LEADERSHIP TECHNIQUES
research with customer focus groups and asking them – and NOI – questions on the meaning and value of the market change. Or, D, you are really lost and, although you consulted with NOI, you don’t understand if it would be best to trust it, rely on human intelligence or combine NOI and human expertise. All done? Here is the debriefing of your selection and what it means for you. If you selected A, you clearly want to be in charge of the situation. You believe that this is a major issue that can have a big impact on your organisation. Yet NOI is not your answer and your take is that the problem at hand should be resolved using human intervention. If you selected B, you believe that NOI knows something that you do not. Patience is your motto and trust is the key here. Your experience with algorithms and technologies has been very successful in the past. So, you decide to believe NOI knows what it is doing and to interfere would be a mistake. Thus, you choose the non-organic prevalence area outlined in the box on the left. If you selected C, you are convinced that the situation requires co-operation between you and NOI. You choose to establish an intelligent partnership and you are testing NOI’s advice by consulting with colleagues, partners and customers. This is the kind of partnership that we believe will become increasingly important and e ective in the future. If you selected D, you feel very uncertain about your future course of action, as the introduction of NOI in practice is still fairly new. Basically, you opened the change window and now you are deciding about the degree of NOI’s reliability and whether that is 100 per cent, 50 per cent or zero. You feel as if the sand in the hourglass is slipping away, but as a responsible leader you want to be smart about your choices. It comes as no surprise that you spend time mulling over all aspects in order to make an informed decision. Overall, the new equation acknowledges the necessity for all leaders to accept and promote co-operation between the two types of intelligence identified. There is no right or wrong decision; however, the crucial part of any of the choices you make as a leader lies in acknowledging the power of NOI and being ready to reinvent the organisation and your own leadership according to any particular situation. It will definitely influence the way leaders carry out their roles and will also impact their leadership style. Have you chosen your way forward yet?
Here is the scenario in question: facing a substantial and unexpected shift in your customers’ needs, you decide to ask your preferred NOI algorithm what to do about it. Its straightforward suggestion is that you do nothing. Based on this advice, here are four suggestions as to your reaction: A, as a responsible and accountable leader, you cannot just stand still and do nothing. You decide to put aside the suggestion generated by NOI and meet with your team members in order to make the decision together. B, you trust the AI recommendation and decide to “wait and see”. C, you decide to probe the algorithm’s recommendation by undertaking further market
A formula for the future Humanism in action: This includes everything that human beings must keep and protect to maintain a good quality of life and is the very essence of our humanity. Non-organic prevalence: Here, NOI is fully in charge because the leader believes it is much more e ective than the humanism option. This solution is based on issues and questions that require high-speed processing of a vast amount of data and identifying the right options. You believe that NOI knows what it is doing and to interfere would be a mistake. That is why you decide to simply implement the given recommendation. Intelligent partnership: This involves a full partnership between humans and AI that implies sharing the responsibilities for decision-making and the optimisation of each party’s competencies. You are convinced that the situation requires symbiosis between your own e orts and those of NOI. Such a partnership means that you would want to know more about the rationale behind NOI’s advice. Change window: This is about stepping on to the pathway of change and choosing the best option for your organisation. It is a pure ‘taking stock’ position for when you have decided that change is necessary, but you are still making up your mind on the optimal way to implement it.
BIOGRAPHIES
Professor Pierre Casse is the leadership chair at Iedc-Bled School of Management in Slovenia and the author of Leadership without Concessions and Leadership for a New World , as well
as the co-author with Paul George Claudel of Leading with Wisdom . Elnura Irmatova is a researcher and DBA candidate at Iedc-Bled School of Management
Ambition NOVEMBER 2023 | 29
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