Agenda - Breaking Through: Leading in an Age of Constant Change | A Leadership Studio Event with Thinkers50

Does AI dream? And if so, what might it reveal about the futures we are trying to build?

DATALAND at The Grand LA explores how AI systems transform vast datasets into continuously evolving visual environments. As the museum unfolds in real time, participants will observe how machine learning interprets, absorbs, and reimagines information—blurring the boundaries between technology, creativity, human perception, and the natural world.

More than an artistic experience, this session offers a lens into leadership in an era of constant technological disruption. As organizations navigate ambiguity and accelerating change, leaders are challenged to rethink assumptions, adapt in real time, and imagine possibilities that do not yet exist. This experience invites participants to reflect on the pace of transformation shaping business today—and to consider a critical leadership question:

How do we become more comfortable being uncomfortable as we imagine the future of business?

Artificial intelligence is forcing leaders to confront two simultaneous challenges: helping their people genuinely embrace it and building the organizational structures to deploy it responsibly.

In this session, experts in corporate AI strategy and human-centered leadership will explore how leaders can close the gap between AI's potential and organizational readiness. Attendees will learn how to transform fear and uncertainty into curiosity, frame AI in terms of business capabilities rather than technical complexity, and build the AI leadership mindset and governance needed to enable experimentation rather than stifle it.

Speakers:

Nigel Melville, Michigan Ross
Monica Worline, Michigan Ross

Today and tomorrow’s leaders will be continuously subjected to disruption, which will present both significant threats and incredible opportunities.

In this session, experts in crisis leadership and strategic foresight will lead an exploration of how leaders can balance immediate risk reduction with opportunity creation by anchoring both in vision, values, culture, and a genuine commitment to anticipation and translating the "unimaginable" into courageous and innovative leadership. Attendees will learn pragmatic ways to improve enterprise resilience today and leverage the power of foresight to create value through tomorrow’s disruption.

Speakers:

Mike Barger, Michigan Ross
Sabrina Sullivan, by + by foresight

**A Mid-Session Networking & Refreshment Break Will Be Provided

The late CK Prahalad challenged leaders to look beyond traditional strategy and rethink where value comes from and who gets to create it. Today, as AI reshapes work, skills, partnerships, and competitive advantage, that challenge has new urgency.

Moderated by Des Dearlove, this panel brings together Kate Vitasek, Nilofer Merchant, and Matt Beane to explore how organizations can create value through shared outcomes, human contribution, and AI-enabled collaboration. Together, they will examine how leaders can build organizations where people, partners, and intelligent systems do their best work together.

Speakers:

Matt Beane, UC Santa Barbara
Des Dearlove, Thinkers50
Nilofer Merchant, The Intangible Labs
Kate Vitasek, University of Tennessee

What happens inside an organization shapes what the world experiences outside of it. This session explores the critical role organizational culture plays in brand performance and how companies like McDonald’s and Levi Strauss & Co. have built the internal beliefs, behaviors, and practices that foster strong brand connections, engage communities, and help them remain relevant, responsive, and distinctive over decades.

Speakers:

Marcus Collins, Michigan Ross
Tiffanie Boyd, Executive Vice President, Chief People Officer, McDonald's
Karthik Varatharaj, Chief Talent, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer, Levi Strauss & Co.