© 2025 James Hardie – Course Correction Consulting Ltd. The EASE Framework™ is a proprietary model developed by James Hardie to support the creation of psychologically safe, empowered, and strategically aligned teams. All rights reserved.
.svg)
.svg)
M-shaped orchestrators, leaders who hold several spikes of deep expertise and can orchestrate human and machine capabilities. Their real advantage is not raw intelligence, it is the ability to build transactive memory in teams, so everyone knows who and what to turn to, for which problem.
“Mastering the Art of LEAD with EASE” delves deep into the strategies and mindset shifts you need to realign your goals and reclaim your path, with EASE. In the AI era, that path increasingly runs through M-shaped orchestrators, leaders who hold several spikes of deep expertise and can orchestrate human and machine capabilities. Their real advantage is not raw intelligence, it is the ability to build transactive memory in teams, so everyone knows who and what to turn to, for which problem. By LEADing with EASE, you can turn AI from a productivity gadget into an engine of organisational learning, and your teams into places of psychological safety and growth.
This article is partly inspired by the work of Dr Laura Weis on M-shaped orchestrators, who combine several areas of depth with the ability to coordinate people and AI, are becoming the critical lever for leadership and growth in the next decade.
Definition: M-shaped orchestrator: a leader with multiple areas of deep expertise who coordinates people, systems and AI into coherent, value-creating action. See article by Dr Laura Weis here
Data point: A meta-analysis of 76 studies (6,869 teams) found that stronger transactive memory systems (TMS) are reliably associated with better team performance, especially in complex contexts. For more on TMS read this article here and see the work of Daniel Wegner here
Dr Laura Weis argues that, in the AI era, “M-shaped” talent is beating the old T-shaped model. These people are not narrow specialists, and not vague generalists. They carry several genuine spikes of depth, often across disciplines such as strategy, data, operations and technology, and can connect them into a coherent whole. See Linkedin article here
McKinsey and others are now describing “M-shaped supervisors” as the backbone of agentic, AI-enabled organisations, where humans and AI agents co-create value rather than sit in separate lanes. McKinsey
The simple reality is that most of us will never become the best expert in our field, and if we stay in our lane then our value will be limited. However, if we can synthesise additional expertise and experience we may gain a differential advantage in creating new relationships and communication across and through an organisation.
Most commentary still treats this as an individual talent story. The risk is that you simply create a new hero archetypal leadership idea, now with extra AI gloss, and ignore the system those people are operating in and across teams. The human part is the where the messy stuff is and perhaps where AI will struggle.
If you want a real advantage, you might consider M-shaped orchestrators as nodes in a networked mind, not superheroes in a vacuum.
This is where transactive memory, teamwork, relationships and communication matter.
Daniel Wegner’s theory of transactive memory describes how groups develop a “shared store of knowledge”: each individual holds some expertise, and the group builds a reliable map of who knows what, and how to access it. (Wegner 1985).
In practice, a strong transactive memory system (TMS) looks like this:
Meta-analytic work across 76 studies confirms that robust TMS is strongly associated with higher team performance, particularly in volatile and complex environments. (Bachrach et al 2019)
More recent research in hospital teams shows an important nuance. Transactive memory predicts performance through and across culture. Psychological safety and low interpersonal conflict strengthen the benefits of TMS, and without them the advantage weakens or disappears. (Lavelle et al 2022)
In other words, it is not enough to have smart people who know different things. You need:
Leadership is mostly Relationships and Communication
M-shaped orchestrators are valuable precisely because they stabilise and extend this shared brain, especially once AI joins the team.
M's have the expertise and experience to work in the realms of chaos and complex as described in the Cynefin Framework (Snowden) to make complex things merely complicated and eventually clear.
In an increasingly augmented and AI-rich organisation, transactive memory is no longer just “who knows what”. It becomes:
There is a new I in Team - AI. Te-AI-m.
More on Human AI collaboration can be found on Human Centred Human AI Collaboration in research here
The M-shaped orchestrator’s job may be to keep this map coherent, to decide how work is partitioned between humans and AI, and to ensure that junior people are not reduced to mere prompting. If AI does all of the interesting thinking, your juniors will never develop the deep spikes that make them future M-shaped leaders.
Learn how to Fail or you will Fail to Learn
So the question is not “do we have enough M-shaped stars”. The question is:
Are we designing leadership practices and team environments where M-shaped orchestrators can emerge, multiply and teach others to think?
This is where LEAD with EASE becomes useful as a practical operating system.
For the individual leader or founder, LEAD is a reminder of how to show up in this environment.
Stay actively curious about three domains:
This is not passive learning. It is deliberate, scheduled exploration of weak signals, dissenting views and frontline reality. Listen well!
Synthesise across domains and turn your learning into shared language.
Educating is not broadcasting; it is creating spaces where others can question, refine and extend the model. Create the transactive memory system.
Advise as a thinking partner, not as a commander. Yo may provide intent but you also need to hear reality and manage your own expectations. It may be impossible to "Make it so" by modifying you deflector shield again, (Star Trek)
The absence of red flags is a big RED FLAG!
Good advice sharpens team judgement without removing ownership.
Delegate not just tasks, but decisions, to the people and systems closest to the information (Marquet, Intent Based Leadership - Turn the Ship Around).
Done properly, delegation is how you grow the next generation of M-shaped orchestrators, rather than hoarding complexity at the top.
LEAD describes how you behave as a leader. EASE describes the environment you build for your team to operate in.
Exploration gives you the raw material to improve the system, instead of optimising a fantasy process.
Alignment here means:
This is where you should also align your people strategy with reality on the ground, instead of relying on weak or dirty data sets that obscure who actually creates value. Organisational politics may need to be understood to keep things real.
Support: build relationships, psychological safety and communication rhythms
Strong TMS and strong relationships reinforce each other in supportive environments.
Evidence from healthcare, the military and software teams shows that psychological safety and low relational conflict are consistent predictors of performance, especially in complex, interdependent work.
Empowerment is not simply “more autonomy”. It is structured freedom. As we understand our ethics and our culture (how we do things round here) we create our operating system and other boundaries about when to ask for help and who to ask. This sets people free within considered constraints and established edges where risk of failure may be higher (Rasmussen's boundaries model)
The goal is to grow organisational intelligence, not just individual capability.
If you wanted to move towards M-shaped orchestration in the next 30 days, you could:
For a broader view on how I approach leadership in complex systems, see my article on Leadership and Change.
1. How do I know if I already have M-shaped orchestrators in my business? Look for people who are sought out across functions, who combine at least two deep skills, and who can explain complex topics simply. They often act as informal hubs in decision making and problem solving.
2. Is this just another label for “high potentials”? No. Many “high potentials” are still groomed as solo performers and this can cause other issues in organisations. M-shaped orchestrators are defined by the quality of their connections and their ability to build transactive memory, not only by raw output. Think of better outcomes!
3. How do I stop AI from hollowing out junior roles? Deliberately design junior work so that AI supports judgement rather than replaces it. Give juniors ownership of small but real decisions, with AI as a tool and senior leaders as thinking partners.
4. What if our data on people and skills is poor? Treat the first phase as qualitative and relational. Use workshops, interviews and observation to build an initial map of expertise and relationships, then gradually instrument it with cleaner data.
5. Where should HR focus first? On enabling the environment: better insight into skills, cleaner data, and leadership development centred on LEAD with EASE, not on competency checklists. HR’s role is to turn people strategy into a practical path for organisational intelligence, not a separate initiative.