The Chief Executive and the Executive Team

All courses / AI Leader / Module 3 / Chapter 14

Learning objectives

After the lesson the participant can:

• State the five things a chief executive owns that cannot be delegated to a system, a committee or a deputy.
• Distinguish a thesis about what AI is for from a slogan by asking what outcome would show it false.
• Review an adoption target for evidence age and for the incentives it creates.
• Identify the five signs of executive AI theatre in a programme report.

Key concepts

The thesis

A short written answer, in terms of the organisation's mission, to what AI is for: which services, risks and people. It is a statement that can be wrong and says when the organisation will stop. 'We will be AI-first' is a slogan because no outcome would show it false.

Pace set by outcome

The chief executive sets the pace by outcome and not by use, gives every target an evidence age and writes down what would make the organisation slow down. No pace follows from the productivity studies without a local test.

Executive AI theatre

The book's descriptive term for announcements, dashboards and pilots that give the impression of change without changing a decision, a workflow or an outcome. Its signs are input counts, pilots that never end, unowned announcements, briefing monoculture and the disappearing sceptic.

Recorded tiebreak

AI crosses portfolios, so decision rights between executives are written. Where they disagree the chief executive is the tiebreaker of last resort, the tiebreak is recorded, and for strategic, structural, risk and crisis decisions the dissent is written by the person who dissents.

The executive's own use

What executives do with AI shapes the organisation more than what they say. The controls are that the signatory reads every draft, the secretary corrects and signs minutes, and unaided preparation once a quarter and a short log of wrong outputs keep the use honest.

Interactive exercises

Do them here and get feedback at once. Choose a card and then where it belongs, or drag it.

Teaching plan

Discussion

1. The regional director of Nordvik cannot set adoption targets for politically governed services. What does that constraint do to the pace of adoption, and is there an equivalent limit on a chief executive in your sector?
2. The test of an input count is whether anyone can say what would be different for a customer, a citizen or an employee if the figure doubled. Apply the test to one figure your leadership reports.
3. A chief executive on a full day is under the multiple-task load in which automation bias occurs in experts. What would unaided preparation once a quarter look like for your most senior leader?

Written exercise

Self-test

Choose an answer to see whether it is right, or open the answer below each question.

1. What makes a statement about AI a thesis and not a slogan, according to the chapter?

   1. It is written by the strategy office and approved by the board
   2. It names the technology and the provider the organisation will use
   3. It can be wrong: it names an outcome and says when the organisation will stop
   4. It commits the organisation to a stated percentage of weekly use by the end of a named year
   Show the answer

   C. It can be wrong: it names an outcome and says when the organisation will stop
   The example thesis expects AI to shorten the median time to first contact in claims without raising the share of decisions corrected on appeal, and says the organisation will stop if it does.

2. What remedy does the draft charter ROLE-HM-CEO-01 propose for the adoption dashboard that counted logins?

   1. Raise the weekly-use target from 70 to 80 per cent for the next year
   2. Move the target from an input to an outcome, with an evidence age and an independent check by the chief risk officer
   3. Appoint a chief AI officer to own the dashboard and its definitions
   4. Transfer the ownership of the adoption claim to the group CIO
   Show the answer

   B. Move the target from an input to an outcome, with an evidence age and an independent check by the chief risk officer
   The remedy is an outcome target, an evidence age on every adoption claim, an independent check by the chief risk officer and the chief executive as the named answerer for the claim.

3. For decisions of the strategic, structural, risk or crisis classes, what is the chief executive's rule about dissent?

   1. The dissent is written by the person who dissents, not extracted by the assistant
   2. The dissent is summarised by the assistant, with a link to the passage in the minutes it came from
   3. The dissent is recorded only when the supervisory board asks for it
   4. The dissent is settled by a vote before the paper is drafted
   Show the answer

   A. The dissent is written by the person who dissents, not extracted by the assistant
   A summary that frames a disagreement one way is a decision about the framing. The temptation to let the assistant carry the contested point is countered by having the dissenter write the dissent.