"Any AI you use today will be the worst AI you will use. You need to really learn how to challenge AI and learn how to have AI challenge you."

Rasmus and I delve into the research and questions of how leaders can embrace AI to become more human in their leadership, and how can this accompany them on the journey of navigating uncertainty and a more transactional workplace.

Currently less than 20% of leaders are ready for AI, despite it being a strategic necessity – it is an uncomfortable prospect that AI will take our jobs, but we can counter this by embracing AI and being better human leaders.

AI democratises knowledge, strategic thinking and decision-making - it will flatten organisations and leaders must embrace this, aiming to embody gratitude, humility and selflessness. This shift from ego to eco, and from doing to being is the key to leveraging what AI can enable in our humanity. Leaders must guard against cognitive laziness and human disconnection caused by AI, and actively challenge its outputs to ensure true human engagement.

AI surpasses humans in information access and processing speed, making it unwise for humans to compete in those areas. Instead, leaders should focus on what AI cannot replicate : Awareness involves understanding oneself, emotions, biases, and others. Wisdom is the ability to ask good discerning questions, distinct from AI’s knowledge. Compassion stems from a true intention to support & connect on a human level, which AI lacks despite its ability to process emotional data.

Rasmus shares his research and insights from his latest book 'more human' and from working with leaders and companies across the globe on how to create more human centred leadership in today's workplace.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- AI augmented leadership requires three core competencies of awareness, wisdom and compassion: AI will have more information and faster processing power than any human brain but cannot be completely human.

- AI can help make us more aware if we use it as a sparring partner, providing it with everything there is to know about us to help us make decisions based on multiple different perspectives - context and mindset are vital here.

- Our neuroanatomy is uniquely human in that we perceive, discern, then respond (sentience). In terms of leadership, this translates to awareness (of biases, emotions and systems), discernment (wisdom not knowledge) and compassion.

- We are formatted to ‘do’, but AI requires us to react using our soft skills and human traits - being human at work is the blueprint for future leadership, driven moreover by purpose.

- It is the choice of every individual leader to ask not just what AI can do for me, but also to me: AI makes us cognitively lazy given that it is confidently both wrong and right - we must not fall prey to accepting its output without question.

- AI also has huge user bias – we must challenge it and have it challenge us, deploying mental hygiene when engaging with AI to make us more aware, wise and compassionate, fostering a mindset of equanimity.

- Having an AI proxy carries the risk of putting information in the hands of a tech firm, but once it has all the requisite information, it can provide very helpful answers in the form of outside-in views with psychometrics, etc.

- Asking AI for compassion-based responses highlights blind spots and gives actionable feedback to push us back into human compassion and awareness, e.g. asking for the worst possible outcomes of a potential decision.

- The workplace...

"Holistic transformation is not just how are you implementing a piece of software, AI is a really good opportunity for us to start to explore this"

Lindsay and I have a rich conversation diving deep into holistic transformation, the impact of AI, and how to navigate change in today’s rapidly evolving world. Organisational change management is often deployed too late, which speaks in favour of taking a holistic approach to transformation and asking from the outset: How do people change? How do they view themselves and their work?

Digital transformation is not just about implementing new software but also about how people change their thinking. AI is an excellent example. To get actual value from it, individuals need to rethink their roles and personal value. It’s about micro and macro changes happening together.

It is as ever, centred around the inner work we need to do as leaders to ensure that we are mastering what keeps us human, as well as looking at challenging the status quo constantly. AI is changing business models and the way we work, causing some organisations to dispense with this ‘inner work’ and hoping AI will do it for them. Curiosity is key! If people aren’t curious, they won’t help identify risks or roadblocks.

We talked about how important it is to show up as ourselves, even in professional settings. We also discussed gender parity and how much more we need to do. Lindsey shared her strategy for dismantling stereotypes: present all facets and encourage others to do the same. The more people meet others who don’t fit their stereotypes, the more likely they are to abandon them.

How can we create the conditions for curiosity to be present, and for leaders to learn, unlearn and relearn to enable more holistic and sustainable change ?

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Change must be internal first of all, as well as holistic, and also on a micro and macro level; AI is changing business models and the way we work, causing some organisations to dispense with the ‘inner work’ and hoping AI will do it for them.

- Yet 95% of AI pilots fail because it is not a plug n play solution – even companies that are taking an informed approach to AI have individual employees seeking their own tactical solutions.

- AI means that we must all be good prompt engineers to succeed in the future, but many people underestimate the learning and effort this requires, and want to jump straight to the productive output, skipping the hard work.

- It also demands organisational and individual buy-in, understanding how it changes people’s value proposition to the organisation and that they must redefine their inputs, outputs and added value, maybe redefining their identity.

- It is crucial at the beginning of a transformation project to understand where authority sits and how decisions are made – decision-makers must lead the process – and how much curiosity there is.

- A lack of curiosity is the biggest obstacle to change, and organisations must be open to different (external) perspectives and to pivoting mid-way through the project if necessary.

- A ‘levels of agreement’ exercise with the people involved can help to determine the way forward, seeing failure as a point of learning that is painful but productive – but overidentifying with a job makes it very difficult to fail.

- Particularly in the age of AI, we should try and separate ourselves from our jobs and find a working environment that suits us, where we can present multiple facets of ourselves to address bias and be authentic to elicit a positive...

"What if the key to economic transformation lies not in bigger budgets or top-down directives, but in fostering community ownership and equitable systems?"

Alfredo and I discuss the need for more regenerative financial models and to start really working in small communities and joining together into a network of networks. Current models are very redistributive (e.g. taxing success, subsidisation for those with no access) but pre-distribution gives everyone a stake; if communities win, everyone wins and gains autonomy and agency.

We discuss the need for more diverse thinking and more equitable access to funding and business opportunities. Generating new ideas by combining what already exists and creating surplus value that can then move around is the key, but we need to do this better, faster and in collaboration. Building entrepreneur-led ecosystems requires prioritizing ownership, pre-distribution, and maintaining a human scale. It is easier to build from scratch, and this will be the challenge of transforming established institutions and organisations, but they will have to transition, whether they like it or not.

We know that innovation often stems from unconventional approaches and questioning established norms, where individuals without traditional backgrounds can bring fresh perspectives. Hitting “walls” in conventional paths can be a catalyst for divergent thinking, pushing beyond perceived limitations to realise that seemingly permanent constructs can be circumvented

Leaders need to step outside their echo chambers, we spend way too much time talking to people who look and think like us and we should be actively broadening horizons by reading, talking to people outside our immediate circle, and exploring new ideas.

This is not on one person or community, but is a generational effort to influence and impact the systems we seek to transform

Alfredo generously shares his intentional design principles, experiences and personal journey to setting up the world’s first shared prosperity community corporation (SPCC) operates at the intersection of workforce, education and entrepreneurship with a focus on equity, economic transformation and rethinking leadership.

The main insights you'll get from this episode are :

- Innovation comes from the fringes: when pursuing a goal, hitting a wall makes you realise you have to find a different way to get round things – these walls serve as ‘flexion points’ rather than obstacles on the path to a breakthrough moment.

- Community-based entrepreneurship makes innovation possible with few resources, as constrained resources force commitment, agency and risk-taking -asking for help from the right people creates something organically.

- Process of identifying an issue/problem and finding the most transformative thing to move forward and grow; this is generational work, starting small and moving through systems to aspiration.

- Design principles offer constraint, and the focus should be on ownership first (for ownership democracy and shared prosperity) for everyone to have an interest – distributed ownership is required for a regenerative economy.

- Current models are very redistributive (e.g. taxing success, subsidisation for those with no access) but pre-distribution gives everyone a stake; if communities win, everyone wins and gains autonomy and agency.

- Present VC models are designed around the founder and investors as opposed to everyone involved – a ‘winner takes all’ approach; pre-distribution means nobody does anything on their own, often building on others’ work and ideas.

- Humans evolved in small groups and that’s where we work best, small groups...