The Leader's Creative Duty

The board game "Go" was invented some 3,000 years ago in China and is believed to be the oldest in the world. Today, some 46 million play it worldwide.

In Asia, it's typically played on a traditional, carved wooden board with black and white stones made from slate and clamshell — and appeals to all walks of life, from musicians to artists, mathematicians to computer programmers. 

"Go" has so many possible moves at each step that future positions are difficult to predict. As a result, strong intuition and abstract thinking become all the more essential.

It was long believed that only humans could be good at it and that it would take decades or even longer for an AI machine to even compete.

In 2014, AlphaGo was developed by studying 100,000 prior games. The computer taught itself by playing itself as an opponent, before finally facing a Grandmaster.

In move 37 in that game, AlphaGo had two choices: Offensive or defensive. But the computer threw a curveball — doing something so unpredictable and out of the norm that the Grandmaster became completely flustered and left the game altogether.

Not a single human player would choose the move AlphaGo made, as many thought it was a mistake at the time.

But it wasn't — and it's a key lesson in what can happen when we engage in divergent thinking and strive to be a little more creative.

There's a reason why eBay never became Amazon, why taxi companies never thought of inventing Uber, or why Marriott didn't invent Airbnb. It plays along the same thought Henry Ford shared when asked about inventing the automobile.

"if I would have listened to what people wanted, I would have built a faster horse," Ford famously said.   

As leaders, we have a duty to constantly raise the standard, to challenge the status quo and never become satisfied. It's on us to teach people to drive beyond their limits of potential and not fear failing.

AlphaGo was willing to try something new — something different, to knock the champion off the top. We can take the same approach when we avoid doing what others commonly will. 

Being an entrepreneur doesn't mean we must invent something entirely new. It can mean we simply take an existing idea and make it better.

We all have ideas of how to improve — from how we teach to how we lead — and each new method inspires creativity we never thought we could find.