2035 Is Already In The Room

A proven technology will cut your operating costs by 35 percent. It will automate about 40 percent of the work your people do today. It is legal. Your competitors are already using it. Your Board wants a recommendation in 30 days.

Go.

That is the problem I handed a room of graduate students in Kigali on 24 September. And here is the part that matters... yes or no was NOT an acceptable answer.

Last month I told you about the 26-year-olds. This month I was back at the African School of Governance, in a different room, with a different question. Prof. TK Pooe invited me to guest lecture in his course, Comparative Public Administration in Africa: Decision-Making in Complex and Uncertain Environments, for ASG's pioneer MPA cohort. Ninety-minutes on the schedule. In person. The next generation of leaders on the continent, and one very specific assignment.

ASG framed the day in one line on X: "What will life look like in 2035? As AI advances, leadership and governance must evolve with it." You can read their post here.

Fair. That is the question everyone is asking.

But here is how I opened the class, and I want you to hear it too, because it is the whole reason a leadership development expert was standing at the front of a public administration classroom instead of a technologist:

This is not a technology class.

Let me say something plainly. I am not a technology or AI expert. I have never claimed to be, and I am not going to start now.

What I AM is 30 years of watching leaders make decisions under pressure... in Boardrooms, in HR departments, in City Halls, in federal agencies. And in 30 years, the technology has never once been the thing that decided whether a leader got it right.

The DECISION was.

Think about what actually lands on a leader's desk when the environment changes faster than the organization can understand it.

It is a leadership problem. It is a governance problem. It is a workforce problem. It is a law problem, an ethics problem, a decision-rights problem.

Not ONE of those is a TECHNOLOGY problem. The technology is the trigger. The decision is yours.

So I gave the room three words, because leaders use them interchangeably and then act at the wrong level.

Adaptation: How can we do this better?

Transformation: How should we operate differently?

Reinvention: Should we still be doing this at all?

Adaptation changes your methods. Reinvention challenges your assumptions. I have watched organizations announce a "transformation" that was a slightly faster version of Tuesday... and I have watched organizations call something an adjustment when the honest word was reinvention.

Then I gave them the three questions that separate management from leadership: 1) CAN we do it? That is capability. 2) MAY we do it? That is authority... law, regulation, mandate. 3) SHOULD we do it? That is judgment. Only the third one is a leadership question, and it cannot be delegated to the technology or to the people selling it.

LAWFUL...but not RESPONSIBLE. POSSIBLE...but not WISE.

Values matter most at the precise moment that breaking them becomes cheap, fast, or profitable.

Write that down. That sentence is 30 years of my career in one line.

Which brings me back to the Board that wants an answer in 30 days.

I put the room into executive teams and gave them five questions. Not a framework. Five QUESTIONS.

1. PURPOSE: Does it advance the mission?

2. PEOPLE: Who gains, and who carries the cost?

3. PRINCIPLES: Which values constrain this?

4. POWER: Who should hold the decision?

5. ACCOUNTABILITY: Who answers if it causes harm?

And one rule. Yes or no is not an answer. Give me the conditions you would proceed under, or name the evidence you would need before you could.

Now here is what I need YOU to see.

I have asked those five questions for 30 years. I asked them about layoffs. I asked them about mergers. I asked them about return-to-office mandates. I asked them about every "efficiency" initiative that ever landed on my desk with a spreadsheet attached and a deadline circled. Never once about a technology. The "costume" may change....but the questions do not.

That is why I was in that room. Not because I can tell you what the technology will do in 2035. Because I can tell you what leaders do when they are scared, rushed, and holding a spreadsheet that says 35 percent... and I can tell you the five questions that keep them honest.

Here is the part I did not plan.

I was scheduled for ninety minutes and a short Q&A, and then I was going to hand the room back to the ASG faculty. The room had other plans. The students wanted more. ASG wanted more. And ninety minutes became THREE hours... three hours of questions I did not have to pull out of anyone.

It was a great conversation, and it did not end when the clock did. But here is what I actually walked out with. Every person in that room is thinking about this INTENTIONALLY. Not waiting for it to happen to them. Not reacting to it after the fact. Thinking about it, on purpose, before the picture is clear... which is the entire job.

The next morning, ASG posted a second time. This time it was a video... one minute and forty-three seconds of me on camera... and the line they pulled from it was this: "Ethically, we have to think about this from the rules and governance aspect, but also the impact on the individuals that work with us, for us and who we work for."

Work with us. For us. Who we work for. Three groups. Every decision you make this year lands on all three.

The rest of what I said is on ASG's page, and I am not going to repeat it here. There is a part about who the guardrails are actually FOR, and I would rather you hear that one in my own voice.

Now let me bring this home.

It is October. Q4 is here. For most of you, and especially those of you in banking and finance, the last 90 days of the year decide the year. Targets. Year-end close. Budget season. Performance reviews. And somewhere in a planning deck right now, an "efficiency" decision with a percentage on it.

So take the second question off my list above and put it on your Q4 plan. Who gains, and who carries the cost?

Because the cost of a fourth quarter does not land on the organization. It lands on people. It lands on the analyst who has not had a full weekend since August. It lands on the manager covering two open roles. It lands on the people who work with you, for you, and the customers you work for... in the exact 90 days when they have the least left to give.

The guardrails are not a policy. The guardrails are YOU.

Here is your assignment. Look at your Q4 plan. Find the line where the cost lands on a person. Say that person's name out loud. Then decide what you are going to do about it BEFORE the quarter decides for you.

And you have my permission, in the quarter that is built to take it, to protect your people's peace and your own. I wrote about the quiet cost of being the reliable leader in January. I wrote about being rested, clear and unapologetic in March. I am not walking either one back in October.

One more thing, and then I will let you go.

I closed the class with one question, and I asked them to write their own answer before anyone said theirs out loud. I am asking you to do the same.

What is the responsibility of leadership when preserving the institution and fulfilling its purpose are no longer the same thing?

What must you preserve? What must you change? What must you let go?

Leadership in disruption is not the ability to predict the future. It is the capacity to decide responsibly before the future is clear, and to hold on to the principles that should outlast everything else.

Two months ago I told you the future is Africa. Last month I told you it was 26-year-olds who are already running organizations. This month I presented the challenge of the year 2035 and thirty days... and the room in Kigali kept me for three hours. Nobody in it is waiting for 2035 to arrive.

Now...you have 30 days. Ready!! Set!! Go!!!

October Observances:

• Global Diversity Awareness Month: A month to recognize the value that different cultures, backgrounds and perspectives bring to our workplaces and communities, and to do something about the gap between saying it and practicing it.

• National Disability Employment Awareness Month: Celebrates the contributions of workers with disabilities and calls on employers to build workplaces that are accessible by design, not by exception.

• LGBTQIA2S+ History Month: Honors the history, leaders and movements of LGBTQIA2S+ communities, and the people who made visibility possible for the generations who came after them.

• National Work and Family Month: A reminder that the people who work for you also go home to someone. Flexibility, rest and boundaries are not perks... they are how a workforce lasts past December.

• Breast Cancer Awareness Month: Raises awareness of early detection, screening and research, and honors those living with the disease and those we have lost to it.

• Domestic Violence Awareness Month: Brings attention to the reality of domestic violence, the survivors who carry it into work every day, and the resources and policies that can make a workplace a safe place to ask for help.

• National Women's Small Business Month: Celebrates women entrepreneurs and the businesses they have built, and calls for the access to capital, contracts and networks that too often arrives late.

• Black History Month (United Kingdom, Ireland and the Netherlands): Observed in October across the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands, honoring the history, achievements and contributions of Black communities in those countries.

• Filipino American History Month: Commemorates the first recorded arrival of Filipinos in what is now the United States, in October 1587, and celebrates the history and contributions of Filipino Americans.

• Polish American Heritage Month: Honors the history, culture and contributions of Polish Americans.

• Hispanic Heritage Month, through Oct 15: The second half of the observance that began on September 15, celebrating the histories, cultures and contributions of Hispanic and Latino communities.

• Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, Oct 2 to 4 (sundown to sundown): The Jewish holidays that close the High Holy Day season, marking the end of the annual cycle of Torah readings and the immediate start of the next one.

• World Teachers' Day, Oct 5: A UNESCO observance honoring teachers everywhere and the conditions they need to do their work well. This one landed differently for me this year.

• Latina Equal Pay Day, Oct 8: Marks how far into the year Latinas must work to earn what white, non-Hispanic men earned the year before... one of the widest pay gaps of any group of women in the United States.

• World Mental Health Day, Oct 10: A global observance dedicated to mental health awareness, access to care and the dismantling of stigma. In a fourth quarter, it is also a reminder to check on the people who look fine.

• International Day of the Girl, Oct 11: A United Nations observance recognizing the rights of girls and the specific barriers they face in education, safety and opportunity around the world.

• National Coming Out Day, Oct 11: Celebrates the courage of coming out and the visibility that changes minds, families and workplaces.

• Indigenous Peoples' Day (United States), Oct 12: Honors the histories, sovereignty and enduring contributions of Native American nations and Indigenous peoples across the Americas.

• Thanksgiving (Canada), Oct 12: Canada's national day of gratitude for the harvest and the year, observed on the second Monday of October.

• Durga Puja, Oct 17 to 21: A major Hindu festival honoring the goddess Durga and her victory over the demon Mahishasura, celebrated with elaborate pandals, music, food and community gathering, especially in Bengal and across the diaspora.

• International Pronouns Day, Oct 21: Observed on the third Wednesday of October to make respecting, sharing and educating about personal pronouns commonplace.

• Halloween, Oct 31: The evening before All Saints' Day, with roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, now celebrated with costumes, candy and community.

• Samhain, Oct 31 to Nov 1: The Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of the darker half of the year, observed by many Pagan and Wiccan communities as a time to honor ancestors.

Until next month... Be well and protect your peace!