The Leadership Revolution

Author: Bill Adams Jr. Organization & Leadership Visionary,

Researcher, Author, Speaker

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, man has progressively reinvented how humans, machines and systems work in concert to improve operating results. This quest to gain the competitive advantage by making the workplace a more progressive environment to produce results is undeniable and is the primary reason that leaders find themselves at a critical crossroad today deciding whether to stay the course or explore a future path.

MAN AS A SPECIES has sought to evolve as the need to compete spurs us on to new heights, be it in our personal lives or organizational life. Many leading social scientists have conducted extensive research on this aspect of human nature only to conclude that there is an innate tendency in man to be competitive, albeit the need is stronger in some than others. And, it is a vital part of the human spirit, plays a significant role in evolving the social fabric of humanity and is the spark that spurs man on to remain engaged.

The metamorphosis of man over the millennium from dragging our knuckles on the ground and walking on all fours to standing upright and building great societies is facing a major catharsis in the workplace of today. As depicted on the cover of this article, man is quickly moving into the ‘digital abyss’ where optimists predict wonderful forthcomings, and pessimists believe that we are headed for a man verses technology crisis that will leave man behind as technology roadkill.

Since the Industrial Revolution, man’s ingenuity to advance technology has been awe-inspiring. Technology, be it a machine or a robot, has taken center stage since the revolution as man attempts to outperform competitors – so nothing new there!

However, in the white-collar realm of organizational life the human element has always held sway over technology in critical aspects of running operations from performing simple low value functions by the general workforce to leaders making critical business decisions through reasoning. But are things changing?

To answer the question, we must be cognizant of the forces at work that create the need for automation. And regardless of what skeptics say, advances in technology will continue to move forward as it has in the past – only at lightning speed.

What concerns skeptics most is that humans will simply become a cog in the wheel of the digital workplace where everything is automated and the need for humans to contribute value to results is dramatically diminished, or in some cases, eliminated altogether. And of course, there is always the hollow cry from the extremists who predict that technology will eventually control human minds.

Good, bad, or indifferent, when we peek into the ‘digital abyss’ one could argue that to an extent the skeptics are correct in their prediction that humans will play a much different role in the workplace of tomorrow and many jobs as we know them today will be eliminated. This hard cold fact of organizational life is undisputable.

Case in point:

After exhaustive studies conducted by Gartner, the premier technology research firm, they issued a Hype Cycle Report in 2022 predicting that over 64% of the functions performed by humans today in the workplace will be automated by the end of 2025. This mindboggling number is supported by many other leading research studies including a study conducted by Korn Ferry. To paraphrase: hiring executives that are prepared for the onslaught of role changes including at the executive level will directly affect the types of skills needed to be successful.

In my book “OUTFOCUS – Harness the Power of Collaboration” published by ForbesBooks, I submit that how leaders contend with the convergence of technology and the human element is the leadership challenge of the twenty-first century. You must admit that no one living in modern society can ignore the tug-of-war raging on between man and technology.

Winning on today’s competitive battlefield requires that leaders automate work functions that were previously performed by humans, and that Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds all the cards in this regard. As man and technology joust for control over the future of work, AI will eventually win out changing all the rules for good leadership. One thing for certain: leadership today ain’t what it used to be!

This article explores the workplace dynamics behind the leadership revolution that is occurring today as the tug-a-war between man and technology rages on. Unsettling as it may be for many leaders, the very essence of leadership is under fire as the unstoppable journey moves us ever closer to an organizational state that I refer to as ‘workspace singularity’.

AS WE WAVE GOODBYE to the Information Age and welcome in the Collaboration Age, one could argue that we have been here and done this before when confronted with radical change in the workplace. Not true, say the experts. According to leading authorities on organization and leadership including myself, the wave of change coming at leaders in the digital workplace driven by AI is unmatched in the annals of business.

As the advantages posed by AI continue to unfold, leaders must be prepared to tap their power, or lose their competitive edge. And to those leaders who ignore all the warning signs of change, they will inevitably find themselves behind the competitive eight ball, not a position any leader will want to be in or place their company in to be sure.

The dramatic changes in how we design, construct, and execute work through AI-driven products are redefining market conditions and reconfiguring the competitive landscape in every industry, and by extension, how leaders lead.

The fact is humans have been a drag on organizational performance dating back to the caveman days. Take the wheel for example. When invented it was mostly done so to take the burden of transporting goods and services off human shoulders so they could save their energy to do more productive work like hunting for food. In modern-day terms this is referred to as optimizing the ROI on human capital.

Are you aware that optimizing the ROI on human capital is one of the three top challenges in the C-suite of Fortune 500 companies over the last several years? This is according to a McKinsey multi-year study designed to determine the most significant challenges that executives face each year. More specifically, the cost of recruiting, developing, and retaining human capital has skyrocketed over the last decade. Hence the need to take as much of the low value work off the shoulders of the workforce so they can concentrate on the more value-rich work that they were hired to do has never been more pronounced.

What we are experiencing is not a traditional linear uptick in the evolution of the workplace as normally occurs over time but an epic spike that transcends all that has come before it. The best-of-the-best minds are trying to understand the implications of this movement as it permeates throughout organizational life and evolves how leaders lead in the twenty-first century.

In an MIT Technology Review article, it pointed out; “It’s the quest to build machines that can reason, learn, and act intelligently that spurs us on, and it has barely begun.” And in a study conducted by Korn Ferry, a leading human capital consultancy, it reported; “… automation will fundamentally change how executives lead the workforce going forward and competency in this area will be the leadership game-changer.”

Another sign of the times is reflected in a major McKinsey Global Institute study that analyzed the total investment landscape bringing together both investment of large corporations and funding from venture capital and private equity funds. They also reviewed portfolio plays of major internet companies and the dynamics in AI ecosystems. And they surveyed more than 3,000 senior executives on the use of AI technologies and their company’s prospects for further deployment as well as AI’s impact on markets, governments, and individuals.

The result of their research comes as no surprise; “AI has the potential to accelerate shifts in market share, revenue, and profit pools—all hallmarks of digitally disrupted sectors, and there is no turning back.”

Case in point:

Accenture announced in June 2023 that the company would invest $3 billion in its Data & AI practice to help clients across all industries rapidly and responsibly advance and use AI to achieve greater growth, efficiency, and resilience.

AI is serious stuff! Executives must take note, claimed Accenture. Executives must address this monumental workplace transformation by leveraging AI with their eyes wide open before it is too late and they find themselves left behind at the station as Michael Porter, the renowned Harvard Business School Professor, expressed it in his book; “AI, Analytics and The Machine Age.”

Understanding what is behind this workplace movement is imperative to grasp the magnitude of the short -term effects on leadership. It is one thing to casually discuss the leadership fallout of the AI automation movement in theory and another for the long arm of automation to touch you on the shoulder as a leader and force you to decide - automate or capitulate!

Leaders, this is the decision you will eventually have to make. There is no way around it and it is not a matter of if, but when. And if you are one of those leaders looking for your ‘BIG TECH’ friends to make the breakthrough until adopting a solution, then you are in for a long wait as they have no reason to rock the revenue boat with their existing products that they keep expanding on to connect the dots better. It’s like placing a Band Aid on a major wound.

HOW DO LEADERS ADDRESS the tsunami of change coming at them in the workplace and avoid drowning? This question will not be fully answered until the waters recede and the remaining landscape of organizational life is totally exposed. And to those leaders who are left standing, chronicles will be written about how they adapted and survived.

There is no doubt that the leadership metamorphosis occurring is life-changing for many leaders and their companies. Learning to cope with the stark reality that technology is outpacing man’s ability to absorb and adapt to its effects leaves leaders breathless. The challenge for academics, consultants, and prognosticators to help leaders comprehend the enormity of the movement so that they can address it with more clarity and conviction is a work in progress.

Let me assert my 30-years of experience as a management consultant and researcher focused on the deep-seated relationship between collaboration, performance, and excellence. Leaders must focus on simplifying workplace complexity by leveraging all that AI has to offer if they are to help their company gain a competitive advantage and help themselves get a leg up on being considered a great leader.

But to simplify complexity, we must first recognize what is occurring around us in the world of technology. The walls are closing in on tech-based products that are one dimensional in nature.

Tech companies struggle to expand the features and functions of their long-standing products into other areas, so things will appear more connected.

Connected! This is the operative word in the age of collaboration as leaders seek a better solution to manage the workspace and not the workplace – knowingly or not.

This means that the rule for good leadership is evolving before our very eyes. One new tech- based product after another has sprung forth over the last decade, each in their own way making a slight difference in how leaders and teams can more effectively work together to drive results. But they still leave leaders frustrated and often disoriented as to where teams, departments, divisions, or an entire enterprise stands at any given time to achieve goals.

Fragmented and disconnected tools just don’t work well. They are not directly connected to the native data that leaders use to achieve results and this must change. They simply muddy the water making it infinitely more difficult for leaders to select which of them will help the organization be more productive – and isn’t that what it’s all about!

Case in point:

In my book “OUTFOCUS – I coined the term “On-The-Fly Leadership” to represent the modern-day phenomenon of how leaders lead. Citing several leading authorities on organization and leadership, they conclude that the massive amounts of tech-based products from which data and information is drawn to run operations is unmanageable. McKinsey even estimates that executives only use twenty to thirty percent of what is available.

Furthermore, McKinsey claims that leaders today lead through what they termed ‘immediacy’ as they are so time constrained that they can only focus on the most immediate issue at hand.

Think back to the first time you read or heard anything meaningful about AI that made you as a leader question what it was all about. More than likely, it was a time when there were water coolers around the office and employees gathered to share their lives, make party plans and gossip about the business. It was a more sanguine time in the world before the COVID-19 outbreak, when the office was the bastion of all activity and being late for work was checkable. Remember those days?

Since the pandemic, life in the workplace, or should I say the workspace, has dramatically changed. The hybrid workforce leapfrogged from being a vague concept to becoming a reality in what seemed like overnight. Even as I write, Kevin O’Leary from the enormously popular Shark Tank series just posted on LinkedIn a statement about the permanency of people working remotely. It garnered many comments on both sides of the aisle. This means that we are in a transition period where there are still people who believe the office as we once knew it will return. But do not fool yourself.

The term hybrid workforce took root in the business lexicon about a decade ago and is defined as: a flexible working model where employees work partly in the physical workplace, and partly remotely – at home or from another workspace. Sound familiar?

AI took on real meaning when we exchanged the workplace for the workspace with the advent of the hybrid workforce. As noted in the definition, it’s about the space and not the place that matters most. All eyes seek a solution that can effectively manage the space between coleaders and coworkers as over 70% of the workforce in Fortune 1000 companies alone work remotely.

And leaders are having a heck of a time managing the workspace using the fragmented disconnected resources of today, and that includes the popular communication platforms e.g., Teams, Zoom and Google Meet. How often have you listened to an hour-long Zoom session recording to find your nuggets of information?

The continued proliferation of tech-driven tools that are disparate and do not work together seamlessly to produce results only widens the gap between goal setting and execution which inevitably leads to poor organizational performance. According to a multi-year McKinsey study, poor organizational performance costs Fortune 500 companies alone $20B to $30B per year off the bottom line and remarkably the number is growing. This is unsustainable!

FOR EVERY PROBLEM there is a solution, so claimed the revered Albert Einstein. And solving the riddle of how leaders can more effectively address the transition from managing the workplace to managing the workspace as the hybrid workforce movement continues to dominate the landscape of organizational life requires a disruptive solution. An approach that requires behavior change on the part of leaders and teams – never easy, but necessary!

To accomplish this, we must turn all we know about managing organizational performance on its head. It requires a new way of thinking, acting, and working on the part of leaders and teams using a single platform that redefines how data is shared, work is performed, and team activities are automatically connected. And as this article highlights, it must be AI-driven.

The days of managing organizational performance with tech-driven tools that address a one-off aspect of producing results are nearing their end-days. This is not conjecture but a fact borne out by many studies and magnified by the horrific losses on the bottom line of companies due to poor organizational performance that was pointed out by McKinsey.

Therefore, it only makes sense that for leaders to continue to use the same tools and techniques going forward and expecting a different result would most assuredly fall under the definition of insanity. So, what is the alternative?

No leader great or otherwise from C-suite to line managers can deny that with the hybrid workforce managing the workspace between team members has made it ever-more complex to get things done. If you don’t believe me, listen to what researchers at MIT found in a study conducted on workforce morale and the evolution of technology: “… technology and the many products and services that it produces is befuddling executives making it ever-more difficult for them to manage the hybrid workforce and solidify information to help simplify the decision- making process.”

Addressing the space between coleaders and coworkers is more than just collecting information and data in silos and attempting to stitch it together. There are hundreds of examples revealing that the leadership trend is slowly moving away from using pieces and parts to manage organizational performance. Instead, leaders seek a unified solution that is purpose-built to help them get teams on the same page and keep them there.

Workspace not workplace! This is the focus of leadership today. Most certainly, leaders get this concept and believe that they need a mechanism to help them see across that portion of the business they manage with more clarity and visibility into the future. Instinctively, leaders know this is how to out-focus competitors and gain a competitive advantage.

It seems that the long-standing promise of technology to make the workplace a more efficient environment to get things done did not count on the hybrid workforce. Evidence from the MIT study above and that of many highly respective research reveals that it’s quite the opposite.

Case in point:

Microsoft offers a product called OneDrive. It attempts to connect the dots between the information and data that teams generate and leaders need to manage operations on one application. And it does just that.

However, the information is not directly connected to the goals and strategies that the executive team planned from the beginning. And it does not automate the activities that team members perform to drive results. This disconnect, or should I say void, is the main cause for the widening gap between goal setting and execution as leading on-the-fly continues to force leaders to manage through immediacy as McKinsey concluded.

Progressive leaders, do yourself a favor. Look into a performance-changing leadership platform called targa.ai. A monumental breakthrough in the way leaders lead through automation, it is purposed to do exactly what this article has emphasized: create a state of ‘workspace singularity’ where leaders and teams can think, act, and work as one without losing their individuality.

Individuality spurs creativity and this chain of events is what moves an organization forward, which is what the platform is designed to do so that leaders can up their performance game and spend more time on doing value-rich work. To accomplish this, the platform optimizes the collaborative process to maximize performance and move an organization closer towards excellence.

To encourage communications and foster camaraderie among team members is the hallmark of a collaboration-age solution and targa.ai is designed to do just that. It is the water cooler of the modern era around which leaders and teams talk in real time, plan their next moves seamlessly and drive results on a single AI-driven platform.

Targa.ai is the quintessential collaboration platform that fosters the leadership revolution. It enables leaders to effectively control the direction of performance, even voice activated on any device, from the C-suite to line managers which is the future of work.

Leaders remember this:

Leading the hybrid workforce means focusing on the workspace and not the workplace as we move closer to singularity!