12/04/2023

Weathering a Leadership Crisis

Determine if your organization could handle one

Hopefully, you're unlikely to experience the kind of leadership crisis that recently consumed the artificial intelligence firm OpenAI. In the course of just a few days, CEO Sam Altman was ousted by OpenAI board; the board proceeded to swap in one new CEO, then another; staff threatened to quit en masse in response to the moves; the board resigned and the new one brought Altman back to the job.

The reasons for all the chaos that led to Altman's ouster in the first place remain vague. But whatever the reasons, it is plain that OpenAI wasn't organizationally equipped to handle the crisis. "Clearly, our governance structure had a problem," Altman told The Verge last week, in a lead candidate for an understatement-of-the-year prize.

Altman added that "designing a really good governance structure, especially for such an impactful technology, is not a one-week question." No doubt, OpenAI needs some time to settle. But I’m not convinced that there’s something inherent in OpenAI and its much-discussed pioneering technology that makes its governance structure more complicated. The issues brought before Altman’s company are no different than the one your association faces: How do you establish a meaningful mission, develop a board with the capacity to strategize intelligently around it, and create a leadership culture that can implement it?

Please select this link to read the complete article from Associations Now.