Week 8 Blog – Lessons Learned in a Digital Age & Impact on Leadership

There are so many lessons I have learned about technology and leadership throughout this course. However, I will address the following three themes that stand out to me the most and the impact they have on leadership:

1. Advancements in Technology Are Disruptive, Borderless, and Difficult to Predict

Improvements in technology have already created fundamental changes at the individual, group, and societal-level. The internet has not only become as a place to obtain information, but is also a place in which social and participatory processes exist. One only has to look at the various social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc.) to observe how technology has expanded the manner in which people all over the world connect and communicate. According to Shirk (2016), technological improvements don’t equate to success overnight, and instead, are developed through incremental changes in which course corrections are necessary for a particular technology to ultimately prosper. Twitter is a prime example of how technology can create social change, and happened once the company ultimately discovered its purpose was to track the lives of people through the use of cell phones (Shirky, 2016).

There are still endless possibilities for what technology might do for us in the future, however, Weinberger (2014) also reminds us that we are typically inaccurate with anticipating what information will one day be useful for society, and these possibilities continue to narrow the closer we move toward it. I agree with Kelly’s (2016) notion that the best way to address the future of technology is to acknowledge forces (i.e., becoming, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, interacting, tracking, questioning, beginning) that will inevitably shape it rather than attempting to predict specific technologies themselves. I also agree with Kelly’s (2017) assertion that continual improvements and developments in “cognifying” artificial intelligence by “taking X and adding AI” will likely be groundbreaking and pave the way for a second type of industrial revolution (if not already). Moreover, I also align with the notion that we are on the verge of entering a different kind of future that encompasses more capabilities than we can even imagine at this point, and especially the potential for a mixed reality that will fundamentally change our everyday experiences and the way learning might occur (Kelly, 2018).  

Impact on Leadership: Rather than fight the advancement of technology, leaders need to embrace technology and learn to work alongside its development. Instead of creating a boundary that separates leaders from technology, leaders need to co-exist and work interdependently with technology to continue to create and make progress together. In my opinion, the primary challenge for leadership is the ability to keep up! Leaders need to adopt a growth mindset and be more willing to effectively seek out knowledge to be better informed regarding the impact that technology and AI will have on our daily lives in the near future. Instead of focusing narrowly on specific predictions, it would behoove leaders to cultivate better strategic foresight by paying more attention to technology trends that will eventually shape society in the future. It will be equally important for leaders to be able to balance a willingness to embrace these inevitable technology trends with the need to also accept that “scary” problems will likely ensue as a result. Most importantly, leaders need to be prepared and have both the competence and confidence to meet future demands when they actually happen.

2. Advancements in Technology Are Changing the Nature of the Workplace and Necessary Skills  

Constant improvements with the Internet, artificial intelligence, and technology (in general) is creating a more connected world, and these advancements present both challenges and opportunities for today’s networked workers. The primary concern is that automation via technology will continue to replace current jobs that are standardized and routine-oriented. However, the advantage of automation is that it will not only enhance efficiency, but it will also facilitate the growth of new jobs and provide an opportunity to bolster human capabilities to adapt to these changes (Anderson & Smith, 2014). Whereas the purpose of knowledge management (KM) in the workplace was once predicated on the need to store information, the function of KM in the workplace has now evolved into the need to leverage collective knowledge through interconnected networks on the web (Dixon, May 02, 2009). Organizations therefore stand to gain a competitive advantage based on the capability of their “wirearchies”, or the ability to identify the right people to tackle the right questions and by creating the space in which continual dialogue and two-way flow of knowledge can take place (Jarche, 2010).

Today’s workplace requires networked workers to engage in more critical thinking when addressing complex problems, to become more transparent and creative with solutions, and to do so without the need for managerial oversight (Jarche, 2013). In other words, networked workers need to cultivate and bolster human skills and attributes in tandem with the improvements in technology that are causing a shift in the nature of work within the workplace. The problem, however, is that today’s workforce is lacking the necessary human skills and attributes to supplement the growth of technological changes such as critical thinking, the ability to discern meaning, social intelligence, etc.  (e.g., see Becker et al., 2018).

Impact on Leadership: Dixon (March 18, 2009) suggests the leader’s role in the future of KM entails three essential components: (1) The need to include people with cognitively diverse perspectives to discern between technical problems and adaptive challenges, (2) The need to challenge and question old assumptions and facilitate dialogue, and (3) Increase transparency by creating an environment that promotes psychological safety. This, ultimately is where I believe the role of leadership comes into play for the future success of KM - in the ability to create the space for individuals with cognitively diverse perspectives to engage in meaningful conversations and to convene and guide these conversations so that knowledge can be sought, experienced, and shared to generate effective KM solutions to implement.

3. Future Advancements in Technology Require Responsibility and Accountability

Although the notion of a more connected world with the capability to obtain more knowledge and information sounds exciting and perhaps more beneficial, it may also lead to more confusion (Davenport, 2015). Tension and pressure appear to be growing between a need for everything to flow faster and the need to keep up (Kelley, 2016). In other words, although the web has connected us to more, the continuous flow of endless knowledge and information has also lead people further away from actual truths and facts. It has enabled more skepticism of potential “fake news”, causing people to feel more uncertain, vulnerable and less trusting of traditional sources of information (Kelly, 2016). Moreover, this constant sharing, producing and remixing of knowledge and information is largely uncontained, unrestricted, or vetted (Kelly, 2016).

As Kelly (2016) suggests, “vanity trumps privacy” (p. 262) and, “if today’s social media has taught us anything about ourselves as a species, it is that the human impulse to share overwhelms the human impulse for privacy” (p. 262). This personal obsession with sharing, however, also comes with consequences. And although every action made on social media is both personal and global, it is important to remember that we all still possess the power of choice (Singer & Brooking, 2018). It is imperative to be mindful of the notion that the intent of most online content is to influence and manipulate, and because of this, we must have an ethic of responsibility to protect each other in order to provide a safer space within this digital and global world to interact and have dialogue (Singer & Brooking, 2018). Westerman, Bonnet, and McAfee (2014) recommend the need for digital governance in organizations via the mechanisms of shared digital units, governance committees, and digital leadership roles. Personally, I find it also encouraging to read that government legislature is starting to recognize the need to protect the privacy and rights of internet users and establish regulations on what is considered to be ethical use of social media (Thomson, 2019).

Impact on Leadership: Everyone has the right to access and benefit from information, but leaders also need to model and promote respect for the integrity of information and to share it responsibly (Kelly, 2016). Instead of trying to figure out all the answers, it would be best to let advancements in technology do so and for us to ask better questions (Kelly, 2016). While investment in technology will surely continue across all industries, leaders should be encouraged by the notion that we are still in the beginning stages of understanding how technology will continue to impact our future. Furthermore, leaders should take comfort in knowing that because technology is continuing to evolve at this very moment, they also have the power to shape it, and nobody is too late to participate in and be part of the process!

References

Becker, S. A., Brown, M., Dahlstrom, E., Davis, A., DePaul, K., Diaz, V., & Pomerantz, J. (2018). NMC Horizon Report: 2018 Higher Education Edition. Louisville, CO: EDUCAUSE, 2018.

Davenport, T. (June 24, 2015). Whatever happened to knowledge management? CIO Journal. Retrieved from: https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2015/06/24/whatever-happened-to-knowledge-management/

Dixon, N. (March 18, 2009). Four conversations to address adaptive change. Conversation Matters. Retrieved from: https://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/03/four-conversations-to-address-adaptive-challenges.html

Dixon, N. (May 02, 2009). Where knowledge management has been and where it is going. Conversation Matters. Retrieved from: https://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/05/where-knowledge-management-has-been-and-where-it-is-going-part-one.html

Jarche, H. (2013). Networks are the new companies. Retrieved from: http://jarche.com/2013/11/networks-are-the-new-companies/

Jarche, H. (February 24, 2010). A framework for social learning in the enterprise. Retrieved from: http://jarche.com/2010/02/a-framework-for-social-learning-in-the-enterprise/

Kelly, K. (2016). The inevitable: Understanding the 12 technological forces that will shape our future. New York: NY: Penguin Random House LLC

Kelly, K. (January 12, 2017). How ai can bring on a second industrial revolution. Ted Talks. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjbTiRbeNpM

Kelly, K. (June 1, 2018). The emerging v-cloud. TNW Conference 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjbTiRbeNpM

Shirky, C. (March, 2014). The disruptive power of collaboration: An interview with Clay Shirky. Mckinsey & Company. Retrieved from: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/technology-media-and-telecommunications/our-insights/the-disruptive-power-of-collaboration-an-interview-with-clay-shirky

Singer, P. W. & Brooking, E. T. (2018). LikeWar: The weaponization of social media. New York: NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Smith, A. & Anderson, J. (2014). AI, robotics, and the future of jobs. Pew Research Center. Retrieved from: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2014/08/06/future-of-jobs/

Thomson, J. (Jul 1, 2019). Ethics in the digital age: Protect others’ data as you would your own. Forbes.

Retrieved from: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffthomson/2019/07/01/ethics-in-the-digital-age-protect-others-data-as-you-would-your-own/#24548fc454e1

Westerman, G., Bonnet, D., & McAfee, A. (2014). Leading digital: Turning technology into business transformation. Boston: MA: Harvard Business Review Press