Progress Over Perfection is a podcast for federal leaders making consequential decisions under uncertainty. Each episode breaks down how program managers, agency leaders, and modernization teams move from analysis to action — without trading away rigor. Hosted by Jack Moore, the show covers topics like AI adoption, workforce change, and the realities of moving federal programs forward.
Episode 6: Overcoming the AI Replacement Narrative - with guest Jonathan Aberman
Most AI rollouts fail before the technology even gets a chance because of the story leaders tell about it. Jack Moore talks with Jonathan Aberman, CEO of Hupside and author of The Originality Dividend, about why the dominant "AI will replace you" narrative is driving workforce resistance, and what to say instead.
They get into Evans' own early misstep launching AI internally, the Hupchecker pilot that revealed who was using AI as a tool versus an oracle, and a federal AI project at the FAA. Jonathan also shares his first move for any CEO starting an AI rollout, the originality loop framework, and what happened when his wife caught every verbal tic AI had picked up from him while ghostwriting his book.
Jonathan Aberman is CEO and co-founder of Hupside (hupside.com), where he's building the field of Original Intelligence. He has advised DARPA, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Air Force on innovation strategy, and is the author of The Originality Dividend: Why Human Original Intelligence Is the Most Valuable Asset in an Age of AI (available on Amazon).
Progress Over Perfection is Evans Incorporated's podcast for federal leaders making consequential decisions under uncertainty.
28 Jul 2026
Episode 5: The Human Side of Operationalizing AI — with Rob Hunt
Rob Hunt, Evans' new VP of Aviation and a former FAA executive, joins Jack Moore to talk about what it takes to operationalize AI without losing the human judgment that mission-critical work depends on. They dig into building operator trust in predictive AI, why AI adoption sometimes means reimagining a process instead of just speeding it up, and two things any federal leader can try with their team Monday morning.
6 Jul 2026
Episode 4: People, Policy, and Privacy — with Nick Schutt
In this episode of Progress Over Perfection, Jack Moore talks with Nick Schutt — founder and president of Artemis Human Capital Management and host of the Robots and Red Tape podcast — about what actually separates AI programs that work from the ones that stall out.
Nick and Jack cover why most organizations aren't AI-ready (it's a data problem, not a tool problem), the biggest mistake leaders make when rolling out AI, why prompting matters more than which model you use, and why you should never take AI output at face value. Nick shares real results from his own podcast guests: military planning cycles cut from two weeks to five minutes, and monthly compliance reporting cut from 80 hours to 90 minutes. He closes with the one thing a federal leader can do Monday morning to move the needle.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:31 Why Nick started Robots and Red Tape
4:03 Why most organizations aren't ready for AI
6:00 The federal AI tools landscape
7:07 The most overlooked piece of any AI rollout: your people
13:00 Prompting, tool comparisons, and building context with AI
17:56 Pattern matching vs. understanding
21:00 Real results: military planning, compliance reporting, and more
26:34 Where we really are on the AI adoption curve
27:55 The one thing to do Monday morning
3 Jun 2026
Episode 3: Stop Planning, Start Doing — with John Hrastar
Federal agencies are running AI pilots. They're standing up working groups. They're attending briefings and building centers of excellence. And most of them are still in the same place they were 18 months ago. The problem isn't access to tools. It's the gap between activity and action — and that gap is a leadership problem, not a technology problem.
Jack Moore brings in John Hrastar, who has spent his career advising organizations through exactly this kind of transition, to make the conversation concrete. They work through a practical framework for sorting work into what AI should own, what stays human, and what disappears entirely — then translate it into three things any federal leader can do starting Monday to get their team moving.
3 Jun 2026
Episode 2: How Federal Program Leaders Build Momentum Fast — with Bob Etris
Federal agencies saw 348,000 separations in 2025 — an 81% spike over the prior year, according to Pew Research (https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/13/federal-workforce-shrank-10-in-trumps-first-year-back-in-office/) analysis of OPM data. That means more program managers than ever are stepping into someone else's work: incomplete documentation, a team still figuring out who you are, and an executive who expects results now. There's no ramp. The question isn't whether you'll face this — it's whether you know what to do on day one.
Jack Moore sits down with Bob Etris, the person Jack calls "the get programs healthy guy," to break down Bob's repeatable approach to mid-program handoffs. Bob draws on real examples — including an FAA requirements exercise with a resistant team lead and a PMO takeover where he built a funding business case in a week — to walk through how he establishes footing fast, distinguishes real urgency from noise, and builds trust with teams that would rather he wasn't there.
2 Jun 2026
Episode 1: Breaking Out of Analysis Paralysis — with Shashuana Littlejohn
Federal programs are under pressure to deliver modernization, AI adoption, and mission outcomes faster — even as workforce continuity fluctuates and long planning cycles stop matching operational reality. Leaders are caught between perfect information and urgent timelines, which means most consequential decisions now have to be made with less than complete certainty.
Jack and Shashuana unpack how leaders can move forward at roughly 70% confidence instead of waiting for perfect data — and why that pragmatism matters right now. Their conversation covers frameworks for rapid learning, the risk checks that protect momentum, and real examples where early, high-confidence action unlocked progress that waiting would have killed.
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