Articles

Michelangelo once said that a sculpture already exists inside the marble. His work was simply freeing it by chiseling away the superfluous. The same is true of organizational culture. The adaptive, resilient culture your organization is capable of is already there. The question is whether you have the courage to chisel away what is blocking it. 

The race to deploy AI is outpacing the strategic work required to create business value. Artificial intelligence is now a standing agenda item in boardrooms. Executives across industries are asking the same questions. What is our AI strategy? Where are we using AI today? How quickly are we moving?

Let’s face it – the way we’ve been approaching leadership development is not working any more.  We’ve been churning out leaders from the same cookie-cutter mold for far too long, and it's just not cutting it in today's dynamic, complex world. This “business as usual” approach just isn’t going to cut it anymore, so we need to reDEFYne leadership as a whole.

As a leader, you likely have no hesitation investing heavily in your technical infrastructure: servers, software, cloud platforms, AI tools. But are you fully maximizing their value? After 30 years on the people side of business, I have learned that technical infrastructure is only as strong as the human infrastructure™ supporting it.

Hybrid work is often framed as a debate about location. Office or remote? Three days in or two?Core hours or full flexibility? Yet leaders focused on operational excellence know the real issue isn’t geography. It’s design.

As we all know, most organizations are not short on ideas. They already have long lists of improvement opportunities, initiatives, and problems that “should be fixed.” AI is only accelerating this. It can generate tons of appealing sounding options instantly and make almost any issue appear reasonable and urgent.

As technology and disruption accelerate, organizations must strategically reexamine how to define and deliver operational excellence.

Leaders often ask: “Why is this initiative stalling?” “Why are we working so hard, yet progress feels slow?” “Why does the energy in the room feel… off?” These are important questions. But behind them is a deeper one: Where is the Human Infrastructure out of alignment? Alignment is What Activates Performance Every organization has People, Culture, and Systems. “What determines impact is how these three elements function together.” Think of them as the three sides of a triangle: 

As we step into 2026, we’re reminded of what makes the Center for Operational Excellence so special—our members. This consortium is built on the belief that we are stronger when we learn from one another, and over the years, we’ve had the privilege of hearing countless member stories through webinars, Summit breakouts, and site tours. These stories reflect the authenticity and openness of our community with its willingness to share both successes and challenges. These stories also reveal the depth of expertise and brilliance that exists across our network.