The ability to change is fundamental to all living systems. Are you organised for evolution?

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Case study: creating a collective vision for an agentic organisation in which AI amplifies the best of our work

How can we cultivate hope and agency to bring about a better future across an organisation overwhelmed by demands for short-term performance?

The change we needed

The Chief Research & Development Officer of a global consumer goods company gave us a challenge: how could the whole R&D leadership team collectively imagine a radically better future in which their core values and most joyful work are amplified by a deep partnership with agentic AI – and then set about making it a reality, in five years time?

The tension or dilemma

We needed to overcome the gravitational hold of the present and imagine change that is energy-giving, not a source of loss and fear in an organisation very much gripped and exhausted by years of focus on short-term performance and demands to transform. Power was spread across a matrix structure, and positive momentum and consent were needed to unlock real investment and focused attention.

The outcomes

We hosted a ‘generative decision-making’ process for the extended R&D leadership team in which these catalytic action proposals were debated, sharpened and ultimately agreed upon. This was hard-edged, surfaced real dilemmas to be navigated, and was commented upon as ‘the most engaged and productive’ session they could remember.

The inspiration

Our work is informed by the power of radical awareness, hope, and agency – and we were inspired by leadership teams and boards who have included their younger colleagues and less powerful voices from their ecosystem to collectively imagine an inspiring leap forward for their organisation. We are also inspired by the work of futurists, artists and changemakers such as Bill Sharpe, Wendy Schultz, and Augusto Boal, and generative decision-making processes from Percolab.

The intervention

We designed a future-back visioning and pathway mapping process for the 15 most senior leaders, to create a ‘generative image’ of the future and possible accelerators and pitfalls on the pathways there. We then designed and facilitated a four week ’future design sprint’ in which three teams of employees from across the business envisioned, stretched and then analysed the catalytic actions needed to accelerate towards this desired future.

What we’re learning

The future of agentic AI systems can be uncertain and scary for many employees, but if peers across the business are given an opportunity to explore, envision and imagine pathways to a better future, hope and agency can increase, with pitfalls and competing commitments surfaced early.

New collective sense-making and deliberation methods can allow large leadership groups to engage more deeply with their fears, concerns and hidden competing commitments to seismic changes like agentic AI adoption

Designed and delivered by Tim Frost and James Beresford

A man in an orange shirt is standing on a staircase holding a small trophy in the air during a social gathering. Several people are standing and talking around him in a well-lit indoor space with signs on the wall that read 'Oops Wrong Way' and 'Barista Bar'.

Let’s shape this together.

We love working with partners and clients who are ready to create brave, generous, transformative experiences for their leaders and organisations.