ELE Group, LLC

&nbsp;
<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"We get through so much information in such a short amount of time — and the fact that we have a speedrun workshop that's still tangible is impressive." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/matt-sernaker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Sernaker,</a> Lake Forest Center for Leadership
</blockquote>

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This isn't a presentation. Here's what it is instead.
ELE introduced something new this year — and if you haven't been in one yet, it's worth understanding before you read the rest of this post.
A Design Charrette is a structured, time-boxed peer experience built around one real business challenge — submitted in advance by a community member. Not a topic. Not a theme. A problem someone is actually living right now.
The format runs on two roles. An Internal Client owns the challenge and grounds the room in what the business actually needs. A Strategist helps reframe it, surfaces the tensions, and starts mapping what a path forward might look like. Then the full group breaks out — three rooms, 15 minutes, rapid ideation on a single piece of the problem. Everyone works from the same tool: ELE's Signals-to-Action Planning Worksheet.
As Matt Sernaker framed it at the open:

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"We're moving away from just presenting out on specific topics — focusing on the workshop mentality, making it tangible, a safe learning environment for people to really practice." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/matt-sernaker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Sernaker</a>, Lake Forest Center for Leadership
</blockquote>
The group comes back together, debriefs the moves, and leaves with a co-built Action Planning Worksheet — a 30/60/90-day path grounded in peer input, not someone else's framework. That worksheet then feeds the next event in the series: an AI Practical Lab, where the group picks the work back up and builds an implementation plan.
This is ELE's 2026 pivot. Not content delivery. Peer-powered problem solving.
👉 See it in action: <a href="https://www.ele.llc/moments/design-charrette-the-art-of-strategic-listening" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Watch the Design Charrette highlight reel</a>.


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Who was in the room: <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/lorna-malloy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lorna Malloy</a>, Education Design Manager at Allstate Insurance, as the Internal Client; <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/patricia-ouzounian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patti Ouzounian</a>, AI Workforce Transformation Strategist at ELE, and <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/megan-bickle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megan Bickle</a>, Head of Talent Management at Rothy's, as Strategists; <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/matt-sernaker" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Sernaker</a>, Senior Business Development Director at Lake Forest Center for Leadership, as Executive Producer; plus contributing members from the ELE community.


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The challenge: when speed overrides listening
The business problem Lorna brought to the April 24 Charrette was one most people in the room had lived personally.
Leaders move fast. Agendas are packed. A decision needs to land before the call ends. Someone asks if there are concerns. Silence follows. The meeting moves on.

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"Don't assume silence means alignment, right? That's what we're saying." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/lorna-malloy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lorna Malloy</a>, Allstate Insurance
</blockquote>
Patti Ouzounian, stepping into the Strategist role, reflected back what she heard — and in doing so, modeled exactly what the format is designed to practice:

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"Leaders aren't always available to listen to their teams, and they often make assumptions, and base their decisions on those assumptions — and that really overrides any chance for listening, leaving teams and people feeling really unheard, especially during times of change." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/patricia-ouzounian" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patti Ouzounian</a>, ELE
</blockquote>
That reframe — from "people aren't speaking up" to "we haven't created the conditions for them to" — is the move. It shifts the problem from a people problem to a design problem. And it's exactly the kind of clarity a Design Charrette is built to surface.


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The reframe: thermostat, not thermometer
Megan Bickle pushed the room on a question worth carrying back to your own team:

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"Is this a temperature gauge or a thermostat, right?" — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/megan-bickle" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Megan Bickle</a>, Rothy's
</blockquote>
Annual engagement surveys tell you what already happened. Real-time listening lets you adjust before the resistance hardens into a pattern. The group named the cost of the gap clearly: slower execution, eroded trust during change, and a growing disconnect between what leaders think they're hearing and what teams are actually saying.

<blockquote class="ml-2 border-l-4 border-border-300/10 pl-4 text-text-300">
"Without the listening, you don't have a feedback to know if you're on target." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/dirk-tussing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dirk Tussing</a>, ELE
</blockquote>

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What to try next

<ul class="[li_&amp;]:mb-0 [li_&amp;]:mt-1 [li_&amp;]:gap-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ul]:pb-1 [&amp;:not(:last-child)_ol]:pb-1 list-disc flex flex-col gap-1 pl-8 mb-3">
 	<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">30 days: Add "What did we hear?" as a standing close to key meetings and decisions. Treat silence as an open question — not a green light. Early evidence signal: are different groups still surfacing the same concerns after the decision moved forward?</li>
 	<li class="whitespace-normal break-words pl-2">60 days: Build listening checkpoints into change initiatives at the 2–4 week mark — when quiet resistance typically becomes visible. Early evidence signal: are you catching friction before it calcifies into disengagement?<img class="aligncenter" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/20260424-ELE-Strategic-Listening-90-Day-Implementation-Map.jpg" alt="" width="865" height="477" /></li>
</ul>

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If any of these insights resonate—and you've got a top-of-mind talent business problem you'd like the ELE community to work on—send it our way.
Members can submit their challenge here: <a class="underline underline underline-offset-2 decoration-1 decoration-current/40 hover:decoration-current focus:decoration-current" href="https://www.ele.llc/faqs/share-top-of-mind-business-challenges">Submit My Challenge Now</a>
Looking to turn these ideas into action? Access the <a href="https://community.ele.llc/t/pre-chat-post-chat-the-art-of-strategic-listening/5861" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Idea Exchange Post-chat</a> for an updated Action Planning Worksheet.

Design Charrette | The Art of Strategic Listening

Digital &amp; AI

Leadership

dirk.tussing

lorna.malloy

wendi.barlow

guillermo.gutierrez

patricia.ouzounian

matt.sernaker

megan.bickle

audrey..hackley

rachel.kaberon

ai practical lab

Leadership Effectiveness

actionable insights

2Q2026

Design Charrette

confidence capability clarity

Senior Talent Leaders

Action Planning Worksheet

ELE 2026

peer-powered learning

execution drag

strategic listening

trust during change

signals-to-action

internal client

talent business problem

peer-driven problem solving

Alter Domus

<blockquote>"AI is cosmically stupid if it doesn't have context." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/christopher-lind" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Christopher Lind</a></blockquote>
That line set the tone for everything that followed on March 12.

<a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/anton-maletich" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anton Maletich</a> brought a real problem to the room: Alter Domus is scaling fast, hiring junior officers straight out of university, and by week four those employees can't explain what the company does — let alone speak credibly with clients. Not a motivation gap. A mental model gap. The business needed a repeatable way to close it.

So the room built one. Live.

The live discussion brought together a sharp mix of senior talent and L&amp;D leaders — from Alter Domus, Precisely, and Learning Sharks anchoring the conversation, to practitioners from Lurie Children's, PepsiCo, Discover, Zurich North America, Aon, CNA Insurance, insightsoftware, SunSource, FranklinCovey, Reynolds Consumer Products, and Waukesha County Technical College in the mix. The kind of room where the chat is as good as the main conversation — and it was.

<hr />

The brief matters more than the tool.

Marty walked through The CRIT Model live — Context, Role, Interview, Task — and built a 30-day onboarding framework for Alter Domus in real time, no proprietary data shared. The output was specific because the input was specific. The move most people admitted skipping: asking the AI to ask you clarifying questions before it responds.
<blockquote>"Full disclosure: The CRIT Model was new to me in that room too. Marty pulled it from Geoff Woods' <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/bookshelf/the-ai-driven-leader" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The AI-Driven Leader</a> — and watching him run it live was one of those lightbulb moments where you think, why haven't I been doing this the whole time? Context, Role, Interview, Task. Four steps. Completely changes what comes back." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/dirk-tussing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dirk Tussing</a>.</blockquote>
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="822"]<img title="The CRIT Model infographic" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Gemini_Generated_Image_CRIT-model.jpg" alt="Infographic of the CRIT model for AI leading, breaking down Context, Role, Interview, and Task with icons and descriptions for each step." width="822" height="448" /> The CRIT Model for AI-driven leadership, from Geoff Woods. (Credit: Google Gemini Banana)[/caption]

When the AI pressed Anton on where his junior officers actually break down, he got precise: it's not the legal structure — it's how accounting flows through it. That answer changed everything the AI produced. The diagnosis landed correctly. The room noticed.

<hr />

You own the output.

Speed is real. So is the risk of using it uncritically. Christopher drew a hard line: if you can't answer detailed follow-up questions about what the AI produced, you haven't done the work.
<blockquote>"If you just use the results without analysis or reflection, you're not using it correctly." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/david-scherer" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David Scherer</a></blockquote>
And AI won't tell you when you're wrong — it's built to keep you engaged, not challenge you. You have to ask for the pushback explicitly.

<hr />

Design the workflow, don't improvise it.

The practical split that landed: use outside-firewall tools for structure and frameworks, then move inside your approved environment to add sensitive detail.
<blockquote>"I'm looking for this tool outside your firewall to give structure. I can take that and put it inside the firewall and flesh out the detail." — <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/marty-murrillo" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Marty Murrillo</a>, Precisely</blockquote>
Christopher added: build custom GPTs, Gems, or Claude Projects for work your team repeats — stakeholder interviews, onboarding design, needs assessments. Pre-load the context once. Anyone picks it up without starting cold.

<hr />

What to try next

Use The CRIT Model on one real work product this week. Add the Interview step — ask it to ask you up to three clarifying questions before responding. Early evidence: fewer revision cycles, more specific output.

Split your AI workflow deliberately. Map which parts happen outside the firewall (structure, options, frameworks) and which stay inside (proprietary detail). Make it a decision, not an accident. Early evidence: you can explain your process to InfoSec without hesitating.

Ask it to push back before you finalize. Prompt it directly: "What's wrong with this? What am I missing?" It won't do this unprompted. Early evidence: you'll catch at least one assumption you'd been treating as settled.

<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>

Design Charrette | The Art of Strategic Listening

✨ AI Practical Lab: Context Is the Job

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