist
CNNAdditional on-air appearances
TODAYStories on the Today Show
What the live shot taught me, and where I use it now
In the newsroomIn comms today
Live, unscripted, in front of a national audience→Town halls, all-hands and the hard announcement
What's happening, why it matters, who says so, what's next→The shape of every leader message and briefing
Wrote, shot, edited and fronted my own stories→Internal video people actually watch
Knowing what it takes to perform on camera→Media training and on-camera coaching for executives
Neutral, accurate wording on charged subjects, chosen live→Sensitive and crisis communications
Very few internal communications leaders can write the message, produce the video and stand in front of the camera. I do all three, and I coach the executives who have to.
[ Measurement ]
Results speak louder. I report what moved, not what shipped.
Significant growth
In new digital permission actions in the same year.
AARP · AI personalizationPublished effectiveness reporting
On the internal website I built and owned, alongside the training resources and the office-hour program.
AARP · reporting10,000+
Social audience in six months, up from a few hundred.
Meals On Wheels AmericaI'm Michael, a communications leader who makes complicated change clear, on deadline.
[ What I do best ]
Internal communications, Executive communications, Change communications, AI adoption, Change management on Prosci ADKAR®, Crisis and sensitive communications, Media training and on-camera coaching, Measurement.
M.A., Digital Communications, American University. B.A. Journalism and B.A. Political Science, Syracuse. GAQM Certified Problem and Change Manager (CPCM).
Let's work together.
Remote first, with hybrid from the Washington, DC–Baltimore area. The fastest way to reach me is a LinkedIn message.