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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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Find the peer conversation that moves your work forward.The right exchange builds better leaders, closes capability gaps, and cuts through what internal meetings can't.

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Get answers about how Executive Learning Exchange (ELE) works — peer-powered leadership development that fixes real work issues, reverses burnout, and accelerates business value. No programs. No vendors. In the flow of work.

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<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>

<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
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.


<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
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>

<hr class="border-border-200 border-t-0.5 my-3 mx-1.5" />
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

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