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ELE brings leaders together across companies and industries to work through the messy stuff: decisions, risk, handoffs, execution drag, and what it takes to move from idea to action.

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Figure out if ELE is for you. Straight answers on what ELE is, who it’s built for, and how contributing members actually work together. Still have a question? Contact us.

Executive Learning Exchange (ELE)

<div style="font-family: 'Calibri', 'Candara', 'Segoe UI', 'Optima', Arial, sans-serif; color: #333; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 800px; margin: auto; font-size: 1.1rem;">
<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #990000; margin: 20px 0; padding: 10px 20px; background-color: #f8f9fa; font-style: italic; color: #555; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">"I want to go to where the puck's going to be, not where it is today." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/marty-murrillo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marty Murrillo</a>, Precisely</blockquote>
A Monday question. A Friday Charrette. A Lab in two days.
Most senior talent leaders don't get help fast. They get a stack of articles, a framework, and a six-month engagement quote.
The ELE Ecosystem moves differently. Here's what just happened.

<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 10px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; padding-bottom: 5px;">Day 1 — The signal</h3>
Monday, May 4. A senior talent leader's role ends at a major financial services firm. Her first move isn't a Google search or a Coursera certificate. She posts one question in ELE's Idea Exchange: how do I upskill myself in AI?
She had options. She picked peers.

<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 10px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; padding-bottom: 5px;">Days 2–3 — The community listens</h3>
The responses come fast. But the comments under her question expose something bigger: she's not alone. Learning professionals across the ELE community are quietly wrestling with the same three questions:

<ul style="padding-left: 25px; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Where is my value actually shifting?</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">How do I redefine my role for real business impact?</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">How do I build AI experience employers actually want?</li>
</ul>
One question became a curated business problem.

<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 10px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; padding-bottom: 5px;">Day 5 — The Design Charrette</h3>
Friday, May 8. Twenty-plus senior talent leaders converged for a lively interactive discussion built on the Signals-to-Action Planning Worksheet. <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/audra-pinter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Audra Pinter</a> (Discover/Capital One, transitioning into a new role) opened by sharing her own arc — and the room got to work.
What came out wasn't a topic recap. It was decisions.

<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #990000; margin: 15px 0; padding: 5px 20px; font-style: italic; color: #555; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">"They're trying to do these little spot AI projects, but they're not fixing the workflows." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/marty-murrillo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marty Murrillo</a>, Precisely</blockquote>
Stop chasing the tool. Chase the workflow.

<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #990000; margin: 15px 0; padding: 5px 20px; font-style: italic; color: #555; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">"You don't actually own it anymore, because it's out of your control." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/peter-hogaboam" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Peter Hogaboam</a>, CNA Insurance</blockquote>
Peter drew the AI / outsourcing parallel. Smart resistance isn't a brake. It's a leadership skill.

<blockquote style="border-left: 4px solid #990000; margin: 15px 0; padding: 5px 20px; font-style: italic; color: #555; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">"We have to avoid becoming just the AI training department for everyone." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/kathryn-sobey" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Katie Stone</a>, Global Talent Leaders</blockquote>
L&amp;D's value isn't being the help desk for prompts. It's building the conditions that make adoption stick.
Three leaders. Three angles. One shared business problem coming into sharp focus.
<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-top: 30px; margin-bottom: 10px; border-bottom: 1px solid #eee; padding-bottom: 5px;">Day 10 — The AI Practical Lab</h3>
Thursday, May 14. The Action Planning Worksheet from Friday's Charrette becomes the input — not a recap slide, the working brief. The room moves from "what should we try" to "what did we ship." Playbooks. Early evidence loops. Implementation moves.
That's the ELE Ecosystem. Listen → Curate → Co-design → Implement. Loop.


<hr style="border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 40px 0;" />

<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-top: 25px; margin-bottom: 10px;">Who was in the room</h3>
Audra Pinter (Discover/Capital One) anchored the real-world signal; Patti Ouzounian (ELE) walked the room through the Signals-to-Action Planning Worksheet; co-facilitator DeB Lenchard (L&amp;D Consultant). Strong voices from Adrienne Guerrero (Positive Delta), Peter Hogaboam (CNA Insurance), Katie Stone (Global Talent Leaders), Marty Murrillo (Precisely), Mike Hoyt and David Scherer (Chicagoland Talent Leaders) — plus additional contributing members from the ELE community.


<hr style="border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 40px 0;" />

<h3 style="font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: bold; color: #1a1a1a; font-size: 1.3rem; margin-bottom: 15px;">What to try next — the ELE move, not the AI tactic</h3>
<ol style="padding-left: 25px; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Post the question, not the certificate. When something shifts in your work, drop it in the Idea Exchange before you Google it. Early evidence: peer-level expertise back in 24–48 hours, not generic articles.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Bring your business problem to the next Charrette. If a Charrette built around someone else's question pulled this much value, imagine what happens when it's built around yours.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 15px;">Show up for the Practical Lab on May 14. It's running on May 8's APW as direct input. Bring a colleague. This is implementation, not theory.</li>
</ol>
<div style="background-color: #f1f4f9; padding: 20px; border-radius: 8px; margin-top: 40px; font-family: 'Calibri', sans-serif; font-size: 1.1rem;">
If any of these insights resonate—and you've got a top-of-mind talent business problem you'd like the ELE community to work on—send it our way.
Members can submit their challenge here: <a style="color: #0056b3; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/share-top-of-mind-talent-challenges">Submit My Challenge Now</a>
Looking to turn these ideas into action? Access the <a style="color: #0056b3; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://community.ele.llc/t/pre-chat-post-chat-ai-disruption-career-opportunity/5862" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Idea Exchange Post-chat</a> for an updated Action Planning Worksheet.

</div>
</div>

Design Charrette | AI Disruption = Career Opportunity

Future of Work

Digital &amp; AI

dirk.tussing

deborah.lenchard

adrienne.guerrero

marty.murrillo

kathryn.stone

peter.hogaboam

patricia.ouzounian

audra.pinter

david.scherer

AI Adoption

mike.hoyt

2Q2026

Design Charrette

confidence capability clarity

AI Disruption

Senior Talent Leaders

AI fluency

AI Career Opportunity

L&amp;D Role Redefinition

Workflow Redesign

Smart Resistance

AI Practical Lab Series

Outcomes-Based L&amp;D

AI Job Market Signals

Signals to Action Planning

LAK Group

HumanSide

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"One of the forerunners of these models is having the exact same problems as my tiny organization of four." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/iliana-alvarado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iliana Alvarado</a>, HumanSide
</blockquote>

The business problem no one wants to say out loud
Michael Grubich works with hundreds of organizations worldwide. What he keeps hearing isn't a technology problem — it's a leadership problem. Organizations have tools. They don't have people who can translate those tools into business value.
Most have 7 or 8 AI tools being paid for independently across teams, no shared language, and no clear definition of what "AI-ready" even means. Mike brought that pressure into the room:

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"It's not AI adoption — it's how do we get to AI evangelism? Who can translate AI into business value?" — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/michael-grubich" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Grubich</a>, LAK Group
</blockquote>
That's the internal client's real ask. Not "use AI more." But who in your organization can connect AI capability to business outcomes — and do you know how to find, develop, and deploy them?
.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44953" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AI-Driven-Leaders-are-Becoming-a-Composer-and-a-Conductor-A.jpg" alt="As an AI-driven leader you are becoming a composer of strategy and a conductor of teams and technology." width="1600" height="370" />
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-45010" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/AI-Driven-Leaders.jpg" alt="ELE Design Charrette: diverse leadership team intensely focused on peer-exchange and live-mapping organizational 'AI-Ready Execution' strategy using the 'Strategy &amp; Change' worksheet framework to 'Stop Talking. Start Building AI-Driven Leaders.'" width="1024" height="572" />

Who was in the room: <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/michael-grubich" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Grubich</a> (President &amp; CEO, LAK Group), serving as the Internal Client; <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/iliana-alvarado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iliana Alvarado</a> (Managing Partner, HumanSide), as the AI Strategist — alongside <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/matt-sernaker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Sernaker</a> (Executive Producer), <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/david-scherer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Scherer</a> (Producer), and facilitator <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/dirk-tussing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dirk Tussing</a> (CEO &amp; President, ELE).
The discussion featured active contributions from Nicole DeFalco (CEO, Upsurge Advisors), Deepa Kartha (CEO, Journyz), Brady Bair (CNA Insurance), and Sandra Garcia (UL Solutions). These leaders were joined by a peer group of senior HR, Talent, and L&amp;D executives representing over 20 global and local organizations across healthcare, financial services, insurance, and professional consulting.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
The systems failure hiding in plain sight
Mike's framing set the stakes: three things are breaking simultaneously. Organizations can't identify who has AI potential internally. They don't know how to develop those people once found. And middle managers — 70–80% of most leadership populations — are the bottleneck where AI strategy stalls.
Sandra Garcia (UL Solutions) sharpened it further: middle managers can't explain the why of AI to their teams because no one gave it to them first. The anxiety travels down because the clarity never did.
That's not a training gap. That's a strategy gap wearing a training costume.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
From programs to readiness — the shift is already happening
Mike's own firm is living this data: traditional leadership development requests dropped 3–4x year over year. Coaching requests tripled in Q1 alone.
People aren't abandoning learning. They're abandoning learning that isn't immediately applicable. The design question has changed: not "what program do we build?" but "what does this person need to do — and when?"


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
Agility over durability: Iliana's reframe for L&amp;D
Where Mike named the problem, Iliana Alvarado brought the possibility lens. Her message: the entire design paradigm needs to shift — starting with why organizations are communicating the AI imperative wrong.

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"The why is not because we want higher productivity — that doesn't rally employees." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/iliana-alvarado" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Iliana Alvarado</a>, HumanSide (AI Strategist)
</blockquote>
The peer group pushed the design implications further. If the why is broken, so is everything built on top of it — including content that assumes durability when the moment demands agility.

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"Sage on the stage has to go away… the human as guide on the side — not only for other humans, but also for AI." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nicole-defalco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nicole DeFalco</a>, Upsurge Advisors
</blockquote>
The human orchestrates. They don't deliver content. That's the identity shift Iliana's AI Strategist lens kept returning to — and it points directly to where the real leverage is.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
The middle manager is the inflection point — develop them first
That identity shift matters most in the middle. The C-suite isn't where AI transformation stalls — it's in the 70–80% of your leadership population sitting in middle and frontline management.
Start middle-out, not top-down. Develop managers first so they can hold space for real dialogue about how work is shifting locally. If they can't articulate the why of AI to their own teams, no enterprise strategy compensates.
The manager is the message.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
Integration beats access: what the coaching data actually shows
When AI coaching is left to individuals, about 10% use it. When a human coach integrates it into their process, that jumps to 75%.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260410_Charrette_AIExecution-Gap_Visual.jpg" alt="" width="832" height="454" />
The AI Execution Gap: From fragmented adoption to strategic integration.
(Credit: Created with Google Gemini Banana Nano)
AI tools don't drive behavior change independently. They need a human in the loop — not to supervise, but to model and embed. Access isn't the problem. Integration is.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
What to try next
1. Name your "AI Evangelists" — deliberately. Map your leadership population against one question: who can translate AI capability into a business outcome in their context? Early signal: can they articulate the why of AI to their team in a way that lands?
2. Build shared AI language before building more programs. If your C-suite, IT, HR, and frontline managers define "AI" four different ways, no strategy holds. Start with 10 cross-functionally agreed terms. Early signal: fewer alignment meetings needed to reach a decision.
3. Run one coaching pilot with AI integrated — not added. Assign a coach who builds AI into existing workflow. Measure engagement at 30 days. The 10%-to-75% gap isn't magic — it's what happens when AI becomes part of a trusted relationship rather than another platform to log into.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
The question worth sitting with: What percentage of your current leadership development investment is explicitly designed to build AI capabilities your leaders need to be job-ready in the next 12 months — and do you actually know that number?


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
If any of these insights resonate — and you've got a top-of-mind talent business problem you'd like the ELE community to work on — send it our way. Members can submit their business challenge here: <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/share-top-of-mind-business-challenges">Submit My Business Challenge Now</a>

Design Charrette | Stop Talking. Start Building AI Leaders

Leadership

michael.grubich

lorna.malloy

Learning Agility

sandra.garcia

brady.bair

matt.sernaker

rachel.kaberon

maggie.lowenberg

susan.c.guest

nicole.defalco

talent identification

deepa.kartha

manager enablement

AI Workforce Transformation

peer-powered learning

iliana.alvarado

AI-ready leaders

AI evangelism

middle manager development

AI adoption strategy

leadership capability building

AI coaching integration

organizational change management

shared AI vocabulary

ELE Design Charrette

<blockquote style="border-left: 5px solid #ccc; padding: 15px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 25px;">"The new world of work is being assembled right now, task by task, policy by policy, business by business. It will reflect the choices of the people who show up to build it."
— Ryan Roslansky &amp; Aneesh Raman, Open to Work</blockquote>
Most leaders are feeling anxious, navigating rapid change with outdated playbooks that assume career paths are linear and skills are static. In Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI, LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky and Chief Economic Opportunity Officer Aneesh Raman provide a clear-eyed roadmap for this transition. Backed by real-time data from LinkedIn’s billion-member network, this book moves past the hype to show how AI is fundamentally reshaping the relationship between talent and opportunity.

<hr />

<h5 style="margin-top: 30px;">Key Concepts: Navigating the Skills-First Shift</h5>
Roslansky and Raman argue that we are moving from a "titles-based" economy to a "skills-based" one. Key insights include:
<ul>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">The Irreplaceability Factor: Identifying the uniquely human capabilities—creativity, curiosity, and communication—that become more valuable as AI handles routine tasks.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">The 30-60-90 Day AI Plan: A practical framework for moving from "experimental anxiety" to "strategic mastery" in the workplace.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Task-Level Delegation: Learning to deconstruct your job not by "role," but by "task," to determine which parts to delegate to AI and which to lean into as a human leader.</li>
</ul>

<hr />

<h5 style="margin-top: 30px;">Why This Matters for ELE Members</h5>
This book is a direct match for the Executive Learning Exchange focus on Confidence, Capability, and Clarity for 2026:
<ol>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Data-Backed Clarity: Our members value insights grounded in reality. This book uses LinkedIn’s unparalleled view of the global labor market to define exactly what’s changing.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Capability Over Credentials: The shift toward a "skills-first" world aligns with our design lens: reframing learning as a team capability experience rather than just individual training.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 10px;">Leading the Transition: As senior HR and L&amp;D leaders, you aren't just adapting to this change; you are the architects of the policies and cultures that will define it.</li>
</ol>

Open to Work: How to Get Ahead in the Age of AI

future of work

Strategy

workforce readiness

brian.gold

capability building

human-centric AI

Skills-Based Hiring

talent experience design

leadership in transition

skills-first transformation

execution drag

career agility

decision-making clarity

team capability experience

strategic mastery

labor market insights

<div style="font-family: 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: #333; line-height: 1.8; max-width: 850px; margin: auto; text-align: justify; font-size: 18px;">
<h4 style="font-size: 1.75rem; color: #1a1a1a; margin-top: 2.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.2rem; border-left: 5px solid #cc0000; padding-left: 15px; text-align: left; line-height: 1.3;">From Mastery to Fluency: The 30% Rule</h4>
We often assume that to lead in a digital-first world, we need to go back to school for a degree in data science or computer engineering. In The Digital Mindset, Paul Leonardi and Tsedal Neeley dismantle this myth. They argue that leaders don’t need mastery; they need fluency.
The authors introduce the "30% Rule"—the idea that you only need about 30% fluency in technical topics to see the patterns, ask the right questions, and leverage digital tools effectively. For ELE members, this is an empowering shift: it moves the focus away from technical expertise and back toward what you do best—strategic leadership and talent development.


<hr style="border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 2.5rem 0;" />

<h4 style="font-size: 1.75rem; color: #1a1a1a; margin-top: 2.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.2rem; border-left: 5px solid #cc0000; padding-left: 15px; text-align: left; line-height: 1.3;">The Blueprint: Collaboration, Computation, and Change</h4>
The book organizes the digital mindset into three core approaches that redefine how work gets done. For a senior leader, these are the levers of modern organizational performance:

<ul style="padding-left: 25px; margin-bottom: 2.5rem;">
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Collaboration: This isn't just about using Slack or Zoom; it’s about "human-machine partnership." It involves understanding how to treat AI and algorithms as "team members" while maintaining a strong digital presence that fosters trust in a distributed workforce.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Computation: Developing a mindset for data means understanding where data comes from, how it is categorized, and—critically—what its biases are. It’s about moving from "gut feel" to "data-informed" by asking the right questions of the models presented to you.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Change: In the digital era, change isn't a project with a start and end date; it’s a permanent state of transition. This approach focuses on "adaptive learning" and creating a culture where employees are encouraged to experiment, fail fast, and iterate constantly.</li>
</ul>

<hr style="border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 2.5rem 0;" />

<h4 style="font-size: 1.75rem; color: #1a1a1a; margin-top: 2.5rem; margin-bottom: 1.2rem; border-left: 5px solid #cc0000; padding-left: 15px; text-align: left; line-height: 1.3;">Why It Matters for the ELE Community</h4>
Leonardi and Neeley’s work resonates with the ELE mission to prepare leaders for a complex, tech-driven future:

<ul style="padding-left: 25px; margin-bottom: 2.5rem;">
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Bridging the Talent Gap: As HR and L&amp;D leaders, your job is to build a "digital-ready" workforce. This book provides a clear, achievable curriculum for upskilling that doesn't overwhelm employees but rather equips them with the confidence to engage with technology.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Leading Through Ambiguity: The "Computation" and "Change" frameworks help ELE members navigate the uncertainty of AI and Big Data, turning "digital exhaustion" into a competitive advantage through better systems and psychological safety.</li>
 	<li style="margin-bottom: 1.2rem;">Redefining the L&amp;D Agenda: It moves L&amp;D from being a "skills provider" to a "mindset architect," ensuring that digital transformation isn't just an IT initiative, but a fundamental cultural shift.</li>
</ul>

<hr style="border: 0; border-top: 1px solid #eee; margin: 2.5rem 0;" />

<div style="font-style: italic; color: #444; background-color: #f4f4f4; padding: 30px; border-radius: 12px; border-right: 5px solid #cc0000;">As we navigate an era defined by data and algorithms, our most valuable asset remains our ability to think critically and act decisively. By embracing the 30% rule, we can strip away the intimidation of technology and reclaim our role as the strategic drivers of organizational evolution. The goal isn't to become a machine—it's to become a leader who knows exactly how to make the machines work for us.</div>
</div>

The Digital Mindset: What It Really Takes to Thrive in the Age of Data, Algorithms, and AI

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