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Marquette University

Co-Designing the Future of Talent Development.
Be part of the "inner circle" as we prepare for
<a href="https://www.ele.llc/events/2026-wise-conference" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Milwaukee Talent Development Conference 2026</a>

We are co-creating ELE's Design Charrettes Template
APR 2 | 2:00–4:00 PM CT | Dirk's Koi Pond, North Park, Chicago
On April 4th, ELE’s Experience Designers, <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/alaska-fu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Alaska Fu</a> and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/yolanda-mangram" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yolanda Mangram</a>, will lead a focused small-group working session to refine the Design Charrette format before it takes the stage in Milwaukee.
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-44761" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/ELE-working-session-executive-cohort-at-Glanbia.jpg" alt="ELE Executive Cohort (Glanbia) — Skills-First Talent Practices Roundtable, 2023" width="738" height="499" />ELE Executive Cohort (Glanbia) — Skills-First Talent Practices Roundtable, 2023
This isn't a passive presentation. It’s a "working meetup" where we will live-test the Charrette methodology—a high-intensity, peer-powered approach borrowed from architecture to solve complex leadership problems in under 90 minutes.

<blockquote>Borrowed from architecture, a design charrette brings experienced practitioners together to solve complex problems quickly. 
<ul>
 	<li>Design Charrettes—introduced by <a style="font-size: 1.1em; font-style: italic; background-color: #ffffff;" 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.</li>
 	<li>In ELE design charrettes, peers work through challenges using three complementary lenses—internal client, AI learning guide, and real-world skeptic—to strengthen judgment before committing to action.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
The Mission
We’re inviting a small group of practitioners to help us pressure-test ELE’s Design Charrette Template before we bring it to the Milwaukee conference. You’ll participate in a live Charrette using three lenses that strengthen judgment and strategy:

<ul>
 	<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
 	<li data-path-to-node="9">The Internal Client: What’s the real need and the “heart” of the challenge?</li>
 	<li data-path-to-node="9">The AI Learning Guide: Where can rapid intelligence and modern tools accelerate options and clarity?</li>
 	<li data-path-to-node="9">The Real-World Skeptic: What will break in the real world—and how do we make this workable on Monday?</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
Your participation will directly shape how this experience is delivered to hundreds of leaders at the upcoming Milwaukee conference.
Why Attend?
You’ll get a first-hand look at a cutting-edge facilitation framework, contribute your expertise to a major industry event, and network with Dirk, Yolanda, and Alaska in the refreshing setting of North Park.
Experience the setting: North Park Village Nature Center (2-min overview).
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lsY24QjlZsY?si=F20GB6wa6_M289lS" width="1120" height="630" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">﻿</iframe>
Space is limited to 10 seats to ensure meaningful interaction.

&nbsp;

ELE Design Charrette Template Co-Create | Chicago (North Park)

single-event

Team Leaders

Your Teams

chicagoland

Meet-ups

dirk.tussing

meetup

talent development

in-person event

Engagement &amp; Culture

yolanda.mangram

networking

alaska.fu

2Q2026

Co-Creation

working session

ele sprints

Alter Domus

HumanSide

In last week’s ELE hands-on AI Practical Lab, a simple truth kept surfacing: when a team can’t see the work clearly, they can’t change the work confidently.
That’s why so many learning initiatives stall—not because the idea is wrong, but because the story is unreadable. The value stays invisible. Leaders move on.
Dustin Brewer put it bluntly in a way most talent leaders will recognize immediately:
<blockquote>“If the C-suite won’t read, they have to see it first.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/dustin-brewer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dustin Brewer</a>, HumanSide.</blockquote>
In other words: if your “insight” can’t travel in a glance, it won’t survive the week.
But the lab didn’t stop at getting attention. It pushed into the harder question: what makes people trust the message enough to act on it? That’s where Nicole DeFalco grounded the group with the reminder that capability doesn’t transfer through outputs alone:
<blockquote>“It still has to land—human to human.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nicole-defalco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nicole DeFalco</a>.</blockquote>
AI can speed the draft. It can’t replace the relationship.
<h5>Three insights for leaders designing team-based learning experiences</h5>
<h6>1) Legibility is a capability strategy</h6>
Teams don’t adopt what they can’t quickly grasp, repeat, and share. A crisp one-page visual, a clean infographic, even a “cover story” mock—these aren’t marketing flourishes. They’re capability tools, because they compress complexity into something a team can align around.
If your experience design ends with “we trained them,” you’re done too early. The real question is: what will the team use together next Tuesday when the pressure hits?
<h6>2) Story isn’t fluff — it’s the operating system for alignment</h6>
In the lab, “story” wasn’t treated as creativity. It was treated as structure: What changed? What’s at stake? What choice are we asking leaders to make? What proof would they trust?
That’s what makes work decidable in the room. And that’s what makes a team-based learning experience feel like real work—not a field trip.
<h6>3) AI changes roles — and raises the bar for human value</h6>
A helpful reset surfaced as a throughline in the February 12th lab: the real shift isn’t “AI is going to take my job.” It’s that AI changes how value gets created—and makes the human worker more indispensable when the work matters.
Ed brought in a quote from Shyam Sankar (CTO of Palantir) that set a new standard for how we talk about AI and work: “The American worker will wield AI to do more with less—and become more productive and valuable as a result.” That’s a stronger standard for how to view AI’s role in the workforce: not as a replacement narrative, but as a multiplier—where humans become higher-impact by focusing on judgment, clarity, credibility, and connection.
The lab reinforced what that looks like in practice. AI can accelerate drafts and options, but humans still own the parts that create trust and movement—especially verification and delivery.

<blockquote>“We’re not putting the person out of the loop. I’m going in there and verifying.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/edward-desrosiers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Edward DesRosiers</a></blockquote>
AI increases speed. Human ownership increases responsibility. And that’s exactly what makes the human worker more valuable, not less.
<h5>✨ What to do Monday: four moves that build team capability in real work</h5>
Run a 45-minute story prototype sprint. Pick one live initiative—new workflow adoption, manager friction, AI integration—and build a one-page artifact plus a 30-second talk track that answers one question: what decision should a leader make differently after seeing this?
Use a simple rhythm to keep the work moving: Clarify → Co-Create → Customize → Commit. Clarify the decision and audience. Co-create a first draft with peers and AI. Customize it to stakeholder reality. Commit by piloting it in the flow of work and capturing what changed.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-44484" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Four-Step-Model-for-AI-Workflows-ELE-4-Cs.jpg" alt="ELE's 4 C Model for AI Workflows" width="781" height="439" />

Make iteration explicit. Your first version should be fast—and imperfect—so people can react to something real instead of debating abstractions. Two quick feedback loops (peer + end-user) will teach your team more than a “perfect” deck ever will.
Treat prompting and verification as part of the experience design. Prompting isn’t a personal party trick; it’s stakeholder translation with constraints. Verification isn’t optional; it’s what makes speed safe. Give your team a repeatable checklist (sources, SME review, human sign-off) so credibility scales with adoption.
<h5>Continue the conversation</h5>
If you’re working on the toughest talent challenges—and you want capability that shows up in real work (not just course completions)—join the continuing thread on the ELE Idea Exchange:

<a href="https://community.ele.llc/t/2026-feb-ai-lab-pre-chat-post-chat/5767">2026 FEB: AI Lab Pre-chat &amp; Post-Chat</a>

✨ AI Practical Lab: From Insight to Influence — Telling Stories with Business Impact

ELE Design Charrette Template Co-Create | Chicago (North Park)

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