Name: Performance Breakthroughs: Continuous Improvement through Innovation and Learning
Uploaded: 2025-06-17T14:16:03.938Z
Duration: 1 h 4 min 52 s
Description: Performance Breakthroughs: Continuous Improvement through Innovation and Learning

Transcript for "Performance Breakthroughs: Continuous Improvement through Innovation and Learning": Hi, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar. The topic we're gonna be covering is performance breakthroughs, continuous improvement through innovation and learning. Now I'm Bruce, the principal solution engineer here at Betterworks, and it's my real pleasure to be hosting you today. It's great to see so many people joining. And, as, we've already had Justine say in the in the chat there, we'd love to know where you're joining from. So feel free to say hello and just put in where you're, where you're, located today. The the chat is on the right hand side of the screen. Personally, I'm calling in from sunny London where we're about to have a two week heat wave, which I'm very excited about. So, if I start, fanning myself as we go through that, you'll know the heat wave has hit already. Now before we get started, just a couple of quick housekeeping notes for you. Today's session is being recorded, and tomorrow, you'll receive a link to the on demand version of the video. If you have any questions during the session, please put them into the q and a tab, which is next to the chat on the right hand side of the screen. And when we get to the end of the session, we'll try to answer as many of those as we can. And the third thing is that, there's a documents tab also on the right hand side of the screen where we've shared some really helpful resources, which, you'll be able to access all the way through the session today. So please access that and, get access to those important documents. This this session that we're running is part of our People Fundamentals series, which we've been using to bring together leading thinkers from analysts and authors to HR practitioners to explore the biggest trends shaping the world we work in. So now, I'm really thrilled to introduce our speaker, Katja Schipperheijn. And Katja is internationally recognized author, strategist, and keynote speaker. She's known for her powerful insights on learning, innovation, and the future of work, and how we can unlock continuous improvement in a world that's constantly evolving. She's advised global organizations, inspired thousands through her talks, including myself, and authored Learning Ecosystems, a book that reimagines how we foster growth and innovation in our organizations. Today, Katja will be sharing how HR and business leaders can move beyond the outdated ways of working to build a culture of sustainable, continuous performance. And we're really excited to learn from her today. So please join me in welcoming Katja Hippenheim. Hey. Hello, everybody. I already gonna say goodbye to some people, Christine from Romania. I have, Peter from The Netherlands, Joke and Vera from Belgium, and Jean from The US that I all know. Maybe I missed some, but it's always, nice to see some people that I recognize. Today, I'm gonna bring a story about performance, about the infinite learning ACOS system, about innovation, but moreover about being humans. And we're doing this online, so the interaction is a little bit more difficult than what I normally do. But still, I want to make your brain spark. When you learn something, it's like a party in your brain. This is what I want to achieve today and that this ripple effect that you feel will spread to your friends, to your colleagues, to the organization so that we can all start love learning together. So as was said, I did write some books. Most of you probably know me from Learning Ecosystems and it won some awards and more recently, The Learning Mindset. So I bring ideas of both of this book, but I also will talk a little bit about my first book that not so many people know because it was written only in Dutch. And it is Little Digital Citizens for parents and educators that need to work with children like these two girls, my girls, who seem to be always involved in the digital world. I have to tell you, this picture was taken, already ten years ago, and Farah and Elena were going to the park, and they took my laptop because they wanted to play musically. Well, at that time, Farah, the right one with the very long hair, was very into digital. And one day she came home and she said to me, mom, mom, I wanna go on Facebook. And, of course, I said no, like mom should do. And she was like, mom, you're so old. Remember this is ten years ago? She said, you're so old. You don't understand our world. We children, we wanna work, learn, connect together. At school, I don't have time to do things with my friends. They do their homework together, so soon their grades will be better than mine. What are you gonna do about it? And she was right. So I started working with children instead of, yeah, older people like me to see how we work and learn and grow together. And, well, this little experiment, is now exceeding 15,000 children that I saw all over the world. So in my talk today, I will also bring some inspiration from the children and how they told me that the future has caught up with us, that we need to see the world through the eyes of children. And when I ask children, how do you wanna learn? But probably also when I ask you, how do you wanna learn? You don't wanna learn. Just pump the knowledge in my head when I need it. This is a concept of lean learning and performance management that I come back to later on. And then in 02/2016, I actually saw this image, and I was like, oh, this is what my girls wanted to have. And I don't know if you know what it is, but it is Neuralink in the early days. Now today, it is about a chip that you can plug in. Well, still the dream of many, I think, to learn, although ethically and Neuralink, I'm not always convinced. But it is helping people to achieve things that were not seem possible, and they're not the only company. And why am I saying this? Because the symbiosis between humans and technology is becoming real with brain computer interfaces also like this one, which is going through your vein to your head. By the way, it helps for anxiety attacks. Well, I don't know how many Xanax I will need before you put it in my veins, But it also helps with ALS. It even helps combined with VR technologies and other technologies to, for example, call your mother or open the door because everything can be connected with these technologies. I come back to that too. So today, I'm looking at brain computer interfaces, symbiosis between humans and machines to improve being human, but also learning, connecting, collaborating. And I think sometimes they don't need to be that invasive because this little device developed by a very young, guy in, at MIT is helping people that can't talk anymore. So imagine that you had a stroke or you had cancer on your tongue and you can't speak anymore. With this device, you can speak through WhatsApp to your devices and still learn and collaborate as you did before. So also in the world of HR, this opens perspectives. But I I'm also a little bit aware with all these technologies because with brain computer interfaces, some say that we can read your mind, which is, by the way, not true. It is all connected. It is with large language models. It is with AI that we can't read your brain. But what if we are all connected through devices? What if these brain computer interfaces are connected through devices like our iPhone, which is now connected with Starlink? Are we still owning our thoughts? That is something that sometimes worries me. Although, I do love the symbiosis and the superminds as MIT is saying, and and this is why I want to see what we can do with technology for continuous improvement, for learning, and for well-being and ethical purposes. And talking about ethical purposes, I saw this image too couple of years ago. And I don't know if you know what it is. It is actually, a biological brain. Yes. This is real brain tissue that you're looking at. It is brain tissue replacing the chips in your computer. We are using real, organized grain processors. This is what is now happening. They have even a farm in Switzerland where you can send code to to test biological brain processors. This is not a joke. It has been there for two years in the mountains of Switzerland. And and and, actually, there's already launched a couple of months ago the first experimental PC with an organized brain. So is the future already there? Can we still believe what we know about technology, about Moore's Law? I don't think so. I think this black swan already passed. If we don't see now that we have to invest in a future where the symbiosis of humans and machines is reality, then we risk to fall behind. So this first part was actually to provoke you a little bit, that there is no time to wait anymore. And it is not only technology that is driving the future. So in the next part, I want to inspire you. So relax. I'm not gonna shock you anymore. I'm gonna inspire you, make you a little bit more happy. And I want to look again at the future of work through the eyes of children. And my kids, by the way, they are now this age. They're at university, and they're still always like this. A little disclaimer, these are not my kids because I don't get permission to use their pictures anymore, and I have to listen as a mom always. But, anyway, in this new world, and I see this when I talk to my children, they don't work in one team anymore. Not when they are studying, not when they are doing a job, now in the holidays. They have cross functional teams, and they work according their talents, their purpose on multiple projects sometimes at the same time. And they love it when they can work with neurodiverse teams and gender diverse teams. And, again, depending the project, those teams are not the same. And this is very relevant when you think about the sustainable development goals as well, that everybody has the right to learn and to work. I don't know if you know it, but the sustainable development goals from the United Nations, four, five, and eight, all discuss the right to learn. And I think we should look more to this as a driver for a sustainable future of work. And, of course, artificial intelligence. I know many people want to know, what is happening in this field when it comes to continuous improvement and HR, and I I have to tell you, it's a lot. But first of all, I wanna give you some inspiration through the eyes of children because they are driving the future. And and one of this is that they are always on their mobile, not so much on their laptop as I showed before, but on their mobile. And on their mobile, they're looking at, yes, TikTok. And you might think, TikTok, TikTok, TikTok, we should ban it. But, no, I I don't think so because when I ask children around the globe and for all the mothers on there, listen to me. Where do you learn most? At school, from your mother, or TikTok? To all the moms, we come in third place. School's second, and, yes, TikTok first. So a lot of teachers are even using TikTok to reach children to learn on their piece on on the way that they like to absorb. And there is something else with TikTok. The reason that children like it, and not only children, to be honest, I also sometimes look at it, is because the content is generated by people that we trust because they're like us. We follow them. And and I think this is one of the things that we need to remember when we think about corporate learning and and and and collaborating. We learn from the people that we trust. Another thing is that we think that ChatChiPT is something new. The children are using it way before we knew that it even existed. It is a large language model, and it is not new. Just think about Google. Many years ago, when you were typing a question, it would finish your question because a large language model is nothing more than mathematics. It's not the hocus pocus whatever you think it is. It is the probability of the next word that will follow upon the word that you were typing, the prompt that you were giving, and children know this very well. Children also use other technologies like snapshot. And for those, that are parents here that don't know it, please talk to your children. Talk to any child that you know. A little disclaimer again. If it's not your child, please ask permission to the parents when you interact with the children. I need to say this. But Snapchat, for example, that has the built in virtual friends. And we did a little test with it. My youngest daughter, Helena, she was already 18 at the time. With some friends, they had this discussion saying, oh, I feel so bad. I don't want to do it in my exams. And she went, like, more and more depressed until she was actually saying that she wanted to harm herself. And we were waiting to see when the virtual friends, a bot, would pop up. And he did. And he said, like, hey, Lena. Why are you so unhappy? Why are you depressed? You're here among your friends. You had good days with her. And it started interacting with her based on all the knowledge it had about my daughter, and it was a lot. And I was first a little bit, what am I going to do? But it gave so good advice, and my daughter trusted it. And I think in this AI, it's good to support self understanding. Maybe AI is even better as a coach, as an HR go to person if if you are in doubt to help you onboard whatever. But still think about the first part that I was saying, where is the ethical balance? Can we use it for bias prevention? Who is owning the data? But do remember that young children trust their AI coach already more than their mother. This is something to think about. So what can we do with tools like this in a corporate environment? This, I'm saying, I see somebody or a father. Yes. They don't trust their father either. We need to look at the future through different glasses, and I don't see all of you. So I'm always looking in to invent just to make my work better too, to measure my performance. So my dream is that I can send everybody these glasses. You know? I think what is she going to say? What is she going to say? These glasses measure if you listen to me, if you're engaged with me, if it's measuring your brain and your eye movements. So for example, if I have a display here, then I see that 50% of you is doing something else, falling asleep, whatever. I know that my net promoter score is not good. I can't engage you, but I can interact better with you based on all the data I get from you. So even in glasses, there is a future to measure performance and to improve, and and glasses is the new best thing. I actually saw yesterday that the Meta Raven glasses are now on a promotion here in Belgium, and I was like, oh my god. My daughter, Helena, has one. I gave it to her. So, you know, that not only you can put blue glass, which is much better if you're looking at your screen all day, but also you can ask questions to it. Also, the same, with other Eigo, the brain computer interface. With that glasses, you can think and ask a question to chat GPT. You can read the questions of your exams, and it will answer in your ear. The same with these glasses. You can look at something and it will answer. Even some students from Harvard, they cracked the code, and they connected it to facial recognition and all the other meta applications. So they went on the bus, looked at people, and knew everything about the people that they were looking at and started conversations as if they knew them. It is already there $250. Can you imagine? I know many students that have it already. And and and it it gets better because they're now testing it with contact lenses too. So soon, teachers, HR people, you will not know what they're doing anymore. So that brings me to the metaverse. This was a hype not so long ago. I think 2021 when ChatGPT just like was as a wave coming over us. We forget all about, the metaverse, but it is still a reality. And as some of you might know, I work all over the globe, also in Dubai. And in Dubai, a couple of years ago, they said that you can get married in the metaverse now. And I was like, why would you get married in the metaverse? And you have to remember, especially now, that not many people can travel up and forth to these countries all the time. So you can invite actually people to the party that are not there, but this is not the big win. Remember when I think about innovation, and this is a lesson that I want to give, I always look at how can it improve our lives. What can we learn from it? So why am I sharing getting married in the metaverse? The biggest tip, you can mute your mother-in-law or even your mother. Always looking for the big win here. So but what about these virtual worlds? Why am I saying this? In 2020, due to something that happened around the globe, we couldn't go to concerts. But Travis Scott was giving concerts anyway with his human avatar in Fortnite. And you will think Fortnite is all about shooting? No. It is about connecting to like minded people. He had 45,000,000 people attending his live concert in the metaverse. 45,000,005 concerts. Biggest concert hall in the world is 200,000 people. So not in his lifetime, he could have reached that many people. So think about technology also to reach more people, to make an impact, a lasting impact. Because some of the people that went even five times to the concert again, they said it was better than I could imagine because I had front row tickets. I could dance with him. I could almost touch him. I could almost smell him. And when people start talking about smelling, then we are hitting something because it felt that real. So talking about metaverse, I also want to talk about adiverse because this is my dream, and this is also a little bit related to what we do in in corporate and how we we want to detect talent and, especially for successful planning. Because Roblox is used by many, many, many children, Also on places in the world that you normally never come. So a little bit more than a year ago, I was in Curacao visiting schools because that's what I do for my non for profit, talking to children, how they see the world. And I asked the question, who is on Roblox? And you saw many, many hands going up, and I actually asked that question because the teacher told me that they don't have Wi Fi on the island so that they can't use digital in schools. But that's the thing. Children, they find Wi Fi. Also, where they think it is not, they said, no. No. No. But that family, they have a good connection. So we're always going to sit outside and connect to their Wi Fi. So they're very inventive children. That's why I like working with them. And then I ask, like, and who is making games on Roblox? Making games for other people because that's what Roblox is. It's a creative platform. We learn from each other. We share from each other. It's children making games for children. And this one girl, she went very shy like me, and I was like, oh, really? She was 11. And I said, and are other children playing your games? And she looked at me like, and very shy. She was nodding her head like, yes. I said, do they pay you Roblox for that? That's a cryptocurrency that they use to buy games on Roblox. And she she was, like, very scared. And she was like, yes. At that time, teachers started looking at me and her like, what are they talking about? Because they had no ID. And I said, does your mom know? And she went like, no. No. No. And the teacher came to me. She said, what is it that you're talking about? I said, you have, like, this wonder kid, child at your school. She's making a lot of money maybe, and she needs to go to a school another two years and then take care of her siblings. She has a lot of talent. We need to think about something else for her. So talking about succession planning, this child had no future at all. But because of the technology, she found her talent. She was autistic, and people thought she was dumb. She would never succeed. I see her as a learning game developer working for big corporates around the world and taking care of her family at the same time. That's why I love technology. That's why I want to look at children. So talking about connecting technology metaverse, I also want to think about the way that we speak, believe in technology, and that it is even thinking for us because that's the new technologies. We don't have to ask anymore. They're predictive. And talking about predictive, I also want to explain a little bit the difference between AI, like an LLM, which is like ChachiPT, generative AI, and a new thing impacting HR and LND a lot, which is a GentiK High. And this image that I created, of course, with AI, is actually telling what it is. So generative AI is helping you, supporting you. It has your back. It's like your intern helping you to make your text better, but you're still in the driving seat. You still decide. Agentic AI is that we all have our agents that we program to do something for us. That's an agent. And Agentic AI is this agents working together without our intervention and taking care of us. So for example, Bruce, I call you one day and say we meet next week in London, and my agent is following up on what I'm saying because he's listening, like, in Snapshot, my virtual friends. And he decides on his own, like, she's in Antwerp. She needs a ticket to London. So it will book my ticket to London also knowing what my favorite hotel and restaurant is for the night and we'll book that too. So it is connected to British Airways, to bookings.com, and making care of everything that I need. This is a agentic AI. I can trust my virtual friends, my agent, to take care of me. This is what is driving now. But you can see that this human machine symbiosis is also taking place in organizations. I was speaking to very big corporates where they proceed I'm sorry. 40 to 80% of the jobs in logistics, in HR, in l and d can be done with agents and agentic AI. So think again about success in planning and talent, and we see that we need to redefine what it is that we are looking for in humans. And it goes even a much further because I work a lot with even cities that are digital twins like TONOMUS that you might know from, Neil in Saudi Arabia or Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, they are building predictive cities. They say we need a cognitive city, whereas a government, they want to build agentic AI. They say that the future will be the real symbiosis between humans and machines. And I take now examples from Dubai because I work on a big project there, But I also see this happening in Korea, in China. I see it everywhere except in Europe. And my youngest daughter is studying history, and she told me the other day, mom, in the June, we went in Europe into the dark middle ages. If we don't ramp up our knowledge about AI, soon this will happen again. We will not be the smartest continent anymore, nor will The US be. So this is another wake up call. What am I saying is that we need to, embrace technology, be aware of what it can do, the ethical constraints, but more of a we need to become more human again when the world around us is becoming more and more technological. We need to understand what is driving us, not only the economy. We need to understand where we wanna be, and I think we we need to embrace this inner toddler. You know that we were all born learning with this big smile. Well, actually, most with a big cry. But the first thing when we did when we opened our eyes was learning. We were very resilient, and something happened along the way. I think they call it school and parents, but we stopped love learning. So I wanna give you some tips to embrace this inner toddler in you again that can thrive in the infinite learning ecosystem. But moreover, if you embrace being this stoner again, you can create this ripple effect. You're all listening to this webinar, but I want you to pause on what you have learned here to the others that are not joining. So first of all, curiosity. Of course. Curiosity. This is so nice. That is what children have in abundance. They always ask why why why, too much actually. I remember when I was younger, I was always asking why at school, and I needed to leave the classroom because I was disturbing. But why also on the corporate level is cultivating a healthy feedback culture? This is helping us to become a safe place to work. We don't need to assume anything. How many people assume that they understand what they have to do because they're too afraid to ask why? It's not that they're not curious, but they're too afraid to ask why. And especially in some cultures, you don't ask why. They tell you what to do when you do it. And if you say why, they think you're dumb again. So my first thing is embrace the power of why again. And then imagination. Imagination, I think, is something that we as leaders, we also don't have enough. And, again, I was studying with my youngest daughter history, and we were listening to this podcast, from a general, very old one, and he said lack of imagination is the biggest pitfall for any leader because you limit the possibilities of the future. If you can't imagine what the agentic AI can do for you, if you can't imagine the tools that children are using, you can't imagine what the future of work will be. So imagination. And also openness, which is critical thinking combined by understanding that your point of view might differ from others, but that you can learn if you share it with each other. So openness is for me also a critical competence, especially, again, being open to your new virtual colleague who might be present at your virtual, party in the metaverse. This is happening. It's a reality. Optimism. I think we are losing optimism, and I do understand why. But if we don't have an optimism, then I also see impostor syndrome really kicking in. I see impostor syndrome kicking in with coders that say, an AI agent can write better code than me. Why should I still try to do it? I see imposter syndrome at schools. Why should I study everything that I'm studying for? It will not happen. This, again, has impact on the performance of our colleagues. It has impact, the succession planning of our company. So, again, positivity, openness for me is all very needed along realism. And this is to think about. We need to be realistic about what we still can do, what we still want to do, and where we feel. And when I talk about realistic, I also want to embrace mistakes more. It is okay to make mistakes when we learn from it. And this is also something, that makes us human because AI will never admit that it made a mistake. Ask Chachipiti when did you made a mistake last time. It will not tell you when it made a mistake. It's a human win that we can make mistakes and that we can learn from it, that we need to be more resilient, that we need to have empathy. And I come back to the empathy part when I talk about leadership, because empathy is much more than compassion. Empathy is a warm feeling that we can feel for somebody on a personal level, but on a manager level, it is a little bit different. On a manager level, I want to talk about leadership empathy. Again, creating the safe place where you can ask why, where you can fill. This is what is making us very human. And I also want to talk about consilience. And as you all hear and know, I'm not native English. And when I first heard the word consilience, I was like, what is this? And I needed to Google it. Yeah. A couple years ago, I still use Google. No one would ask Chachi p t probably, but I googled it. And consilience is from this amazing book, The Unity of Knowledge. And it is seeing similarities between things that are not connected. Like, for example, art and science. And at the time, my daughter, wanted to become a prima ballerina or a coder and or neuroscience. She was not sure. Some of those. So she said, well, I try everything because it's the same. And maybe you're thinking that, How can that be the same? It is all based on algorithms. If you think about ballet, it's a play. And the way that the little swans come on stage, they actually program the first swan, the prima ballerina. If the stage is smaller, she knows when to make a turn, and all the rest will follow her. So they are programmed according to the first one. This is how they actually also program drones. This is form technology. So you see preparing to become a ballerina was also preparing her to work with AI. And understanding all this, if you know a little bit about AI, then you know that it was invented in 1956 for the first time in Dartmouth Park, actually, in The UK where had where they had the Enigma machine. That's where most people know it from, and they wanted to mimic the human brain. And that's why we talk about deep learning, neural networks in AI because it is just an idea to mimic the human brain, and it was a professor in biology, in IT. They all came together, and they used consilience to create something new with the idea of connecting everything. So that's why I like consilience. And children, they still see consilience. They see, oh, this is nice. This is nice. What can I make of this? So I like consilience even more when I talk about human consilience because that's what I made of it. And human consilience is creating a team around you of what I call a league of extraordinary learners. You know the movie, the the league of extraordinary gentlemen? I hope there are not too many very young people because they don't know the movie. It's like the Avengers. If they all are alone, they fight each other. But if you have a good leader, they can conquer the world together. So my idea of this multidiverse team is a league of extraordinary learners working on projects and always improving based on human consilience and all the other competences. So this is this is what I want to inspire. So in the last part that we have and, yes, we will have a q and a. I I saw it. So I'm I'm not gonna talk too long. So I because I saw the question q and a popping up multiple times. I wanna give you some tips on what you can do different tomorrow with your teams, to create this infinite learning ecosystem, to become these change leaders that I call learning leaders. And, yes, I was thinking, shall I call it learning leaders or leading learners? I'm still didn't figure out what is the best, so you can use whatever you want to. But it is all about liminal leadership. And why do I call it liminal leadership? Because liminal leadership is about these thresholds about what was and what has to come. We know in the days we could make a strategy for three, five, six years, succession planning, we did it, what, once in two years, once in three years. With everything going so fast taking agentic AI and people moving and on projects, we don't have this. We're always in this threshold where yesterday was already tomorrow. So leadership needs to reinvent itself as well in this human machine symbiosis. So how do we start? Well, it's a process of continuous improvement, of course, And I like to be inspired by nature. And when I think about innovation, I always say, like, slow down. Don't show up on anything. You know, the metaverse hype, it was the hype. Everything needed everybody needed it in their company. We all needed to go in the metaverse. And then in 2021, everybody forgot about it because we had checked CPT. What will it be tomorrow? So just wait until you see proven technologies, proven methodologies, and look at what is working for you. Think about Fibonacci. Again, mathematics. I love mathematics and nature combined, multiple projects making each other stronger. That's why I think about the sunflower, and this is actually what I mapped out to be, an improvement model. I can yeah. You're gonna share the video anyway. So, otherwise, I can share these slides as well, the the coming three slides. So it's all about discovering what is affecting your business, your job, your future. And then when you know where there are obstacles, then you're gonna create this burning platform and stakeholders that people understand the why we need to change. Because many projects, they stop because stakeholders were not involved and they didn't understand the why we need to change. Once you have this, you created the burning platforms, you have your stakeholders, you presented it to the group that needs to implement it, then you go to your path of improvement. When it is about technologies, that's the moment that you're gonna select technologies. If you select technologies in the discovery phase, you will fill with the implementation. When I talk about joint execution, I mean, involve the people that really work with the technologies. Don't push it because people are forced with too many things already. And then always think again. What did we do? Where can we improve? This is Kaizen. Continuous improvements can always go stronger with the people that are involved. This is how organizations go to the maturity model of learning ecosystems. I'm not gonna talk too much about it, just about the two last layers. Most organizations are now in human and social collaboration, so they use technologies to collaborate like we are doing now, but they're not yet using it to predict the infinite learning ecosystem. We will see agents. We will see predictive models. We rely on AI to make our job better. I don't see many organizations going there, but when you think about the future, when you imagine the future of your team of or or your in organization, Think about the symbiosis of you as a machine and how it will impact you, your team, and your organization. When you want to work quickly and improve, I made now the model for learning for l and d people. But think about everything that you're doing now, is this lean? Is this really contributing to the end goal, making our customers, our stakeholders happy? If not, this might be waste that can be replaced by innovation. So think about all this. If you wanna predict if a job in the future will still exist, you can map it on a lean waste model. If there are any questions about that, you also can connect with me on LinkedIn. I always promise to answer in forty eight hours. I have no idea how many people are on this call, but still I keep my promise. If you have a case, just send it to me. So back to the person, the liminal leadership, those people that are good in liminal leadership, they thrive in uncertainty, and they can adapt for purpose reasons. That's very important. What they're very good at, and these are my last slides, and I'm gonna stop and then we have a q and a, is that they understand the emotional impact. You remember that I said empathy is important, and it's not the same as compassion? So when I'm talking to leaders and we do this test and we'll get a little bit, fun test at the end, to to do later, they will think they're very empathic, but they are not. They're empathic when I say my daughter is sick and I stay the day home. But when I say, I don't wanna do this change, they will just say me you have to. When they come in a meeting and they need to explain a new strategy, those leaders, they come into the room late sometimes. You will see this. When they have to bring bad news, suddenly, they come in late because they're frustrated as well. So they bring this bad energy into the room, and then they don't understand why the people are all frustrated. Leadership empathy is understanding the reason why people don't wanna change. They take the time to understand. Again, when we talk about learning, then we know when you have bad experiences with learning, that it will always prevail. So when I was young, my father would say to me, you're so dumb. It's good that you're not too ugly, so one day you'll probably find a husband, and you don't have to find a job. I think that's really funny because in my case, I wanted to prove my father wrong. I thought different than him, but that was not dumb. But for many, and and we do a lot of research with my organization on that, the way that you are stigmatized, the labels, your feelings about learning and changing your early years defines how you stand to learning and change now. Liminal leaders, they take the time to understand this. They understand that what we see, and this is something that's not from me, is that it all starts with why again. Why is this person behaving like he doesn't want to change? What is actually appearing under the water? And it all starts with the mental models. Liminal leadership is understanding mental models driving well, actually, driving, pulling people down, understanding structures and patterns that made it difficult for people to change. Taking the time to invest in people, understanding is very important. And I just saw a comment a a a comment about leaderships and empaths. Indeed, it has nothing to do with empaths. It is taking the time to understand people. That's why I don't like to call it empathy, and I try to come up with something like leadership empathy or limited leadership. And I'm open again always in the q and a if you have, like, how we should name it. I love to learn because that's also continuous improvement for me. But it is indeed everything related to understanding people, according to my research, something that we have to look at. Positive this is actually, taken with a couple of 100 leaders in the last year, the results of, the amplifier they took with us. And you see that realism and empathy on the normal competencies are quite low when it comes to leadership scores, leadership empathy. So understanding and taking the time why to understand why people don't want to change, they don't do that. So this is a big win. Okay. My last question will now be for you because you can all initiate change by understanding the competences that help us in the future and by creating these ripple effects. So I and we just have done ten minutes for the q and a. I want to ask you first a question to start, and you can, ask maybe answer that in in the q and a. What will you do different tomorrow to start the ripple effect? And there is a QR code there for those that are interested. You can scan it. It is a very quick, profiler to see how you stand in your adaptability to the future. I'm gonna stop now. I think Bruce is coming back on stage, so I will take some questions. Hi, Katja. Wow. That that was fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Absolutely loved listening to you there. Some really, really deep things to think about. Blew my mind in a couple of, occasions during that that, speech that you gave there. And we've had some really, interesting questions. Some of which you've answered as we've gone through. But, first one I've got here is from Johan. He said, so that you said, early on there's no time to wait. And wondering what you think will happen to those companies, or HR teams that that do wait. What's gonna be the impact to them? Well, if I had the exact right answer, I probably will be a millionaire. I'm not. I wish I had this crystal ball. I'm looking to this crystal ball, in the eyes of children. I'm gonna be honest. I don't know. It depends a little bit in what sector they are. I see I see it more as sectors. Also, it depends a little bit about the economical situation of the country that you're in. Again, when I'm talking to companies in India and in Africa, even between those two countries, very different. When I'm talking about Latin America, very different. So it's not only the technology part. Yeah. When I'm talking about Europe and I'm talking about, for example, logistic companies that don't understand, the impact of AI. I think competition will take over. I think health care I I was talking at a health care conference, just last week, and the room was really divided in, like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're already investing in evening cobots and in this and in this. And others say, no. No. No. No. Only the human touch. And I said, well, I trust my agent that I built for myself better when it comes to asking advice about my health because it has all my data, and it has no clock. It's always there for me. And so, again, it depends a little bit, but that's why I say imagine how it will impact your organization, your team. And I always recommend, in your company, do this, imagination session. So we did scenario thinking in the past, but do it different. Do this what if sessions. And, I did with one company. We invited, also the children of peep not the very young children, but, like, 16, 17 year olds. Would you work for the company that mom and dad are working in, and how would you change it? That was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I can imagine some really interesting thoughts there. Thank you. Another question is coming from, Peter. He's he said that, in Holland, they abandoned smartphones from the classroom in, middle schools. And what's your opinion on on that approach? I know who Peter is. I'm against it. K. I never believe in so I made a mistake when I said to my daughter she was not allowed to go on. I was losing responsibility. I needed to educate her. It's like saying to a child, that you can't ride a bike until you're 14 and then think at the age of 14, it's not clever enough. It can do it and then give you the bike, and then it will find its way on the on the highway. No. There is a reason that you need also with driving exams, it's time to learn, and I think parents and educators altogether need to find a balance. And putting an age is also different for many children. I can't that's my book, Little Digital Citizens. So for those who wanna know more, just send me a message on LinkedIn. I have a very strong opinion on age limits. Awesome. Well, thank you. And, another question came in, from Heidi. How can organizations in introduce, Ad Adjentic AI in a way that empowers employee employees rather than creates fear, particularly when it comes to performance expectations and job security? Really good question. So first of all, don't talk to vendors. I'm sorry that I do something wrong, but don't talk to vendors before you talk to your own people. Do this, deep dive session with your own people. Look at the obstacles that you have now to grow and turn them into opportunities. Look at the obstacles where people feel that they are scared of it. Try to change it again to opportunity. So always do this obstacle opportunity exercise. What can we change? Do it with your people. You can you can ask moderators. I I moderate those sessions often, because I'm external and I have I have no opinion and because I don't wanna sell anything. Because otherwise, it's not yeah. You know how it works. Read a lot of cases. Know that Agentic AI is, like, very hot in the last six months. I my personal advice, sit it out a little bit. Try some very small agents, and sit it out. I I'm not gonna name brands now. Some are really amazing. But talking about bias prevention, they sometimes still go rookie. I don't think we are already there. But do the session with your team, obstacles to opportunities and read a lot about it. And, again, the person that asked me this question, you can send me a message and, we can go more into depth if you have a real use case. Sure. I'm sure Heidi will get in contact with you about that. And, I just wanna actually echo something you said there because as a as a vendor, myself, we actually quite, much happier when we know that the organizations we've worked with have done the work internally first. It's very frustrating to turn up to a meeting and for the person that you're trying to convince to buy, you know, fantastic software like Betterworks, You're actually, you don't know what you want. And we're we're saying, well, we must be much to support you. But if we don't know what you want, how can we support you through that? So I'm very much on-site with you there. And also on the implementation part, Bruce, if all people know why they are doing it and all sorts with why again, they are more likely to accept it. They can have their ambassadors internally lined up to help those that are not really convincing it yet. It will help your implementation as well. Absolutely. And that's what you want. So it is a win win situation. Yeah. Fully agree. I think we've got time for one last question. This one is from Amy. She's just asked a question about how you can start to create a company culture that makes everybody feel comfortable asking why. This is such a good question. I can hide you maybe in the comments, tell me which country that she lives because this is very dependent culture of the country as well. To give you an idea, I'm originally Flemish from Belgium, and Flemish people, they don't ask questions. My father is from The Netherlands. They're the opposite. So it's also a little bit were are you working in an international company? Are you working in a big, in a small company? But it starts with teams. That's the tip that I'm gonna give. It starts with teams. It starts with this one liminal leader. And a leader for me, again, is not hierarchical. It is not somebody who has an MBA. It is not somebody who is a c level. Everybody can be a learning leader. So you can initiate this cultural difference. If you start asking why and there is something, and that helps in every country. I did it all over the world. We did this role place on asking why. And it is like, oh, why do you want me to do this? How how can I really do it good? Because I don't want to assume, can you give me some tips, or why do you want me to do that? Yeah. So you can start doing role plays. I even had one company that made on their learning management systems. They had young people making all these very fun videos also on the why question, how not to ask the why question, in what situation. So they made it like a fun TikTok YouTube channel on the LMS. They also did it, by the way, and I'm sorry. I didn't gave the name. They also created a fuck up channel Yeah. Where they were, actually sharing mistakes, but also what they learned from it and how they helped it and then how they could rate it. And this all helped with this culture where everybody, felt appreciated also for making the mistakes. Yes. You know, as well, this also helped for imposter syndrome because 30% of the young people in that organization was an international organization in Brussels. They scored very high on imposter syndrome and all very, incompetent about their own doing. So it is all these little things that help. Start little, create this ripple. Amazing. Yeah. Fantastic. I will catch you. I think we're we're gonna call it to a to an end now. I've already got something ready to go on my wall, a a sign saying everybody can be a learning leader. I think that's an amazing message I'm gonna take away straight away from this and build into the conversations I have. Thank you so much for the insights and the thoughts and the answers you've given to the questions here. I'm sure the audience will be in contact with many more questions because you've opened the door to do that. And we appreciate your time, and, thank you. We'd love to see you again. Okay. Bye. Bye.