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.

DX Learning Solutions

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Teams rarely fail because of poor strategy - they stall because people stop telling the truth. This keynote explores how hidden bias and misunderstood relationship dynamics create a leadership gap between what people feel and what they say, and how that gap quietly erodes performance.
At the center are two powerful cognitive biases. Courtesy Bias keeps people silent in the name of harmony, preventing honest feedback and slowing decisions. The Fundamental Attribution Error leads leaders to judge behavior as a flaw in character or motive rather than seeking context—damaging trust and narrowing perspective. Both are intensified by a common misconception: confusing being nice with being kind.
Being nice avoids discomfort and protects feelings in the moment. Being kind tells the truth in service of growth and protects the relationship over time. When leaders default to nice, teams drift into surface-level harmony while losing access to the candid information required for sound decisions.
This keynote reframes relationships as performance infrastructure grounded in the <a style="color: #0056b3; text-decoration: underline;" href="https://www.dx-learning.com/care" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">CARE: The Human Operating System (HOS) for High Performing Teams</a>. This is not about “soft skills,” but rather an operating system that carries truth. Participants learn how everyday behaviors either shut down or unlock clarity, candor, and courage, and why strong relationships are the antidote to stalled teams, guarded conversations, and missed signals. The result: better decisions, healthier conflict, and teams that move forward instead of standing still.

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Why Teams Stall: No Clarity, Candor, or Courage

Engagement &amp; Culture

Leadership

accountability

Professional Growth

organizational behavior

Trust Building

team performance

conflict management

High Performing Teams

Culture Transformation

executive presence

wise2026

team alignment

angela.howard

insights-wise-2026

courtesy bias

fundamental attribution error

clarity candor courage

human operating system

communication bias

relationship dynamics

healthy conflict

leadership gap

performance infrastructure

strategic collaboration

AI-Powered Leadership: Mastering the Synergy of Technology and Human Expertise

The premise cuts through fast: knowing how AI works isn't leadership. Knowing how to lead with it—that's the gap most organizations haven't closed yet.

This book makes a case most senior talent leaders will recognize immediately. The technical adoption curve is moving. The human capability curve isn't keeping pace. Critical thinking, conflict management, stakeholder alignment—what the authors call "power skills"—are what determine whether AI integration actually lands in real work or just gets announced and forgotten.

The framework they offer is a "Both/And" approach. Leaders don't choose between proven leadership practice and AI-driven innovation. They build the muscle to run both simultaneously. That's a harder lift than it sounds—and the book doesn't pretend otherwise.

Harold Kerzner, who's spent decades in project leadership, puts it plainly in his foreword: "Simply using it is also not enough." The edge goes to leaders who understand how AI actually works—including where it breaks down—and pair that knowledge with sharp human judgment.

Why it's relevant for ELE members:

The business problem this book addresses isn't adoption. It's performance—specifically, whether AI integration translates into better decisions, stronger teams, and measurable outcomes. That's the conversation ELE members are already in.

A few threads worth pulling:
<ul>
 	<li>How to build AI collaboration as a team capability, not just an individual skill</li>
 	<li>Where "power skills" create leverage in AI-assisted decision cycles</li>
 	<li>A practical framework for leading through the complexity without defaulting to either tech-first or human-only thinking</li>
</ul>
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AI-Powered Leadership: Mastering the Synergy of Technology and Human Expertise

Digital &amp; AI

digital transformation

power skills

critical thinking

marty.murrillo

Performance Improvement

patricia.ouzounian

Workplace Dynamics

adaptive leadership

stakeholder engagement

organizational performance

strategic decision making

AI Powered Leadership

Human Expertise Synergy

Project Management AI

Cognitive Complexity

Hybrid Leadership Models

Ethical AI Integration

Unresolved conflict is workplace kryptonite. Learn how to develop the mindset and skills to defuse disagreements, overcome division, and turn conflict into an opportunity for growth.

Unresolved workplace conflict wastes time, increases stress, and negatively affects business outcomes. But conflict isn’t the problem, mismanagement is.

Leaders unintentionally mismanage conflict when they fall into patterns of what Marlene Chism calls “the Three As:” aggression, avoidance, and appeasing. “These coping mechanisms are ways human beings avoid the emotions that come with conflict, but in the end it’s all avoidance,” says Chism. In this book she shows how to fearlessly deal with conflict head-on by expanding your conflict capacity.

Conflict capacity is a combination of three elements. The foundation is the Inner Game—the leader’s self-awareness, values, discernment, and emotional integrity. The Outer Game is the skills, tools, and communication techniques built on that foundation. Finally, there’s Culture—the visible and invisible structures around you that can encourage or discourage conflict.

Chism offers exercises, examples, and expert guidance on developing all three elements. Leaders will discover techniques to increase leadership clarity, identify obstacles, and reduce resistance. They’ll develop powerful skills for dealing with high-conflict people and for initiating, engaging in, and staying with difficult conversations.

Readers will learn that when they see conflict as a teacher, courageously face it, and continually work on transforming themselves, they can get the resolution they are seeking. They can change minds.

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