LAK Group

Human Synergistics

Session Focus: <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/angie-zeigler">Angie Zeigler</a> will build on the foundation of the Chicago keynote to explore in greater depth why values often fail to translate into behavior. She will lead a peer discussion on identifying the cultural forces that quietly accelerate or undermine performance.
For talent leaders, the biggest culture risk isn’t unclear values—it’s the widening gap between the values on the wall and the behaviors employees experience every day.
In this follow-up live discussion, Angie Zeigler, head of culture practice with LAK Group, builds on the Human Synergistics keynote to explore why well-intentioned values initiatives stall—and what actually drives culture change at scale. Drawing on decades of research and real organizational data, Angie shares practical stories of how organizations that prioritize and reward specific, constructive behaviors are significantly more successful in closing the engagement gap.
This discussion is designed for leaders who want to move beyond culture statements and into the real work of aligning values, behaviors, and results.
Human Synergistics' research makes visible what most leaders sense—but struggle to diagnose.
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-44495" src="https://wp.ele.llc/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/CHIE2025-Kern-Keynote-80-vs-25-percent-slide.jpg" alt="Michael Kern presenting a slide showing a contrast between “&gt;80%” and “&lt;25%” to illustrate gaps between stated values and lived behaviors." width="1920" height="1133" />
What this data reveals is uncomfortable—but actionable. Most organizations believe they are values-driven, yet fewer than a quarter consistently experience those values in daily work. That gap isn’t cultural “noise”—it’s a performance signal.
In this discussion, leaders will examine how everyday behaviors, systems, and incentives quietly reinforce—or undermine—the culture they say they want, and where small, targeted shifts can create outsized impact.
Who Should Join
This discussion is designed for leaders responsible for shaping culture, performance, and behavior at scale—across HR, talent, learning, and the business. If you’re wrestling with gaps between stated values and what actually gets rewarded, or trying to understand which behaviors accelerate performance—and which quietly undermine it—you’ll be in good company.

How This Works
Each discussion runs for 50 minutes and blends a short framing insight with open, peer-driven exchange.
There are no slides to sit through and no pitches—just focused conversation designed to surface what’s working, what’s not, and what leaders are trying next as culture and performance collide in real organizations.

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.

From Values to Behavior: Navigating Superheroes and Saboteurs

single-event

future of work

Your Teams

Learning Circles

digital transformation

innovation

angie.zeigler

upskilling

performance improvement

talent development

Complimentary

online event

complimentary event

Culture Change

employee engagement

collaboration

accountability

Performance Improvement

Engagement &amp; Culture

continuous learning

reskilling

L&amp;D

matt.sernaker

organizational culture

HR leaders

AI in HR

Strategic HR

workplace adaptation

knowledge sharing

Culture Transformation

Values Alignment

actionable insights

practical strategies

employee trust

practical insights

leadership behavior

cindy.pinkstaffmiller

cathleen.cooke

1Q2026

performance culture

cultural diagnostic data

targeted intervention

organizational systems

HR processes

culture risk

culture reality check

AI and learning

AI reskilling

reframing hr

An organization’s culture will either accelerate its strategy or quietly erode it. Too often, executive teams believe they know the culture—but their perception doesn’t match the day-to-day reality experienced by employees. That disconnect creates risk, stalls momentum, and undermines credibility.

This breakout session tackles the challenge head-on. Together, we’ll explore what happens when the executive team is out of sync with the current state culture and how to align them to confidently shape the future state. The session will emphasize both courage and accountability—helping leaders validate today’s reality, unify around tomorrow’s vision, and activate new cultural beliefs and behaviors across the enterprise.

By the end of this session, participants will:
<ol>
 	<li>Validate and Verify Reality – Learn approaches to help executive teams see the true current state of the culture through evidence, feedback, and honest dialogue.</li>
 	<li>Unify Around the Future State – Discover methods to bring leaders together around a compelling cultural vision and the specific behaviors required to achieve it.</li>
 	<li>Activate Across the Organization – Gain tools to cascade and reinforce new cultural beliefs and behaviors, ensuring they are embedded at every level of the business.</li>
</ol>
This session focuses on guiding leaders from assumptions to clarity, from division to alignment, and from intent to bold, cultural action.

Bridging the Culture Gap

Strategy

michael.grubich

suzanne.sherry

Change Management

employee experience

CHIE2025

strategy execution

culture gap

executive alignment

culture strategy

leadership accountability

cultural beliefs

unified vision

cascading change

future state culture

Skillsoft

EmpathAI Learning Solutions

The modern corporate reality is simple: your employees are drowning in a sea of training options, yet starving for clarity and direction. The sheer volume of content, much of it irrelevant, actively slows down enterprise agility and wastes talent investment.

In this highly interactive session, leaders from Skillsoft and Empath.AI Learning Solutions tackled the chaos head-on, sharing a practical framework for designing smarter, simplified learning ecosystems that accelerate workforce readiness. The core challenge is clarifying what's "must-have" vs. "build-your-skillset" to create clear career momentum.
<h3>Key Takeaways for Talent Leaders:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>The Clarity Framework: Attendees rolled up their sleeves to co-create practical career and skill maps for key enterprise roles. The key learning was how to ruthlessly filter content to define the essential path (mandatory knowledge) and separate it from the growth path (optional, personalized skill-building).</li>
 	<li>AI as the Simplicity Engine: The session explored how adaptive learning and AI-driven personalization are the primary tools for simplification. Instead of managing a large course catalog, L&amp;D can leverage AI to instantly curate content that is relevant at the moment of need, ensuring employees get guidance, not just more options.</li>
 	<li>The Plug-and-Play Template: Participants walked away with a tangible, plug-and-play template to immediately streamline development paths in their organizations. This template is the blueprint for moving away from generic content assignments toward a skills-based ecosystem designed to scale and evolve with emerging business needs.</li>
</ul>
This session proved that effective, modern L&amp;D is defined not by how much content you have, but by how skillfully you simplify the path for your people, directly fueling enterprise agility.

Simplifying Training | Designing Smarter Learning Ecosystems for Enterprise Agility

Integrated Talent Management

Digital &amp; AI

workforce readiness

future of learning

adaptive learning

yolanda.mangram

skills-based learning

HR Technology

Learning Ecosystems

L&amp;D strategy

heber.sambucetti

integrated talent

enterprise agility

AI personalization

skill maps

plug and play template

career momentum

talent investment

clarity framework

content curation

operational simplicity

Froedtert ThedaCare Health

Journyz

Goal: In this 45-minute breakout, participants will experience a taste of the ELE Work/Life Blueprint and reflect on how design thinking can make reskilling personal, scalable, and business-aligned.

Every HR leader knows reskilling at scale is an enterprise priority—but traditional, one-size-fits-all approaches rarely deliver impact. The Work/Life Exchange Blueprint introduces a five-step, design-thinking framework that makes reskilling personal, practical, and scalable:

1️⃣ Discover — map where energy, skills, and growth opportunities intersect.

2️⃣ Design — generate multiple “what’s next” scenarios, short- and long-term.

3️⃣ Prototype — test small, low-risk skill applications that generate real data.

4️⃣ Exchange — share insights, borrow ideas, and refine through peer feedback.

5️⃣ Blueprint — tell your story, build your support team, and co-create a living plan (not a static PDP).

Grounded in design-thinking principles from Designing Your Work Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, this ELE-built model simplifies reskilling at scale by moving from HR-led programs to frontline-owned growth — turning learning into impact.

📚 Related Reading: <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/bookshelf/designing-your-work-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Designing Your Work Life on ELE’s Bookshelf</a>

🔁 <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1qFs__kIJsCLH6ynAeNopOsz6PHEpub9ntpAmvuJt588/edit?mc_cid=e7686c688f&amp;mc_eid=621cbc8540&amp;slide=id.p1#slide=id.p1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ELE Executive Innovation Sprints Proposal</a>

What’s Next: Following this initial ideation, on <a href="https://www.ele.llc/events/reskilling-128" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">November 14th we’ll host a virtual exchange to refine business requirements</a> before recruiting 4–6 members for our first Solution Sprint.

🔄 ELE Executive Innovation Sprint: Simplifying Reskilling/Upskilling to Scale | Turning Upskilling into Impact

talent mobility

design thinking

newton.moore

janice.simmons

workforce planning

angelica.janina.stilling

deepa.kartha

reskilling at scale

upskilling strategy

business aligned learning

practical framework

capability gap

skills mapping

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AI isn't just changing how we work; it is fundamentally redefining what work is and how it is valued. In this strategy-focused session, Marinus van Driel delivered a crucial framework for senior HR leaders to move beyond reacting to AI trends and instead proactively build a talent strategy designed for the future of work.

The central insight was clear: Agility is now the primary defense against market disruption, and AI is the engine that either enables it or exposes the lack of it.
<h3>Key Takeaways for Senior Talent Leaders:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>The Valuation Shift: Understanding how AI changes the economic value of human work. Leaders must proactively categorize roles based on whether AI will augment them (requiring capability-building) or transform them (requiring upskilling and talent mobility).</li>
 	<li>Reframing AI: Capacity, Not Headcount: Attendees learned to reframe AI from a cost-reduction threat to a capacity unlock tool. This requires prioritizing investment where the benefit of AI is largest—freeing up high-value talent to focus on strategic, human-centric contributions.</li>
 	<li>The Agility Playbook: Aon shared collected wisdom on intentional next steps, including the critical need to:
<ul>
 	<li>Build AI Literacy across the organization by intentionally letting teams "learn by doing."</li>
 	<li>Establish Governance that guides ethical use without creating organizational bottlenecks.</li>
 	<li>Prioritize small, intentional starts that map existing efforts and build momentum.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
This session armed senior HR, Talent Development, and L&amp;D leaders with the strategic perspective necessary to turn the complexities of AI and the future of work into a competitive advantage.
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📚 Related Reading:

<a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/bookshelf/strategy-and-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Strategy and Change: How to Succeed in the Face of Accelerating Disruptive Innovation</a>

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AI, Agility, and the Future of Work | Solving Talent Strategy Challenges with Aon’s Talent Team

Future of Work

Talent Strategy

resilience building

risk management

marinus.vandriel

AI and agility

organizational disruption

adaptive organizations

leadership choice

AI enhancement

Lead Belay

By 2030, the workplace will be unrecognizable: AI will be a teammate, automated workflows will handle routine tasks, and data will shape every decision. In this reality, the only sustainable competitive advantage is not technology, but the unique, non-replicable humanity of your workforce.

This powerful and deeply personal keynote addressed the most urgent question facing senior leaders: How do we successfully lead when machines can mimic empathy and analyze performance, yet cannot truly feel or connect?

Drawing from his own journey of profound personal change, Mike Kester validated the truth that the most effective leaders in the age of automation are those who help us tap into what makes us most human.

The keynote leveraged the context of the Ideal Culture Profile to reveal that as AI assumes more of the cognitive load, human performance is increasingly driven by three powerful, deeply human forces that leaders must intentionally cultivate:
<ol start="1">
 	<li>Fear (and the Courage to Face It Together): Creating a culture of psychological safety where employees can confront the disruption and rapid obsolescence of skills without professional paralysis.</li>
 	<li>Purpose: Providing the meaning that ensures work feels worth doing, connecting daily tasks back to a mission that transcends automation.</li>
 	<li>Love (and Deep Care): Fostering the organizational care that awakens the best in people, transforming teams into resilient, connected networks designed to innovate.</li>
</ol>
The keynote challenged leaders on how their Ideal Culture Profile must evolve when machines are teammates, not just tools. This talk examined cultural shifts—from human–AI collaboration to data-informed leadership—and highlighted one bold pivot leaders can make now to ensure their culture stays ahead of the curve.

The culture that thrives won't avoid disruption; it will channel it into trust, reskilling, and innovation.

Leading with Humanity in the Age of AI

Leadership

mike.kester

leadership development

psychological safety

competitive advantage

human AI collaboration

Workforce Resilience

innovation culture

Purpose-Driven Work

AI era

data informed leadership

eading with humanity

courage in leadership

emotional connection

ideal culture profile

The Regis Company

Zurich North America

The traditional model of learning design is now a strategic liability: slow, resource-intensive, and fundamentally incapable of generating the talent the business needs at speed. Senior HR and L&amp;D leaders who joined this session saw firsthand how to move their function from being a bottleneck to becoming an engine of strategic velocity by implementing an AI-First Design architecture.

This session was not about general AI trends; it was a deep dive into the practical architecture for replacing limited, expensive talent development methods with a system that is scalable, affordable, and measurable.

Key Takeaways for Senior Leaders:
<ul>
 	<li>From Knowing to Doing: The Validation Revolution: The most critical shift demonstrated was moving L&amp;D metrics away from outdated Knowledge Verification (e.g., course completions) to robust Skills Validation, using applied judgment and performance analysis to measure true capability.</li>
 	<li>The Velocity Advantage: Attendees learned a proven, step-by-step process to move from a concept to a working learning prototype in as little as two hours, proving that scalable, effective training can be achieved for all ranks without years of development cycles.</li>
 	<li>The L&amp;D Toolkit of the Future: The session showcased the power of specialized AI agents—including AI Design Agent (AIDA), AI Interview Agent (AIIA), and AI Coaching Agent (AICA)—that are essential for accelerating design, content synthesis, and personalization.</li>
</ul>
This session provided the essential blueprint for establishing a true Skills–Strategy Link, positioning the L&amp;D function as a strategic partner that can deliver high-impact talent solutions at the speed of business.

The Skills–Strategy Link: Using AI-First Design in L&D

marsha.love-morrow

darwyn.hackney

maggie.lowenberg

organizational strategy

performance analysis

Future of L&amp;D

skills validation

lance.healy

skills strategy link

AI-first design

L&amp;D architecture

strategic velocity

capability measurement

learning prototype

velocity advantage

AI agents

L&amp;D toolkit

high impact solutions

business speed

For senior HR and Talent leaders, the single biggest culture risk isn't a lack of declared values—it's the massive, draining gap between the values on the wall and the behaviors on the floor. This misalignment actively undermines performance and erodes employee trust, creating a confusing and exhausting work environment.

In this practical, research-backed session, Michael Kern, Consulting Director at Human Synergistics, leveraged over 40 years of groundbreaking culture research to reveal a hard truth: Your organizational systems and leaders' everyday behaviors, not your mission statement, are the true curriculum for your culture.
<h3>Essential Takeaways for Aligning Culture and Performance:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>The Culture Reality Check: Attendees moved beyond surface-level surveys to understand the deep, diagnostic data that reveals the gap between the "Ideal" (what people value for success) and the "Current" (what people actually experience). You can't change what you can't measure with precision.</li>
 	<li>Identifying Superheroes and Saboteurs: Michael provided a framework for senior leaders to identify the forces—both people and organizational policies—that are either driving the desired culture ("Superheroes") or actively undermining it ("Saboteurs"). This is the critical step to move from generalized observation to targeted systemic intervention.</li>
 	<li>The Three-Part Alignment Strategy: The session detailed the essential alignment needed to bridge the values gap, focusing on:
<ol start="1">
 	<li>Leadership Behaviors: Shifting from mere approval of values to actively modeling the desired culture every day.</li>
 	<li>Organizational Systems: Revising HR processes, recognition programs, and performance management to reward value-aligned actions.</li>
 	<li>Values: Ensuring the stated values are clear, actionable, and connected to business outcomes.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ul>
This keynote was a powerful call to action for leaders ready to stop declaring their values and start living them, creating a truly congruent, high-performing organizational culture that drives measurable results.

Reconnecting Values to Culture | Navigating the World of Superheroes and Saboteurs

michael.kern

The era of AI has created a $4.4 trillion productivity opportunity, yet many L&amp;D strategies are fundamentally misaligned to capture it . The challenge isn't just about adopting new tech; it's about shifting your entire talent function from a focus on static skills and mindset to continuous, measurable momentum.

This keynote cuts through the surface-level AI talk to deliver a practical framework for senior talent leaders. You'll gain forward-thinking insights on:
<ul>
 	<li>The Dangerous Cost of Cultural Lag: Why an AI strategy without a corresponding culture strategy doesn't just fail, but actively amplifies existing organizational weaknesses.</li>
 	<li>New Rules of Performance: Understand the critical shift from driving for traditional Output to maximizing Contribution, and from building basic Skills to enabling strategic Capabilities.</li>
 	<li>Time as a Talent Advantage: Explore how leaders can deliberately shape a culture where Trust is an action verb and the speed of learning becomes the new competitive edge.</li>
 	<li>The Five Talent Pillars: Review the key areas for transformation—from what you develop and how you deliver it, to how leaders model future-ready behaviors—to create a truly future-ready workforce.</li>
</ul>
Walk away with actionable strategies to move past generic development plans and build the necessary cultural and talent infrastructure to drive measurable business growth in the age of AI.

Developing Talent to Power Growth | From Mindset to Momentum

teri.hart

talent management

cultural transformation

future-ready workforce

HR transformation

Trust Building

Business Growth

AI Adoption

organizational design

strategic capabilities

BARYONS

By 2030, AI, automation, and data will shape every decision, workflow, and talent strategy—but as this provocative keynote demonstrated, Culture will remain the true, non-replicable driver of performance. This high-energy session, featuring a mystery co-emcee from the AI future, challenged senior HR, Talent Development, and L&amp;D leaders to rethink the organizational model they are building today.

The core message was a powerful strategic call-to-action: The winners of the next decade will be the organizations that solve the human equation behind AI integration.
<h3>The Strategic Questions Leaders Must Answer:</h3>
<ul>
 	<li>What is the New Meaning of "Flourishing"? The keynote used future "what-if" scenarios to ask a fundamental question: In a world where AI handles most cognitive tasks, how do we define and measure human flourishing? The challenge is to make the "good life" accessible to all employees, ensuring work remains a source of purpose, not just output.</li>
 	<li>Building a Culture for the "Unknown": Leaders were pushed to design cultures that thrive on ambiguity, asking: What kind of leadership is required when your most significant competitor—or even a potential new product—doesn't exist yet? The answer lies in fostering psychological safety and prioritizing curiosity over certainty.</li>
 	<li>From Skills to Strategic Conversation: The session highlighted that the future role of the executive is not just to manage people, but to orchestrate high-quality conversations and collaborative problem-solving. This means building a cultural architecture where talent development accelerates both emotional intelligence and strategic discernment.</li>
</ul>
This keynote provided a critical perspective on the organizations we must build today to ensure that by 2030, our culture is a source of sustainable competitive advantage, not a barrier to an AI-driven future.

How Will Culture Drive Performance in 2030 | A Look Ahead: Where AI, Culture, and Performance Intersect

emotional intelligence

AI integration

Ethical AI

michael.hruska

aaron.bare

performance driver

human flourishing

strategic discernment

cognitive tasks

high quality conversations

collaborative problem solving

organizational model

ELE Group, LLC

This live discussion with experienced talent executives, mostly ex-Accenture, made one thing clear: skills are more than a talent metric—they’re the language of business capability. When viewed as data, skills connect individual growth to enterprise agility, shifting the conversation from headcount to capability management.
<a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/craig-friedman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Craig Friedman</a> reminded us that:

<blockquote data-start="1100" data-end="1220">
“Skills are both people data and business data. That shift takes us from counting heads to managing capabilities.”
</blockquote>
That single shift reframes how talent leaders partner with the business. Instead of defending headcount, we’re managing capabilities that drive agility, growth, and performance.
But, as Heber cautioned:

<blockquote data-start="1441" data-end="1560">
“Skills data only matters if it’s accurate. Decisions are only as strong as the confidence you have in the data.” -- <a href="https://www.ele.llc/members/heber-sambucetti" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Heber Sambucetti</a>, Skillsoft
</blockquote>
Confidence in your data determines whether leaders trust skills intelligence to shape pay, succession, and workforce planning.
And as Craig warned, complexity is the enemy:

<blockquote data-start="1740" data-end="1840">
“If your taxonomy is exploding, step back. Keep the skill the skill—and separate the context.”
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The conversation didn’t just redefine skills—it revealed what leaders must prioritize to make skills strategy work in practice

<h3 data-start="1972" data-end="1991">Key Takeaways:</h3>
🔹 Skills are strategic currency, bridging individual growth with enterprise capabilities. 🔹 Data quality is non-negotiable—without it, business decisions crumble. 🔹 Start where the business hurts; pilots anchored in real challenges prove value fast. 🔹 Simplicity wins—overbuilt taxonomies collapse under their own weight. 🔹 AI is an accelerant, not a replacement; governance keeps it usable.


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<h3 data-start="2405" data-end="2447">Practical Actions for Talent Leaders:</h3>
✅ Frame conversations with executives around capability, not headcount. ✅ Audit skills data before using it to drive staffing, comp, or workforce plans. ✅ Launch a pilot tied to a pressing business problem to win support and credibility. ✅ Establish governance guardrails early: clear definitions, owners, and refresh cycles. ✅ Use AI smartly—let it speed tagging and content, but apply governance filters.

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Skills strategy isn’t about boiling the ocean. It’s about building trust, proving value, and scaling what works—step by step.
Which of these actions feels most urgent in your organization right now? Let’s continue this conversation in the <a href="https://www.ele.llc/idea-exchange" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ELE Idea Exchange</a>.

Skills Are Data: Designing a Strategy for Agility and Growth

Analytics

dirk.tussing

jean.ryan

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