Why the Future of Leadership Must Become More Human

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In his new column “Zukunfts!mpuls,” management and leadership expert Daniel C. Schmid examines the societal implications of technological developments and opens the door to new ways of thinking. In the current issue, he explores why leadership must become more human as technology advances and why guidance, judgment, and responsibility are becoming increasingly important. The column appears bimonthly in personalSCHWEIZ.

Technology is advancing at a pace that was almost unimaginable just a few years ago. Artificial intelligence makes knowledge available at any time, automates routines, and supports decision-making with a quality that is continually improving. This creates enormous opportunities for organizations.

At the same time, however, a paradox is emerging: the more information is available and the faster decisions can be made, the greater the need for guidance becomes. After all, data alone does not create meaning, and speed is no substitute for sound judgment. This is precisely where the central leadership challenge of our time lies.

The New Leadership Question

Today, artificial intelligence can analyze data, recognize patterns, devise strategies, and compose texts. It provides answers to questions that previously required human expertise. Yet one question remains, by its very nature, human:

What is right—and what is responsible?

This question cannot be answered solely in technical or economic terms. It requires the ability to weigh different perspectives, assess consequences, and make decisions in the context of people, organizations, and society. Responsibility does not arise from algorithms. It arises when people are willing to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

© Daniel C. Schmid, Library at Strahovský klášter, Praha 2026

The Sustainable Competitive Advantage Lies in People

Today, companies are right to invest in new technologies. In doing so, they create efficiency, scalability, and new business models. But in the long run, competition will not be decided by who has the most powerful technology. Rather, what will be decisive is who uses technology wisely and thereby makes better decisions.

The true competitive advantage therefore does not lie in the machine, but in the abilities of the people who use it. The ZfU describes this conviction as “The Human Advantage.” After all, the more intelligent technology becomes, the more important those skills become that cannot be digitized or automated.

Link: Originial article in German

A Long Story is Coming to an End

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(© Per Kasch | perkasch.com)(© Per Kasch | perkasch.com)

What 20 Years of Organizational Development Taught Me About Leadership, Ecosystems, and Trust

After more than 20 deeply fulfilling years in Organizational Development—shaped by countless meaningful encounters—I find myself consciously closing one chapter and carrying its core insights forward.

I am profoundly grateful to my outstanding team, our exceptional trainers, and more than 120 prestigious corporate clients who placed their trust in us over the years. Working with them shaped not only my professional path, but also my deep conviction about what truly drives sustainable success.

Throughout this journey, I was privileged to collaborate with some of the most influential thinkers in our field—most notably my mentor and dear friend Edgar H. Schein, as well as inspiring voices such as Amy Edmondson, Otto Scharmer, and Peter Senge. What unites their work is not a specific method, framework, or tool, but a shared respect for human relationships as the foundation of effective leadership.

“Creating a Triple A Society through Reflection on Crisis and Change”: Video Sessions with Ed Schein, Amy C. Edmondson, Otto Scharmer, and Peter Senge, Spring 2021 (© G. Fatzer | M. Laederach | D. Schmid)

From Organizations to Ecosystems—The Real Leadership Challenge Ahead

As Peter Senge once emphasized in a joint session with Gerhard Fatzer, Dr. (Visiting faculty and Visiting Prof.), and Mouna Laederach, the decisive arena of the future will not be individual organizations or isolated leadership formats. It It will be the quality of ecosystems.

Markets, clients, partners, and internal stakeholders are becoming ever more interconnected. In this reality, the central leadership challenge is no longer efficiency alone, but the ability to hold the productive tension between competition and collaboration.

Organizations that master this tension are those that invest deliberately in relationships—across boundaries, roles, and institutional logics. The quality of these ecosystems will determine who thrives in the long run:

Peter Senge, Video Session, 13/03/2021 (© G. Fatzer | M. Laederach | D. Schmid)

Leadership Remains Relational—Especially in the Age of AI

In Humble Leadership (2nd edition, 2023), Edgar Schein and his son Peter Schein articulate a principle that has guided my own work for decades: complex challenges cannot be solved through authority or expertise alone. They require openness, trust, and genuine curiosity.

Leaders achieve better outcomes when they acknowledge what they do not know, ask honest questions, and listen attentively—thereby unlocking the collective intelligence of the system. Recognized as the number one management thinker in the world for two consecutive years, Amy C. Edmondson captures this insight succinctly in Right Kind of Wrong (2023):

«A system’s results are less shaped by its individual parts than by how the parts relate to one another.» (Amy C. Edmondson)

This is not a «soft» idea. It is a strategic one.

We are entering an era in which artificial intelligence will dramatically optimize processes, decisions, and information flows. Precisely because of this technological acceleration, human connection becomes more—not less—decisive. AI can enhance systems, but only people create meaning, trust, and commitment. Leadership effectiveness, customer loyalty, and long-term business success will therefore depend on the quality of relationships leaders are able to build and sustain.

In his final message, shared by Otto Scharmer in January 2023, Edgar Schein expressed this truth with characteristic clarity—reminding us that progress without relationship ultimately remains hollow:

«Love is what we bring to our clients. All the good we do comes from love.» (Edgar H. Schein)

What I Stand For Going Forward

Looking back, there is little to add and much to affirm. What I carry forward from these years is a clear position: sustainable success is never primarily a question of tools, models, or technologies. It is a question of relationship quality—between leaders and teams, organizations and customers, and increasingly, between organizations themselves. This is the principle I continue to stand for. It is the lens through which I approach leadership, collaboration, and long-term customer relationships.

Thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey. It has truly been a pleasure—and it is far from over. The path ahead is guided by a simple conviction: leadership begins with human connection, and organizational success will be shaped by the quality of our relationships. My next learning page will be written soon, so stay tuned: «The Future is analogue!»

Daniel C. Schmid, January 1st, 2026

AI, Fake News, and Common Sense

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¡Dear friends, in times of AI which is highly threatened by Fake News and political desinformation all over, it‘s about time to boost non-artificial intelligence: «The Future is analogue!» Stay tuned here or on LinkedIn🎙️

© Daniel C. Schmid, The Edge, Hudson Yards, NYC, Oct. 2024.

Working with Ed Schein

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Together with Prof. Gerhard Fatzer, PhD, Trias Institute, I had the honor and great pleasure of working for several years with Prof. Edgar H. Schein, Emeritus MIT Sloan School of Management (1928–2023), one of the co-founders of organizational development. On the one hand, I was able to learn a great deal about the fascinating facets of organizational development directly from the spiritus rector of the discipline, and on the other, I was able to catch up on Ed’s exciting family history (see my HWZ/Trias conference keynote in 2017, Learning Journey to Trstena). I have thus succeeded in tracing the history of his ancestors in Trsztena in Upper Hungary and Trstena in Czechoslovakia in detail (see my article A Learning Journey to Trstená According to Edgar H. Schein’s «Organizational Culture Model»). I felt overwhelmed and honored by how Ed had evaluated my research:

«Daniel Schmid has opened up an important new research field—historical ethnography—in tracking down some of my family origins in communities that deliberately hid them because of fears of the Nazi anti-semitism. This was not only of great value to me but revealed some historical details of how a powerful evil ideology can be so threatening that it not only kills existing people but scares communities into wiping out the identities of former residents. This research is an important contribution to both social psychology and political science because we see similar uses of fear mongering in today’s autocratic leaders.» (Edgar H. Schein, 05.03.1928 – 26.01.2023)

Our fruitful cooperation with Ed lasted until 2023 and produced several significant scientific contributions to organizational development, including books, video statements and timeless ideas that Gerhard Fatzer and myself would like to share with you:

From start-ups to mature organizations, all teams and organizations need cultural work. In the age of globalization and digital competition, unprejudiced leadership and cultural development are therefore of central importance. As friends from the circle of Ed Schein, we encourage an international dialogue on the «Art of Change» in the age of digitalization and bring together German and American approaches. The precise descriptions of the fundamentals of sustainable organizational development can be used directly in projects and transformation processes. Here are our results, please help us to preserve Ed Schein’s work for future generations:

2024: Gerhard Fatzer / Anne Fanenbruck (Ed.): Organisationsentwicklung als Kunst. Veränderung durch Dialog und vorurteilslose Führung. Hommage an Edgar H. Schein [Organizational Development as an Art. Change through Dialogue and unprejudiced Leadership. Homage to Edgar H. Schein], Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2024.

2021: Gerhard Fatzer / Daniel C. Schmid (Ed.): Kunst der Veränderung. Vorurteilslose Führung und Organisationsentwicklung [The Art of Change. Humble Leadership and Organizational Development], Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2021.

2020: A Manifesto of the Pioneers of Change, together with Edgar H. Schein, Amy C. Edmondson, C. Otto Scharmer, and Peter M. Senge (based on 4 individual video sessions organized by MounaLife, Gerhard Fatzer, and myself).

2019: Gerhard Fatzer / John van Maanen / Daniel C. Schmid / Wolfgang Weber (Ed.): Edgar H. Schein – The Spirit of Inquiry. innsbruck university press, Innsbruck 2019.

2017: HWZ / Trias Conference «Humble Leadership» with online keynote by Edgar H. Schein (Zurich, 23.05.2017)

2017: Interview Edgar H. Schein: «CEOs sollten dringend demütiger werden» [«CEOs urgently need to become more humble»], HR Today 05/2017.

Together with Ed’s son, Peter A. Schein, co-founder of scheinocli.org, we will carry on Ed’s powerful fire to preserve freedom of thought, as quoted in the 2020 Manifesto of the Pioneers of Change, together with Edgar H. Schein, Amy C. Edmondson, C. Otto Scharmer, and Peter M. Senge. Typical of Ed, he has seen the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportunity to be prepared for future incidents:

«But as social scientists we have been educated to think out-of-the-box, so let’s not abdicate our responsibilities and fail to use some of the skills that we do have, and take advantage, at least to speak up. The coronavirus has provided us an incredible opportunity. If we don’t speak up now, it might be too late when the global warming virus becomes the next global pandemic.»

Coda: For all of you who want to delve deeper into Ed’s seminal work, we highly recommend the following article published by MIT: «Organizational Culture: 5 enduring management ideas from MIT Sloan’s Edgar Schein».

Fact or Fake? How the «Liberal Arts» serve the Search for Truth

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René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician; Donald J. Trump (born 1946), 45th President of the USA.

Do you Remember the Birth of «Alternative Facts»?

In January 2017, Kellyanne Conway, then advisor to 45th US President Donald Trump, had used this phrase for the very first time. This, to justify false statements made by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer about audience size during Trump’s inauguration in front of the Capitol. Conway’s statements, made during an interview on the American political talk show «Meet the Press», hosted by Chuck Todd, should go down in the history books as a frontal assault on the core values of the Enlightenment: The former «Cogito, ergo sum» («I think, therefore I am») of the philosopher René Descartes had suddenly turned into «I feel, therefore I am right», which was to characterise Trump’s entourage style during his presidential years. How could it have come to this?

Conway: “You’re saying it’s a falsehood and Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that.”

Todd: “Alternative facts are not facts. They are falsehoods.”

Conway: “If we’re going to keep referring to the press secretary in those types of terms I think we’re going to have to rethink our relationship here.”

Conway: Press Secretary Gave ‘Alternative Facts’

Back to the Roots of the «Liberal Arts»

With her statement, Kellyanne Conway has swept away the frameworks of thought from antiquity and the Middle Ages in a dash. More so-called “Alternative Facts” should follow. However, since the Middle Ages there have been tried and tested means against distortion of reality, namely the so-called “Liberal Arts” (“Septem Artes Liberales”). With their help, crude logics of thought can be seen through and falsified, even in the post-digital age. Let’s listen to our brand new friend, ChatGPT, and its definition of the “Liberal Arts”:

​If you want to delve deeper and listen to my keynote (in German) at this year’s Learning Innovation Conference on 13 April 2023, you can benefit from a discounted price: Get your voucher here!

 

 

 

 

Further information: www.learning-innovation.ch