The Role Offer

For the skeptic whose concern is fundamentally about control or authority — the High-D territorial skeptic, the senior leader who feels the initiative is being driven by the wrong team — the evidence protocol will not convert them. You can address every substantive concern they raise and they will find new ones. This is not dishonesty. It is the behavioral logic of someone who perceives a threat to their authority. The intervention is the Role Offer: give them a meaningful role in the initiative. Not a symbolic title. Not an invitation to attend meetings. A role with genuine authority over an outcome they care about.

1. Identify the Right Role The role must be: genuinely important to the initiative (not ceremonial), within the skeptic's domain of expertise (so they can perform it credibly), and specifically tied to the concern they have been raising (so the role offer feels responsive rather than manipulative). AI governance lead, evaluation committee chair, quality review owner, risk assessment authority. The role that gives them a stake in the outcome is the right role.
2. Make the Offer Explicitly Do not hint at the role offer. Make it directly: "Your concern about governance has been consistent and I think it's valid. I want to give you the governance authority to address it — specifically, I'd like you to chair the AI governance committee. That gives you oversight authority over the controls you've been asking about." The skeptic who accepts this offer has made a commitment. The skeptic who declines has revealed that governance was not the actual concern.
3. Hold the Role Accountable The role offer works because it creates bilateral commitment: the skeptic gains authority, and the initiative gains their cooperation. If the skeptic accepts the role and then continues to obstruct the initiative from within the role, you have clarified the underlying driver and can escalate appropriately. A skeptic who has ownership of part of the initiative cannot oppose the whole initiative without opposing themselves — which changes the political calculus entirely.