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Kelly Monahan, Co-Founder of Beyond the Desk, joins host Sima Vasa to challenge the assumption that AI is responsible for today’s workforce crisis. Kelly argues that shareholder-primacy doctrine, adopted wholesale since a 1970s Milton Friedman op-ed, created the fragile leadership culture now cracking under macroeconomic pressure — and that AI is being used as a convenient scapegoat. Kelly also covers Gen Z’s rejection of corporate theatrics, the three foundational skills for AI literacy and why the future of work is likely to be smaller, more distributed and harder to navigate without domain expertise.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
00:00 Introduction.
03:50 A single 1970s op-ed reshaped business philosophy and created today’s command-and-control culture.
07:45 Predicting engagement scores from one boardroom question about trust reveals deep leadership gaps.
12:30 AI is being used as cover for bad strategy, not as the primary cause of workforce disruption.
17:20 Only 30% of Gen Z aspires to leadership, signaling a values crisis for corporate America.
23:00 The PLOT framework helps leaders share power, listen, own outcomes and extend trust to Gen Z.
27:30 Domain expertise, not tool familiarity, is the true first pillar of AI literacy in any organization.
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RESOURCES MENTIONED
Reclaim the Plot (Kelly Monahan’s book):
https://reclaimtheplotbook.com
Beyond the Desk:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/beyond-the-desk-llc
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