Caroline Stokes: A Call for Radical Collaboration

Kelly welcomes Caroline Stokes back to the podcast to discuss her new book “Aftershock to 2030: A CEO’s Guide to Reinvention in the Age of AI, Climate and Societal Collapse.” 

After reading your book, three adages came to me that connect to your work: In improv, we learn to see all obstacles as gifts. We learn to play the scene we’re in, not the scene we want to be in. And as we enter the unknown, we bring a brick, not a cathedral. 

“It’s beautiful. And I love the metaphors and the visuals around that because it makes the big, Everest’s that are around us in all of the different topics, actually manageable. It doesn’t overwhelm our brain; it doesn’t flood our senses. I’ve always loved improv. I’ve always loved what you’ve done and what your alums have achieved. But in this instance, those three phrases, learnings, ways of being are really powerful.” 

This book is basically a manifesto for change. That the problems are here and we have to fix them now. 

“Thanks for bringing that forward because that is exactly the situation. There are so few people that have come to that realization, and we’re all very happily living how we want to live our lives without realizing we all need to come together as a global community. But as we know, there’s consumerism, there’s capitalism, there’s business life, there’s quarterly targets, there’s, you know, paying the mortgage, all of these things that trap us in the system. And I don’t want to sound like one of those people that says, ‘You’ve got to break free and live on a self-sustaining farm.’ That’s not what it’s about. We all need to find ways that are actually going to make sense for planetary survival. Sorry everybody, but we have until 2030 to create net zero. And it should be on the front page of the news every single day. But we’re very distracted with all of the systems that are around us. And there’s this giant buffer of noise that’s keeping us distracted from actually doing that level of work. So yeah, we’re in that situation.” 

Okay, straight forward question: is AI a net positive for society? 

“Hmm. That’s a great question. And the answer is yes and no. We all need to put our futurist hat on. Not doomsday necessarily. But, we have to think about some kind of Black Mirror scenarios to some kind of degree, because that will put us in a situation where we’re able to go, okay, well, we don’t want that to happen. We don’t want unethical things to happen. But if we look at it through a positive lens, if we’re able to look at it through the lens of, what can we use with AI to ensure that we’re enriching our work experience? How we’re able to enrich problem solving? How can we co-create together? How are we able to solve some of the really difficult challenges of our time? This way we’re all part of the solution together.” 

Photo Credit: Rachel Nixon