Partnering Leadership – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times

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472 Beyond AI Adoption: How to Reinvent Your Organization for the Age of Abundant Intelligence with Brian Solis and Dave Wright

mardi 15 septembre 2026 • Durée 46:44

What happens to the way we design organizations when intelligence is no longer scarce? That is the provocative question at the heart of this conversation with Brian Solis and Dave Wright, co-authors of Infinite: How Visionary Leaders Transform Today’s Business Into AI-Forward Companies. Drawing on decades of experience at the intersection of technology, strategy, innovation, and enterprise transformation, Brian and Dave challenge executives to think beyond AI adoption and productivity gains toward a much larger opportunity: rethinking how organizations create value.

The conversation explores why simply layering AI onto existing workflows may leave much of its potential untapped. Organizations were largely designed around scarcity, particularly the scarcity and cost of human expertise and capacity. AI changes that assumption. Brian and Dave discuss what becomes possible when leaders stop asking only how AI can make today’s work faster and begin asking what the organization could do that previously wasn’t possible.

A central tension throughout the episode is the difference between efficiency and reinvention. Dave shares a compelling example from IKEA that illustrates how productivity gains from AI can become the starting point for entirely new sources of value rather than simply cost reduction. Brian builds on that idea by challenging executives to examine the legacy assumptions, structures, and even “sacred cows” they may be protecting. The question is not simply where AI can be deployed, but where intelligence can be applied to rethink work, customer value, and future growth.

The discussion also gets into the harder leadership questions surrounding AI transformation: employee fear, trust, learning and unlearning, resource allocation, and the pressure from boards and shareholders to demonstrate ROI. Brian and Dave explain why AI transformation cannot simply be delegated to technology teams or pursued through disconnected pilots. They explore what it takes to create enough clarity and trust for people to challenge poor uses of AI while also experimenting with fundamentally different ways of working.

For CEOs and senior executives, this conversation offers a useful reframing of the AI opportunity. The advantage may not go to the organizations that deploy the most AI or generate the largest number of productivity gains. It may go to those that learn how to convert new intelligence and capacity into better workflows, new sources of value, and the ability to continually reinvent themselves.

471 How to Ask Better Questions and Lead Through Uncertainty with Larry Robertson

mardi 8 septembre 2026 • Durée 39:04

As uncertainty rises, people often look to leaders for greater certainty. Yet the more complex the environment becomes, the less credible it is for any one person to claim they have the answers. The leadership challenge is no longer simply making better decisions. It is creating the conditions for better questions, broader participation, and stronger collective judgment.

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with Larry Robertson, leadership advisor, Fulbright Scholar, and author of Great Question: The Art of the Ask and Getting More of What You Really Want. Drawing on his research into entrepreneurship, creativity, and leadership under uncertainty, Larry explains why questioning is not merely a communication technique. It is a core organizational capability that helps leaders test assumptions, recognize emerging threats, and see opportunities before they become obvious.

The conversation examines the difference between asking more questions and building a genuinely questioning culture. Larry challenges leaders to consider whether the questions inside their organizations are authentic or simply statements disguised as questions. He also explores who is permitted to ask, which questions receive serious attention, and whether senior leaders are willing to be changed by what they hear.

Mahan and Larry also address the growing role of artificial intelligence. AI can identify patterns and generate predictions from what has already happened, but that raises a consequential leadership question: What happens when the assumptions embedded in historical data no longer hold? Their discussion reveals why human curiosity, contextual judgment, and intellectual humility may become more important as AI becomes more capable.

Throughout the conversation, Larry offers memorable ways to strengthen leadership judgment, from learning to “quiet your cleverness” and “listen atmospherically” to distinguishing functional questions from the great questions that shape strategy and direction. This episode provides a practical and timely examination of how CEOs and senior executives can lead without pretending to possess certainty they do not have.

Actionable Takeaways

You’ll learn why rising uncertainty should produce more and better questions, even as employees, boards, and stakeholders increasingly pressure leaders to provide definitive answers.

470 [Thursday Refresh] Leading Change: How Leaders Create Lasting Transformation with John Kotter

jeudi 3 septembre 2026 • Durée 46:45

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Mahan Tavakoli speaks with John Kotter, professor emeritus at Harvard Business School, co-founder of a management consulting firm Kotter International and a pioneer in organizational change. John Kotter is the author of 22 books on change, including his most recent book, Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile times. John Kotter talks about the struggles leaders and teams face when it comes to change and how to transform organizations to adapt to change effectively and rapidly.

Some highlights:

-John Kotter on the role of human nature on our resistance to change

-The essential components for initiating change in the organization

-Understanding the Survive and Thrive mode and how it impacts our ability to change

-The power of Guiding Coalition to help bring expertise, energy, and perspective across the organization

-The difference between management and leadership

Connect with John Kotter:

John Kotter - Kotter International Inc

John Kotter on LinkedIn

John Kotter on Facebook

John Kotter on Twitter

469 Why AI Adoption Is a Psychology Problem, Not a Technology Problem with Gleb Tsipursky

mardi 1 septembre 2026 • Durée 42:37

AI adoption is often treated as a technology challenge: choose the right tools, train people to use them, and drive implementation. Dr. Gleb Tsipursky argues that this framing misses the harder problem. Unlike previous technology shifts, AI can trigger fear about job security, challenge professional identity, and create social stigma around how work gets done. For organizations trying to move from experimentation to meaningful business impact, understanding those human dynamics may matter as much as the technology itself.

In this episode of Partnering Leadership, Gleb Tsipursky joins Mahan Tavakoli to discuss his new book, The Psychology of AI Adoption at Work: From Resistance to Results. Drawing on behavioral science research, thousands of survey responses, focus groups, and more than 100 consulting engagements, Gleb explains why traditional approaches to technology adoption often fall short with AI. The conversation examines the very different reasons employees resist, quietly embrace, or even hide their use of AI, and what those behaviors reveal about organizational culture.

The discussion moves beyond adoption to a deeper question facing CEOs and senior executives: what happens when AI changes not only how quickly work gets done, but also how people understand the value they bring? Gleb explores professional identity, shadow AI, the critical role of middle managers, and why organizations may need to rethink where they begin their AI efforts. He also challenges the instinct to start by automating the highest-value activities, offering a counterintuitive approach designed to build trust, experimentation, and broader adoption.

Mahan and Gleb also explore a growing leadership challenge: AI can dramatically increase output while making judgment more important. If AI increasingly generates reports, analysis, presentations, and other knowledge work, the differentiating human capability may shift from producing the first draft to evaluating whether the output is actually good. That raises important questions about how organizations develop early-career talent, redesign onboarding and apprenticeships, and build judgment when AI performs more of the work through which judgment was traditionally developed.

Finally, the conversation looks ahead to an emerging workplace in which employees may increasingly manage AI agents rather than perform individual tasks themselves. Managers, in turn, may need to manage people who manage agents while coordinating increasingly complex human-machine workflows. The result is a conversation not simply about getting employees to use AI, but about the capabilities, culture, management practices, and continual learning organizations will need as AI becomes embedded in how work gets done.

468 [Leadership Reset] The Performance Paradox: When Success Gets in the Way of Growth with Eduardo Briceño

mardi 25 août 2026 • Durée 50:47

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership.

We have more access to ideas than ever before.

More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights.

The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead.

I have seen this in my own life. The books and conversations that have influenced me most aren’t the ones I rushed through and moved on from. They are the ones I returned to, wrestled with, and understood differently as my own experiences changed.

After more than 450 Partnering Leadership conversations with CEOs, researchers, authors, and leadership thinkers, there are a few I continue coming back to because the ideas become more valuable the more we sit with them.

Throughout July and August, I’ll be sharing 10 of those conversations.

They explore some of the questions I see leaders wrestling with most: adapting to change, building trust, making better decisions, rethinking work, using AI wisely, and creating organizations ready for what comes next.

Whether you are listening for the first time or revisiting these conversations, I hope they help you find an insight you can apply and a question worth thinking about long after the episode ends.

—Mahan

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

467 [Leadership Reset] How Minds Change: The Surprising Science of Belief, Persuasion, and Transformation with David McRaney

mardi 18 août 2026 • Durée 01:16:07

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership.

We have more access to ideas than ever before.

More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights.

The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead.

Throughout July and August, I’ll be sharing 10 of those conversations.

Whether you are listening for the first time or revisiting these conversations, I hope they help you find an insight you can apply and a question worth thinking about long after the episode ends.

—Mahan

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

466 [Leadership Reset] Trust & Inspire: Why the Future of Leadership Requires a Different Operating System with Stephen M. R. Covey

mardi 11 août 2026 • Durée 01:07:15

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership.

We have more access to ideas than ever before.

More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights.

The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead.

Throughout July and August, I’ll be sharing 10 of those conversations.

Whether you are listening for the first time or revisiting these conversations, I hope they help you find an insight you can apply and a question worth thinking about long after the episode ends.

—Mahan

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

465 [Leadership Reset] CEO Excellence: The Mindsets and Practices of the World’s Best CEOs with Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vik Malhotra

jeudi 6 août 2026 • Durée 44:15

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership.

We have more access to ideas than ever before.

More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights.

The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead.

Throughout July and August, I’ll be sharing 10 of those conversations.

Whether you are listening for the first time or revisiting these conversations, I hope they help you find an insight you can apply and a question worth thinking about long after the episode ends.

—Mahan

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli:

464 [Leadership Reset] Turn the Ship Around: Creating Leaders Instead of Followers with L. David Marquet

mardi 4 août 2026 • Durée 44:37

Welcome to the Summer Leadership Reset on Partnering Leadership.

We have more access to ideas than ever before.

More books. More podcasts. More articles. More insights.

The challenge isn’t finding more information. It’s spending enough time with the ideas that can change how we think, decide, and lead.

Throughout July and August, I’ll be sharing 10 of those conversations.

Whether you are listening for the first time or revisiting these conversations, I hope they help you find an insight you can apply and a question worth thinking about long after the episode ends.

—Mahan

Connect with Mahan Tavakoli: