AI, Capacity, and the Human Side of Work
Artificial intelligence isn’t just about doing things faster or cheaper. Its real promise is in creating capacity. Capacity to shift our attention away from routine tasks, and towards the human side of things: judgement, creativity, relationships, and strategy.
When organisations gain this space, they can finally tackle questions that normally get crowded out by day-to-day operations. Questions that start with “what if?”
Childhood Lessons in Civilisation
As a child, I loved Sid Meier’s Civilization. It wasn’t just a game, it was a way to build something great. Every decision - where to place the first settler, which technology to research, when to go to war - had ripple effects. I found it fascinating to see how small choices compounded over time (although I probably put on “god mode” more times than I should have done).
Decades later, I found myself working with real organisations trying to implement complex strategies. And the same patterns held true. Small shifts in structure, incentives, or timing could set off ripple effects across the whole system.
Discovering Game Theory
That’s where game theory comes in. Game theory is the study of decisions when different players, with different incentives, interact. It reminds us that strategy isn’t just a plan written on paper. It’s about anticipating how choices ripple through complex systems, and how others will respond.
A decision that looks good in isolation can collapse when competitors, regulators, customers, or even your own employees react in unexpected ways. Conversely, a risky move might unlock entirely new possibilities if the system shifts in your favour.
The Mini-Game: What If
So it seemed natural to put these interests together - AI, strategy, and game theory and then wrap them in a 90s retro package.
What If is a mini-game designed to walk through decisions which other great leaders have made (Caesar, Elizabeth I, Gandhi, JFK and Merkel) . It’s not a simulator of reality. It’s a way of letting us focus on cause and effect: how choices, incentives, and structures combine to shape outcomes.
It’s a first step in exploring how game mechanics can be used to help leaders think and / or it’s just a bit of fun.
Why This Matters for Leaders
Notwithstanding that this was a fun idea which took me 20 mins to draft and a little bit longer to finesses, inherently there are questions which leaders can ask themselves:
What if we changed our incentives?
What if we redesigned our structures? and if we abstract from the topic to the game itself;
What if we introduced AI capacity here instead of there?
The value is in asking better questions - and in surfacing the unintended consequences of well-intentioned moves.
Closing Thought
AI gives us the capacity to reimagine how we work. Game theory gives us the lens to anticipate consequences. Games give us the medium to explore both.
What If is a small start, but I hope it opens the door to bigger experiments in how we think about strategy, choices, and consequences.
