Organizations and their leaders are turning to technology, including generative and agentic AI, to help navigate and solve the unprecedented volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) they face. But the allure of ease through technology can be deceptive, and as technology evolves, leaders must evolve as well.
The future of work in the age of AI is “VUCA on steroids.” Adding to today’s economic pressures and geopolitical conflicts, no one knows how AI will change the world, nor how humans and AI will work together in the future. In addition, treating AI as just another tool to be implemented may put more stress on this already strained system, especially if organizations do not purposefully address the human aspects.
In this environment, leaders continuously face novel and complex challenges with no easy answers, and it can be tempting to default to tech-enabled, data-driven decisions. Part of gen AI’s appeal is that, within seconds, it offers a seemingly straightforward answer to any question at the click of a button. Our brains are wired to prefer simple solutions, and AI caters to these natural tendencies in uncertain times. This deceptive simplicity tempts leaders into the comfort of using simple solutions rooted in past processes to address complex, novel challenges.
This loss of nuance and grey zones invites black-or-white thinking, polarization, and deepening of biases, which are further accentuated by the level of acceleration brought to work and life by AI. Leaders may see less diversity of thought in their workforce and less tolerance for constructive dissent that drives smart decision making and innovative problem solving.
This is not to say that AI deployment should not be pursued. Rather, technology deployment alone should not be the objective; the objective is a more sophisticated and capable organization. To balance these tendencies, leaders and their teams need to consciously grow their leadership capabilities. Instead of letting the organization be led by technology, leading in this new era of work requires investing in human capabilities—in particular, the ability to host complexity—alongside technological implementation.
Leaders can strengthen the ability to host complexity—both their own and their team’s—through human-centric leadership. These five concrete leadership practices are a great place to start:
- Create space: As the world becomes more complex and accelerates, it’s important to practice cultivating space to pause, reflect, and be present. Creating emergent space fosters awareness and relatedness. Exemplary behaviors to build this capability are carving time for reflection in calendars and building reflective micro-practices into your day.
- Self-explore: Take an “inside out” approach to leadership to explore your own strengths, triggers and fears, and conditioned tendencies (e.g., habitual reactions out of fear). In a VUCA context where fears are frequently activated, this allows you to respond purposefully and responsibly, instead of just reacting based on old patterns. Keeping a journal and revisiting triggered moments can be helpful leadership practices.
- Elevate perspective: Elevate and build “balcony” perspective to better understand the broader system. Nurturing curiosity can enable you to re-introduce nuance and purposeful sophistication amid deceptive simplicity. It allows you to hold and integrate diverging perspectives. It’s “both/and,” not “either/or.” Reframing questions can be a powerful tool, asking “How might I be wrong?”
- Calibrate internal compass: Develop and nurture an “internal GPS” grounded in values and human principles to guide decision making and lean into integrity and courageous authenticity. Lead technology, instead of letting technology lead you, and make data-informed, not data-driven, decisions based on a clear set of values.
- Build webs of relationships: Strengthen the system of relationships within your organization and elevate your relational capacity. Build deep connections based on trust and compassion. Foster psychological safety and dialogue to promote creative debate and contributory dissent, and dedicate time in agendas for these discussions. Empower your team to embrace complexity together, continuously re-imagine ways of working, and relate with technology as a system.
The AI age will shape how all companies operate. The challenge lies in determining how to best use technology, including to truly simplify—without losing the unique value that complexity offers, nor the ability for humans to engage with it.
As leaders define their organization’s relationship with gen AI, the practices above can help leaders navigate the potential leadership traps of AI and lean into the “both/and” of humanity and technology.