Mid Level Leader

From top-down to judgment all around: The AI imperative for organizations 

Each business revolution has reshaped not only how businesses operate, but how they organize themselves and empower their people. From the industrial age to the information era, and now into the age of artificial intelligence, technology has always brought with it a reconfiguration of authority, capability, and judgment.  In the 19th century, industrialization centralized work and knowledge. The factory system required hierarchical structures where strategy, information, and decision-making were concentrated at the top. Managers at the apex made tradeoffs for the greater good of the enterprise because they were the only ones with access to the full picture.  Then came the information economy. With it came the distribution of information and a need for more agile, team-based structures. Cross-functional collaboration and customer proximity became competitive necessities. Organizations flattened, experimented with matrix models, and pushed decision-making closer to where problems were being solved. What had once been the purview of a select few, judgment, strategic tradeoffs, and insight became expected competencies for managers and team leads across the enterprise.  Now, AI is changing the game again. But this time, it’s not just about access to data. It’s about access to intelligence.  Generative AI democratizes access not only to information, but to intelligent output. That shifts the burden for humans from producing insights to evaluating them. Judgment, which was long the domain of a few executives, must now become a baseline competency for the many across the organization.  But here’s the paradox: while AI extends our capacity for intelligence, discernment, the human ability to weigh context, values, and consequence, is still best left in the hands of human leaders. As organizations begin to automate early-career work, they may inadvertently erase the very pathways and opportunities by which judgment was built.  Why judgment matters more than ever  Deloitte’s 2023 Human Capital Trends survey found that 85% of leaders believe independent decision-making is more important than ever, but only 26% say they’re ready to support it. That shortfall threatens to neutralize the very productivity gains AI promises.  If employees can’t question, challenge, or contextualize AI’s output, then intelligent tools become dangerous shortcuts. The organization stalls, not from a lack of answers, but from a lack of sense-making.  What organizations must do  To stay competitive, organizations must shift from simply adopting AI to designing AI-aware ways of working:  Build new learning paths for judgment development. As AI replaces easily systematized tasks, companies must replace lost learning experiences with mentorship, simulations, and intentional development planning.  Design workflows that require human input. Treat AI as a co-pilot, not an autopilot. Embed review checkpoints and tradeoff discussions. Just as innovation processes have stage gates, so should AI analyses.  Make judgment measurable. Assess and develop decision-making under ambiguity from entry-level roles onward. Research shows the best learning strategy for this is high-fidelity simulations.  Start earlier. Leadership development must begin far earlier in career paths, because judgment, not just knowledge, is the new differentiator.  What’s emerging is not just a flatter hierarchy, but a more distributed sense of judgment responsibility. To thrive, organizations must prepare their people not to outthink AI, but to out-judge it.     

La evolución invisible de la agilidad

La agilidad ya no se trata de marcos, roles o rituales. Las organizaciones más maduras están evolucionando hacia un modelo donde la agilidad se integra en la cultura, la estrategia y el liderazgo, convirtiéndose en una capacidad sistémica, silenciosa, pero profundamente transformadora. En este desayuno exploraremos qué distingue hoy a las organizaciones verdaderamente ágiles: cómo gestionan el cambio continuo, cómo equilibran valor, velocidad y sostenibilidad, y cómo están ampliando la agilidad más allá de los equipos, hacia ecosistemas que incluyen clientes, socios y tecnología. Una conversación cercana, entre pares, para mirar lo que viene después del “hacer ágil”: la madurez que convierte la agilidad en una ventaja invisible pero decisiva. Te invitamos a un encuentro íntimo con líderes que están redefiniendo la transformación organizacional. Será un espacio íntimo y cercano para compartir experiencias, hacerse preguntas, debatir y, sobre todo, conectar.

Promoting safety in manufacturing through cultural transformation 

Client need  Safety in the transportation industry has often been treated as a set of rules to follow and boxes to check. But one Spanish railway organization saw an opportunity to redefine safety as something far greater, a core value embedded into the culture of their company at every level.  This bold vision demanded more than compliance. It required a cultural transformation to challenge outdated behaviors, inspire teams, and empower leaders to embrace and model a safety-first mindset. For years, the organization had been working to foster a culture that prioritized protection over profit, setting new behavioral standards across the industry.  To accelerate this shift, the organization partnered with BTS to design a leadership development program that dismantled old practices and equipped leaders with the tools, insights, and behaviors needed to bring their vision to life.  Deconstruct existing mindsets to enable cohesive change.  Identify barriers preventing progress.  Equip leaders with practical behavioral knowledge and tools.  Solution  BTS partnered with the organization to design a leadership journey that would reshape not just processes but perspectives, fostering a workplace where physical and psychological safety were paramount. Over eight months, the project team conducted interviews with leaders and focus groups to uncover critical behavioral insights and tailor the program to the organization’s unique needs.  Participants explored essential themes, including:  Embedding safety into daily decision-making.  Cultivating greater awareness of safety risks.  Understanding the influence of their leadership on safety outcomes.  Leading by example to set a cultural standard.  Building trust, commitment, and open communication within their teams.  The program unfolded in three distinct phases to drive lasting behavioral change:  Workshop preparation Participants began with a self-assessment to uncover personal "safety blind spots" and mind traps. This phase, delivered through a custom online platform, helped leaders reflect on their current practices and prepare for the transformational journey ahead. Safety workshop The one-day, immersive workshop was designed to spark deep conversations about safety culture, challenge ingrained mindsets, and equip participants with actionable strategies for change. Leaders engaged in real-world scenarios to explore the implications of their decisions and practice new behaviors. The day concluded with collaborative debrief sessions, leaving participants with practical tools to implement their insights immediately. Implementation in action To sustain momentum, the post-workshop phase extended over six months, offering six targeted activities. These activities reinforced key lessons, encouraged team collaboration, and provided ongoing support for integrating safety-first behaviors into daily routines. The leadership program was delivered to 1500 participants over 66 workshops in seven locations across Spain.  Results  To measure results, the project team created a resource map evaluating progress.   Average completion rate of Activities One–Three: 57 percent. (One: 78.21%; Two: 53. 01%; Three: 40.57%)  A post-workshop survey was sent to participants, reporting on the following metrics:  Average satisfaction — 4.7/5.  Trainer’s evaluation — 4.9/5.  NPS — 82 percent.  “Saw improvement in safety alignment” — 93 percent.  “Integrated safety tools in daily roles” — 82 percent.  “Identified new initiatives for improving safety” — 77 percent.  “Mitigated team/peer mind traps” — 93 percent.  “More aware of risk in daily roles” — 98 percent.  “Identified a normalized risk to work on” — 92 percent.  Testimonials  “Many of the methodologies and tools not only help to improve safety but can also be used to improve operational or organizational processes.”  “It has put us in front of the mirror of how we are today in terms of safety culture, opening our eyes to our development areas. Very participative and practical.” 

Translating at scale: Building a better client experience with AI on the team 

Over the years, BTS has expanded its global footprint through thoughtful acquisitions and collaborations, bringing new creative capabilities and local expertise into the fold. From digital design studios to leadership consultancies across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, we’ve built a community that blends shared values with local perspective. That diversity has become one of our greatest strengths, shaping how we design and deliver learning that feels deeply personal everywhere we work.  Whether someone is in a leadership journey in Singapore, a coaching program in São Paulo, or a strategy workshop in Stockholm, the goal is always the same: to make the experience feel like it was made just for them.  Many of those experiences live on Momenta, BTS’s digital experience platform, powering journeys like Coaching, Multipliers, and other core programs.   As those experiences grew, so did the need for nuance. Every journey had to feel local, not just sound translated. Tone, humor, and cultural context have always been central to the BTS approach, and as demand expanded across formats and regions, our translation model was ready for its next evolution.  In early 2024, the team began exploring how AI could help. Rather than treating technology as the destination, we saw it as a catalyst, a way to rethink translation and deliver richer, more customized client experiences at scale. That curiosity sparked one of BTS’s most ambitious AI-first experiments, led by our Global Product Enablement Function team in partnership with our global network of linguists and translators.  Shifting to AI-first  The next step was finding the right place to experiment. Enter Phrase, a cloud-based translation management platform that quickly became our test lab. Phrase brings every part of the translation process into one place, from machine translation engines to human review, terminology management, and workflow tracking. It gives our linguists, designers, and project teams a shared space to collaborate, test ideas, and learn.  Over the next few months, two key discoveries reshaped how we think about translation, and ultimately, how we work.  Key discovery 1: Making AI a teammate  We began with a clear goal: make translation faster and more consistent. Using Phrase, AI handled the first drafts while our linguists refined them. Quickly, we realized there was potential for AI-value that went far beyond speed.   With AI completing the first 80% of the work in a fraction of the time, our linguists could focus on what matters most: nuance, tone, and cultural resonance. The relationship evolved from oversight to collaboration, AI structured and scaled, humans shaped and elevated.  The result was more than efficiency. It was better work, created by people and technology learning to amplify each other.  Key discovery 2: Turning a roadblock into a redesign  Next came a design challenge. Phrase, like most translation tools, struggled with text embedded in graphics, a hallmark of many BTS learning experiences. Instead of forcing the tool to adapt, we changed how we created.  We began designing with translation in mind: simplifying visuals, reducing text, and using modular components that could flex across languages. The constraint sparked better design, easier to scale, more consistent, and more inclusive for every audience.  Key discovery 3: Integrating systems for scale  With people, AI, and design in sync, the last barrier was process. Managing translations between Phrase and Momenta still required manual effort.  To fix that, we built an API integration linking the two platforms. Now, files move automatically, progress is tracked in real time, and everything stays connected.  That integration turned our workflow into a unified ecosystem, fast, transparent, and ready to scale globally.  Business impact   Just 18 months ago, our translation reviews lived in double-column Word docs. Today, we work in a fully connected, AI-first ecosystem. Each project feeds the next, refining prompts, tone profiles, and design patterns, so our translation process keeps getting faster, smarter, and more aligned with BTS’s voice.  Speed and quality. Translation cycles that once took months now wrap up in weeks, cutting turnaround times by over 40%. Phrase’s tools and AI-powered workflows accelerate production while maintaining quality through expert-approved reuse, glossaries, and automated quality checks. Even complex formats like videos and animations are localized faster, with AI supporting linguists at every step.  Smarter workflows. The integration between Momenta and Phrase automates project transfers and tracking, saving an estimated 2.5 hours per project. Teams across language, digital, and project management now collaborate in one streamlined environment.  Human focus. Our linguists remain the engine of quality and innovation. With AI managing repetitive tasks, they focus on nuance and meaning, and go further by creating specialized GPTs, training databases, and testing translation engines to continually raise the bar.   

Redefining High Potential: Building Future-Ready Leaders for 2026 and Beyond

This interactive session will feature: Fresh insights from BTS’s latest research on the future of high-potential assessment and development. A live panel with top organisations sharing how they’re reinventing their HiPo strategies to stay ahead. Candid conversations and real-world takeaways you can apply immediately to your own leadership pipeline. Expect to unpack emerging trends, question old assumptions, and leave with actionable frameworks and inspiration to shape your 2026 leadership strategy and beyond. Spaces are limited — don’t miss this chance to connect, learn, and reimagine the future of leadership with your peers. RSVP here or contact kristina.beggs@bts.com

AI-first business simulations

A BTS next gen innovation story When BTS invented business simulations in the 1980s, leadership development was mostly theoretical – case studies, lectures, and frameworks about what good decisions looked like. Simulations changed that. They let leaders learn by doing, stepping into a realistic version of their business to test strategy, make decisions, and see the impact before the stakes were real. Since then, simulations have evolved from spreadsheets to digital platforms to immersive virtual experiences that capture the complexity of leading in today’s world. Now, large language models and agentic AI are opening a new frontier, one where simulations evolve as fast as the world they reflect and experiential learning scales with the pace of change. Creating space for exploration Test quickly, abandon what doesn’t work, and share what you learn. – Jessica Skon, CEO, BTS A handful of simulation experts were pulled out of their day-to-day work and given the freedom to set their own direction. They had the authority to shape the roadmap and the protection to explore bold ideas without fear of critique. The brief was simple: go figure out what’s possible. They had cover to fail fast, freedom to explore, and permission to get a little messy. Early wins were interesting but small. AI could draft faster, automate a few things – helpful, sure. Transformative? Not yet. The breakthrough came when we stopped trying to bolt AI on to what we already did. We rebuilt our simulation platforms, our processes, and tools from the ground up around AI. Suddenly it wasn’t just about micro-gains & efficiencies, the canvas of possibility was much larger. From experimentation to acceleration So, we tested. Some tools showed promise, others, not so much. Every experiment taught us something. Each “failure” made us sharper about where AI could actually help, and where it would just get in the way. What began as small experiments turned into a new way of working, a process and platform working as one. AI now accelerates the first 80% of the work, the structure, synthesis, and early drafts, freeing BTS consultants to focus on the high-impact moments that drive behavior change: dilemmas, trade-offs, and conversations that build conviction. Our new AI simulation platform and AI-First development process operationalizes that process: Enabling live co-creation and branching edits with clients Applying light guardrails for quality and security Integrating with enterprise systems for compliance and control AI accelerates, people transform. That combination is what makes BTS… BTS. Clients feel the impact in four ways Fast spin-ups for focused needs For targeted challenges like coaching a customer conversation, debriefing a safety incident, aligning a sales team, we can now stand up bespoke simulations in days, not weeks. Teams co-create live; scenarios adjust in the room; relevance is immediate. Enterprise simulations for strategy alignment For multi-round, high-fidelity simulations, AI accelerates the structure without compromising quality. BTS experts still craft the dilemmas and trade-offs that drive conviction. A broader platform portfolio Beyond enterprise simulations, we now support conversational practice, skill drills, workflow redesign, and company or market modeling, helping clients choose the right tool for each need. On-demand, without the risk Clients can use our AI platform for self-authored micro-sims, where speed and iteration matter most. Our toolchain scaffolds the flow, enforces guardrails, and keeps quality high. The best model is flexible: enable where DIY shines, co-build for complex challenges, and experts lead end-to-end when outcomes matter most. What clients are already seeing Weeks to hours: Work that once took six weeks was delivered as a high-fidelity experience in just 13 hours, specific enough to engage a CEO on first pass. Lean, agile teams: Projects that required seven consultants now take two, with no loss in quality or impact. Live collaboration: Simulations are built with clients, not for them, adjusted in real time during design and delivery. The result: faster delivery, deeper relevance, and experiences that scale across an enterprise without losing the human touch. The bigger picture BTS simulations have always given leaders a safe place to wrestle with real dilemmas. AI hasn’t changed that, it’s expanded the canvas. By rebuilding how we design and deliver simulations, we’ve removed the trade-off between speed and substance. Focused needs can now be met in days. Complex transformations can move at the pace of business. Clients can engage however they choose, DIY, co-create, or end-to-end, with BTS expertise guiding every step. We’re still early in this chapter, just like our clients. But the direction is clear: faster, smarter, more scalable experiential learning, anchored in human judgment, strategic alignment, and the craft that defines BTS.

Accelerating AI-first innovation at scale

Client need By 2024, artificial intelligence was transforming how medical devices industry operated, from product design and manufacturing to clinical insight and customer engagement. Competitors were already using AI to shorten development cycles, improve quality, and bring smarter devices to market faster. Startups were pushing the boundaries even further.  For one Fortune 100 global medical devices company, the question wasn’t if they would use AI, but how fast and how deeply they could make it part of the business. Like many organizations in this space, they saw enormous promise, but also the practical challenges that come with scale, regulation, and change.   The leadership team saw the potential for AI to transform how the business worked, yet progress was uneven. Teams held different views of what AI could do, and early experiments surfaced concerns about data privacy, accuracy, and safety. Many employees weren’t sure how AI fit into their day-to-day work or how to use it responsibly.   To move forward, the company needed to focus on a few critical shifts:  Tackling questions and concerns at every level of the organization  Creating a shared understanding of where and how AI drives value  Helping leaders translate AI strategy into meaningful action with their teams  That’s where BTS came in.  Solution  To accelerate transformation at scale, BTS designed a phased capability-acceleration program that met leaders where they were, building confidence, speed, and AI fluency across the enterprise through immersive, business-driven experiences.  Tailored by leadership level From executives shaping enterprise strategy to directors driving operational execution, each audience experienced targeted challenges and decision contexts that made AI real and relevant to their work.  Global alignment A multilingual, virtual rollout enabled simultaneous engagement of thousands of employees worldwide, ensuring speed, consistency, and measurable impact across regions.  Continuous evolution Regular refresh cycles kept the experience aligned to the company’s advancing AI maturity, embedding adaptability and readiness as ongoing capabilities.  Wave 1: Executive immersion  Audience: Senior leadership | Format: Live, in-person  The journey started with the top 100 leaders reimagining how AI could power growth and innovation. In an immersive, board-based simulation, executives pressure-tested new business models, explored disruptive use cases, and made high-stakes decisions with AI in real time.  By “taking the future for a test drive,” they moved past abstract discussions and directly experienced how AI could:  Accelerate time to insight  Sharpen strategy and decision quality  Unlock new sources of business and customer value  The group left with a defined vision and roadmap for putting AI to work, where it adds value, how it changes leadership decisions, and what to prioritize first. It also helped leaders address their early concerns about reliability and safety together, building collective confidence to lead the change.  Wave 2: Director activation  Audience: ~300 directors globally | Format: Live workshops  Next came the catalyst for scale. Directors translated the executive vision into practical, measurable action through fast-paced, hands-on simulations built around their toughest business challenges.  They didn’t just learn about AI, they used it. In realistic decision scenarios, directors practiced how to:  Ask sharper, data-driven questions  Interpret insights and balance human judgment with machine input  Identify opportunities to automate, innovate, or reimagine workflows  Treat AI as a trusted performance partner, not just a technical tool  Each director left with a concrete activation plan, tailored to their function, and the confidence to lead change from the middle.  Wave 3: Global rollout  Audience: ~13,000 employees | Format: Virtual, multilingual, concurrent delivery  Finally, the transformation went enterprise-wide. Through a high-energy, virtual experience, more than 13,000 employees across all regions and functions built shared confidence and capability to use AI in real work.  The experience made AI tangible for every role, from marketing and R&D to manufacturing and commercial teams. Participants discovered how small, real-world applications could:  Simplify everyday tasks  Drive smarter, faster decisions  Deliver immediate business impact for teams and customers  Results  While quantitative metrics such as revenue impact or cycle-time reduction are still emerging, qualitative outcomes point to faster adoption, stronger engagement, and immediate business applications.  “The session was great. My team was inspired. They quickly got the foundations, and many of them actually went out that night and came back the next day with applications and output that we can put to work almost immediately.” – Senior Vice President of Marketing, September 2024  The momentum continues. BTS and the client are expanding the program into a scalable system for agility that keeps pace with the business. New sessions and scenarios are built into daily work, giving leaders and teams ongoing opportunities to apply AI in real decisions.   

Developing global leadership through tech-enabled coaching

Client need A leading global media company, serving audiences in 170+ countries, had built its reputation on delivering high-quality content through a vast network of regional operations. With over 20,000 employees, its business relied on leaders at every level making fast, effective decisions in their markets while staying aligned to global strategy. The company saw an opportunity to better support new leaders joining the organization globally and seasoned leaders seeking additional development opportunities, focusing on those responsible for bringing strategy to life every day. To bridge that gap, the company set out to pilot a scalable leadership coaching program focused on: Building six leadership capabilities critical to business success Creating consistency across regions while respecting cultural and language nuance Measuring progress at individual, regional, and organizational levels Enabling development that lasts beyond the coaching engagement The goal: strengthen alignment and elevate leadership impact across North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia–Pacific region. Solution  The challenge wasn’t just delivering coaching, it was creating a leadership development system that could work across continents, prove its impact, and adapt to local realities without diluting global priorities. The company partnered with Sounding Board, a BTS company, to design a pilot that blended human expertise with scaled, tech-enabled insight to meet four imperatives: Activating frontline and mid-level leadership – Focused on people leaders who directly shape day-to-day execution and culture. Building the capabilities that matter – Six leadership behaviors rooted in the company’s unique culture, values, and strategic operating principles, ensuring development was relevant to how leaders drive success within the organization. Ensuring quality at scale – AI-driven matching connected each leader to a coach with relevant industry, regional, and cultural experience. Making growth measurable and sustainable – Biweekly coaching reinforced through a digital platform for goal tracking, reflection, and feedback, plus structured manager check-ins to keep progress aligned to business needs. Scaled coaching gave the company a consistent platform and approach to leadership development, developing leaders in every region to the same leadership expectations and behaviors. Real-time insights surfaced trends in behavior change, engagement, and alignment early enough to adjust the program midstream. The data struck the right balance between consistency and cultural relevance, showing where local adaptations strengthened leadership and where global priorities needed to hold firm. Results  By the end of the program, leaders across continents were working from the same playbook, speaking a shared leadership language, and working in ways that respected local context and in alignment to how they wanted leaders to show up in the organization. Managers noticed stronger alignment with their direct reports, leaders felt more confident in their roles, and the data showed tangible shifts in the behaviors tied to business success. Impact at a glance: 84% completion rate demonstrated sustained engagement. 92% of coachees advanced their development goals, with nearly as many showing measurable improvement in targeted leadership behaviors. 84% of coachees and 64% of managers reported stronger alignment in how they approached priorities and collaboration. 76% of leaders progressed toward broader career goals, signaling a stronger leadership pipeline. 87% satisfaction rate with coaching, reinforced by a 95% coach match success rate. 30% of coachees reported increased job satisfaction—critical in a competitive talent market. What’s next: The company expanded coaching to 50+ additional team leaders and began planning its rollout to mid-level managers worldwide, confident they have a model that delivers measurable growth, alignment, and cultural agility at scale. Testimonials “I have seen [my report] take it to another, more strategic level, particularly as she engages with her senior stakeholder. She spent time reflecting on what she wanted to get out of their first meeting, how to present herself as his new partner, what kind of questions would solicit the most meaningful responses etc.” — Senior Manager “[My report] increased her capacity to appreciate the views of others and to work to develop them. She expanded her horizons to think outside of her comfort zones and to draw out some fine work from others. She showed improved capacity to help others develop their own ideas, rather than imposing her own on them.” — Senior Manager “[Coaching] has helped me have a better understanding of where I enjoy working and developing most so I can continue to do so.” — Coachee

A brave new world: What AI means for leadership and culture

At BTS, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to innovate at speed. And right now, it feels like we’re standing at the edge of something massive. The energy? Electric. The velocity? Unprecedented. For many of us, the current pace feels a lot like the early days of the pandemic: disorienting, high-stakes, and somehow exhilarating. And honestly—it should feel that way. Our teams have been tinkering with AI, specifically LLMs, for the past 2.5 years and it has really been in the last eight months that I can see the profound impact it is going to have for our clients, for our services and our operating model. The opportunity isn’t about the technology. The world has it and it’s getting better by the minute. The issue is people and people’s readiness to adopt it and be re-tooled and re-skilled. It’s about leadership. AI is deeply personal, it’s surgical. In fact, that’s its genius. So, getting full scale adoption of AI, re-tooling everyone in the company by workflow, so that they can invent new services, unlock new customer value, unlock new levels of productivity, even use it for a better life, is the current race. The central question I’ve been wrestling with, alongside our clients and our own teams, is this: What does AI actually mean for leadership and culture? And the answer is clearer by the day: AI isn’t just a new toolset. It’s a new mindset. It demands that we rethink how we lead, how we learn, and how we build thriving organizations that can compete, adapt, and grow. The productivity paradox revisited Let’s start with the elephant in the boardroom. There’s been a lot of buzz around AI and its promises. But many leaders have quietly wondered: Will any of this actually move the needle? A year ago, we were asking the same thing. We had licenses. We had curiosity. We had early experiments. But the results were modest, a 1% productivity gain here or there. But by April, we were seeing: 30–80% productivity gains in software engineering 9–12% gains in consulting teams 5%-20% improvements in client success and operations Just as importantly, the innovation unlock and creativity across our platforms due to vibe coding along with new simulation layers, is leading to new value streams for our clients. This isn’t theoretical. It’s not hype. It’s real. The difference? Adoption, ownership, and a shift in how we lead in order to energize the AI innovation within our teams. The challenge now isn’t whether AI creates value. It’s how to unlock and scale that value across teams, geographies, and business units—and do it fast. Two Superpowers of the Agentic AI Era In working with leaders across industries, I’ve come to believe in two superpowers (there are more as well) that will unlock the potential of this AI era: Jazz Leadership and a Simulation Culture. 1. Jazz Leadership Forget the orchestra (although personally I am a big fan.) The successful team cultures that are innovating with AI feel more like jazz. In jazz, there’s no conductor. There’s no fixed sheet music. There are core bars and then musicians make up music on the spot based on each other’s creativity, building off of each other’s trials, riffs and mistakes, build something extraordinary together. This is how experimenting with AI today, in the flow of work, feels like. For each activity across a workflow, how can new AI prompts, agents, and GPTs make it better, codify high performance, drive speed and quality simultaneously? How can we try something totally different and still get the job done? How might we re-invent how we work? That’s how high-performing teams operate in the AI era. The world is moving too fast for command-and-control leadership, a perfect sheet of music with one leader who is interpreting the sheet music and directing. What we need instead is improvisation, trust, shared authorship, courage and a playful spirit because there are just as many fails as breakthroughs. Jazz leadership is about creating the conditions where: Ideas can come from anywhere People see tinkering and testing as key to survival and AI failures mean your team is at the edge of what’s possible for your services and ways of working Leaders say, “I don’t have all the answers, but I’ll go first, with you” People feel “I’m behind relative to my peers in the company” and the company sees this as a good sign because the pace of learning with AI means higher chance of success in the new era At BTS, we recently promoted five new partners who embody this mindset. They weren’t the most traditional leaders. But they were the most generative. They coached others. They experimented and are constantly re-tooling themselves and others. They inspired movement. They are keeping us ahead, keeping our clients ahead and driving our re-invention. Jazz leaders make teams better, not by directing every note—but by setting the stage for breakthroughs. It is similar to the agile movement, similar to how it felt in Covid as companies had to reinvent themselves. It’s entrepreneurial, chaotic and fun. 2. Simulation Culture The ability to simulate is a super-power in this next agentic, AI era. Simulation has always been part of creating organizational agility, high performance and leadership excellence. But AI and high-performance computing have transformed it into something bigger, faster, and infinitely more powerful. It means that building a simulation culture is within all of our grasp, if we tap its power. Today, companies simulate: Strategic alternatives – from market impact all they way to detailed frontline execution New business, new markets and operating models Major capital deployment e.g. build a digital twin of a factory before breaking ground Initiative implementation Workflows current and future Jobs to assess for talent and critical role readiness Customer conversations and sales enablement motions With a simulation culture, where you regularly engage in scenario planning and expect preparation and practice as a way of working, billions in capital is saved, cross-functional teams are strengthened, high performance gets institutionalized, win rates increase, earnings and cash flow improves. Where to get started Below are a few examples of what leading organizations are doing. Consider testing these in your own organization: Conversational AI bot platforms used to scale performance expectations and the company’s unique culture. Agentic simulations built into tools so people can prepare and practice with 100% perfect context and not a wasted moment. Digital twins of the job created so that certifications and hiring decisions are valid. Micro-simulations spun up in hours to align 50,000 people to a shift in the market or a new operational practice. Final Thoughts Lead like a jazz musician. Embrace improvisation, courage and shared creativity. Build a simulation culture. Because in a world that’s moving this fast, practice isn’t optional—it’s how we win. This is a brave new world. Not five years from now. Right now. Let’s shape it—together.

From ordinary to unforgettable: the three keys to lasting impact

AI, assumptions, and the art of discovery with Ron Pierantozzi

Team meetings: A missed lever for performance?

Meetings are a universal ritual in organizational life. While managers on average spend more than half their working hours in meetings, many leaders can’t shake the feeling that meetings are falling short of their potential. Are they advancing the work, or quietly draining energy? At BTS, we study teams not as collections of individuals, but as living systems. This perspective reveals dynamics that traditional methods often overlook. Rather than aggregating individual 360° assessments, we assess the team as a whole to examine how the team functions collectively. Applying that lens to one of the most common team activities (meetings) uncovers patterns worth paying attention to. Drawing on thousands of team assessments in our database, we focused on two meeting behaviors: Do teams meet regularly? Do team members leave meetings with clear accountabilities and next steps? Our question: How strongly do these behaviors relate to overall team effectiveness? What the data revealed Using data from 1,043 respondents (team members and informed stakeholders) we ran a Bayesian analysis to evaluate the predictive power of each behavior. The results were striking: Both behaviors were linked to higher team effectiveness. But one mattered far more: leaving meetings with clear accountabilities and next steps was 3.9x more predictive of team effectiveness than simply meeting regularly. And teams that often or always wrap up meetings with next steps rated 0.66 points higher on a 5-point scale of team effectiveness than teams who sometimes, rarely, or never close with accountabilities – that's almost a full standard deviation higher (0.96 sd) Meetings aren’t the problem, muddy outcomes are. Teams often default to frequency, setting cadences of check-ins or standing meetings. Our data suggest that what differentiates effective teams from the rest is not how many meetings they hold, but what comes out of them. A team that meets less often but ends each session with clear accountabilities will outperform a team that meets frequently but leaves outcomes ambiguous. In other words, meetings aren’t inherently wasted time; they become wasted time when they don’t translate into aligned action. A simple shift that pays dividends The good news: improving meetings doesn’t require radical redesign. Small changes reinforce accountability and dramatically increase the value extracted: Close with clarity. Reserve the last 5–10 minutes of every meeting to confirm: What decisions have been made? Who owns what? By when? This habit shifts meetings from “discussions” to “decisions.” Make commitments visible. Use a shared action log, team board, or project tracker so next steps are transparent, and progress is easy to follow. Visibility builds accountability. Assign a “Closer.” Rotating this role signals that closing well is everyone’s responsibility. The Closer ensures the team doesn’t drift into vague agreements, but leaves aligned and ready to act. When teams adopt these habits, the difference is tangible: less rehashing of the same topics, faster progress on priorities, and a stronger sense of shared ownership. These small shifts compound quickly, making meetings not just more efficient, but more energizing and effective. In a world where teams face relentless demands and limited time, focusing on how meetings end may be one of the fastest ways to improve how teams perform.