Technology, Leadership, & The Complex Self
“It’s not just that things are changing but the very nature of change itself, as perceived by humans, is changing.”
In this summary of a video presentation given at the 2024 UN Global Womens Leadership Academy in Doha, Futurist Tracey Follows explores how emerging tech is transforming identity and leadership.
01 Follows grounds us in the perspective of the Great Decentralization that we’re now all living through…a sea-change-shift…transitioning us from a hierarchical system to a networked one driven largely by our ubiquitous use and integration of, initially, the internet and now also AI technologies.
02 She then points to the logic that humans, too, must recognize their capacity to evolve toward their Complex Self in order to operate symbiotically with this new more fluid and more naturally networked operational paradigm we’re all subsumed by.
03 And, finally, highlights the fact that this newly required adaptive, improvisational, and more decentralized sensibility is one that empowers Women's Natural Strengths, including navigating multiple roles and leading through connection over control…declaring that:
the future belongs to those who can skillfully program their complex, adaptable selves in a ubiquitously networked world.
Meaning that the emergence of tech like AI is fundamentally challenging some Old Notions…including our traditional ideas about Identity.
For example, many of us are now writing with an AIS assistant like Chat GPT where you're becoming digital collaborators toward extending your own voice and capabilities…possibly even your language skills…or you find yourself in virtual meetings with digital twins…and you're probably using AI avatars to just create new forms of your own presence to represent or re-present yourself in different ways within different forums.
All of these are examples of how we are transcending those old physical limitations and cultural constraints now.
Why is this happening?
It's happening because we've decided to use the Internet.
The birth, evolution, and main property of the internet is that it's networked.
That's exactly what you're seeing above…the network connections and interconnections…of which Tracey refers to as Great Decentralization.
As we’ve decided to apply the Internet to our business…our social life…our organizations…our lives in general…the internet has changed all of these realms, and very fundamentally
No longer are we living in a world of rigid hierarchies and linear systems like we were post WWI/WWII…we've actually moved into a networked world which is more about peer-to-peer connections that distribute influence and cultivate dynamic relationships.
Not only this, but we actually, now, inhabit these systems as fluid, multiple, plural identities…not as a fixed, singular, centralized identity.
The centralized control that used to exist in the old systems has now given way to a a new system that is flat, inclusive, participatory…a peer-to-peer version of the world.
Really, what has happened, is that there’s a shift from rigid hierarchies to interconnected peer-to-peer connections and that of course has big impact and implication for the way in which our identities respond…they're now fluid, multiple and can exist in many different forms all at the same time
So one way of saying this is that we have a changing self that mirrors the changing system.
(in this way, the Modality of Technology is leading us….which is ultimately DUMB…not good…but this is another post!)
No longer should we expect to have a singular, designed self that we have deliberately authored…one that is fixed and unchanging…based on institutional roles that have everything to do with hierarchical structures.
Neither should we necessarily be striving for Authenticity because no longer is it about Authenticity…but about Profiling Ourselves through lots of Different Data.
So we can inhabit lots of different places…as different versions of ourselves…evolving into our Complex Self…being fluid and adaptable where we're made of multiple attributes that we can arrange and rearrange…mix and remix…to fit the context and to create the role we want to play in that context.
So the lead here is that we are now empowered by network connections and we now have a networked identity.
We each get to tap into our Complex Self…which inhabits a complex interconnected system…
and this is very much how Follows thinks we should now see the world that is emerging.
It's less about the standard of authenticity and more about the standard of Multiplicity, Plurality, and Self-Continuity.
How are we going to ensure that our Complex Self is fluid and multiple…yet remains anchored in some of our core purpose and values?
One way of looking at this is to think about what it does to our Leadership Style.
My argument really is that actually Leadership in the Old World of the Designed Self and the Hierarchical Organization used to be about Managing, Ordering, Retaining control…
but now in the New World of the Network where we have the Complex Self…it's more about Navigating and Sensemaking because the World Changes as it Connects and Interconnects in a very Dynamic way.
It’s evident that Internet Network Effects is less about managing…more about navigating…it's less about holding a position
and NOW more about power flowing from the making of connection.
It's less about proving and giving evidence of where you once solved a problem or overcame a barrier
and now more about the adaptability quotient not the provability.
The adaptability quotient looks for the skill or trait of adaptability in someone so that they are thinking about the past as much as they're thinking about the future.
They can write scenarios, rehearse scenarios, and work out what the implications of different alternative paths might be so it's less about presentation.
The presentation of one authentic self and more about the exploration and in fact the curation…the skillful curation…of many multiple selves over space and time and across different teams and different audiences that you want to deal with.
Follows closes by emphasizing that the great idea here is the Symbiosis between what's happening with the System and how the Self is Changing which has always been a strength of women.
Women have always been in the job of context or code switching or role playing…
managing multiple identities across family, community, AND professional roles…
and now technology is really amplifying that natural capability.
So we might say that the future belongs to those who can skillfully program and navigate their complex selves across these expanding networked contexts.
We'll be leading…not through control…but leading through connection and so as you think about these couple of days as you are at this event maybe we should think about:
-how leadership style is changing to deploy different combinations of attributes
-how we embrace the network and celebrate this plurality of identity?
-recognize that in a networked World women's natural ability is to navigate these multiple contexts
-to view our multiple roles not as fragmentation but as a complex programmable database of assets that can make up mix and remix our identity for the context we want to be in
The great news is the future of leadership isn't about choosing between versions of yourself…
it's about deploying your Complex Self in the right way in the right place at the right time to create transformative change in an increasingly networked world.
Tracey Follows is a professional futurist and works on long-term strategies with clients, including: Telefonica, Google, Sky, Farfetch, Conde Nast, and Virgin. She writes and speaks on Futures, appearing in a global list of 50 female futurists in Forbes, and in 2021 wrote The Future of You.
I guess for me I say bravissimo to Ms. Follows for spinning our relentless somewhat reckless dive into tech adnauseum…indoscrimately has a flip side…that finally the Male Dominant, Singular every other adjective is parting for a new option forward almost analogous to how we’ve shifted from word/text heavy to image on our social platforms…both of which bring a the feminine forward…BUT I would also warn that just because tech has driven us HERE doesn’t mean it’s all good for women….AND that in fact TECH SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE ?? THAT SPARKED THIS REALIZATION AND MORE FUNDAMENTALLY THE NEED TO OPERATE ALWAYS IN AN ADAPTIVE HOLISTIC, ETC WAY….
IT’S HOW NATURE DOES IT….WHICH WOMEN HAVE ALWAYS BEEN MORE IN TUNE WITH AND IS THE ONLY WAY WE CAN OPTIMIZE OUR COMPLEX SELVES TO GET OUT OF THE WAY OF OUR COMPLEX PROBELMS. #WickedProblems #WickedOpportunities
#WomenInLeadership #FutureOfIdentity #TechTransformation #AdaptiveLeadership #NetworkedSelf#DigitalEmpowerment #WomenInTech #FemaleLeaders #FutureOfWork #UNWomenLeadership
I serve brand, business, and orgs as a Creative Strategist and Futurist by helping teams cohere better through the use of insight sparking frameworks that catalyze break throughs, enhance workflow, and empower member strengths.