The Merkel Mirror: Leadership Lessons for the Digital Age

When Good Management Becomes an Obstacle to Necessary Change

Angela Merkel’s recently published memoir Freedom arrives at a pivotal moment for organizational leadership. As Yascha Mounk notes in his recent Financial Times analysis, Merkel’s legacy reveals how competent management can coexist with systemic failure. This paradox resonates deeply in today’s digital transformation landscape.

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The Great Responsibility Shift: From Corporate Stewardship to Individual Burden

Just as beverage companies once managed their packaging waste, tech companies were once more straightforward about their data practices. But now, we’re seeing a troubling pattern of companies quietly expanding their data collection through obscure settings and opt-out mechanisms buried in lengthy terms of service.

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A student declaration of rights: Protecting Education in the Age of AI

Today, I'm sharing news of an initiative occupying my thoughts and research: the Global Student & AI Rights Pledge & Declaration. These are two initiatives I architected as part of presentations I gave this year at ICTE 2024. But before I detail these efforts, I want to emphasize something important: this isn't just another policy document destined to gather digital dust in some institutional repository.

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Publishing, Authors Tables, and Moody Tapas Waiters

Day 1 included pre conference sessions and my first Author Showcase. Loved speaking with interested faculty and clients and the promise of driving greater understanding, leadership, and marketable skills in the current programs.

The nice part of conferences turning into communities is reconnecting with wonderful people like the indomitable Fiona Allison from Emerald Publishing who encourages, supports, and champions her authors. So excited to be working with her on an upcoming project for 2025!

Saw Suzanne Clarks presentation on Transformative Leadership: Humor, Dialogue, and Artful Inquiry in Social Movements and Change. Through performance art, she creatively reimagines the power of questions in leadership, showing how artful inquiry can turn routine interactions into memorable exchanges that alter the perceived value of communication.

Here is to moody tapas waiters, live guitar, and leadership research!

Sitting in the Fire, With Maria

Global leaders deal with chaotic and changing situations, often filled with tension and conflict, which can make people feel excluded and prevent #community building. Two disparate yet connected fields grapple with the continued emergence of ethical dilemmas: #Technology and #AI, and #DEI. As much as we think these fields aren’t related, how we manage #conflict, check our assumptions, and navigate connection is what creates the path forward.

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The Great Wave

Hokusai's story exemplifies many of the key themes im exploring in a current manuscript about the importance of subjective intelligence in the advent of ai: the importance of #persistence, the value of #lifelonglearning, and the deep #insights that can come from looking closely at one's craft over an extended period.

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The Power of AI in Meeting Management

AI-powered voice recording, transcription, and analysis tools are revolutionizing how we conduct and follow up on meetings. As graduate faculty for project management curriculum and consultant for data culture initiatives, I’ve started integrating how these tools can help students and project managers

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Part 5: The Ethical Imperative: Redefining Organizational Culture in the Age of AI

As we conclude our exploration of the evolving data culture in corporate America, we find ourselves at a critical juncture. The pendulum swings we've observed—from the data-driven efficiency focus of the 1990s to the purpose-driven revolution of the 2010s—have set the stage for a new era of complexity. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI) is not just another technological advancement; it represents a fundamental shift in how organizations must approach skill development and organizational design for data, purpose, and ethics.

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