3 Keys to Leadership in the AI Revolution
Is your leadership team struggling with the incredibly fast pace of change brought about by generative AI? You’re not alone. The only thing that’s certain about the AI revolution is that the pace of change and the level of uncertainty will keep increasing.
Here are three keys to leading organizations in this era of rapid change.
“Get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
Key #1: Agility is more important than ever
Agile practices have always been, at their core, about harnessing uncertainty and change to enable rapid learning and improvement. A lot of organizations have missed that message, and have instead been trapped in Dark Scrum - a rigid interpretation of agile that limits adaptability. True agility requires empowered teams with a clear, customer-centric goal, working in fast cycles to learn quickly and deliver value early and often. The same principles will serve you well in navigating AI’s disruptive yet powerful wave of change. If you want to succeed, or even survive the AI revolution, true agility will be critical.
Key #2: Optimize your culture
The Competing Values Framework* (CVF) make culture tangible. (See the summary graphic below.) If you can assess your culture, then you can shape it. The research shows that organizations need an appropriate balance of 4 value sets: Control, Collaborate, Create and Compete. Most organizations will discover that they have a weakness in one of these areas, especially when adapting to a transformative force like AI. AI adoption may require a delicate balance of Control values to mitigate risks, and Create and Compete values to empower rapid learning. At the same time, AI tools will impact how humans Collaborate with each other. Leadership team must take deliberate and aligned action to shape their organization’s culture.
The Competing Values Framework for organizational culture
Key #3: Coaching Humans through the transition
While policies, structures and metrics may be important for adapting to AI, what may be most critical - ironically - is the human side of change. Some people may be happy to embrace AI tools, while others either don’t trust AI, or they’re deathly afraid that AI will take over their job. Leaders need the human coaching skills to help people through the psychological transition to effectively using AI. William Bridges offers a practical model for understanding this in his book, Managing Transitions.
In our Certified Agile Leader® workshops, we explore the William Bridges model and a powerful, pragmatic technique for coaching people: the Catalyst Conversation.
William Bridges model for psychological transition
Certified Agile Leader® workshops: Build the skills to lead your organization through rapid change.
Examine case studies of successful agile transformation.
Apply the CVF to shape your organization’s culture.
Learn powerful techniques to coach individuals through challenging transitions.
All of this in our CAL-1™ workshop!
Contact us for a private workshop for your leadership team, or join our public workshops.
