Posts by Dr. Chris Rowell

When AI Becomes the Boss: What’s at Stake for Human Autonomy, Meaning, & Connection?

Picture this….. You’re in a meeting where AI has designed the agenda, selected the participants, and set the objectives. As you speak, relevant data appears on screen in real time. The system tracks your contributions: how often you speak, your...

What AI Can’t Replace – The Value of Human Friction

As companies rush to deploy AI in pursuit of efficiency and scale, they’re not just automating tasks, they’re redesigning how work gets done. One way to make sense of this shift is through the lens of organisational frictions: the forces...

Leading Under Pressure to Avoid Threat Rigidity

“Every leader is at a different level for their window of tolerance for things like change, pressure, stress, complexity and uncertainty… When they get thrown outside their window of tolerance, that’s when their executive functioning goes out the window. And...

The Accountability Agreement

A question we often hear from our clients is: how do I keep my team accountable? At first glance, it seems simple – their role involves a task or a goal, and they should take responsibility for completing it. But...

Levers of Influence

“Leadership is influence.” – John C. Maxwell What Influences You? As Dan Pink reminds us, 40% of a leader’s job today is influencing. Given that in contemporary complex, interconnected organisations, we can’t get anything done by ourselves, one could argue...

Leaning In: The Difference between Being Accountable and Taking Accountability

Organisations run on accountability. As a consequence, few things preoccupy leaders more than ensuring that their teams take responsibility for their actions, decisions, and performance for the benefit of the whole. However, what it means to “be accountable” and “take...