Reclaim the Plot: How Leaders Rewrite the Story When AI Rewrites Work

Reclaim your humanity and rebuild trust in the age of AI transformation

Employee engagement has plummeted to an 11-year low while AI promises to revolutionize work at unknown cost. Reclaim the Plot: How Leaders Rewrite the Story When AI Rewrites Work provides the research-backed roadmap for leaders navigating this crisis. Dr. Kelly Monahan reveals how leaders can maintain humanity while meeting demands for growth.

Through behavioral research, personal narrative, and poetry, the book takes readers on a three-act journey from 'The Drift' through 'The Delirium' to 'The Dream.' Readers discover how distrust became organizational default, why leaders chase stock prices over purpose, and how broken systems defeat good people. The book provides practical frameworks for designing work around human needs.

Readers will also discover:

• How to rebuild organizational trust in an era of surveillance software and AI-enabled micromanagement
• Why focusing on stock price and valuation over internal reality leads to moral blindness and organizational failure
• How to fix broken systems rather than blaming individuals when performance problems emerge
• Why promoting technical excellence without leadership development creates a broken pipeline that sets managers up to fail
• Practical strategies for using AI to amplify humanity rather than replace it

For executives navigating AI transformation, managers crushed by impossible demands, HR and talent leaders, and emerging leaders who suspect there must be a better way, this book offers validation and direction. It provides a path back to leading with courage and care.

KELLY MONAHAN, PhD, is the co-founder of Beyond the Desk, offering keynotes, AI advisory, and research insights at the intersection of technology and human behavior at work. She previously led Future of Work at Meta, founded Upwork's Future of Work Research Institute, and held senior research roles at Accenture and Deloitte. She is co-author of the national bestseller Essential, and her work has been featured in Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fast Company. She has appeared on Bloomberg and CNBC and is a TEDx speaker.