The AI Turf War: Who Really Owns It at the Top?

[00:00:03] Welcome to the Quick Take Podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Susie Tomenchok. And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today. Hey, welcome to Quick Take. I'm one of your hosts, Susie, along with James. How are you, James? I'm good.

[00:00:28] So we have a topic today about the change of leadership as it relates to technology. That's right. And I think it's pretty interesting. So give us a little bit of context, James. Well, there's been a couple articles talking about the role of leadership, specifically the C-level, as it relates to AI.

[00:00:48] And I think that, you know, AI is, you know, over-hyped and over-talked about and over-discussed for sure. Maybe not over-hyped, but certainly over-discussed. But I think as we often do on our show, we talk about leadership and some of the software skills and some of the nuances that are related to it.

[00:01:09] There's a really interesting pivot that's occurring around AI. And I think that how leaders think about it is we're in a unique situation. And I think it's worth evaluating this particular thing and how every C-level individual, how every senior leader needs to participate in the conversation.

[00:01:29] I just was thinking about a client of mine that all of the C-level were kind of arguing about who owned it. And so the COO was like, it's mine. And she even said to me, I need to tell the board and be very overt because the chief HR officer is breathing down my neck and he's talking about how it's his.

[00:01:52] But the CTO was like, but I'm going to own the technology. And so it was like the sexiest thing that they wanted to own. They wanted to make sure they had their stamp on it. You know, and as you and I were talking before the show in the green room, you know, because we have a green room. We're so special.

[00:02:07] There's a great parallel between this and computers. And I think if we, if you put yourself in the shoes of a C-level of a group of executives, of a board of directors, when, not when the computer first came out, not when it was still a novelty, but when the actual desktop PC was kind of coming out, there was this early period where it was only hard.

[00:02:32] It was finance, right? Finance ran IT back in the day. And then maybe IT got spun out, but largely people were like, oh, that's that department. You know, HR was like, no, that's IT. You know, finance was like, no, that's IT. Office was like, no, that's IT. We all look back on it. I go, no, everybody had to use the computer. Every department was, had to get to the point where like, where is software going to change my organization?

[00:02:58] And software ate every department. Every department has a software component. And to what degree that department really embraces it? You know, there's some HR groups that just take the software and just use it. Then there's some HR groups that are incredibly involved and really ingraded with that tool and, and looking at how it interfaces with other things. And they're, they're really involved in it. This is the same thing. Totally. AI will draw across multiple verticals.

[00:03:27] But I think what's interesting, I would also say that people want to be the owner. Yes. And so they, they are set in that old era of somebody needs to own it. And so some of the arguments that I'm hearing, like when all of these people went in front of the board, there was one person that just didn't make a very good case of why you should own it.

[00:03:48] But there's so much glowing platitudes around it. There's not a great description around it. They're maybe using AI to come up with their argument about why they need to own it. And they're reading that. And so there's the positioning of it is very soft right now.

[00:04:03] But this article that, that you brought to my attention really talked about that ownership across and how not only the technology, but the effect of it, the culture, how the organization needs to shift and change is really we're at this time where we need to look at it differently.

[00:04:21] I couldn't agree more. And I think that the better approach, I think honestly, is every person on that board or on that executive team should go in front of the board and tell the board how they are using AI for that department.

[00:04:34] You know, I just, it's so funny. I forgot all about it, but I did help a team doing their EOS organization and they were doing their EOS rocks today for second quarter. And rocks are just basically key goals for the department for, for the month or for the quarter.

[00:04:52] And I was facilitating the brainstorming and kind of articulating one of the things AI was clearly one of them. And the outcome after much discussion was every single person in the group needs to have an AI rock. So it's not, I am AI. It's how I'm doing AI for data science, how I'm doing AI for marketing tech.

[00:05:16] How am I doing AI for software development? Because every vertical has more than enough work within that space to talk about it. It's almost like AI is a highway and everybody is on it, but you have to have your own lane around it. And I think about, you know, there's a lot of coaches out there that do leadership and leadership will always be something that we need to have a focus on.

[00:05:38] But we have different lenses. My lens is different than somebody else's around leadership. And so I think that there's a parallel there for everybody needs to own it, but you have to have maybe your opinion or your lens on it so that you can provide the value from that seat, which is so powerful.

[00:05:58] It's not, it's like a negotiation. There's all a seat on the table and the best negotiators expand the pie so that you can look at it from a creative perspective. And everybody's looking at it like it's very finite and I want to own this. No, I think I love that analogy, that highway analogy, you know, there's so many great ways you can spin that, but the fact that it is a highway, but every department should have their own lane.

[00:06:27] And every department should think about how, you know, some, some lanes are going to go faster than others. You know, you need that IT software development lane to be a fast lane. You know, maybe HR can be somewhere else. Although I would argue not considering I'm now watching live videos of people using AI to do interviews in real time. But the truth is, is that every department should be considering it and everyone should have their own lane and understand that they've got a role to play. Yeah. And I do love that analogy, Susie. Good job.

[00:06:57] Because I think when you said that of the highways in LA and how fast they are and how many people are there and sometimes there's a traffic hiccup and that will impact the business. Oh, absolutely.

[00:07:12] And so really thinking about that in that way and letting people own a piece of it, a part of it, because the companies that leverage it the best are the ones that are going to be taking advantage of all of the asphalt. Yep. Yep. Yep. And I think that, and I'm going to be done with the analogy because I don't want to beat the horse to death, but there's also this reality where, you know, we need someone who is actually also responsible for the highway.

[00:07:40] Yeah. And what we're seeing is a chief AI officer come to the fore and many companies. And while I think it does sound orthogonal to what we're talking about, as if that person should own everything, there is an element of somebody who is responsible for ensuring that everyone's on the highway, for ensuring that everyone understands that there is a lane for them.

[00:08:10] Yeah. Yeah. And it's, you know, I imagine that it's much like, again, the PC where, you know, you're an oil and gas company. It took them a long time to figure out that that that PC could be used in all the departments. Whereas maybe a company in the Valley was, you know, they they had everybody using it, whether they liked it or not. And so there is a, an opportunity for a company to identify somebody who can help everyone get on board, but not own it.

[00:08:38] And I think that's the difference between what you were seeing at your client's office versus what I'm suggesting, which is it's not ownership. It's shepherd. You need someone to shepherd it and manage that versus own it. What's interesting is, as we think about some of these turf wars that are happening around this is when you have pressure and when you have these emotions, it clouds your thinking.

[00:09:02] And so I also believe, like you just said, that discussion has to happen outside of the heat of the moment. It can't be related to a specific project and who owns it. It needs to be a philosophical discussion with the leadership to say, how are we going to look at this? So that in the heat of the moment, everybody has already opted in to the model instead of it being created in this pressure cooker.

[00:09:32] Now, I love that. And that's definitely the title of the episode, you know, is the AI turf war. Because we are, you know, managing that, that resource, if you will, within a company. How are we establishing the roles and responsibilities? You know, our listeners know my favorite phrase or one of them is, you know, good fences make good neighbors. And in this case, if we're all going to use that AI superhighway, we need to figure out what lanes we're in so we can maximize our opportunity there.

[00:10:00] And I think that's, that's the cool part is, is this, this turf war is real. And we have to get to a place where people appreciate a best way to manage that at the corporate level. What comes to mind for me from a leadership coach perspective is that first team and how that the concept of first team is your first team are your colleagues. And your second team are the people that report into you. And the reason why that's so important is because you have to make those decisions.

[00:10:29] It creates a unity that makes those people under you not fight for their own turf wars. So it's really important for that team to have this discussion and think about the effects of all of them instead of the solo, this is for me. I agree. And I think, you know, we'll do, we need to do another episode, which where we talk about how does that, how do those lanes get established?

[00:10:54] How do you at a leadership level understand and learn about the AI possibilities? And what does that look like? And how do you really put yourself in a position to be successful when it's both a turf war and a differentiator? There's a lot to unpack there. That's right. And how you frame it and who runs it and how you do that. So, yeah, we'll cover that. So stay tuned. Stay tuned. Part two. Stay tuned. Yeah, there'll be a part two. So don't go anywhere. So I think it's an interesting discussion.

[00:11:23] And I think we're just saying you need to explore what is this new age of AI and how is it the ownership applied across the sea level? This turf war is happening whether you're there or not. Think about how you want to manage that at the company. Good one. Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind.

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