What We're Working Through ...
In Search of Organizational Excellence
Redesigning Work Around AI Expertise, Human Judgment & People Development Redesign the work. Reskill the people. Redeploy the talent.
You already know what good looks like: immersive experiences, peer connection, clear next steps. That's table stakes now.
What changed underneath: AI stopped being a tool. It's a new working relationship — one your people are managing without a playbook, supervising agents that never sleep, and quality-controlling output that used to be theirs.
Leadership development built for the last era can't keep pace. October 1 is where we work the new one out — real talent challenges, trusted peers, and 30/60/90-day next moves you can bring back Monday.
Lead the AI Era—From Insight to Action
The 2026 Fall Conference is built for people leaders navigating culture, capability, AI execution, and organizational change — without adding another program you don't have time for.
Avoid a too-common blindspot in AI adoption
AI & Business Intelligence amplifies what's happening now. Human Intelligence is what AI can't replicate — the judgment, adaptability, and resilience that make AI adoption stick.
"Human Intelligence (HI) is more important than ever. Humans will be needed to focus on managing, advising, decision-making, reasoning, communicating, and interacting with an increasingly mechanized world." — Teri Hart, Author of Hardwired to Learn | ELE Community contributor since 2008
Why leadership development matters more as change accelerates
AI adoption is about data, tech & people. Leadership development matters more when change accelerates — not less.
Leadership Learning Moves Back Into the Work.
This is not a sit-and-listen experience. ELE builds community intelligence that helps unlock organizational intelligence.A CENTURY AGO, LEARNING STARTED CLOSER TO REAL WORK Harvard helped scale real-world business learning through cases and peer discussion. But today’s work is moving too fast to only study someone else’s problem after the fact.
It is a community-powered working experience where keynote insights become real-time discussion, peer learning, small-group application, and practical next moves leaders can bring back to their organizations.
That is the work of ELE’s Idea Exchange: turning shared signals into sharper decisions, practical next moves, and 30/60/90-day leadership commitments.
How the Exchange Works
- Real talent challenges: Leaders bring the issues actually stalling performance — not abstract trends or someone else's case study.
- Design Charrettes: Small peer groups work the problem together, challenge assumptions, and shape decisions that move.
- AI Practical Labs: AI becomes a tool for execution — not another shiny object that adds to the noise.
From Talent Challenges to Business Value
Most leadership development measures how people feel after the program. ELE measures what moved. When leaders fix the root-cause problems — the talent challenges left unresolved that burn out your best people — engagement follows. Retention improves. Business value accelerates. Not because of EQ fluff. Because the work that was stuck is finally moving. Leave October 1 with a 30/60/90-day plan, a peer who's already solved your problem, and a leadership development model that actually fits the speed your organization needs to move.What to Expect
- Real executive dialogue: Practical, unscripted exchange with senior leaders working through AI-era leadership challenges and workforce challenges.
- Business-outcome-first framing: Start with the result the business is trying to achieve, then work backward to the skills, roles, tasks, behaviors, and leadership support needed to move it.
- Design Charrette work: Small-group collaboration around real problems, root causes, sharper choices, and practical next steps.
- AI Working Lab mindset: Explore where AI can improve work, automate repeatable tasks, and support better decisions — while helping leaders frame the “why” and connect action to business value.
- Peer-powered momentum: Leave with clearer thinking, useful connections, and practical 30/60/90-day next moves you can bring back to the business.
Real Challenges We’ll Work Through
The agenda will be shaped around the leadership and workforce challenges showing up across the ELE community, including:
- Building leadership readiness for AI-era change
- Reducing adoption friction across teams and functions
- Strengthening culture when work is shifting fast
- Turning AI interest into practical workflow improvement
- Connecting workforce, skills, and task intelligence to real leadership decisions
- Helping managers lead through ambiguity, speed, and execution drag
Designed for Different Stages of AI Adoption
Whether your organization is just getting started, scaling adoption, or redesigning work around AI, the day will help you locate where you are and what needs to move next.
Basic: Identify practical use cases and reduce confusion.
Intermediate: Improve adoption, handoffs, workflow, and manager support.
Advanced: Connect skills, tasks, roles, and business outcomes to larger work redesign.
Who This Is For
This exchange is designed for senior leaders responsible for leadership, talent, culture, workforce transformation, and execution.
- CHROs and senior HR executives
- Chief Learning Officers and heads of talent
- Leaders responsible for leadership development, organizational effectiveness, and employee experience
- Business leaders working through AI-era change with their teams
Hosted at CNA Insurance
CNA, downtown Chicago office, gives this exchange the right setting: a modern business environment in the heart of the Loop, built for practical conversation, cross-company perspective, and the kind of working dialogue leaders need as AI reshapes work, culture, and execution.
Register Now
Your leadership development isn't built for the AI era. October 1 is where that changes.
Join people leaders in downtown Chicago — bring what's stuck, work through it with peers, and leave with a 30/60/90-day plan that moves.
