The Age of AI: A "Call to Adventure"

Almost every generation of business leaders must confront disruptive technologies that promise to reshape their organizations. In the 1980s, it was the personal computer (I could go farther back in history, but I’m sure you get the point). In the mid-1990s, it was the Internet. In the mid-2000s, it was the smartphone and the rise of social media. Today, it is AI and other collaborative technologies (which I will abbreviate as CI for collaborative intelligence).

Each disruption calls business leaders on an adventure (see Sidebar) that demands courage, foresight, and a willingness to transcend traditional ways of thinking and doing.

Sidebar: The Hero’s Journey

In his groundbreaking book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell identified a recurring structure in many of the world’s enduring myths and stories, which he termed “The Hero’s Journey.” Many people have synthesized his work and created depictions of this journey. Here is my synthesis.

1. The Call to Adventure: The hero begins in the ordinary world and receives a call to enter an unknown world of challenges and discovery. This call disrupts their regular life and beckons them toward a quest.
2. Refusal of the Call: Initially, the hero may hesitate or refuse the call, often due to fear or insecurity. This stage highlights the internal conflict and resistance to change.
3. Meeting the Mentor: A mentor appears to guide and prepare the hero for the journey ahead, offering wisdom, tools, and encouragement.
4. Crossing the Threshold: The hero commits to the adventure and leaves the familiar world behind, entering a realm of unknown trials and potential transformation.
5. Tests, Allies, and Enemies: The hero faces challenges and obstacles, makes allies, and confronts enemies, testing the hero's resolve and providing opportunities for growth.
6. The Ordeal: The hero encounters a significant challenge or crisis that forces a critical transformation. It is a moment of deep struggle and revelation.
7. The Reward: After overcoming the ordeal, the hero receives a reward or achieves a significant goal. This reward symbolizes the hero's success and newfound wisdom.
8. The Road Back: The hero must return to the ordinary world, often facing additional challenges as they integrate their new knowledge and experiences.
9. The Resurrection: The hero undergoes a final transformation and emerges with a deeper understanding and mastery of their journey's lessons.
10. Return with the Elixir: The hero returns to the ordinary world, bringing back the "elixir" – a boon, insight, or gift that benefits their community or society.

By understanding these stages, we can see how the rise of CI represents a Hero's Journey for business leaders (although not one as dramatic as those of the myths and stories from which this framework derives). This article will draw on these stages to illustrate the path leaders must take to transform their organizations and realize CI's significant benefits.

The Call to Adventure

The protagonist receives a call to adventure—a challenge or quest that disrupts their ordinary world. For today’s business leaders, CI represents this call. It is not just another technological advancement; it is a set of foundational technologies that offer unprecedented capabilities and opportunities to improve financial and operating performance and strengthen competitive position.

Refusing the Call

Limited knowledge and awareness of CI technologies and capabilities or uncertainty about their ultimate value may make leaders hesitant to begin this adventure.

Additionally, organizational inertia and vested interests may pose significant barriers at the start and along the way. However, succumbing to these will leave businesses ill-prepared for a future where CI is ubiquitous.

The real challenge is to recognize the urgency of this call and prepare to embark on the journey it demands.

Meeting the Mentor

In every hero's journey, a mentor appears to guide the protagonist through the unknown. As a business leader, you must seek out mentors who can provide insights into CI and its business value—be it consultants, academics, industry experts, or internal specialists. These mentors will help navigate the complexities of CI, ensuring that the journey is guided by strategic vision and grounded in practical application.

Crossing the Threshold

The journey towards CI adoption begins with crossing the threshold of skepticism and uncertainty. Leaders must embrace the role of the hero, moving past initial reluctance and actively seeking knowledge and resources to understand CI's potential. This phase involves learning and unlearning, questioning existing processes, and being open to innovative approaches that CI can enable.

Trials and Tribulations

The path to a CI-enabled organization is fraught with challenges. From securing buy-in from all internal and external stakeholders affected by CI-driven changes to developing or obtaining the required knowledge and skills, to building systems that scale effectively and efficiently, to addressing ethical considerations and data privacy concerns, each step presents trials that test the organization’s resolve and ability to adapt to the many changes wrought by CI.

It is crucial to approach these challenges with a mindset of experimentation and learning. Success in CI adoption is not about avoiding failures but leveraging them as opportunities for learning, growth, and improvement.

Transformation

The organization’s transformation is complete when CI is integral to its DNA. This stage is akin to the hero acquiring new powers and understanding their true potential. CI enables businesses to improve in many ways, including gaining insights more quickly, improving decision-making, streamlining operations, and creating personalized customer experiences.

The Return

In the final stage of the hero's journey, the protagonist returns to the ordinary world, transformed and equipped with new wisdom. For businesses, this return signifies an organization that has successfully integrated CI and now operates in a new "ordinary world" where CI is a natural and indispensable part of the enterprise. The transformed organization is more efficient and better positioned to fulfill its core purpose and deliver value to its stakeholders.

Making the Adventure Meaningful

To make this adventure truly meaningful to everyone involved, it is imperative to align CI initiatives with the broader mission and values of the organization. CI should not be pursued for its own sake or as a solution looking for a problem but as a means to enhance the organization’s ability to achieve its goals and fulfill its purpose. This alignment ensures the journey resonates with the entire organization, creating and sustaining buy-in and fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.

Embracing the Future

The age of collaborative intelligence is here, and the call to adventure has been sounded. As business leaders, your choice is clear: answer this call boldly and lead your organization through its transformative journey, or risk being uncompetitive in a world where CI-enabled organizations are the new normal. This journey will not be easy, but with courage, resilience, strategic vision, and the right mentorship and resources, the rewards of this adventure will be profound and far-reaching.