The fastest organisations are learning to remove before they add, says work futurist Dom Price

As organisations accelerate AI adoption, many are discovering that technology is only one part of transformation.

Ahead of CIO Edge Melbourne this August, Work Futurist at Be Luminous Dom Price spoke with ADAPT Head of Analytics & Insights Gabby Fredkin about why organisations often automate outdated ways of working, how leadership is evolving as expertise becomes more distributed, and why simplifying operating models can create more room for transformation.

Key takeaways:

• Organisations achieve better outcomes when they redesign work before introducing AI into existing processes.
• Leadership is becoming more collaborative as expertise extends beyond traditional organisational hierarchies.
• Faster learning cycles help organisations respond more effectively to changing business conditions.
• Removing outdated processes and rituals can create as much value as introducing new technology.

Redesign work before introducing technology

Dom believes many organisations are approaching AI from the wrong starting point.

Rather than asking where AI can be applied, leading organisations begin by identifying the business problem they are trying to solve and questioning whether the existing process remains fit for purpose.

He sees many organisations accelerating legacy ways of working instead of redesigning them, allowing inefficient processes to happen faster rather than improving the outcome itself.

Some organisations are already shifting that mindset. Rather than running AI hackathons, they’re bringing employees and customers together to solve business problems first, with technology becoming one possible part of the solution.

Leadership is becoming more connected

Dom also sees leadership evolving as expertise becomes more widely distributed across organisations.

Experience remains valuable, but leaders increasingly need to bring together people with different perspectives rather than relying solely on traditional reporting structures or tenure.

That includes creating opportunities for cross-functional collaboration, encouraging knowledge to move across teams and generations, and seeking expertise wherever it exists inside the organisation.

The organisations adapting most effectively are creating environments where diverse experience contributes to better decisions.

Learning cycles are becoming shorter

According to Dom, many organisations continue to approach transformation as a project with a defined beginning and end.

He believes organisations are better served by building regular learning cycles into how they operate.

Several leadership teams he works with review major initiatives every week, giving themselves frequent opportunities to adjust priorities, respond to new information and refine their approach.

As access to information becomes easier, the speed at which organisations learn and respond is becoming an increasingly important capability.

Simplifying organisations creates room for change

One of Dom’s recurring observations is that organisations often focus on adding new initiatives while spending far less time removing practices that have outlived their usefulness.

He compares many enterprises to ships collecting barnacles over time. Individual processes, governance structures and rituals may have once been valuable, but together they gradually make organisations slower and more complex.

Rather than treating every existing practice as permanent, leaders can benefit from regularly reviewing which ways of working still contribute to the organisation’s goals and which have simply become habit.

Creating space for new ideas may depend just as much on what organisations choose to retire as what they introduce.

Hear from Dom Price and Dayle Stevens OAM at CIO Edge in Melbourne as they explore the behaviours and operating practices that help transformation gain traction.

More than 180 CIOs and IT leaders will examine how agentic AI is reshaping business models, operating models and the CIO’s role.