ELE Group, LLC

BARYONS

<blockquote>
“What if your AI learning strategy is failing—not because of the technology—but because you’re designing for the wrong humans?” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/tracey-wik" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tracey Wik</a>, Co-Founder of Love Sunday Nights.
</blockquote>
<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XcY2TdkIGg8?si=wjp4LrU6NafVzXiJ" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>
This real-time exchange offered a clear signal for talent leaders: the biggest gains in capability aren’t coming from new programs or faster rollouts. They’re coming from how learning is designed to show up inside the work itself.
Too many talent experiences are still built around tools, content, or generic personas. But what surfaced in this dialog was something more practical—and more human. Teams don’t struggle because they lack access to learning. They struggle when learning isn’t designed around how people actually think, decide, and work together under real constraints.
Three insights stood out:
These insights didn’t emerge from a presentation—they were shaped through ELE’s Design Charrette approach.

<blockquote>Borrowed from architecture, a design charrette brings experienced practitioners together to solve complex problems quickly.
<ul>
 	<li>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.</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>
1) Capability is built through how teams work—not what they consume. When learning is treated as content to deliver, progress stalls. When it’s designed as a shared way of working—grounded in curiosity, experimentation, and problem-solving—capability compounds over time.

<blockquote data-start="1038" data-end="1155">
“Learning isn’t content. It’s an organizational stance—curiosity, experimentation, and shared problem-solving.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/michael-hruska" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Hruska</a>, Co-Founder of BARYONS.
</blockquote>
2) Managers are the real system for learning in the flow of work. AI shows up most powerfully when it augments manager judgment—supporting coaching, reflection, and decision-making in real moments. That’s where confidence grows: not in courses, but in practice, with feedback, under real constraints.
3) Clarity unlocks confidence—and learning velocity. When teams don’t know what’s allowed, experimentation slows to a halt. Clear guardrails, shared expectations, and safe spaces to test ideas are what turn curiosity into real capability.
The throughline is simple—but not easy:
Reskilling isn’t something you deliver. It’s something teams do—together—inside real work.

Design Charrette: Building the NextGen Talent Pipeline with AI Mentors

future of work

Digital &amp; AI

Leadership

tracey.wik

azizeh.constantinescu

edward.desrosiers

leadership development

carole.widmer

anton.maletich

matt.donovan

marty.murrillo

tamora.martin

organizational capability

matt.sernaker

Workforce Transformation

susan.c.guest

michael.hruska

actionable insights

AI-enabled learning

cindy.pinkstaffmiller

alaska.fu

1Q2026

learning experience design

Design Charrette

NextGen Talent Pipeline

AI Mentors

talent experience design

confidence capability clarity

team capability building

human-centered ai

team-based learning

manager led learning

capability over content

real work learning

learning as a system

talent strategy 2026

skills and talent initiatives

peer driven learning

adaptive learning design

Journyz

<blockquote data-start="772" data-end="868">
“Most of what surfaced here has nothing to do with learning—and everything to do with how work is designed.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/brian-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Gold</a>, Acrisure.
</blockquote>
The ELE Ideation Sprint offered a timely reminder that many of today’s capability challenges do not show up as obvious skills gaps. Instead, they surface quietly in everyday work: in manager workarounds, ambiguous decisions, delayed conversations, and teams absorbing more risk than expected just to keep things moving.

What leaders heard during the sprint was not a call for more training. Managers were not asking for new programs or tools. They were describing work that had changed without being formally redesigned. Roles were stretching beyond their original scope. Expectations were shifting without explicit conversation. Decision rights were becoming less clear.

That friction isn’t noise. It’s signal.
<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/What-Managers-Actually-Surfaced.jpg" alt="" width="779" height="466" />
What surfaced across manager conversations

As participants compared real manager moments across organizations, a consistent pattern emerged. Reskilling needs are showing up first as judgment, risk, and decision challenges, not as requests for learning. Capability gaps appear as hesitation, uncertainty, and overload long before they show up in performance metrics, engagement surveys, or development plans.

Managers are navigating higher stakes work with faster timelines, tighter scrutiny, and greater system dependence, often without updated guardrails or shared definitions of “good work.” In response, many compensate quietly by stepping in, redistributing work, or softening expectations. Over time, these adaptations normalize risk and hide deeper structural gaps.

This reframes how leaders should think about reskilling altogether.

Three insights felt especially important for leaders designing team-based learning experiences:

First, manager conversations are the earliest capability sensor.
When leaders look across manager input not one story at a time, but in patterns they can detect role drift, uneven adaptation, and system strain early. These signals surface in everyday decisions, not in formal development requests. By the time learning demand is explicit, the organization is often already carrying risk.

Second, many “reskilling” challenges are actually design challenges.
Unclear workflows, broken handoffs, ambiguous decision ownership, and outdated role definitions cannot be trained away. The sprint helped leaders slow down long enough to diagnose whether an issue was rooted in skill, system, or structure and to respond intentionally rather than reflexively. This distinction proved critical for avoiding well-intended but misdirected learning interventions.

Third, learning works best in the flow of real work.
A key shift for participants was learning how to ask open-ended, work-centered questions that surfaced real problems instead of defaulting to one-track training conversations. When L&amp;D leaders resisted the urge to jump to solutions and instead invited managers to describe what felt hard, risky, or unclear, the conversation changed.

Rather than narrowing quickly to “what course do we need,” discussions opened up into a clearer understanding of how the work itself had changed and what kind of response was actually required. This approach consistently elevated L&amp;D’s role with the business.
<blockquote data-start="1289" data-end="1362">
“This gives L&amp;D a way to go back to the business with real value—not just more programs.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/brian-gold" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Brian Gold</a>, Acrisure.
</blockquote>
A different role for L&amp;D

One of the most important outcomes of the sprint was how it reframed the role of learning leaders. Instead of acting primarily as program designers or solution providers, participants left better equipped to serve as sense-makers and partners in diagnosing change.

Even when the answer was not training, L&amp;D leaders could guide their business partners toward clearer problem definition, better decisions, and more appropriate responses. That shift alone changes the credibility and impact of learning in the organization.

The bigger move is not about faster deployment or better content. It is about designing experiences that help teams see what has changed in the work, make smarter decisions together, and adapt in real time.
That’s the kind of capability-building work that will matter most in 2026.
𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐓: The ELE Ideation Sprint focuses on reskilling closer to real work. Rather than starting with large-scale frameworks or tools, the sprint centers on practical manager–employee conversations and the early signals that reveal where capability is actually breaking down. The goal is not to jump to solutions, but to identify and validate the real problem space worth solving.

𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐒? Explore the <a href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/innovation-sprint-reskilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELE Ideation Sprint FAQs</a> or reach the ELE team at help@ele.llc.

ELE Ideation Sprint — Reskilling Closer to Real Work

Future of Work

dirk.tussing

missy.gonzales

Performance Improvement

Performance Consulting

brian.gold

manager effectiveness

work design

Talent Leadership

capability building

manager coaching

deepa.kartha

ali.glaser

Ideation Sprint

workforce adaptation

learning in the flow of work

work clarity

reskilling signals

manager moments

elevated HR

root cause analysis

rapid learning

AI practicality

scaling capability

AI and talent

manager conversations

Lead Belay

HumanSide

This real-time exchange surfaced a truth many talent leaders are quietly wrestling with: AI isn’t just changing how work gets done—it’s revealing whether our teams have the confidence, clarity, and shared judgment to learn together in the flow of work.
The conversation didn’t drift toward tools or training catalogs. Instead, it stayed grounded in what leaders are seeing inside their organizations right now: uncertainty, acceleration, and unspoken fear. As Michael named directly:

<blockquote data-start="772" data-end="868">
“Great leaders don’t hide fear. They help people face it together.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/mike-kester" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Kester</a>, Lead Belay.
</blockquote>
That idea reframed the role of talent leaders in this moment. Before teams can build new capabilities, leaders have to design spaces where fear is discussable—where learning isn’t confused with performance, and curiosity isn’t penalized.
<img class="aligncenter wp-image-44497" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/WISE2024-Kester-and-Lead-Belay.jpg" alt="Mike Kester facilitating a small-group breakout discussion with senior talent and business leaders." width="759" height="441" />
From there, three insights stood out for leaders designing team-based learning experiences:
First, AI doesn’t fix weak systems—it exposes them. As Deepa put it:

<blockquote data-start="1289" data-end="1362">
“AI amplifies everything—structure and chaos.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/deepa-kartha" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Deepa Kartha</a>.
</blockquote>
Teams aren’t struggling because they lack tools. They’re struggling where roles, decision rights, and ways of thinking were already unclear. AI simply makes that visible—fast.
Second, the capabilities that matter most aren’t new. In a moment that brought relief to many in the discussion, Nicole DeFalco reframed the skills conversation:

<blockquote data-start="1714" data-end="1811">
“The new skills aren’t new. They’re the ones we stopped practicing.” — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/nicole-defalco" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nicole DeFalco</a>.
</blockquote>
Critical thinking, sensemaking, and judgment are no longer “soft skills.” They are the infrastructure that allows AI to be useful rather than risky.
Third, clarity—not access—is the real gap. Nearly everyone has access to AI. Far fewer teams have shared norms for when to trust it, how to validate outputs, and when human judgment must lead.
<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="609" height="585" />
The takeaway for talent leaders is clear: this isn’t about delivering more training or scaling content faster. It’s about designing experiences where teams practice thinking together—inside the work that actually matters.
Because in the age of AI, learning doesn’t live in programs. It lives in the moments when leaders slow the work down just enough for teams to learn forward—together.

Co-Creating Human-Centered Transformation in the Age of AI

mike.kester

liza.fernandez

colin.hahn

ana.bedard

guillermo.gutierrez

L&amp;D

AI in HR

rachel.kaberon

erin.joslin

nicole.defalco

Future Ready Leadership

L&amp;D strategy

manendra.bhugra

mike.hoyt

AI and learning

dustin.brewer

AI reskilling

AI Era Leadership

AI and Work

leadership judgment

AI-enabled leadership

critical thinking at work

AI and culture

Art Institute of Chicago

How is the Art Institute of Chicago creating and promoting a healthy work environment and helping leaders across their organization become stronger, more thoughtful leaders?

Join Denise Banks, CHRO of the Art Institute of Chicago, to learn about her team’s mindful Intentional Leadership approach which connects cross-departmental leaders and invites them to look beyond basic management responsibilities to understand what really defines strong leadership. Hear how leadership at the Art Institute of Chicago agreed to implement leadership practices and committed to the behaviors and skills needed to connect with the mission and priorities of the organization and inspire others. From design and buy-in, to tips, tangible tools, and techniques, you are sure to learn and leave equipped to advance leadership development at your own institution.

Intentional Leadership: Developing NextGen Leaders at the Art Institute of Chicago

leadership

denise.banks

learning and development

CHIE2023

Next-generation leaders

FranklinCovey

This will be an interactive session where we’ll discuss skills-based organizations, developing strategic skills and capabilities, possible futures of AI and skills, and the value of large-scale behavior change in building organizational capability and driving results. You’ll get a chance to learn from the presenter as well as interact with each other in discussions around building the critical human capabilities your organizations need to win in the future.

Adam Merrill is the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Customer Intelligence for FranklinCovey, where he leads the research of market and technology trends and drives evidence-backed insights that help talent leaders make better decisions as they work to unleash the human potential of their organizations.

Skills & Capabilities–Developing NextGen Leaders: Skills-First Talent Practices and Workplace Agility

Culture Change

talent practices

skills-based talent practices

adam.merrill

Skills-based organizations

workplace agility

AI and skills

human capabilities

NextGen Leaders

This will be an interactive session where we’ll discuss skills-based organizations, developing strategic skills and capabilities, possible futures of AI and skills, and the value of large-scale behavior change in building organizational capability and driving results. You’ll get a chance to learn from the presenter as well as interact with each other in discussions around building the critical human capabilities your organizations need to win in the future.

Adam Merrill is the Executive Vice President of Strategy and Customer Intelligence for FranklinCovey, where he leads the research of market and technology trends and drives evidence-backed insights that help talent leaders make better decisions as they work to unleash the hman potential of their organizations.

Skills & Capabilities–Developing NextGen Leaders: Latest Trends enabling Workplace Agility

insights-wise-2023

strategic skills

capabilities development

future skills

workplace trends

Froedtert ThedaCare Health

To maintain a competitive edge in today's market, organizations must continually evolve and innovate. Accordingly, the people within these organizations must also be capable of evolving with the organization.

In this session, we will have an interactive discussion exploring strategies for cultivating a workforce that can perform and achieve its strategic goals.

Building Organizational GROWTH Capability

Strategy

roslyn.grant

growth mindset

strategy

organizational development

CHIE2022

organizational change capability

build organizational growth

change capability

This book offers a new model for creating inclusive organizations and illuminates diversity's vital role in developing solutions to the critical social, environmental, and leadership challenges we face.

While many companies focus on DEI efforts, we must take inclusion to the next level. Our massive social, economic, and environmental challenges can only be solved when organizations and institutions embrace complete inclusion. This book gives organizations practical steps for increasing diversity to enhance their capacity to solve global challenges.

Andres T. Tapia and Fayruz Kirtzman, senior client partners at international consulting powerhouse Korn Ferry, draw on Korn Ferry'sthe company's extensive research to outline five disciplines of inclusive organizations. These are the ability to:
<ol>
 	<li>Managing the risk</li>
 	<li>Exploring the awareness</li>
 	<li>Maximizing the talent systems</li>
 	<li>Mastering the logistics</li>
 	<li>Seeing the marketplace</li>
</ol>
&nbsp;

Based on metrics and proven solutions, this book provides useful strategies for building inclusive organizations. It reveals how such organizations can generate greater innovation, drive business results, optimize talent, and work towards greater social and environmental justice.

The 5 Disciplines of Inclusive Organizations: How Diverse and Equitable Enterprises Will Transform the World

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