"it’s faster to implement a piece of technology than it is to get 10,000 people to stop doing what they’ve been doing for a decade and start to do new things and work in new ways"

Hilton and I unpack the hidden dynamics of organizational change, and the influence of informal power dynamics on transformation. Most change programs falter, not due to strategy, but because leaders often overlook the invisible power of trust and connection networks. Amidst the 'talent' lists and org charts, do you know where your powerful influencers are in your organisation ?

Hilton shares his powerful “people, not pixels” philosophy, explaining how technology investments frequently overshadow the critical human element. It is difficult to budget for, and prioritise, translating a ‘people not pixels’ approach into culture change; similar to what we are finding with AI today, digital transformation stands and falls with the people and the culture of an organisation, not the technology. We also dive into the “3% rule" from Innoviser, exploring how identifying and activating informal power networks can create significant momentum and surface untapped potential and highlight the 'key influencers' in your organisation. This conversation challenges traditional views of leadership and offers a fresh perspective on cultivating a resilient, adaptable culture.

Discover how to transform your approach to change by understanding the relational and emotional infrastructure that truly drives performance. Learn why acknowledging emotions and mapping your organisation’s real connections are non-negotiable for future success. Look at where and how you can unlock potential in your teams and organisations.

How can you use data differently to understand the potential of your organisation ?

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

o C-suite is under such immense pressure that people are overlooked and investment is made in technology, which becomes an efficiency tool that is quicker to implement and yield results than changing people’s habits.

o We ignore previous failures and neglect to learn lessons, yet without an enthusiastic commitment of the culture to change, strategy will flounder and adoption will slow – the vital balancing act is to engage humans proactively: tech + humans, not tech v humans.

o The invisible part of culture is where it has been made amorphous and ambiguous, so that it is seen as the ‘soft’, human-related aspect of change when it is actually the most challenging aspect – to motivate, entice and energise others.

o How humans behave and make decisions within an organisation is important because of how we interact with each other across ecosystems – the many decisions that are made (or not made) on a daily basis must align with the strategy.

o Culture can be defined as the worst behaviour tolerated by management - this is pivotal to sustainable transformation because of the importance of the relational and emotional infrastructure when building culture and performance.

o Functioning informal power networks and humanly - not digitally - connected organisations are built on the basic tenets of humanity, i.e. trust, advocacy, commitment and energy, which in turn are reliant on relationships as the currency of systems.

o In terms of influence, leadership impact involves many other parties on the edges who build communities, create momentum, and unlock hidden potential (cf. Innovisor’s rule that 3% of employees drive 90% of change in an organisation).

o The inherently human approach of organisational network analysis to define the connectors in the organisation enables leaders to unlock potential by engaging those people who provide the ideas and the energy and invite trust.

o Agency is diluted by a lack of clear accountability – a more...

"The future won’t belong to humans or machines, but to those who master the hybrid skill set combining AI literacy and human literacy."

The future of work is not about humans versus machines. Instead, it belongs to those who master a unique hybrid skill set. This blend combines AI literacy with essential human capabilities. Literacy in today's world lies in the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn - this has never been more true as it is in today's partnership with Agentic AI.

Andréa and I delve into the what these combined forces could look like, and how to build the framework for operational implementation. Digital transformation requires a hybrid skill set that fulfils the three different facets of transformation (cognitive, behavioural and emotional), which in turn align with the aspects of workplace culture (how we think, act and interact).

We discuss how to build a culture of trust in AI, essential for successful collaboration and highlight a critical distinction : humans interpret data semantically, giving it meaning and purpose, while AI processes it syntactically, based on patterns and probabilities. This difference impacts decision-making and ethical considerations.

Leaders of the future must be honest about and clearly see what tasks should be augmented using AI and how the time saved should be spent, i.e. what does AI do best now and, consequently, what should humans do better?

How are you ensuring that you, your teams & your organisation are developing the skills necessary to complement AI’s analytical power and drive results together.

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

- Democratising access to a hybrid skill set means defining how to navigate the ‘fear vs. opportunity’ narrative of human potential in a world of AI, harking back to ‘man vs. machine’ as opposed to embracing a ‘man with machine’ approach.

- Digital transformation requires a hybrid skill set that fulfils the three different facets of transformation (cognitive, behavioural and emotional), which in turn align with the aspects of workplace culture (how we think, act and interact).

- The cognitive transformation element, i.e. decision-making, is the most problematic for leaders as humans still believe in the old way of making decisions; leaders are most exposed to this risk due to their past successes.

- In the words of Rasmus Hougaard, “ego is the worst enemy of leadership” and hampers effective decision-making - AI makes new things possible and humans are taken aback by the exponential rate at which we must learn and unlearn.

- Prompting, data sense-making and re-perception mean that we need to craft better input for AI but also ask humans better questions - unexpected questions open our minds to novelty and creativity.

- Our inherited educational model rewards good answers, not good questions, yet this stifles creativity and re-perception; the latter goes against the human (and educational) grain, but AI tools represent a good sparring partner.

- Rather than a product-centric approach, we are now called upon to make sense of data, but AI and humans interpret data differently: humans interpret it semantically (adding their own perspective); AI interprets it syntactically (as tokens without understanding meaning).

- The problem inherent to AI is that it does not understand or give meaning to its decisions and has no conscience about the action taken - humans must have responsibility for giving data meaning and not outsource this to AI.

- AI learns on a binary basis without context; tasks that are too demanding...

"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...