New ways to support teams through complexity, conflict, and change.

How do you lead when the pressures keep mounting—but the path forward only gets murkier? Right now, leaders are navigating more than just complexity—they're dealing with overlapping tensions, impossible tradeoffs, and rising emotional strain across their teams. Every decision seems to carry higher stakes. Every conversation feels like it could escalate. And all of it is unfolding amid a backdrop of constant, unresolved change.

This session offers insights and practical frameworks for leading with intention, presence, and clarity—especially when there's no clear playbook. We'll explore what leadership mindsets need to shift in an era of complexity, experiment with practical tools for navigating high-conflict dynamics, and explore strategies for anchoring your team around shared direction. We'll also look at how leaders can create the conditions for "trial, error, and evolve"—helping teams take thoughtful risks and innovate in the ways this moment requires.

Key themes:

• Understanding the difference between complicated and complex problems—and how today's challenges demand new leadership approaches
• Distinguishing between healthy conflict (which allows for better outcomes) and high conflict (which derails progress)
• Applying the Conflict Foresight Model—a framework to anticipate stakeholder reactions and develop thoughtful responses before tensions escalate
• Encouraging "trial, error, and evolve"—making it safe for teams to take risks and adapt without a fixed roadmap

Strategies for reclaiming time, energy, and focus for deeper impact.

Leaders today describe their experience as a constant treadmill—a nonstop rush of decisions, demands, and disruptions. For mission-driven leaders, this creates a painful irony—being too caught up in immediate pressures to focus on the transformational work they came to do. These complex times require us to lead and plan in different ways—but creating space for that shift requires stepping off the treadmill first.

This session explores what it takes to protect your leadership energy, recalibrate priorities, and create space for the strategic work that matters most.

Key themes:

• What this moment demands: Reframing time and energy as strategic resources, not self-care nice-to-haves 
• Why our calendars reflect our strategy and our culture: How we allocate time reveals what we truly prioritize
• Recognizing your personal boundary saboteurs, the internal patterns that keep even seasoned leaders stuck on a treadmill
• Strategic shifts that stick: Small, high-impact changes to reclaim focus and energy for what matters most
• Leading through systemic burnout: Why today's conditions demand more than grit—and what it takes to lead sustainably

Creative practices to lead with presence and purpose.

How do we stay centered when the ground beneath us keeps changing? When external pressures pull us in different directions, returning to our internal compass becomes essential for authentic leadership. This session draws on concepts from mindfulness, values-centered leadership, and psychotherapy practices to help leaders reconnect with their core values, authentic voice, and sense of purpose—even when everything around us feels uncertain.

Through guided drawing exercises and reflective practices accessible to everyone (no artistic experience required), participants will explore what grounds them, identify what truly matters most, and develop practices for returning to their center when chaos threatens to overwhelm. This isn't about finding a fixed plan; instead, we’ll focus on the inner clarity that allows us to navigate the future with confidence, regardless of what comes next.

Key themes:

• Why your internal compass matters: Understanding what it means to lead from your center during times of uncertainty 
• Creative exercises for reconnection: Activities that help you identify your core sources of stability, strength, and purpose 
• Mission vs. values: Understanding the difference and how to make values live and breathe in your leadership 
• Building practices for recalibration: Simple rituals and tools to return to your center when you feel pulled off course 
• Leading with authentic presence: How inner clarity translates into more confident, grounded leadership

Tools and approaches for thinking beyond the now.

In times like these, it can feel like imagination is a luxury—but it's actually a leadership necessity. When we're surrounded by uncertainty, urgency, or exhaustion, it's easy to get stuck reacting to the moment. Staying grounded in mission and values means making space to imagine the future we want to build. This session explores how leaders can use tools from the imaginative arts to break through assumptions, shift mindsets, and chart paths toward what's next. Drawing on creative visioning techniques, doodling exercises, and other approaches that unlock fresh perspectives, participants will reconnect with their ability to think beyond current constraints and help others do the same. No artistic experience required—you'll be surprised at what emerges when you give yourself permission to play.

Key themes:

• The role of imagination in navigating complexity and change 
• Designing from the future—practices that help teams envision bold possibilities together
• Drawing together to think differently—a playful way to surface new ways forward 
• Returning to your why—reconnecting with purpose, mission, and who you serve

Practices for psychological safety, trust, and belonging in uncertain times.

What does it take to foster psychological safety when everyone is feeling the emotional weight of today's challenges? How can you create an environment where people feel valued and heard, especially during times of uncertainty? This session explores how every leader—regardless of title—contributes to building inclusive culture through daily actions and interactions, and offers practical approaches for strengthening trust when it matters most.

Key themes:

• Navigating new tensions—how stress and change affect engagement and belonging 
• Everyday actions for psychological safety: simple, consistent practices that build trust and morale when teams are strained 
• Surfacing invisible workplace norms that shape behavior and belonging—and identifying which ones need to change.
• Allyship beyond the buzzword: concrete actions for supporting colleagues across different identities and experiences 
• Keeping the long view: building toward your highest aspirations for culture and values, even in turbulent times

A hands-on workshop to explore what diversity, equity, and inclusion mean to us—individually and collectively.

The phrase “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has become a lightning rod—attacked, defended, politicized, and often emptied of its meaning. But behind the headlines are essential questions: What do these words mean in our lives and workplaces? How do we talk honestly about our experiences? And what should DEI look like in practice—not in theory, but in the everyday decisions, behaviors, systems, and values that shape culture?

This session invites participants to clarify what DEI means to them, connect with others’ lived experiences, and co-create a shared artifact that reflects their collective voice. The workshop begins with an interactive discussion on the power of stories and images to surface difficult truths, clarify values, and imagine new possibilities. Participants will then contribute to a short, collaborative publication—a “zine”—that captures how their group is thinking about the present and future of DEI.

Each person will create one page using easy-to-use Canva templates (no design experience needed), combining words and images in whatever style feels most authentic. The final “zine” can be shared digitally or printed—offering a lasting artifact for continued conversation and reflection.

Key themes:

• Exploring the power of images and storytelling for cultural change
• Clarifying what DEI looks like in practice—not just principle
• Expressing lived experience while learning from others
• Co-creating a tangible reflection of group insight and intention

Naming the patterns, shifting the culture.

Women are often told to "lean in"—speak up more, negotiate better, be more confident. But this advice assumes a level playing field that many still don't experience. In this engaging session, award-winning author and artist Dr. Melanie Ho uses her unique approach of combining comics, research, and candid conversation to explore the deeper dynamics women face at work—and how we can support them in leading on their own terms.

Drawing from her book Beyond Leaning In and her series of feminist comics, this session invites honest dialogue about double standards, invisible labor, and the complex dynamics that still make professional life and advancement harder for women. Empowerment starts by naming what we're really up against—and imagining new ways forward together.

Key themes:

• Understanding the "Goldilocks Dilemma" and other persistent double standards women face in leadership 
• The unique challenges of "the steep climb" as women advance in seniority 
• Exploring the concept of intent vs. impact and how to make difficult conversations more accessible 
• Challenging internalized bias: Recognizing and interrupting patterns that affect how women view themselves 
• Allyship and intersectionality: Concrete actions for supporting both women and allies across genders 
• Interactive doodling exercises for participants to imagine new ways forward together (no artistic experience required—we'll be using stick figures!)