Pat Lencioni makes an overwhelming case that organizational health will surpass all other disciplines in business as the greatest opportunity for improvement and competitive advantage. Drawing on his extensive consulting experience and reaffirming many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books, Pat reveals the four actionable steps to achieving long-term, sustainable success. Pat claims there is an untapped gold mine sitting right beneath us. Instead of trying to become smarter, he asserts that leaders and organizations need to shift their focus to becoming healthier, allowing them to tap into the more-than-sufficient intelligence and expertise they already have. Pat will also talk about these unprecedented times that we’re living in and provide practical advice for leaders and their teams. He’ll tackle a prominent symptom of corporate frustration: silos, the invisible barriers that separate work teams, departments and divisions, causing people who are supposed to be on the same team to work against one another. Urging leaders to provide a compelling context for their employees to work together, Pat’s model gives leaders a simple tool for enabling clarity, unity, and alignment in their organizations.

Captain Ron Johnson will share his own experiences from when, in the early days of the events unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, he faced the dilemma of having to lead multiple audiences of people, each of whom had different expectations for how to be led and motivated, based on their backgrounds, belief systems, and biases. With the events unfolding in Ferguson, Missouri, Captain Johnson’s leadership was on display while the whole world was watching. This leadership dilemma Captain Johnson faced occurred very publicly, while the whole world was watching. The audience included political leaders, business owners, corporations, protesters, law enforcement officials, media, and the community of Ferguson residents. He elected to use his moral compass of empathy, compassion and selflessness to serve as the calming, unifying force amidst a rapidly deteriorating situation in Ferguson, Missouri. He calls that, WORTHY LEADERSHIP™.

What inspires the resilience to chase challenging finish lines and achieve world class results in times of incredible challenge and change? How do we create the passion and internal drive to pursue goals that seem impossible? We create this kind of greatness in ourselves and our teammates through GRIT--Guts, Respect, Ingenuity, and Teamwork! Having the GRIT to go the distance in any endeavor isn’t just a matter of mental fortitude. Much of our endurance and drive to succeed when others would quit comes from our connection to something greater than ourselves, the inspiration that comes from mission-driven innovation, the passion we have for our goals and the people whose lives we will touch along the way, the understanding that we are writing our life story during our toughest challenges, and the respect for a team whose success is inextricably tied to ours. Robyn will share the real secret to her and her teams’ success over 20 years of leading the pack in the sport of adventure racing and as a San Diego Firefighter—their “we will find a way or make one” attitude, their love of the mission, their deep respect for one another, their ingenious solutions and “white space” thinking, their intensive preparation for all contingencies and conditions, and their incredible ability to not just work with each other, but FOR each other. 

How can we win a game that has no end? The simple answer is we can’t. However, that’s exactly what so many companies are trying to do. The problem is, there is no such thing as “winning business.” In his Q&A Session, Simon explores how understanding the rules of the Infinite Game is essential if any leader wants to stay ahead and outlast any competitor…forever. In a game with no finish line and no agreed upon rules or metrics it is impossible to “be number one,” “be the best,” or “beat our competition.” In this Infinite Game, there is only ahead and behind. Leaders of organizations must understand the rules of the Infinite Game. Failure to do so dramatically increases the chance that they will set themselves on a path that eventually drains them of the will and resources to play at all. Eventually they will drop out of the game and no one will care. Their competition will just keep playing without them.