Leadership challenge in new world
AS a futurist I am continually researching what it means to have a digital leadership mindset, leading into the 21st century.
I was fascinated by a YouTube video from Elisa which raised some intriguing leadership concepts.
In the world where 127 things are connected to the internet every second, powered by sensors and artificial intelligence, we are moving towards a world in 2025 where half the global economy will be digital.
Infrastructure, operations and people need to be agile, decentralised and most importantly, humancentric.
Intelligent Connection
When things are connected they become intelligent. This applies to people too – we activate multiple intelligences that shift our leadership to a higher level of consciousness.
It will take agile and emotionally intelligent leaders to create a more satisfying experience for customers and employees. They must design these connections to evoke an emotional response that amplifies the customer experience.
This requires organisational design and leadership structures that connect people both face-to-face and in the digital world with empathy, authenticity, deep levels of trust and accountability.
Human systems should be continuously enhanced by, not replaced by, artificial intelligence and digital efficiency.
Shift from Incremental to Exponential
In a recent strategic session with clients, I asked Brett St Clair, digital thought leader and head of Google Cloud partner Siatik, to zoom in for a virtual conversation, explaining this shift in thinking.
“Take an incremental 30-step process which moves from 1 to 30,” he said.
“This would represent a typical organisational or improvement process.
“Shift the thinking to 1 to 2, then 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128. The 30-step process takes on a dramatically different result.”
This is the real, and sometimes terrifying result of the digital progress where scale defines possibility and results.
Humans are the next Platform
Pack away your laptop, tablet and smartphone – the next smart device is you.
As digital and biological trends merge, technology is moving from our pockets and briefcases to our clothes and our bodies.
This has profound implications for healthcare, ethics, privacy and human decision-making.
It will require leaders who can transcend the goal of profit, to be leaders leading leaders who will create a better world.
They will balance the magic and serendipity of humanity with the scale efficiency of artificial intelligence in an integrated and emotionally intelligent digital economy.
The focus of future-orientated leaders is to serve mankind in a way that invests in our natural resources for future generations rather than borrowing from our children. This requires compassion, awareness and the ability to respond in the moment to the ever-changing landscape.
It is practised in daily conversations, interactions and agile business design. It is deeply human-centric and to be successful, should be intentionally imbedded in the culture of the organisation.
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