Four 'lead next' priorities to learn your way into

A core component of our roles as leaders is to be continuously learning as we undertake the important work of 'going forth .'

Right now there are four key ongoing or emerging areas I don't see many leaders investing anywhere near enough of their time and discretionary learning effort on:

• Working with complexity
• Sustainability and engaging with ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance)
• Understanding the basics of AI
• Preparing for the Metaverse

Complexity is nothing new in the work we do as leaders or the contexts we attempt to lead in, but increasingly it is becoming a 'make or break' capacity in any leader. The key to understanding and working (and dare I say it, even thriving) with complexity is to become a much more active sense-maker.

I highly recommend Dave Snowden 's Cynefin Framework for sense-making and in particular the recently released 2nd Edition of Cynefin - Weaving Sense-Making into the Fabric of Our World for both super-accessible contemporary overviews of the theory and excellent case studies of it used in practice.

Jennifer Garvey Berger and Carolyn Coughlin feature in the Cynefin work above, but have also recently released their own really helpful book on unleashing your complexity genius and growing your inner capacity to lead . The unique combination of being able to look at complexity 'out there' in/as the system as well as internally and how we manage our own bodily reactions to be 'fit' for complexity makes their work incredibly relevant and useful. Deliberate Calm: How to Lead and Learn in a Volatile World is a similar work (and similarly helpful) that I have mentioned a couple of times already in this newsletter.

Another (this time without the hyphen) favourite of mine is Christian Madsbjerg 's Sensemaking: The Power of the Humanities in the Age of the Algorithm , a work I've borrowed from shamelessly in exploring The North Star - Not the GPS and Addicted to the Thin, Don't Forget the Thick .

Sustainability and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) are things I see a lot of leaders either glossing over or avoiding completely. Even if ESG were purely about investment screening and Boards, I can't see why organisational leaders wouldn't see this as affecting their remit, and any leader not interested in sustainability is ultimately on a path to becoming, well - unsustainable.

As Andrew Winston points out in ESG Is Going to Have a Rocky 2023 - Sustainability Will Be Just Fine :

"Sustainability?is?good business, and the forces driving it are not going away. The?real?work of sustainability — not just filling out endless ESG questionnaires — will continue. Companies pursuing a sustainability strategy will be working toward zero carbon, addressing human rights issues in their supply chains, innovating products and services to satisfy customers that want more sustainable options, engaging employees and other stakeholders in the mission and purpose of the company, partnering with peers on shared problems, and much more."

I would suggest to leaders that figuring sustainability and ESG are purely Board and investing issues (and therefore above or beyond their operational orbit) is not in their or anyone else's best interests and it could be time to learn up a lot more in this area. Debra Brown 's ESG Matters: How to Save the Planet, Empower People, and Outperform the Competition is an accessible primer on the subject and all of the main consultancies and business school reviews are regularly pumping out a range of articles relevant to each of the three streams of ESG as well as the subject of sustainability more broadly.

I also have a thread happening here on Workplace Social Capital that is particularly relevant to the 'S' and have so far addressed the vertical (relational leadership) and horizontal 'bonding to get by' components of this (with more to come).

Artificial Intelligence is obviously a red-hot topic right now, particularly as we are all beginning to discover what something like ChatGPT AI can do. Here's what ChatGPT told me (in 0.5 seconds) I should let you know about AI when challenged to do so in 100 words or less:

"Leaders should be most aware of the potential impact of AI on their organization and society as a whole. They should prioritize ethical considerations, including privacy, bias, and transparency, in the development and deployment of AI systems. Leaders should also ensure that their workforce is prepared for the changes that AI may bring, including upskilling and reskilling employees. Finally, leaders should be mindful of the potential risks associated with AI, such as cybersecurity threats and job displacement, and develop strategies to mitigate these risks. Overall, leaders should approach AI with caution and intentionality to ensure that its benefits are realized while minimizing its potential harms."

(We're now having an ongoing debate, where I am challenging the bot by suggesting it is perhaps glossing over the potential harms, and it actually appears to be in a bit of denial and attempting to robustly double down on its original core arguments...)

As managers and leaders, most of us do not know nearly enough about essential and ethical basics of AI and the horse is already bolting. You fail to don your learning boots on this topic at your own managerial peril.

I recommend Harvard Business Review 's recently released HBR Guide to AI Basics for Managers to get started on this, as well as MIT Sloan Management Review 's great collection of articles and excellent podcast series in conjunction with 波士顿谘询公司 called Me, Myself and AI (now into its 6th season).

You can also access free or certified courses on the subject of AI from edX - some I'd recommend include AI for Everyone: Master the Basics and in particular AI for Leaders .

Finally, there is the prospect of the Metaverse.

Given that this looks like it will be as revolutionary to living and business as the Internet was and is (often being called the 'next Internet'), it is another thing I am surprised more leaders are not paying more attention to.

Take a quick look at what 微软 is doing with Mesh , or Meta / Facebook with Horizon Worlds , note how much they are investing in these environments while interpreting Metaverse according to their own existing tech stacks and 'closed off/lock in' commercial strategies (which is completely different to the way the Internet emerged, via a variety of cooperative non-commercial research and government interests), throw in the fact that people may end up spending considerable amounts of their daily work and leisure time in these spaces, and I believe you have an important topic leaders need to be building their strategic smarts up around.

Matthew Ball 's The Metaverse: And How It Will Revolutionize Everything is the best guide out there right now to get a really accessible introduction to this space, the key issues involved and how developments are likely to progress. I'm LeadRede-ing my own way through Matthew's book right now and it's an outstanding read and set of provocations for any leader to be seriously exploring.

麦肯锡 also have a "5-50" (5-minute briefing and/or 50-minute deep dive) article set on the subject - Make Way for the Metaverse - a very helpful overview and introduction if you're not ready yet to go for a whole book on the topic.

So there are four things I'd like to see leaders pay more attention to and invest more deliberate learning effort into as we all 'go forth'. As you read your way down through them, it probably occurred to you how much overlap there is between all four; they're not exactly isolated or siloed issues for us to consider as leaders.

But all four of them are to some degree already here as well as accelerating in a 'the future is now' sort of way.

Time to put on your boots.

This is a?Leader TWIG ?- the concept of (a)?growing something new?(a new awareness, skill or 'branch' to what you currently already know) but also (b) becoming equipped to 'catch on', realising or suddenly understanding something that is in fact right in front of you in the performative leadership moment (from the Gaelic 'tuig').

Access the?LeadRede self-coaching learning journey ?attached to this TWIG.