A new direction in decision-making
In the second of this trilogy of articles, sociologist Pierre Casse collaborates with philosopher Paul Claudel and economist Maurice Saias to look at what happens when society moves beyond the current concept of leadership
H istorically speaking, it seems that the organisation of our collective lives has over time moved from administration to management and then on to leadership. One question that leaders and scholars are raising today is what’s next, or to put it another way, what comes after leadership? The question we have to ask is if leadership will transform itself to meet the new requirements of the age, or whether it’s going to be replaced by something else entirely. The sociological viewpoint Most sociologists agree that leadership is about power. Some of them insist quite forcefully that new media and communication technologies already exercise a strong influence over leadership practices. The major challenge is no longer simply to lead people, but to lead them in sync with the new power in place, ie those algorithms that we have invented, which can now (seemingly) make their own decisions – and perhaps even take action accordingly. There is no question that we are entering a new world full of unknown threats and opportunities. It seems that the leadership role will have to transform itself and become more focused on mediating than on leading. Leaders in so-called ‘advanced’ societies will need to acknowledge the
new distribution of power based on the ownership and use of non-organic intelligence to set up a fair and effective partnership with AI. They will also have to defend the kind of key assumptions and values that provide humans with a meaningful life, along with, hopefully, the best chance of surviving. In short, it seems that the third communication revolution based on computers and their algorithms is impacting the way we ‘lead’ each other. This revolution has a double implication. On a positive note, it can help us solve the major challenges that we are facing at this moment in time, such as environmental issues, climate change, epidemics, wars, poverty and social inequality. On the downside, however, generative AI might also accumulate so much power that it could do what the human species has done to so many other living beings – ie destroy us. It is abundantly clear that we have not yet learned how to control the social implications of what we create. Examining the significance of strategy The relevance of strategy in a VUTCA world is to be questioned. Is it appropriate to spend time, money and energy crafting a strategy for the long term in such an unpredictable and fast-moving world? The answer is unquestionably ‘yes’. Every navigator knows that when
32 Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2025
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