Writing Institutional Intelligence has been one of the most challenging things I have done.
Not because I didn’t have ideas.
That was probably the problem… I had too many.
The hard part of being a first-time author is learning how to take all these thoughts, fragments, arguments, examples, late-night notes, half-formed theories and “this matters!” moments… and turn them into something another person can actually follow.
When I started writing the book, I knew the core idea was important:
Most organisations are using AI to automate work… but they are missing the thinking behind the work.
But knowing the idea and explaining the idea are two very different things.
You start questioning everything.
- Is this clear enough?
- Is this too technical?
- Is this too obvious?
- Is this too ambitious?
- Will anyone even care?
- Am I saying something useful… or just adding more noise?
That is the part people probably do not see from the outside.
Writing a book is not just typing words. It is wrestling with your own thinking. It is forcing vague ideas to become structured. It is cutting things you like because they do not serve the reader. It is realising that a sentence that made perfect sense in your head may make no sense on the page.
And with Institutional Intelligence, the challenge was even harder because I was trying to explain something that still feels like it is emerging in real time.
AI is moving fast. Organisations are experimenting. Everyone is talking about productivity, automation and efficiency. But I kept coming back to the same concern:
What happens if we automate the output, but lose the reasoning?
That question became the centre of the book.
As a first-time author, I have learned that finishing the book is only part of the journey. Then comes editing, positioning, explaining, marketing, designing covers, writing descriptions, creating posts, building credibility and trying to get people to notice the work without feeling like you are constantly shouting into the void.
It is humbling.
But it is also incredibly rewarding.
Because somewhere in the middle of all that doubt, the book became real.
And for me, Institutional Intelligence is not just a book about AI. It is a book about judgement, memory, reasoning, knowledge and the things organisations risk losing if they only chase speed.
I am still learning how to be an author.
But I am proud that I started and more so got it finished. My book is now available on Amazon … Institutional Intelligence