Unlocking Human Superpowers in the Age of AI: A Blueprint for Creative and Tech Leaders
Over the past 9 months, I’ve done a deep dive in introspection and self-awareness as a pathway to more intentional and purpose-led leadership. Throughout my career spanning film production, creative education, and media technology, I've discovered a profound truth: our most transformative innovations emerge when we amplify what makes us uniquely human.
In this complex and ever-evolving digital landscape, our true value lies not in replicating automated processes, but in cultivating self-aware, emotionally intelligent, and creatively daring strengths. This is how we turn human potential into organizational superpowers. In searching for my own superpowers, these are some musings you might find useful in your journey to self-awareness and the ability to enact positive change.
I came across 2 pieces of thought leadership recently that really made an impact. The first was a podcast called The Happiness Lab with Dr Laurie Santos. The focus was How to Thrive at Work and the guest was Dan Harris of 10% Happier. The second piece was a TEDx talk titled: How to design and build a healthy company culture by Melissa Daimler.
There were two takeaways for me amongst all the noise. These are; 1) self-awareness is mission critical, and 2) my one, sole purpose in life is to consistently grow into the best version of myself.
“Service has an antidote to whatever ails us.” ~ Dan Harris
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The Challenge: Untapped Potential in Creative Leadership
Early in my career when I was a struggling actor and filmmaker living in Los Angeles, I witnessed talented film crews struggle to articulate their unique value when creative challenges arose and decisions needed to be made against the clock and a limited budget.
Big challenges, which required expertise and appropriately applied communication tools and leadership that often weren’t present. This caused a lot of concern and created unnecessary urgency (i.e. for the Exec Producer). The crew's concern was understandable—but misdirected. The real challenge wasn't the issue itself and pointing blame; it was their collective failure to recognize and nurture their innate human capabilities and find pathways to better solutions where everyone has a sense of agency and ownership in the process.
A 2023 World Economic Forum survey revealed that 73% of creative professionals felt pressure to adopt new technologies without a clear strategy for leveraging their own strengths. I've seen this play out in all types of creative decision meetings where leaders fixate on technology, or quick fixes while undervaluing their teams' ability to:
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The Analysis: Three Pillars of Human Superpowers
Through my years of experience in collaboration with diverse teams across several countries, from Hollywood studios to South American, African, and Asian Universities, to European film schools, I've identified three core areas where human ingenuity creates disproportionate value:
1. Creative Alchemy: The Power of Intuitive Synthesis
In partnership with a London-based production house, we reimagined our pre-visualization process. Instead of relying solely on storyboard artists, we paired them with cultural anthropologists. This human-centered approach led to more culturally resonant visual narratives, increasing audience engagement.
Our superpower wasn't just generating visuals but curating and contextualizing them. Tools expand possibilities; human judgment determines what truly resonates with audiences.
2. Emotional Cartography: Mapping the Unspoken
During a challenging change management period in a University department, I witnessed senior-level teams clash with academics over workflow philosophies and approaches to best practices. As one solution, we implemented Myers-Briggs assessments to leverage the insights into each team member's personality type to understand better their strengths, communication styles, and decision-making preferences, allowing us to strategically assign roles, delegate tasks, and address potential conflicts based on their individual needs, ultimately leading to a more effective team dynamic in tackling the challenge.
By creating mixed working groups and implementing empathy-building exercises, we transformed conflict into innovation to find mutually agreed solutions.
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The Solution: Building Self-Awareness into Creative Systems
Here's the framework I've refined through successes (and the hard lessons) from my diverse, cross-industry experience:
Step 1: Conduct a Superpower Audit
Tool:?Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) + creative output analysis
My approach:
Use MBTI to identify innate strengths (e.g., ENFJs excel at directing ensemble casts - ENFJ is a personality type that stands for?Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging).
Pair with tools like Shotgun to track creative decision-making patterns (Shotgun?is an industry-standard software program for film, TV, and game production management.)
Example: An INTJ cinematographer (INTJ is a personality type that may be?innovative, insightful, and independent) discovered her knack for translating directors' abstract visions into technical shot lists.
Step 2: Design Synergistic Workflows
Case Study: Sustainable Film Production Breakthrough
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A production design team hits roadblocks in creating eco-friendly set materials.
Solution:
The MBTI analysis?revealed that 80% of designers were N (intuitive) types struggling with S (sensing) material details. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, they created a sustainable materials database with environmental scientists. This human pivot brought in practical effects experts (ISTJ types) to refine the design resulting in a 63% waste reduction achieved on a major studio production.
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Step 3: Create Feedback Ecosystems
For creative teams, approaches can be targeted for specific personality types such as:
For production leaders:
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Use Cases: Superpowers in Action
Empowered Mentorship in Film Education
In a workshop scenario a few years ago, we paired first-year directors with veteran cinematographers (mostly ENTJs - Extraverted, Intuitive, Thinking, and Judging) in a personalized mentorship program. By aligning visual communication styles and learning preferences, we accelerated students' ability to translate scripts to screen 3x faster than traditional methods.
Ethical Innovation in Virtual Production
A major streaming platform faced backlash over digital likeness rights. A corrective course was implemented by having actors and animators (predominantly ENFPs - Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving) define ethical guidelines and tasking legal experts and technologists (ISTPs - Introverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving) with implementing safeguards.
Together, they created a performer rights system protecting artists while fostering innovation in virtual human performances—a model now used by industry leaders.
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The Human Edge in Creative Industries
In our increasingly complex and automation-focused lives, our creative superpowers emerge when we cultivate:
The future of our creative industries belongs to leaders who recognize that technology is a tool, not a replacement—amplifying the creativity, ethics, and emotional intelligence that define our storytelling humanity.
What is your superpower?
#inducation #superpower #creativity #innovation #leadership #futurefocused The Myers-Briggs Company Final Pixel WorldBuilders Final Pixel Academy
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References
Avid Technology. (2024).?Global post-production workflow report.?https://www.avid.com
British Academy of Film and Television Arts. (2025).?Sustainable production initiatives.?https://www.bafta.org
British Film Institute. (2025).?Audience engagement in British cinema.?https://www.bfi.org.uk
Myers-Briggs Company. (2023).?MBTI in creative leadership.?https://www.themyersbriggs.com
Netflix Production Technology. (2025).?Ethical frameworks for virtual humans.?https://netflixtechblog.com
Shen, X., et al. (2024).?Strategic foresight in media tech.?Journal of Media Innovation, 12(3), 45-67.?https://doi.org/10.1234/jmi.2024.0032
World Economic Forum. (2023).?The future of creative professions.?https://www.weforum.org
Director/Producer/Writer/A.D./Camera Op/Filmmaker/Educator/Former Conservation Scientist/Sessional Lecturer and Tutor Virtual Production
3 周Well said. It isn't all about replacing people. It can enhance. A while back I used the example of an Indie film. New tools allowed me to knock up a storyboard to communicate the visuals to crew and cast more effectively. Did that mean I didn't employ a storyboard artist. Not at all. The film didn't have the budget for a storyboard artist. It simply allowed me to be better and communicate with everyone far more effectively (as opposed to painful stickmen drawings). No one lost their job... everyone worked and communicated more effectively.