PD publishes new book The Intelligence Era Organisation

This week PD launches our latest book, the Intelligence Era Organisation: Creating the Conditions to Thrive in the Age of AI. 

The book, which includes real world examples from the public sector and from major businesses, provides a roadmap for senior leaders to succeed in the age of AI. 

Its author is digital transformation expert and PD network member, Adam Maddison, who brings over two decades of experience helping public and private sector organisations build the right organisational environment for success.

In The Intelligence Era Organisation, Adam argues that the reason so many organisations fail to see value from their AI investments isn’t due to a failure of technology, but a failure of conditions.

In the intelligence era - the current period characterised by the proliferation of AI - success or failure comes down to your underlying organisational environment: your ability to safely experiment with new practices and technologies, learn what works, and scale successes. 

It is the presence of these conditions - rather than investment in a new AI tool or application of an off-the-shelf framework - that is the single biggest factor in equipping organisations for the intelligence era.

The book argues that above all else, AI is an amplifier. If your organisation already has the conditions in place to effectively test, learn and scale, then AI will unlock incredible potential in how you deliver for your customers. 

But if your organisational conditions are characterised by siloed ways of working and theatrical governance, AI will only make your organisation more dysfunctional.

Adam Maddison said:

“Artificial Intelligence has a powerful appeal for leaders looking for solutions for their people and process problems. While it is undeniably an extraordinary accelerator, it is crucial to recognise that AI is just another tool. Treated with respect and caution, AI can and will be a transformative tool, but it is not the magic solution to organisational dysfunction. In fact it has the potential to amplify any organisational dysfunction. 

“Instead, the key to successful transformation and effective AI adoption is building the right conditions: a high-trust environment, where autonomy, feedback, learning, problem solving, and continuous improvement are cherished. And the best way to do that is to start small, to understand and challenge the existing conditions, test new ways of doing things, learn what works and scale those ways of working.”

Tom Loosemore, PD Founder, said:

“What I like about Adam’s approach is that he refuses to let leaders off the hook. He is clear that the job of a senior leader is not to buy a transformation. It is to change the system so that the people inside it can do their best work. That means doing the hard things. Redesigning how cash gets allocated. Rewiring incentives. Modelling the behaviours you want to see - including, crucially, being visibly wrong in public and surviving it.

“If you as a leader have tried the quick fixes, watched them not work, and are ready to do something harder and more useful – starting small, building trust, protecting a nascent team, scaling what you learn – then this is the book for you.”