ELE Group, LLC

Session Focus:  A mini-workshop exploring how leaders apply strategy and change principles when decisions can’t wait for perfect information.

<div class="group/conversation-turn relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn">
<div class="flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3">
<div class="flex max-w-full flex-col flex-grow">
<div class="min-h-[20px] text-message flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 whitespace-normal break-words [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5" dir="auto" data-message-author-role="assistant" data-message-id="06167a8a-0cf7-4e4b-ac90-418662019320">
<div class="flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]">
<div class="group/conversation-turn relative flex w-full min-w-0 flex-col agent-turn">
<div class="flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3">
<div class="flex max-w-full flex-col flex-grow">
<div class="min-h-[20px] text-message flex w-full flex-col items-end gap-2 whitespace-normal break-words [.text-message+&amp;]:mt-5" dir="auto" data-message-author-role="assistant" data-message-id="06167a8a-0cf7-4e4b-ac90-418662019320">
<div class="flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]"> Strategy often looks clean on slides—and messy in practice. In this interactive discussion, Aaron Olson returns to ELE to explore how leaders make better decisions amid uncertainty, disruption, and competing priorities.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Drawing from real-world experience and insights from Strategy and Change, this conversation moves beyond theory into application. Participants will work through practical scenarios, share decision tradeoffs, and examine how leaders navigate change when timing, judgment, and clarity matter most.
This is a working conversation for leaders responsible for decisions that shape teams, culture, and outcomes.

</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44500" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CHIE2025-Keynote-Executive-Talent-Leaders-Panel.jpg" alt="Aaron Olson moderating a panel discussion with senior leaders during an ELE event." width="1920" height="953" />

Who Should Join
This experience is for leaders who make real decisions before the data is perfect.

If you’re responsible for setting direction, navigating change, or helping teams move forward amid uncertainty, this will resonate. It’s especially valuable for HR, talent, learning, and business leaders who are balancing speed, judgment, and competing priorities—and want to pressure-test how those decisions actually play out.

How This Works
The session begins with a short framing from Aaron Olson on applying strategy and change principles in moments that don’t allow for clean answers. From there, participants work through practical scenarios, surface decision tradeoffs, and compare how peers navigate timing, risk, and clarity.

This is active, facilitated work—not a presentation. The focus is on sharpening judgment, learning from lived experience, and leaving with clearer decision-making moves leaders can apply right away.

Want to go deeper?
This mini-workshop draws on ideas from Strategy and Change by Aaron Olson and co-authors—focused on insight, choice, and risk when leaders face disruption.
<ul>
 	<li>Explore the book on ELE’s Bookshelf (<a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/bookshelf/strategy-and-change">learn more or purchase</a>)</li>
</ul>
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.

Strategy & Change in Practice: Turning Uncertainty into Better Decisions

single-event

future of work

Your Teams

Learning Circles

digital transformation

dirk.tussing

innovation

upskilling

talent development

aaron.olson

Complimentary

online event

complimentary event

collaboration

Future of Work

Engagement &amp; Culture

continuous learning

reskilling

decision making

L&amp;D

matt.sernaker

HR leaders

AI in HR

change leadership

workplace adaptation

knowledge sharing

actionable insights

practical strategies

cindy.pinkstaffmiller

1Q2026

AI and learning

AI reskilling

reframing hr

strategy &amp; change

leadership judgment

navigating uncertainty

insight choice risk

practical leadership

executive decision-making

Human Synergistics

Get a quick taste of Human Synergistics’ Subarctic Survival Simulation—then step back to reflect with peers on why immersive experiences like this are so powerful for leadership development and change readiness. In just 45 minutes, you’ll see how decision-making under pressure connects directly to strategy, collaboration, and preparing leaders for what’s next.

Survive to Lead | What a Survival Simulation Reveals About Leading Through Uncertainty

experiential learning

Leadership

leadership development

Performance Improvement

CHIE2025

Change Readiness

Leadership Training

High Performing Teams

michael.kern

practical insights

human synergistics

immersive learning

survival simulation

leading through uncertainty

strategy execution

collaboration skills

CME Group

GE Renewable Energy

Lead Belay

As HR Talent Leaders, the responsibility lies in fostering a culture of continuous learning and development within organizations. In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, cultivating a "learning organization" is imperative for driving innovation, employee engagement, and long-term success.

The concept, as defined by Michael Kester, envisions an environment "where people continually expand their capacity to create desired results, nurture new thinking patterns, set free collective aspirations, and continually learn to see the whole together."

Three key takeaways emerged:
1. Cultivating a trusting culture of psychological safety, treating failures as learning opportunities, is critical for becoming a generative, learning organization. Rachad stated, "When collaborating with peers, it will be an investment in self-development – a powerful yet difficult mindset to instill in large companies."
2. Shifting the organizational mindset to view knowledge sharing and collaboration as crucial for personal development is difficult but essential. Daniel Ranta emphasized being "deliberate in the approach to give the greatest chance of success in this maturity model."
3. Evolving an organization's learning capabilities requires a deliberate, long-term strategy integrating changes to culture, structure, rewards, technology, and governance models. GE's case study highlighted the challenges in transitioning from hierarchical to networked learning models.
Fostering peer-learning communities, encouraging knowledge sharing, and providing a psychologically safe environment empowers teams to expand capabilities, nurture innovative thinking, and unlock collective aspirations.

Cultivating a learning culture is a journey, not a destination. Embracing this challenge with determination, vision, and commitment enables organizations to thrive amid constant change.

Cultivating a Learning Culture: Empowering Teams through Peer-Learning Communities

engagement &amp; culture

newton.moore

knowledge transfer

performance improvement

mike.kester

edward.desrosiers

effective leadership

learning &amp; development

Organization Development

employee engagement

Knowledge Management

trust

rachad.el-badawi-el-najjar

scalable learning experiences

organizational agility

hybrid workforce

rebecca.benson

DEIB

thomas.fons

peter.hogaboam

inclusive leadership

iris.farley

build organizational growth

employee retention

teamwork

learning community

learning organization

social network analysis

daniel.ranta

raushaun.muhammad

As HR Talent Leaders, we are responsible for fostering a culture of continuous learning and development within our organizations.

 When <a href="https://www.learningexecutive.com/members/gary-bolles">Gary Bolles</a> asked Adam Grant, best-selling author of books like Think Again, to describe the most critical mindset to encourage throughout the organization, he responded without hesitation:
<blockquote>"Build a learning organization.
Replace 'that's not how we've always done it' and 'that will never work here' with 'I wonder what woudl happen if..." -- <a href="https://www.learningexecutive.com/books/next-rules-of-work">The Next Rules of Work (page 95)</a></blockquote>
💥We will explore the evolving concept of the learning organization and the need to create organizational systems and cultures that resemble neural nets with nodes (communities) that openly share.

<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-38742" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Social-Network-Analysis.png" alt="Social Network Analysis" width="542" height="248" />

&nbsp;

💥Key question: What can talent development leaders do today to begin to identify, support, and nurture these nodes or communities?

Our discussion will cover identifying and supporting peer-learning communities, using technology to facilitate communication and knowledge sharing, and overcoming barriers to building these communities. By sharing best practices and case studies from our organizations and engaging in collaborative discussions, we plan to uncover ways to create and sustain a learning culture that empowers our teams to adapt and innovate in an ever-changing world.

<img class="aligncenter wp-image-30988" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Network-Management-1024x476.png" alt="Social Network Analysis" width="790" height="367" />

Equipped with practical examples and evidence-based strategies, you will be empowered to create and sustain a thriving peer-learning community that fosters more vital teamwork, improves decision-making, attracts top talent, improves employee engagement, and higher employee retention.

&nbsp;

ELE produces this Learning Circle: Retooling Talent Development for the New Normal.

ELE's <a title="ELE's Idea Exchange" href="https://www.learningexecutive.com/idea-exchange/">Idea Exchange</a>: Collaborate online with your peers.

In Being Mortal, bestselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending

Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering.

Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families. Gawande offers examples of freer, more socially fulfilling models for assisting the infirm and dependent elderly, and he explores the varieties of hospice care to demonstrate that a person's last weeks or months may be rich and dignified.Full of eye-opening research and riveting storytelling, Being Mortal asserts that medicine can comfort and enhance our experience even to the end, providing not only a good life but also a good end.

Being Mortal

Strategy

systems thinking

psychological safety

workforce readiness

jim.orheim

ethical leadership

human-centered design

experience design

human-centered systems

autonomy and purpose

organizational empathy

leadership in transition

strategic resilience

peer-powered insights

quality of life

resilience strategy

This New York Times bestseller and business classic has been fully updated for a world where skilled communication is more important than ever.

The book that revolutionized business communications has been updated for today’s workplace. Crucial Conversations provides powerful skills to ensure every conversation―especially difficult ones―leads to the results you want. Written in an engaging and witty style, it teaches readers how to be persuasive rather than abrasive, how to get back to productive dialogue when others blow up or clam up, and it offers powerful skills for mastering high-stakes conversations, regardless of the topic or person.

This new edition addresses issues that have arisen in recent years. You’ll learn how to:
<ul>
 	<li>Respond when someone initiates aCrucial Conversationwith you</li>
 	<li>Identify and address the lag time between identifying a problem and discussing it</li>
 	<li>Communicate more effectively across digital mediums</li>
</ul>
When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, you have three choices: Avoid a crucial conversation and suffer the consequences; handle the conversation poorly and suffer the consequences; or apply the lessons and strategies of Crucial Conversations and improve relationships and results.Whether they take place at work or at home, with your coworkers or your spouse, Crucial Conversations have a profound impact on your career, your happiness, and your future. With the skills you learn in this book, you'll never have to worry about the outcome of a Crucial Conversation again.

Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High

leadership

heather.tunison

keri.kersten

communication skills

emotional intelligence

yolanda.mangram

Effective Communication

jen.crabb

matthew.huston

workplace relationships

team collaboration

nicole.defalco

laura.sandera

holly.r.pyatt

terresa.bubbers

catherine.hebel

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.

From Conflict to Courage: How to Stop Avoiding and Start Leading

denis.sternberg

organizational culture

Personal Growth

Conflict Resolution

Management Strategies

Leadership Skills

Professional Development

courageous leadership

workplace conflict

conflict management

business leadership

ashanti.morgan

In this highly-anticipated book, Harry Kraemer argues that today's business environment demands values-based leaders who, in "doing the right thing," deliver outstanding and lasting results. The journey to becoming a values-based leader starts with self-reflection. He asks, "If you are not self-reflective, how can you know yourself? If you do not know yourself, how can you lead yourself? If you cannot lead yourself, how can you lead others?" Kraemer identifies self-reflection as the first of four principles that guide leaders to make choices that honor their values and candidly recounts how these principles helped him navigate some of the toughest challenges he faced in his career.

From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership

harry.kraemer

Personal Integrity

Leadership Journey

"management strategy"

values-based leadership

leadership principles

self-reflection

balance

true self-confidence

genuine humility

corporate ethics

How do you do two seemingly opposite things at once? How can you be candid and diplomatic, provide structure and flexibility, keep things stable, lead change, and focus on organizational interests while doing what's best for employees? Many approach these polarities with either/or thinking, but leaders, teams, and organizations that navigate them using a both/and mindset significantly outperform those who don't. The trick is knowing how.

In their work with thousands of people across the globe, Brian Emerson and Kelly Lewis have seen the tension and stress polarities can create in relationships, teams, and organizations. In this book, they share the practical tools to transform that tension into a positive driving force by expanding either/or thinking to include a both/and mindset.

Navigating Polarities: Using Both/And Thinking to Lead Transformation

transformation

jane.shlaes

Change Management

organizational development

problem solving

Personal Development

Both/And Thinking

Team Dynamics

Work Relationships

Communication Strategies

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The author of The Power of Habit and Supercommunicators and “master of the life hack” (GQ) explores the fascinating science of productivity and offers real-world takeaways to apply your life, whether you’re chasing peak productivity or simply trying to get back on track.

In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity and rich storytelling to how we can improve at the things we do.

At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this book reveals that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don’t merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways.

Smarter Faster Better is a story-filled exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help us learn to succeed with less stress and struggle—and become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do.

Smarter Faster Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity

performance management

organizational effectiveness

time management

productivity

motivation

Focus

Goal Setting

workplace productivity

Efficiency

Team Productivity

Strategic Planning

Jake Knapp’s Sprint is the "OG" blueprint from Google Ventures. It’s the book that started the movement. For senior HR and L&amp;D leaders, this isn't just a book about product design—it’s a masterclass in decision-making and risk mitigation.
<h6 data-path-to-node="2">🕒 The High-Stakes Shortcut: Stop Debating, Start Solving</h6>
How much time does your leadership team spend in "analysis paralysis"? We’ve all seen it: a major talent initiative—like a new performance management system or a global culture shift—gets discussed in meeting after meeting, yet a year later, nothing has changed.
Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test New Ideas in Just Five Days offers a radical escape from this cycle. Jake Knapp and his co-authors provide a battle-tested, minute-by-minute recipe for moving from a high-stakes problem to a proven solution in exactly one business week.
For the forward-thinking HR leader, the "Sprint" is the ultimate tool for Agile Talent Management. Instead of launching a massive, untested program and hoping for the best, you learn to build a "facade" of your idea and test it with real people immediately. It’s about shifting your culture from one of "permission and perfection" to one of "experimentation and evidence."
If you are facing a problem where the stakes are high, the clock is ticking, and the solution isn't obvious, this is your playbook.

Login