7 leadership lessons for navigating the AI turbulence

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In a recent episode of our weekly podcast DisrupTV, Constellation Research CEO Ray Wang and I assembled an extraordinary panel of leaders to discuss effective leadership in today's rapidly changing world. The conversation featured Ellen McCarthy, founder and CEO of the Trust in Media Cooperative; Lev Gonick, award-winning CIO of Arizona State University (ASU); and Dr. David Bray, Chair of the Accelerator and Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. 

The discussion revealed critical insights for CEOs, boards, and C-suite executives navigating today's complex leadership landscape. Here are the key takeaways from these seasoned leaders.

1. Embrace disruption as opportunity

ASU's Lev Gonick shared how the school has consistently turned moments of disruption into strategic advantages. During the 2008 economic crisis, rather than merely trying to survive, ASU positioned itself with what Gonick calls an "anti-fragile approach." 

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"We didn't just figure out how to survive the downturn but positioned ourselves to be better at the other end of it," Gonick explained. This strategy led to the creation of ASU Online, which started with just 400 students and now serves more than 104,000 students in nearly 400 programs.

For CEOs and boards facing disruptive forces, Gonick's experience at ASU offers a masterclass in strategic resilience. His approach demonstrates that organizational crises present rare opportunities to fundamentally reimagine business models rather than merely weathering the storm. 

Executive leaders should note how ASU transformed the 2008 financial crisis into a catalyst for digital transformation, launching what would become a thriving online education platform. Similarly, when many organizations focused solely on survival during the pandemic, ASU partnered with entertainment industry leaders to create immersive learning experiences that improved student outcomes. 

This anti-fragile mindset -- deliberately using disruption to become stronger -- represents a powerful strategic framework for C-suites and boards. Rather than treating disruptions as temporary challenges to overcome, forward-thinking executives should view them as inflection points to accelerate innovation and create sustainable competitive advantages that wouldn't be possible during periods of stability.

Leadership lesson 1: True leaders view disruption not as a threat but as a catalyst for transformation. The most successful organizations use periods of uncertainty to make bold, forward-thinking moves rather than retreating to defensive positions.

2. Information management in an era of overload

Trust in Media's Ellen McCarthy, drawing on her extensive intelligence community background, offered a six-point framework for leaders dealing with today's information ecosystem:

Question everything without becoming cynical: Not all sources are created equal. Just because something is trending doesn't mean it's true.Diversify information inputs: Mix your data input like a good cocktail. In intelligence, whether for national security or business, it gets better when you blend sources.Use AI appropriately: AI is like a smart intern -- helpful but not always right. It's a tool, and at the end of the day, it's about applying human judgment.Embrace diverse perspectives: Surround yourself with people who have different perspectives. It's always easier to manage people who think alike, but what comes out of managing diverse backgrounds and thoughts is a thing of beauty.Prioritize simplicity: If you can't explain what you're doing in one sentence or a single PowerPoint slide, you're done.Remember the human factor: Data is incredibly powerful, but intelligence is only as good as your understanding of people -- their motives, fears, and desires.

McCarthy's framework offers a practical roadmap for CEOs and boards navigating today's complex information landscape. Executive leaders must cultivate a culture of healthy skepticism without falling into cynicism, ensuring their organizations can distinguish signal from noise. 

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They should institutionalize processes that triangulate information from diverse sources, much like intelligence agencies do, while implementing AI tools as supplements to -- not replacements for -- human judgment. Similarly, corporate boards should seek cognitive diversity in their composition and executive teams, valuing the friction that comes from different perspectives. C-suite communications should prioritize clarity and simplicity, particularly when conveying complex strategies.

Finally, executives must remember that behind every data point and market trend are human motivations and behaviors -- understanding these remains the ultimate competitive advantage in an increasingly automated world.

Leadership lesson 2: In an age of information overload, leaders must develop robust frameworks for evaluating information quality while maintaining human judgment at the center of decision-making.

3. Lead through multiple simultaneous revolutions

The Stimson Center's David Bray highlighted that we're not just experiencing an AI revolution but multiple simultaneous revolutions -- in quantum computing, commercial space, synthetic biology, and personalized medicine. 

"Usually, when just one revolution happens, there's tremendous social and business upheaval, but we're doing five or six in parallel," Bray noted. This creates unprecedented challenges for leaders. Bray emphasized that traditional leadership approaches won't work in this environment: "You can't reach for those old levers that you used to -- they won't work. You've got to have new levers and new strategies that involve communities from the bottom up, involve decentralized approaches, and at the same time work to pull people together."

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Bray's analysis presents both a warning and an opportunity for CEOs and boards. The convergence of AI, quantum computing, commercial space, synthetic biology, and personalized medicine creates a business environment without historical precedent. Executive leaders must recognize that these technologies aren't merely tools to optimize existing business models but catalysts for entirely new paradigms. 

4. Build trust in a fractured information landscape

McCarthy explained how the broken information ecosystem presents both challenges and opportunities for leaders. "Our information ecosystem is broken. On one hand, it's amazing because pretty much everything you could ever need is there, but it's very hard to get to it." McCarthy said. "The volume of information is just so overwhelming." 

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Rather than telling people what to believe, McCarthy advocates for providing frameworks that help people assess information quality themselves. "I'm not going to tell you whether to trust something, but I believe, like in making food choices, I know when to eat a Big Mac when I'm on the road, and I know when to eat organic chicken when I'm trying to lose weight. Give people the same agency to make those decisions for themselves."

Leadership lesson 4: Effective leaders don't dictate truth but build systems that empower people to make informed judgments, fostering both trust and agency.

5. Education and leadership in the AI era

Gonick shared ASU's approach to AI, emphasizing that educational institutions must lead in preparing students for an AI-first world. "If our job in the overall pipeline of human capital development is to prepare folks for the next parts of their lives, it's incumbent on us to prepare students in an intentional way," Gonick explained. This means developing new degrees, integrating AI tools across all subjects, and forming partnerships to prepare public agencies to be "AI-first agencies."

Leadership lesson 5: Forward-thinking leaders must adapt their organizations to emerging technologies and actively prepare their teams and stakeholders for a fundamentally different future.

6. Bottom-up leadership for complex challenges

All three panelists emphasized the importance of bottom-up, community-driven approaches to leadership. McCarthy articulated this philosophy succinctly: "A leader's job is to set a vision, make sure everybody's on board with it, and then equip everyone to be able to do it. It's not about doing it yourself."

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She outlined three key leadership actions: "Educate, equip, and empower. Make sure they understand where you're going. Make sure they're on board with it. Listen to them. Make sure they have everything they need -- the tools, the framework, whatever it is -- and then let them go."

Leadership lesson 6: In complex environments, effective leadership means creating the conditions for distributed problem-solving rather than centralized control.

7. Create narratives that unite

Bray highlighted perhaps the most critical leadership challenge today: "We are lacking a large enough narrative or big enough tent that people can see themselves in. There's a very real risk that with all these technologies, we just become more isolated, we become more lonely." He noted that many people are experiencing anxiety because traditional social contracts have broken down: They thought the deal was, I go to school once, and I have a job that's the same job for the next 40 years. That's no longer the case.
Leadership lesson 7: Today's most effective leaders create inclusive narratives that help people make sense of rapid change and see themselves as part of a positive future.

The path forward

These insights suggest that the most successful leaders will be those who can help their organizations not just survive disruption but use it as a catalyst for transformation -- turning periods of uncertainty into opportunities for reinvention and growth.

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This article was co-authored by Dr. David Bray, principal and CEO at LeadDoAdapt (LDA) Ventures, chair of the Accelerator, and distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center.

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