The panel explores the developing capabilities of generative AI and ethical considerations.The moderators, Raquel Brigham Brown & Brandon Krueger, Esq., and panelists bring varying lines of sight, AI expertise & experience to the dialogue.  A college professor shares her field research using AI to expand access to legal services.  A Microsoft tech executive provides a look ‘under the hood.’  Ethics and Contingency Fee attorneys share their hopes and fears, and a governance leader reflects on the impact on society, customers, and the public- going beyond the mandate to do no harm to the goal of adding value.  

Through the dialogue board governance takeaways emerged:

• Transparency as a guiding principle:err on the side of over-communicating
• AI is simply a technology
• AI is not omniscient. It requires human direction, training, review, confirmation & correction
• There are a range of AI technologies & applications with unique risks & reward profiles
• Traditional ethical, security & privacy risks & unintended consequences can be exacerbated by AI
• Understanding the organization’s business model is a prerequisite to identifying use case scenarios
• Seek  education  and guidance from vendors before and during  policy & guidance development and implementation
• Customized applications often yield the greatest return and minimize risk factors
• Digital natives view personal data as the gateway to access
•  AI technology is rapidly evolving-  most effective guidance and policy provide an overarching framework as a ‘stake in the ground’

As an entry point to explore AI through the lens and application of human capital, I recommend boards read, The Algorithm: How AI Decides Who Gets Hired, Monitored, Promoted & Fired & Why We Need to Fight Back, by Hilke Schellmann.  The content is thought-provoking and can serve as a platform for boards to unpack AI broadly.

My advice based on my experience and the panel dialogue is for boards to learn, learn, and learn about  AI  from a 30,000-foot perspective as a prerequisite for initiating policy and best practices deliberations.

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The story goes, a man was hanging off a cliff with one hand in desperate need of help. “Help me” the man yelled over and over again. All at once, he heard a voice say “Let go.”  Confused the man replied, “what did you say?” The voice again said, “Let go?” Who is this?! The man cried out now desperate and indignant? “God,” the voice replied calmly. The man paused for what seemed to be an eternity. He then responded with a firm conviction, “Is there anyone else?!”

Funny, but like most parables, painfully true! Trust is the “oil” to the engine of our lives. Without it, everything locks up! Cultivating trust means that sometimes the “help” that we are expecting is not the “help” that we will get, but it doesn’t mean it’s not the “help we need.”  The irony of the  “the man and the cliff” story is that the man didn’t know that 20 feet beneath him, indiscernible due to an impenetrable fog, was an outcropping of plush evergreen trees that would halt his descent, should he choose to “trust” and let go, to usher him to safety.

Stephen Covey maintains in his book, The Speed of Trust, that trust is the ex-factor for maximizing team and organizational performance.  For a moment, reflect on the number of times you missed out on an opportunity because you failed to “trust” a team member, colleague, or leader-manager who had an insight that took you out of your comfort zone that would have led to radical personal and organizational growth.

Each week, challenge yourself to seek, earn and cultivate trust.

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The loss of a  job is a death of the familiar- status quo. It sets individuals and organizations to travel the stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. 

GOVERNANCE —From a governance perspective, I am troubled by the emerging etiquette and role of technology in employee engagement in all aspects of the workplace.  Especially disturbing is the tone of surprise and the impersonal & harsh approach powered by tech platforms as the primary means for employees to learn of their employment status.

The layoff decision of an organization requires deep involvement of the board as well as consultation with stakeholders at the local, state, and federal levels.  So, while, announcements have a tone of suddenness, the process begins with the board which has a fiduciary responsibility of care.

I believe, leaders have a responsibility to deliver organizational news with “care” in all matters & circumstances.  Fear seems to undergird the current layoff etiquette. The practices feel careless, disrespectful, unprofessional, opaque, and hurtful.  Terminations, layoffs, sad and bad news have occurred since the beginning of work through every industrial period. So, what has changed in the relationship between workers and employers? 

EMPLOYABILITY PARADIGM—At the dawn of  4IR, there is an opportunity for boards & leaders of organizations to shift their paradigm from the hierarchical mindset of being responsible for guaranteeing employment to a partner mindset of a commitment to employability.  Employability requires creating a workplace culture in which employees gain skills and experiences that equip them to be highly employable, respected, and free of the often toxic parent-child employment relationship mindset. In fact, many organizations pride themselves on being a family which increases the likelihood of dysfunctional relationships, expectations, and behaviors.

Shifting the leadership paradigm creates an environment of respect among equals and engenders trust and love in the workplace.  Employees deserve trust and respect demonstrated by being well informed and having open and 1-1 meetings with their supervisor-manager.  Direct supervisors have the most intimate relationship with employees and are expected to be the ones to lead the relationship.  In survey after survey, employees state their direct supervisor has the greatest impact on why they stay/leave, how they perform, how they feel about the organization, and where they expect to receive information, direction, and support.

Employability leadership fosters a culture of personal responsibility, initiative, innovation, accountability, and radical results.  This is a 180-degree paradigm shift from many workplace cultures of today.  They emanate dependability, fear, uncertainty, trauma, and plunging productivity which undercuts and further erodes the greatest need- RESULTS! 

TRUST—For months early in my career, the leadership gave sunshine reporting despite the financial statements showing otherwise.  As an employee, it is essential to know the business and be objective about performance, metrics, and trends because the audio and video often don’t reconcile.  In my case, I felt it was only a matter of time before a change would be made.  When the layoff decision was made,  it was communicated to each employee, and the process was transparent, continuous, and much appreciated. The process enabled business performance and morale to be maintained.

There were difficult conversations and emotions ran high, yet the process allowed leaders and employees to individually and collectively prepare themselves emotionally and financially for the future and to say goodbye- those leaving and staying.  Employees were given the option to volunteer to be laid off.  For many, a layoff gave them wings to the next place.  Employees were offered resources to assist in navigating their future whether staying or leaving. After all these years, the organization has a strong and proud alumni network of colleagues who remain connected by sharing news of life announcements, holiday & birthday updates, and annual lunches based on the bond of the good old days of working together.

Everything gets better when leaders treat employees with HUMANITY and TRUST  commensurate with the trust placed in them.

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My role is to ensure ethical & equitable legal policy exists and is delivered in a professional manner consistent with the Bar’s Mission. In my role, I also am a leader on the AI board subcommittee developing guidance and best practices.

The Bar’s Mission is to protect the public and includes the primary functions of licensing, regulation, and discipline of attorneys; the advancement of the ethical and competent practice of law; and support of efforts for greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system.

Being a governance leadership voice for the citizens of California is a privilege.

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There is an emerging mandate to re-envision the boardroom.  Accelerating momentum and pressure is mounting to diversify board rooms well beyond gender & race, increase ESG focus and address the myriad of demands from activist shareholders. The current model and governance norms of engagement & practices were conceived in a different era.

The inclusive & representative boardroom necessitates a new mindset and ways of working.  Dialogue, listening, collaboration, and unmatched teaming are required for new priorities and voices to add value.   Established ways of working dictated by Parliamentary Procedures/ Robert’s Rules of Order must be evaluated. Their intent is to keep order and expedite decision-making. The Rules & Procedures minimize dialogue which runs counter to the requirement for inclusion, innovation, and collaboration.  New voices added to status quo practices undermine the benefit gained from diverse knowledge on decision making and ultimately on exponential results.

Gone must be the days of decisions being made in committees and by a select few before the meeting, commonly experienced as vote lobbying.  The role & effectiveness of committees must be scrutinized.  Organization & leadership theory has long revealed the counterproductive nature of silos which produce fragmented thinking & decision-making-“no involvement, no commitment- involvement creates commitment!”

The idea of voting as the means to make decisions also begs the question of effectiveness.  Decisions are most effectively implemented when made by consensus- broadly defined as each person feels, I have been heard and I have heard everyone, and the decision was collectively created, and thus, I support it.

The board is a team that must intentionally focus on developing itself for high performance breaking the norm of jump in and get to work.  New ways of thinking and working must become the norm for the boardroom to benefit from the power and perspectives of all the voices. Learning how to listen, seek out information, clarify, and create together is required... these new skills must be mastered.

So, while we excitedly invite new voices to the table, we must with an equal and determined focus create a new & inclusive board team, culture, norms & practices.  Every aspect of governance must be examined- composition/size, succession planning, nomination, sourcing, selection, onboarding, term limits, roles & responsibilities, evaluation, development, and engagement.

The real opportunity for exponential results lies in boards taking leadership of the boardroom and increasing their collective EQ  by expanding the focus inward on their readiness & culture creation.  Candidate readiness and pipeline priming should be a secondary focus. Preparing the boardroom is an essential first step to ensure change is board-led for sustainability.

Only when there is a new boardroom culture will representation, ESG, AI, cybersecurity, privacy, 4IR, and the many vital initiatives yield a significant ROI.

I am excited about the potential to transform the boardroom as the gateway for triple-bottom-line impact!

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I traveled the world working with leaders of large, complex organizations across many industries to unlock exponential financial and market value growth.  What is unique about my leadership methodology is the approach and practices to achieve radical abundant business results are rooted in 7 Principles of Abundant Leadership© that we developed in my firm.

Most leaders (and humans) operate at the opposite end of abundant thinking- at the level of scarcity, which is a reductionist, not enough, fear-based mindset.   As I traversed the world, I observed firsthand that the leaders who led with an abundant mindset significantly outperformed those who didn’t.

Whether I was working with leaders in Asia, Southern Africa, Europe, or the Americas, I witnessed human behavior is the same at the core.  While there are local differences and circumstances, human behavior is consistent because of the universal laws of human nature- every individual wants to: make a difference, contribute, be respected, and be highly involved in their work.

In the first five years of my firm’s founding, I developed a confidence in our approach to Human Abundance for radical business results as a leadership model.  In an early test of the philosophy, a new CEO client embraced this leadership approach. He was leading a private equity-funded multinational food company – with operations in South Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.  The company was annually losing -$250mm EBITDA, suffering from growth through rampant acquisitions resulting in an accidental portfolio of brands and fragmented strategies and processes and 6,0000 demotivated, unengaged, unclear employees.  With no clear path to improve profitability, the board and equity partners were clamoring for cost savings as a matter of survival.

The CEO began the turnaround using our leadership approach working with his board, C-suite team through to each level & individual in the organization.  Eighteen months after the top 300 leaders in the world had been working together to re-envision the direction of the company, the CEO convened a 3-day working session, WWAM- World Wide Associates Meeting- for all 6,000 employees, including union members. The focus of the work session was to engage employees in the company’s new vision, strategies, & plans and begin the process of rebuilding the company.  Our client and our reputation were on the line.  If the business results did not improve immediately, not only would we face the chopping block, but the CEO would also likely be fired.

In the first month after the global WWAM work session, the company made more money than had been made in the history of the company, $130mm EBITDA. This extraordinary turnaround – radical business results- was only possible because of the CEO’s commitment to leading with vision and involving the board and all employees in the integrated, collaborative leadership approach of Human Abundance.

As a key member of  CEO  and board teams, I have been blessed to witness individuals, teams and organizations achieve extraordinary business results by adopting the Human Abundance leadership philosophy and practices.

At this stage of my lifework, I am dedicated to using my expertise, skills, and relationships to shape business results through corporate governance in Africa, China, Europe, and the USA.

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