Leadership in Chaos: 9th edition.
Leaders Digest

Leadership in Chaos: 9th edition.

By 12th July 2024 July 16th, 2024 No Comments

Leadership in Chaos: 9th edition.

the paradox of control, transformers, rugged flexibility.

“Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower”.

Alan Kay, Computer Scientist.

Jyo John Mulloor

Change: the paradox of control.
Pandora’s Box is wide open. AI is spilling out. Everywhere. The question isn’t if, but how, to lean in. For leaders, this creates change and control anxiety. But that’s the paradox of control, sometimes you have to let go, to get it. When the U.S. Air Force made planes that could break the sound barrier, pilots kept dying. They couldn’t manoeuvre out of a tumble from thinner air in the upper atmosphere. Anything they did to control it, made it worse. One pilot though, passed out and woke up 25,000 feet lower, in denser air, where he was able to right the plane and land safely. It turned out that in the upper levels of our atmosphere, the most effective thing to do with an out-of-control plane, is to take your hands off the controls.

A thought for leaders: Our brains have evolved to try to control our environment. To keep us safe. And because it’s been effective, we try to do it often. But often in the wrong places. Where it doesn’t work. Attempting to control the uncontrollable, is “misapplied control”, which isn’t good. In this era, leaders need to think less like a controlled hill climber, and more like an agile surfer. Reacting quickly to complex, chaotic and uncertain events. In real time. Without drowning.

Jyo John Mulloor

Culture: transformers.

We’ve reached the end of the beginning of AI. Momentum, like it or not, is now exponential. This interactive FT article explains generative AI, and how a bit of tech called “the transformer” (created by Google’s Deep Mind in 2017), made a giant leap forward for AI. It enabled today’s reality, where we’re moving now from Generative, to a new era of Interactive AI. Chat GPT can now see, hear and speak, and AI will soon be able to access your apps, tools, and systems, to carry out tasks and get stuff done. Plus, with smart robotics fast improving, there’s a clear direction of travel. The future calls, and it’s co-piloted by AI.

A thought for leaders: So, there’s no turning back. What comes next, will transform work. Productivity, roles, job specs, will all be reimagined. And just as digital first companies gained an advantage, AI native companies will too. But this leap forward will only be possible, with a culture willing to leap. A curious culture. Willing to learn. Willing to transform. Do you have a culture full of transformers?

Jyo John Mulloor

Resilience: rugged flexibility.
In the 1980s, two researchers at the University of Pennsylvania observed that in the vast majority of situations, healthy individuals and organisations don’t rigidly resist change; they adapt to it. But instead of returning to the status quo, they create a new normal. Whether it’s a species responding to a habitat shift, or an organisation dealing with AI, following disorder, we crave stability. But we almost always achieve it, somewhere new. They called this allostasis, which they defined as “stability through change” or rugged flexibility. It acknowledges that transformation requires strength and agency (ruggedness) and, at the same time, letting go of resistance, rigidity, and over-controlling (flexibility).

A thought for leaders: Remember that, after disorder (pandemic, climate, AI etc), there’s no going back to the way things were. It’s not X to Y, back to X. But X to Y, to Z. You will persevere not by resisting or regressing, but arriving at someplace new. Resistance is futile, and resilience, therefore, is not letting change just happen to you or your organisation, but letting it be part of you, with rugged flexibility.

Jyo John Mulloor

Podcast: Deepening Connections in Chaos

This week we’re raiding our podcast library.

In this episode we cover:

  • What Star Wars has to do with building connection.
  • How we often think we’re building connection when in fact we’re not.
  • How our Tacit Wisdom is stronger than our intellectual knowledge.
  • What to focus on to deepen connection.

…And..our discomfort with silence. Enjoy!

Listen to the full episode here.

You can follow Flow Group on Linkedin here.

P.S. This weeks featured artist is Malayali artist Jyo John Mulloor. He became an overnight sensation after he posted on his Instagram these time travelling and reality bending, ‘selfies’ taken by the world’s historical figures created using artificial intelligence.