The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI

by Nick Chatrath

Overview

Accomplished leadership consultant Nick Chatrath offers a revolutionary framework for how leaders in all kinds of organizations can adapt to the new age of technology, like ChatGPT—the Age of AI— by leaning into the qualities and skills that make us uniquely human. For readers of Yuval Noah Harari’s 21 Lessons for the 21st Century and Max Tegmark’s Life 3.0, The Threshold is a bold new way to think about human, emotionally intelligent leadership right now as we stand at the threshold of AI superintelligence.

We are living in a new age: the Age of AI. With developments emerging every day, Artificial Intelligence will soon surpass most human competencies, and as a result drastically transform technology’s role in our day-to-day world. The solution for organizational leaders is not to become more like computers. In order for our organizations to survive as we stand at the threshold of a new era, we must tap into the qualities that make us uniquely human.

 In the face of increasingly intelligent technology, old models of leadership are becoming obsolete. In The Threshold: Leading in the Age of AI, accomplished leadership consultant Nick Chatrath interweaves an analysis of antiquated leadership models—the ones that leave AI-Era organizations exposed and ineffective with colleagues frustrated, unmotivated, and burnt-out—with his newly developed strategies for more effective “threshold” leadership methods. Supported with anecdotes, research, and a practical toolkit, The Threshold demonstrates that adaptive, effective organizations can be built with human, emotional intelligence: cultivating stillness, nurturing independent thinking, finding rhythms of rest and performance, and raising leadership consciousness. With a basis in the ideas and practices that have shaped our organizations in the past, The Threshold illuminates how accessing advanced stages of human development can be both competitive and harmonious with AI’s growing insinuation into our working world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635767988
Publisher:	Diversion Books
Publication date:	02/28/2023
Pages:	304
Sales rank:	626,376
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Nick Chatrath is a leading international expert for companies looking to navigate the fast-changing workplace disrupted by breakthrough Artificial Intelligence platforms like Chat GPT. A former McKinsey consultant he has spent 20,000+ hours coaching executives, educators, politicians, diplomats, military leaders, home-makers, students and others. Nick has seen leaders from all sectors and from all walks of life as they have struggled and claimed great victories.

Nick has held several technology leadership roles and cherishes diverse approaches to it. He co-founded two technology startups, one of which was AI-integrated. Since arriving at university for the first time, Nick has studied Mathematics, Management Studies, French, Theology (including modules on Philosophy), History, Arabic and Islamic Law, at Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctoral level, including at Oxford and Cambridge. Nick is passionate about integrating all these disciplines in the context of technology and leadership. Nick co-leads a global professional services firm focusing on leadership development.

Half Greek, half Indian and raised in the UK, Nick has traveled and worked extensively around the world. He lives in Oxford with his wife and three daughters. In his spare time, Nick competes in sprint triathlons.

Table of Contents

Prologue: Anti-threshold ix

Meet the Threshold: Your Invitation to an Evolved Leadership xiii

How to Use This Book xxiii

Path I Cultivating Stillness

1 Following Ai Da 3

2 Cancer in His Sophomore Year 23

3 "Man, You're Gonna Be Rich!" 37

Path II Thinking Independently

4 Coding Error 55

5 An Autumnal Tuesday in Berlin 73

6 Special Forces at NATO 93

Path III Embodying Intelligence

7 Dinner with Francis Crick … or James Watson? 113

8 The Power We Have 129

9 Dry Wood Meets Fire 149

Path IV Maturing Consciousness

10 The Sentient Vending Machine 171

11 Kneeling and Freewheeling 189

12 Profound Simplicity 211

Epilogue 229

Acknowledgments 233

Appendices 235

1 Table of Threshold Resources 235

2 Terminology 239

3 Six Al-Relevant Ethical Questions and Risks 241

4 Purpose and the Age of AI 245

5 Evidence That Adult Development Improves Leadership Effectiveness 247

6 An A-to-Z Threshold Leadership Manifesto 251

Notes 253

Bibliography 279

Index 287

About the Author 295

Editorial Reviews

We need this book. Urgently.... If you care about not just the future of your organization, but the future of humanity, you will love this book.”
—Nancy Kline, bestselling author of Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind

“A candid and courageous book that addresses one of the most urgent challenges of our times.”
—Surya Ramkumar, former Microsoft spokesperson for AI in the Netherlands

“Filled with thought-provoking and pragmatic ideas about how AI will change society, companies, and individuals, and how leaders can prepare themselves and those around them to navigate the torrent.”
—Jamie Cattell, Global Managing Partner, IBM Strategy Consulting

“Paradoxically, in the age of accelerating AI and quasi-sentient machines, we must hark back to our shared humanity and embrace our uniquely human qualities. Embracing these elements can be uncomfortable, but each and every one of us must tread that path. The Threshold is a timely call to action and a wise mentor along the way."
—Nicolai Chen Nielsen, bestselling author of Leadership at Scale, Return on Ambition, and From Malthus to Mars

“The Threshold has grounded me with a reliable set of AI leadership resources, and allowed me to form my own hopeful view of the AI future. Chatrath is a high-intellect, high-integrity leader who is inspiring the next generation. He has provided a sophisticated, timely manual which ought to be read widely.”
—Christopher North, CEO at North Parade, former Head of Asset Management at Credit Suisse Energy

“With liberal use of personal stories that humanize the narrative, and advice sourced from his own rich experience working in the worlds of AI and leadership coaching, this book is both helpful and readable. As ‘a first foray into exploring what good leadership looks like in the present and coming ages of AI,’ this is a useful guide to have by your side as you venture into this brave new world.”
—Matthew Evans, Adviser to the Vice Chancellor of United Arab Emirates University, former Dean of Science of the Universityof Hong Kong

“This book needs to be read not only by our generation, but by everyone in our children’s generation too."
—Mihir Warty, Director of Strategy, World Rugby

“Leadership in an Age of AI is a critical area, not just for futurists or hobbyists. All sectors and geographies are now establishing AI technologies and related business practices and policies, in ways that will set a trajectory. This book is profound and practical, tackling a critical problem faced by leaders: how to stay relevant as AI gets better. This problem needs soul-searching and action from leaders across domains. I commend Nick Chatrath, a professional who has led and coached leaders at the highest levels. The world needs this book to help ensure the evolution of AI is a positive one and avoid the potential calamities that others warn of as this powerful technology continues its rapid emergence."
—Andrew Luers, Partner at ProviderTrust, CEO and Cofounder at Habitat Energy

“You are going to have to learn to live with and benefit from AI. This book will help you do just that. It is insightful, cogent, and learned all at once.”
—Dr. Theodore Malloch, CEO, the Roosevelt Group

“From how we maintain motivation and culture, even as aspects of work become automated, to how we create value in an increasingly cyborg world, Nick highlights the more solid ground that can help us step from where we are today over to the other side.
Above all, Nick reminds us that we are spiritual beings, and that this side of us, which we have allowed to atrophy in decades past, now needs to be center stage. Ultimately it is here where we will come into our own, collaborating with AI and one another to forge purpose, fix broken legacies, and envision a more holistic, redemptive way ahead for our organizations, families, and societies . . . and Nick shows the way magnificently."
—Lord Wei of Shoreditch, Senior Adviser, Agnus Consulting

From the Publisher

2022-12-20
A corporate coach examines the qualities needed for leaders in the AI era.

The premise is undeniably interesting: The development and spread of AI systems requires a radical change in corporate leadership strategy. However, Chatrath, a former McKinsey consultant, misses an opportunity to break new ground. While he presents some colorful ideas, the text never finds a real nexus between leadership style and AI. The author spends most of the book setting up a model for leadership in 2023; key elements include cultivated stillness, independent thinking, embodied intelligence, and mature consciousness. All of these concepts are useful, but Chatrath doesn’t provide fresh insights. If the author had espoused this philosophy in the era of command-and-control management, it would have been radical, but today, the business section is packed with books about the importance of self-awareness and emotional connections. As for the “threshold” of AI emerging, that point occurred quite a few years ago. Chatrath offers a few intriguing anecdotes about AI, but there is a distinct lack of detailed analysis on how AI affects business—even though there are enough businesses who have integrated AI into their operations to constitute a wide-ranging research base. The author looks at the limitations of AI, especially in making complex, layered decisions, but he never delves deeply into the actual process of how human leaders should decide whether and when to overrule AI proposals. He discusses the difference between true wisdom and the manipulation of mountains of data, noting that leaders are most effective when they find social purpose in themselves and their companies—something that AI systems cannot do. However, most readers with an interest in the intersection of business and tech have heard these arguments before. The result is a book full of feel-good sentiment that is short on useful advice.

AI and leadership is an important field, but Chatrath fails to makes the necessary connections.

Kirkus Reviews