What's the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?
An executive I’d coached for some months asked me at the end of a session what his job was still good for in a world driven by AI and smart machines. He wasn’t the only one asking. Others had the same worry. Analyzing, generating insights- all of it was becoming work a machine does faster. I gave him an answer. The book is that answer in all its dimensions.
What's your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?
I read both fiction and non-fiction, depending on my mood and what’s going on around me. In fiction, I like crime, historical novels, and books that are witty and smart. The author doesn’t matter to me as long as the story pulls me in and the writing keeps me there. In non-fiction, I go for good modern leadership books, personal development, and biographies of people who did something unusual and moved the world forward.
What books are on your TBR pile right now?
Regine Change, Unreasonable Hospitality, Theo of Golden, and An Enemy in the Village
What scene in your book was your favorite to write?
The Tesla story at the start of the Psychological Safety chapter. The company was months behind on building its first mass-market car, the assembly lines kept breaking down, and the founder had moved onto the factory floor to fix it himself. The mood turned to fear. One of his senior people pulled him aside and reminded him of an old saying: no one comes up with a good idea when being chased by a tiger. Nobody had to ask who the tiger was. That one sentence says what the rest of the chapter needs pages to build. Every engineer in the building could have solved the problems on those lines. Fear had simply moved their minds somewhere else.
Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)
When the writing isn’t going well, and I’m fighting to get the quality up, I drink a lot of coffee. When I’m in the flow, I can’t stop drinking tea. Why? No idea.
Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?
Anything is possible. But YOU have to do it.
If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?
We can't stop what's already happening and what’s still to come. Neither as leaders nor as individuals. But what we can and should do is to keep learning and try to understand what's happening, influence the future as well as we can, and ensure that we keep humans in the driver's seat.
Andreas von der Heydt is the author of the new book HUMA: Human Leadership + Machine Enhanced
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