Dr David L. Francis has dual doctorates (PhD and DLitt) in organisational innovation and action learning and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
He has five decades of experience bridging academic rigour with extensive executive coaching, completing more than 2,000 Organisation Development assignments worldwide with organisations as diverse as Mars Inc., Abbey Road Studios, Hong Kong Mass Transit Authority, and Save the Children Fund.
Dr Francis has authored many influential books, including Managing Your Own Career, The Unblocked Manager, and Exploiting Agility for Advantage.
As Artificial Intelligence and digital automation erode traditional managerial task monopolies, Dr Francis acts as an influential guide for professionals seeking career longevity. He developed the Personal Dynamic Capabilities (PDC) framework and the Three-Layer Cake Model, which enable managers to cultivate core human capacities that machine intelligence cannot replicate.
Drawing on his pioneering research at the Centre for Research in Innovation Management and his extensive experience as an Organisation Development Change Agent, Dr Francis helps leaders escape the 'strategic irrelevance trap'. As an Executive Fellow at the Henley Business School, he gained extensive experience in Top Management Team Development.
He guides professionals to excel at sense-making, ethical foresight, and prudent opportunism to equip managers to build on their strengths and reinvent their relevance to survive and thrive in the AI Era.
Meet The Authors
As you look at our photographs below, you will see that we have reached the age where others offer us their seats on buses, and most people would assume that we retired at least a decade ago. So why did we decide to spend two years writing a book about careers in AI Era? The answer is that we believe that few others have the same breadth of relevant experience. At a time of great collective uncertainty, and when society is ill-prepared for a very different world, we believe that we can make a positive contribution.
David L Francis
Mike Woodcock stands out as a rare modern-era polymath, having achieved exceptional success as a UK politician, serving on the Trade and Industry Select Committee, and holding high-level appointments in the Royal Navy. He is a serial entrepreneur, substantial landowner, academic, and prolific author.
Over a partnership spanning more than fifty years, Mike and David Francis have co-authored about thirty influential books, many of which have been translated into several languages.
What makes Mike's life story particularly interesting is his extensive experience and knowledge of politics and public services, the military, natural charities, and his entrepreneurial activities across farming, forestry, rural estates, renewable energy, and property development and management.
He has also served for 50 years as a justice of the peace and held leadership roles in national charities, reinforcing his deep expertise in non-profit governance.
His academic contributions have also been significant, having served as a visiting professor or fellow at several UK universities. He was also vice president of University Associates Inc, and has distributed management materials across the globe.
Another enduring legacy is the “blockage” model of self-management development, defining successful management by their willingness to identify and dismantle personal and organisational constraints.
