We actually have an idea where we are going from here. Artificial Intelligence is taking over human tasks and increasing the interconnectedness of objects around the world, weaving everything into one bionic information processing entity. We are externalizing our intelligence to an uber-mind of which we are small parts. This is re-shaping the business landscape like a tsunami.
What we actually don’t know is what kind of part our company, our function and we ourselves will have in this future. Figuring out what to do next in order to secure our companies remain on the playing field is the question plaguing CEO’s as the wave rises. Business as usual does not apply anymore. Centralized leadership is inefficient, centralized strategizing is blind, centralized decision making is slow. The omniscient CEO is doomed.
Leadership will become a property of social networks specifically designed to lead groups and organizations in creating new businesses. Processes currently isolated in separate units will be progressively embedded in these leadership networks to pull the company towards its future. They will create learning loops across functional, geographical, hierarchical boundaries, and erase the difference between internal and external stakeholders.
Companies will have to replicate the systemic functioning of the uber-mind in order to succeed. This requires understanding how leadership networks are created and influenced in order to generate possibilities through the adequate distribution of power, information, support and resources across the organization.
By binding together the maximum diversity of competencies, focusing on a common mission, a leadership network is able to leverage the whole organization to reshape itself and adapt faster to an ever changing environment. That makes the difference to remain relevant as most things go obsolete. Leadership networks engender collective intelligence to deal with the uber-mind. That’s the way to go. Trust the process.
