Feature
As a three-time CHRO, Malvika Jethmalani understands a company is only as strong as its people. Her monthly column helps leaders navigate some of the thorniest topics of the day and reminds them to further hone their own skills — of reflection, adaptability, strategic thinking — as AI embeds itself into every aspect of the working day.
On top of being the founder of Atvis Group, Malvika also founded Women Shaping AI to equip women with the knowledge, networks and influence to help shape the future of AI.
Malvika explored several critical themes in her 2025 columns:
Organizational Resilience Is Key to Long-Term Survival
Companies that continuously adapt, recover and grow will set themselves up to thrive in the face of never-ending disruptions — that was the premise of the article, "Build Organizational Resilience to Thrive in an Uncertain World." While resilience-building will differ from one organization to another, every organization will need certain foundational elements to build resilience: trust, psychological safety, decentralized decision-making, long-term thinking, talent cultivation and the ability to think beyond crisis to develop a business continuity plan.
In the past, resilience building would happen every few years, after major business transformations or other market-led changes. Today, we’re flexing our resilience muscle every few months, if not every few weeks or days. In fact, the World Economic Forum’s latest Future of Jobs report highlights resilience, flexibility and agility among the top skills for 2025. Leaders who embrace this new reality will not only effectively lead their teams through short-term crises but also create the conditions for profitable, sustainable business growth in an era of perennial disruption.
Human Agency Anchors AI Impact
Workplace tools are powerful, but require human judgment, governance and an overhaul of organizational design to produce real value. The AI success stories come from companies that apply AI strategically to push the boundaries of what their workforce can do, as discussed in-depth in, "The Real Productivity Effects of Generative AI."
Firms must encourage experts to push boundaries rather than lean too heavily on AI-generated defaults. Incentives should reward originality, problem framing and cross-disciplinary insight (the human edge AI cannot replicate).
The theme recurs in "Metacognition: Your AI Productivity Edge," which urges firms to encourage curiosity and become comfortable with uncertainty rather than falling into the trap of mindless productivity.
Mindful productivity, grounded in metacognitive awareness, shifts attention to learning velocity and decision quality. It encourages workers to ask better questions, choose tools with discernment and pace their thinking in ways that preserve creativity and reduce burnout. Notably, Le Cunff’s framework aligns with the neuroscience of learning: the brain performs best when it cycles between focused attention and diffused reflection, i.e., deep work punctuated by wandering insight.
Social Forces and Complexity Drive Organizational Dynamics
For all the talk of being data-driven, workplace decisions are just as often driven by personal dynamics, office politics and outright bad behavior. Introducing AI to the mix won't clean the mess up, but rather, will amplify any biases present. While there are plenty of reminders to clean organizational data up to improve AI outcomes, Malvika argues in "Workplace Politics vs. AI," it is just as important to clean up any underlying people problems and understand the inherent irrationality of people to progress.
Office politics not only creates a toxic environment but also undermines the very value organizations seek to create. As data-driven decision-making is sidelined by personal agendas, companies lose the ability to make objective, effective decisions. Leaders must confront these political realities before AI can realize its full potential.
