Complexity, a global constant, has taken on an unprecedented shape and scope as a result of the sharp acceleration in the changes affecting today’s globalized and interconnected society. In every era, history has provided examples of unexpected complexities and revolutions with the ability to profoundly transform economic, political, cultural, and social systems. In the societies experiencing them, changes of such magnitude led people to feel that they were facing periods of crisis and even the decline of civilization. All the crises that mankind has known and faced, however, unfolded over a longer time frame and generated less disruptive confusion and disorientation in the peoples affected than is the case with today’s crises.
One risk in today’s world is that the rapid technological advances brought by generative artificial intelligence could have a “super black swan” effect. The technology involved acts not just as a tool, but also as an agent that functions in a non-linear manner, potentially outpacing its programmers’ understanding.
Moreover, this technological complexity is set within a landscape of high geopolitical instability, characterized by attempts to shift the balance of power in the international order. The Pax Americana – which reached maturity with the end of the Cold War and whose hallmark was US leadership of a unipolar world – is now being severely challenged by old and new powers that in some respects are seeing the gap with the global hegemony become narrower. These actors are therefore attempting to impose new and alternative ideological models.
The necessities of the energy transition and energy autonomy, not to mention the wars on Europe’s doorstep, are helping create a climate of uncertainty and distrust that is weighing heavily on European states. The abovementioned poly-crises are prompting societies, businesses, and governments to question which leadership characteristics will prove able to manage today’s complexities and their unpredictable nature.
In this context, therefore, adequate preparation and training to address current and potential crises are urgently needed. The rediscovery of a humanistic and classical culture – which places critical thinking, adaptability, and problem solving at the center of human education – is a necessary condition for the creation of a leadership with broad scope and the ability to respond to the challenges posed by a society in which machines will play an increasingly prominent role. The rapid growth of AI is also accompanied, as is already emerging clearly, by a growing knowledge gap that is fueling global and societal inequalities: on the one hand those who can ride the wave of innovation and on the other those who risk suffering its consequences. Drawing on renewed capacities for humanity, empathy, and creativity, leaders will have a responsibility to ensure that the world becomes more inclusive and to prevent this gap from widening unchecked in the coming years.
Technological transformations, for example, will have inevitable impacts on business dynamics, especially among younger people and in particular those newly entering the labor market. It is therefore crucial for both large and small companies to identify new strategies for attracting talent, and above all for training that talent using new methods that will necessarily be based on human connections with more experienced role models and mentors. Indeed, mentorship is already playing an even more central role as many tasks typically assigned to new entrants to the workplace will increasingly be automated and entrusted to technology.
While it is necessary to understand and manage the risks arising from social transformations and from the complexity of the system in which each person finds themselves, it is also crucial to perceive the opportunities that can often emerge in times of confusion and transition.
In the current poly-crises, Italy and the European Union are certainly facing challenges and issues of exceptional scope and magnitude (demographics, geopolitics, and energy, to name just a few). Our responses are vital to the very survival of our democratic institutions. However, EU member states are also faced with an opportunity to gain strength from within by offering a viable alternative that highlights the strengths and capabilities of a region of freedom, security and justice that is unique in the world. Europe, strong in the knowledge of its values and its unique merits – that in some cases it has won through periods of ineradicable suffering – must embark on the pathway of reinforcing its institutions and reaffirming its identity. In this light, the need for Europe’s leaders to communicate more effectively – both internally and externally – the goals, merits and achievements of the Union is increasingly apparent: only in this way can they help create an ecosystem of citizenship that is more aware, better informed and better prepared to manage the complexities of today’s world.