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.

West Bend Insurance

Journyz

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The Innovation Sprint brings current workforce challenges into live peer exploration.
This segment surfaces what is emerging from the work: where leaders are finding traction, where execution is getting stuck, and what questions still need sharper answers.
People leaders will hear practical signals they can carry into the afternoon exchange—not polished theory after the fact.

<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;">What happens next? This post captures our live framework. In a few days, we will update this page with the real-time breakthroughs, questions, and insights shared by our executive peers during the conference dialogue. Stay tuned!</blockquote>
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Live Insights | What the Innovation Sprint Is Revealing

future of work

Future of Work

Digital &amp; AI

Change Management

talent development

agility

missy.gonzales

peer-learning

leadership strategy

artificial intelligence

Workforce Transformation

AI Adoption

deepa.kartha

innovation sprint

wise2026

operational friction

decision ambiguity

organizational listening

workflow adaptation

risk inflation

capability development

decision confidence

problem discovery

executive education

behavioral observation

insights-wise-2026

Lurie Children's

Precisely

BARYONS

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Most organizations have rolled out the tools. That does not mean adoption is happening.
For people leaders, the real challenge is helping managers lead the identity shift, reinforce new behaviors, and connect AI use to business value.
Senior leaders must frame the why and the business value first—so HR, learning, and reskilling efforts can connect capability-building to the transformation the business is actually trying to drive.
This keynote explores why managers are the leverage point—and why leadership development has to move from awareness to transformation.

<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;">What happens next? This post captures our live framework. In a few days, we will update this page with the real-time breakthroughs, questions, and insights shared by our executive peers during the conference dialogue. Stay tuned!</blockquote>
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Leadership Development | Driving AI Transformation

Leadership

leadership development

marty.murrillo

maryann.kennedy

technology adoption

AI transformation

michael.hruska

capability building

manager capability

identity shift

performance frameworks

tech integration

changing behaviors

value creation

organizational alignment

shared practice

executive strategy

transformation leverage

strategic implementation

business value

modern workforce

cultural change

leadership responsibility

Zurich North America

ELE Group, LLC

<blockquote>"Our 'why' is going to be about driving business value." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/teri-hart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teri Hart</a>, Zurich North America.</blockquote>
Most AI adoption strategies start with the tools. The organizations actually moving the needle started with a different question.
That gap — between access and actual adoption — is the business problem senior talent leaders are sitting with right now. And the research is unambiguous about why it's happening: employees aren't resisting AI. They're quietly doing the math on their own relevance.
On March 13th, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/teri-hart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teri Hart</a> and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/jason-gallo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jason Gallo</a> from Zurich North America brought their real-world AI capability model into the room — and reframed what "scaling AI" actually means for HR and talent leaders.
Managers are the leverage point. Most organizations haven't treated them that way.

During the lively discussion, peers were sharing what's actually working — not only best practices from a deck. <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nick-allen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick Allen</a> (CNA Insurance) brought one of the most replicable moves in the room. His organization started spending 5–10 minutes in team meetings calling out individual AI wins — peer-showcased, locally celebrated, not handed down from corporate or IT:
<blockquote>"Leadership is intentionally calling out different people… showcasing what they've just recently discovered… and that's turning the dial." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nick-allen" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nick Allen</a>, CNA Insurance</blockquote>
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AI-Driven-Leaders-are-Becoming-a-Composer-and-a-Conductor-A.jpg" alt="" />

The shift from corporate mandate to something people are having fun doing together happened, in his words, in about two to three months. That's a replicable move — and it costs nothing to start.
<blockquote>"AI adoption isn't going to be about just pushing the tools… it's actually about old-fashioned change management and leading people through identity shifts." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/teri-hart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teri Hart</a>, Zurich North America.</blockquote>
Most organizations have rolled out the tools. A small group of power users is running with them. Everyone else hasn't touched the button.

<hr />

Identity is the stall point — not the skill gap

Research surfaced in the discussion found roughly half of employees perceive AI as a threat to their professional identity — their relevance, their value, how they create worth in their work. That's not a reskilling problem. It's a change management problem.

Marty Murrillo put it in the chat as Teri was still mid-thought: "That Identity shift is huge." It landed fast because everyone in the room was feeling the same pressure their employees are navigating.
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As Teri highlights, this shift from content delivery to business impact is already underway. For L&amp;D leaders, that's not an abstract statement. It's a line in the sand. The leaders anchoring their work to business outcomes — not program delivery or skill catalogs — are the ones building relevance right now.

<hr />

The confidence gap runs in one direction

Teri opened with a data point that stopped the room: 76% of executives believe their employees are enthusiastic about AI adoption. Ask the individual contributors? It's 31%.

The more senior you are, the more confident you are that things are going well. That disconnect doesn't close with more content or more tools. It closes when leaders consistently model the why — and make it visible at the team level, not just the enterprise level.
<blockquote>"It's technically available, but in many companies, it's optional. It's behaviorally optional." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/teri-hart" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Teri Hart</a></blockquote>
That phrase — behaviorally optional — named something the room had been circling. Deployment isn't adoption. And the people who aren't engaging aren't confused about the technology. They're uncertain about what it means for them.

<hr />

What to try next

Ask three frontline managers to explain the AI "why" in their own words — unprompted. If the answers vary significantly, you don't have a skill problem. You have a messaging alignment problem. That's the faster fix.

Put one AI win on the next team meeting agenda — peer-led, 5 minutes, no deck. Early evidence signal: does someone volunteer a story the following week without being asked?

<hr />

If any of these insights reflect the business challenges you're navigating right now — bring them into the room. ELE builds its event experiences around the real problems members are wrestling with. <a href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/share-top-of-mind-talent-challenges">Submit My Business Challenge Now</a>

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Design Charrette: From AI Adoption to Shared Practice at Scale

dirk.tussing

tracey.wik

nick.allen

teri.hart

linh.lawler

adrienne.guerrero

psychological safety

jason.gallo

shonda.cromwell-rashad

tamora.martin

peter.hogaboam

yolanda.mangram

david.scherer

rachel.kaberon

susan.c.guest

cindy.pinkstaffmiller

alaska.fu

1Q2026

megan.schuette

manager enablement

human-centered ai

Confidence in AI

behavioral adoption gap

AI capability building

business value storytelling

talent leader strategy

L&amp;D relevance

shared practice at scale

Session Focus:  A peer design charrette focused on moving AI adoption beyond training programs toward shared practice and sustained learning.
Many organizations can launch AI upskilling. Far fewer build the change conditions that make it stick—communication, manager support, and reinforcement in real work.
This design charrette builds on insights from Kate Haney’s October  <a href="https://www.ele.llc/insights/ai-practical-lab-from-whiteboard-to-workflow">✨ AI Practical Lab: From Whiteboard to Workflow</a> and recent community discussions around enterprise AI deployment.

<blockquote>
Borrowed from architecture, a design charrette brings experienced practitioners together to solve complex problems quickly. ELE Design Charrettes—introduced by <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/alaska-fu">Alaska Fu</a>, ELE’s Experience Designer—are focused, peer-powered working conversations that help leaders co-create and refine practical approaches in 50–90 minutes.
</blockquote>
Together, we’ll examine what it takes to move AI adoption from training to shared practice—where communication, support, and reinforcement drive real use. The focus is not on vendor selection, but on how leaders create conditions for experimentation, feedback, and real use.
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-44503" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/ELE-POV-AIQ-EQ-IQ.png" alt="Diagram showing AIQ overlapping with IQ and EQ, illustrating how AI-enabled human judgment drives performance." width="699" height="393" />
Expect thoughtful peer input, design questions, and early patterns leaders can adapt inside their own organizations.
In our October AI Practical Lab, Kate Haney—leading enterprise AI reskilling at Zurich North America for more than a year—shared what’s working (and what’s stalling) in real organizations. One insight resonated deeply across the group:

<blockquote>
Successful AI upskilling isn’t just about training programs—it’s about communication, support, and real success stories that make it stick.
</blockquote>
That insight frames the AI Transformation model below—and why human-centered transformation requires far more than content or tools.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-44471" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/AI-Transformation-Upskilling-in-AI-Maturity-e1766111773634.png" alt="Upskilling in AI Maturity" width="501" height="481" />

Who Should Join

Leaders who are past experimenting with AI and now wrestling with a harder question: Why isn’t it sticking?
If you’re responsible for scaling AI use across managers, teams, or functions—and you’re seeing uneven adoption, stalled momentum, or “great tools, little behavior change”—you’ll be in the right room. This is especially relevant for HR, talent, learning, and transformation leaders who know AI adoption is no longer a training problem, but a practice, support, and reinforcement challenge.
How This Works

This 50-minute ELE Design Charrette isn’t a presentation. It opens with a short framing insight, then quickly moves into peer work. Participants compare notes on what actually shifts behavior at scale—how communication, manager support, and real success stories accelerate adoption, and where well-intended efforts quietly break down.
You’ll leave with clearer design patterns and sharper questions—not a framework to admire, but practical moves you can test immediately inside your organization.
Join the ELE Conversation
These every-other-Friday discussions are part of ELE’s ongoing peer exchange for leaders shaping talent and work in the AI era. Come ready to listen, contribute, and learn alongside peers testing ideas in real organizations and sharing what they’re learning.
Recordings are posted to <a href="https://www.ele.llc/insights">ELE Insights</a> within 2–4 business days.

single-event

learning strategy

Your Teams

Learning Circles

digital transformation

innovation

upskilling

Complimentary

online event

complimentary event

Culture Change

communication

collaboration

Engagement &amp; Culture

continuous learning

reskilling

organizational change

L&amp;D

HR leaders

AI in HR

workplace adaptation

knowledge sharing

actionable insights

practical strategies

AI literacy

AI maturity

AI and learning

AI reskilling

ai resk

Design Charrette

reframing hr

scaling AI

practice at scale

reinforcement

manager support

LAK Group

An organization’s culture will either accelerate its strategy or quietly erode it. Too often, executive teams believe they know the culture—but their perception doesn’t match the day-to-day reality experienced by employees. That disconnect creates risk, stalls momentum, and undermines credibility.

This breakout session tackles the challenge head-on. Together, we’ll explore what happens when the executive team is out of sync with the current state culture and how to align them to confidently shape the future state. The session will emphasize both courage and accountability—helping leaders validate today’s reality, unify around tomorrow’s vision, and activate new cultural beliefs and behaviors across the enterprise.

By the end of this session, participants will:
<ol>
 	<li>Validate and Verify Reality – Learn approaches to help executive teams see the true current state of the culture through evidence, feedback, and honest dialogue.</li>
 	<li>Unify Around the Future State – Discover methods to bring leaders together around a compelling cultural vision and the specific behaviors required to achieve it.</li>
 	<li>Activate Across the Organization – Gain tools to cascade and reinforce new cultural beliefs and behaviors, ensuring they are embedded at every level of the business.</li>
</ol>
This session focuses on guiding leaders from assumptions to clarity, from division to alignment, and from intent to bold, cultural action.

Bridging the Culture Gap

Strategy

michael.grubich

suzanne.sherry

employee experience

CHIE2025

organizational culture

Strategic HR

Culture Transformation

strategy execution

culture gap

executive alignment

culture strategy

leadership accountability

cultural beliefs

unified vision

cascading change

future state culture

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AI isn't just changing how we work; it is fundamentally redefining what work is and how it is valued. In this strategy-focused session, Marinus van Driel delivered a crucial framework for senior HR leaders to move beyond reacting to AI trends and instead proactively build a talent strategy designed for the future of work.

The central insight was clear: Agility is now the primary defense against market disruption, and AI is the engine that either enables it or exposes the lack of it.
<h3>Key Takeaways for Senior Talent Leaders:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>The Valuation Shift: Understanding how AI changes the economic value of human work. Leaders must proactively categorize roles based on whether AI will augment them (requiring capability-building) or transform them (requiring upskilling and talent mobility).</li>
 	<li>Reframing AI: Capacity, Not Headcount: Attendees learned to reframe AI from a cost-reduction threat to a capacity unlock tool. This requires prioritizing investment where the benefit of AI is largest—freeing up high-value talent to focus on strategic, human-centric contributions.</li>
 	<li>The Agility Playbook: Aon shared collected wisdom on intentional next steps, including the critical need to:
<ul>
 	<li>Build AI Literacy across the organization by intentionally letting teams "learn by doing."</li>
 	<li>Establish Governance that guides ethical use without creating organizational bottlenecks.</li>
 	<li>Prioritize small, intentional starts that map existing efforts and build momentum.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
This session armed senior HR, Talent Development, and L&amp;D leaders with the strategic perspective necessary to turn the complexities of AI and the future of work into a competitive advantage.
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📚 Related Reading:

<a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/bookshelf/strategy-and-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy and Change: How to Succeed in the Face of Accelerating Disruptive Innovation</a>

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AI, Agility, and the Future of Work | Solving Talent Strategy Challenges with Aon’s Talent Team

Talent Strategy

resilience building

practical insights

risk management

marinus.vandriel

AI and agility

organizational disruption

adaptive organizations

leadership choice

AI enhancement

Lead Belay

By 2030, the workplace will be unrecognizable: AI will be a teammate, automated workflows will handle routine tasks, and data will shape every decision. In this reality, the only sustainable competitive advantage is not technology, but the unique, non-replicable humanity of your workforce.

This powerful and deeply personal keynote addressed the most urgent question facing senior leaders: How do we successfully lead when machines can mimic empathy and analyze performance, yet cannot truly feel or connect?

Drawing from his own journey of profound personal change, Mike Kester validated the truth that the most effective leaders in the age of automation are those who help us tap into what makes us most human.

The keynote leveraged the context of the Ideal Culture Profile to reveal that as AI assumes more of the cognitive load, human performance is increasingly driven by three powerful, deeply human forces that leaders must intentionally cultivate:
<ol start="1">
 	<li>Fear (and the Courage to Face It Together): Creating a culture of psychological safety where employees can confront the disruption and rapid obsolescence of skills without professional paralysis.</li>
 	<li>Purpose: Providing the meaning that ensures work feels worth doing, connecting daily tasks back to a mission that transcends automation.</li>
 	<li>Love (and Deep Care): Fostering the organizational care that awakens the best in people, transforming teams into resilient, connected networks designed to innovate.</li>
</ol>
The keynote challenged leaders on how their Ideal Culture Profile must evolve when machines are teammates, not just tools. This talk examined cultural shifts—from human–AI collaboration to data-informed leadership—and highlighted one bold pivot leaders can make now to ensure their culture stays ahead of the curve.

The culture that thrives won't avoid disruption; it will channel it into trust, reskilling, and innovation.

Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI

mike.kester

competitive advantage

human AI collaboration

Workforce Resilience

innovation culture

Purpose-Driven Work

AI era

data informed leadership

eading with humanity

courage in leadership

emotional connection

ideal culture profile

Abbott

For senior HR and L&amp;D leaders, the greatest challenge isn't implementing change, but managing the cumulative human exhaustion from constant change. As Jennifer Rainey, IT Change Management Leader at Abbott, emphasized, "Change is no longer an event. It's the environment we live in."

This session delivered a powerful, practical case study on how Abbott IT successfully navigated large-scale transformations by embedding human-centered methodologies—shifting focus from process compliance to people adoption and empowerment.
<h3>Key Takeaways for Talent and L&amp;D Leaders:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>The Power of Behavioral Economics: Attendees learned how to leverage behavioral science to identify the specific human barriers to adoption (e.g., status quo bias, loss aversion) and design targeted interventions that move people from passive resistance to active acceptance.</li>
 	<li>The Three Pillars of Change Success: The session detailed Abbott's successful framework for managing concurrent change waves, focusing on:
<ol start="1">
 	<li>Sponsorship Alignment: Ensuring senior leaders don't just approve change but actively model the new behaviors.</li>
 	<li>Stakeholder Empathy: Using deep listening and feedback loops to tailor communications and training, rather than delivering generic mandates.</li>
 	<li>Adoption Measurement: Moving beyond system completion rates to measure the quality of skill application and the true adoption of new ways of working.</li>
</ol>
</li>
 	<li>Building the Muscle of Adaptability: The core insight was that the goal is not just to survive the current change, but to build organizational adaptability as a core, measurable capability—preparing the workforce to innovate and adapt continuously.</li>
</ul>
This post-session review provides the blueprint for leaders to replace generic change models with a human-centric approach that secures adoption, reduces employee burnout, and ensures strategic IT investments deliver on their business value.

Innovate and Adapt | A Human-Centered Approach to Managing and Leading Change in Abbott IT

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