This episode we're bringing the "theory" of adult development and applying it to a real-world circumstance. Dell's SVP of Public Policy & Marketing wrote an article about a recommendation made by a member of their Customer Advisory Board, Bob Leek — CIO of Clark County, NV. Bob stated, "“State, local, and tribal governments are mission-based organizations. We shouldn’t be measuring return on investment — we should be measuring return on mission.”

While Bob is correct, and the ROM metric that resulted from that conversation is arguably orders of magnitude better than ROI for this context, the article missed a number of paradoxes and ironies. It offers a perfect opportunity to look a little deeper. At the end, I offer 3 questions you can use the next time you are asked to absorb a strategic brief, a strategy plan or an explanation from leadership that sounds clear at first, but perhaps misses some important realities.

I'd love to hear your thoughts or questions, so please post them below, or reach out via my website: https://www.aliceanneschmidt.com

We have arrived at the place where we can finally start to give some meaningful answers to the "Why?!" questions I've been asking the previous episodes. The decisions made around AI in the business world leave many scratching their heads, but it's hard to put into words exactly why these decisions are so obviously short-sighted or incomplete.

We will spend the future episodes unpacking this stage of development we've landed in with much more detail, as we've barely scratched the surface.

I'd love to hear if it helped you connect any dots, or left you with unanswered questions. Please leave a comment below, or reach out on my website: https://www.aliceanneschmidt.com

True maturity and wisdom—whether as an executive, a parent, or a teammate—isn't about knowing more. Wisdom is about understanding how you know anything at all, while mastering the high-stakes art of unlearning.

Right now, workers at every level are drowning in an explosion of AI-driven complexity. Our default reflex is to cling to our certainty. We fall in love with our abstract creations—our strategy maps, our restructuring plans, our KPI dashboards—and we start treating them as if they are immutable laws of nature. Psychologists call this cognitive illusion reification.

In this edition of Vertical Intelligence, drawing on the breakthrough adult development models of Dr. Tom Murray and Dr. John Vervaeke, we step under the hood of the corporate mind.

We explore the double-edged sword of abstraction, look at what happens when human loyalty is automated out of the equation, and layout a roadmap for entering the 4th Person Perspective. I've also included a 3-part metacognitive audit to help you pull back the curtain on the invisible habits of your own mind this week.

Find me on LinkedIn and Substack