How and why, “paradoxically,” AI can make leaders more human

In More Human, written with the assistance of Marissa Afton and Rob Stembridge, Magnus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter share what they learned from their wide and deep research. This passage caught my eye: “We discovered that, paradoxically, AI can make leaders more human. What do we mean by this? Specifically, AI can help leaders mine, manage, and maximize the best of our human potential. This potential, when amplified to harness and guide AI, generates limitless behavior loops that affect work culture in overwhelmingly positive ways. Despite its challenges and risks, AI has the potential to catalyze a new age of human leadership.”

Hougaard and Carter’s Introduction (Pages 1-13) provides a superb framework for their explanation of how and why, “paradoxically, AI can make leaders more human.” These are among the other passages of greatest interest and value to me:

o Awareness (Pages 7-9, 9-12, and 49-68)
o Why Does Leadership Start with the Mind? (35-36)
o Understanding and Managing Your Mind (39-47)
o Greater Awareness for Greater Wisdom (60-67)
o Wisdom: Questions and Answers (69-77)

o Understanding Wisdom (72-76)
o How AI Can Help You Develop Wisdom (76-80)
o Increasing Your Wisdom in the Age of AI (80-87)
o Mindsets That Elevate Your Wisdom (87-94)
o Compassion: Heart and Algorithm (100-103)

o How AI Can Help You Enhance Compassion (104-108)
o Facing Challenges Requiring Compassion in the AI Era (108-113)
o Mindcasets That Eledvate Your  Compassion (113-119)
o Doubling Down on Your Inner Development (125-126)
o More Human: The Future of Leadership (128-129)

I commend Hougaard and Carter on their clever use of several reader-friendly devices such as “How tos,” “Dos,” and “Don’ts” when explaining especially important material. For example, in Chapter 3 (Pages 49-68):

o How AI can help you increase your awareness
o How you can enhance awareness in the Age of AI
o How to use mindsets that elevate your awareness

Throughout all six chapters, explanations are clear and concise. More Human is exceptionally well-written. Its great value, however, can be found in the material that responds directly as well as eloquently to this prediction by Alvin Toffler in More Future Shock (1970): “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Times change and so must we and so must the organizations with which we are associated.

This is a must-read for all C-level executives who urgently need information, insights, and counsel that will help prepare them to respond effectively to Toffler’s prediction. Leaders must be transformed before their organizations can be transformed.

I commend Magnus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter — as well as Marissa Afton and Rob Stembridge  — on their brilliant, substantial contributions to thought leadership throughout the global marketplace and highly recommend this material to all C-level executives and to those who aspire to become one as well as to middle managers and to those who are now preparing for a business career or have only recently embarked upon one.

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Here are two suggestions while you are reading More Human: First, highlight key passages. Also,  perhaps in a notebook kept near-at-hand (e.g. Apica Premium C.D. Notebook A5), record your comments, questions, and action steps (preferably with deadlines). Pay special attention to the synoptic paragraph that concludes each of the six chapters

These two simple tactics — highlighting and documenting — will expedite frequent reviews of key material later.